At the heart of sustainability practice is the rational use of resources. Conceptualized in the term R4, the rational use of resources begins with a reduction in the amounts of resources exploited followed by their reuse and recycling, and ending with their recovery or regeneration. In this sense, resources can be categorized as physical or nonphysical, e.g., material and energy or knowledge and methods, respectively. Moreover, systems for resource management have been developed based on a variety of environmental, social, and economic dimensions.
Nature exhibits the optimal use of physical resources as reflected in its efficient performance of multiple processes in concert. Most fundamental natural processes ...
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