Structural Change and Reorganization of the Productive System. Which Pathways to Safeguard the Environment and Achieve Simultaneous Competitivity

The worsening of the environmental issues, at world level, has to be faced and countered by deeply modifying the ways of utilizing the natural resources. Energetic and material, that still today are highly dissipative of effluents and wastes: furthermore, the demand of raw materials has been increasing in the present economic systems, consequently raising also the issue of their limitedness/scarcity. In this study the main directions to be adopted if one considers as central the factor resources-environment in all economic activities are considered and discussed: to organize socio-economic systems where the culture and praxis of reproducing shall prevail on the ones of "producing", therefore, a real service economy; durable goods are structured in ways to make it possible the maximization of their utilization rate and able to have a very long during life; and the development of industrial ecology based on the exchanges among enterprises of scraps, wastes, effluents and by-products will be generalized, so as to avoid the formation of dissipations. The fundamental condition so as these main directions could be spread is the achievement of a simultaneous competitive advantage to enterprises, together with the aim of natural resources effectiveness and productivity great increase. The first step is to closely link this aim to all aspects/results that contribute to achieve competitivity in a continuous manner, starting from quality, to productivity, and global efficiency. The main structural and organizational changes in all productive and economic activities consequent to the adoption of such innovative solutions based on resources productivity are also here outlined and analyzed.