The MIPS Concept (Material Input Per Unit of Service): A Measure for an Ecological Economy

Sustainable development which is based on the economic, environmental and social dimension has been a never-ending theme since the issue of the Brundtland Commission Report in 1987 and then followed by the publication of the Rio Declaration in 1992. One requirement to reach a sustainable development in a company is first by establishing a sound environmental management. The MIPS Concept that was developed by Prof. “Bio” Schmidt-Bleek and the Wuppertal Institute Germany in 1993 is very useful to measure the environmental performance from a business activity. Using this concept, one may analyse the entire working process including all inserted natural resources (material and energy) in the process to produce a desired product or service, which then can be used as the basis to set up the Life Cycle Analysis. This concept invites engineers in a company to plan and design an environmental friendly process and also motivates them to make use of natural resources as wisely as possible. With this paper, the author will try to introduce the MIPS Concept and describe how the MIPS Concept can be applied to measure the environmental stress in a cradleto- grave process.