Why do we need green productivity? There are essentially two reasons:
- Innovation is a primary driver of economic growth. Green Productivity greens the process of innovation.
The starting line was productivity as a cost reduction strategy. By picking up the baton of quality, productivity has metamorphosed to incorporate environmental protection and community enhancement as a means to increase prosperity. Under the umbrella of Green Productivity, innovation, a key engine of economic growth, becomes part of a holistic strategy to move towards a sustainable future.
- Productivity is essentially a marathon without a finishing line.
Just as productivity was the essential strategy that enabled Japan to rebuild after the Second World War, with other Asian nations being attracted to the lure of its success, the 19 member economies of the Asian Productivity Organization have rallied behind a more broadly defined concept of productivity to race in the marathon for sustainability. In "The Concept of Productivity and the Aim of National Productivity Agencies" formulated in Rome in 1959 the Productivity Committee of the European Productivity Agency defined productivity as follows:
"Productivity is above all a state of mind. It is an attitude that seeks the continuous improvement of what exists. It is a conviction that one can do better today than yesterday and that tomorrow will be better than today. Furthermore it requires constant efforts to adapt economic activities to ever-changing conditions and the application of new theories and methods. It is a firm belief in the progress of humanity."
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