Resource revolution

Can innovation help meet ever-growing demand for resources?

The future is now: How to win the resource revolution

Although resource strains have lessened, new technology will disrupt the commodities market in myriad ways.

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Circular Economy

Article

How impact investing can reach the mainstream
– Clear measurement standards, high-grade operations, specialized products, and more training for entrepreneurs can make impact... investing a more influential practice.
Article

Developing products for a circular economy
– Cross-functional collaboration and customer-focused design thinking can help companies reap more value from the energy and resources... they use.
Podcast

Why the circular economy is all about retaining value
– By reassessing where waste is most prevalent in their value chains, companies can learn to close those loops to get more from... the resources and materials they use.

Energy

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Three game changers for energy
– New sources, mobility, and industry fragmentation are set to disrupt the system.
Article

The future of second-generation biomass
– To make bioconversion commercially competitive, the industry needs swift advances.
Article

Energy 2050: Insights from the ground up
– How will the world satisfy its need for energy? McKinsey research offers a perspective.

Food & Water

Article

How big data will revolutionize the global food chain
– Advanced analytics opens vast untapped potential for farmers, investors, and emerging economies to reduce the cost of goods sold.
Article

Pursuing the global opportunity in food and agribusiness
– Satisfying the world’s food needs opens the door to investment throughout the value chain.
Article

Rethinking the water cycle
– How moving to a circular economy can preserve our most vital resource.

Mobility

Report

An integrated perspective on the future of mobility
– A number of social, economic, and technological trends will work together to disrupt mobility, potentially creating three new... urban models by 2030.
Interview

Rolling along: Bicycles, mobility, and the future of cities
– In an interview, Jay Walder of Motivate discusses how new services and technology are changing how city residents are getting... around.
Article

Urban mobility at a tipping point
– As more of the world’s cities become congested and polluted, new business models and technologies are emerging to solve... the mobility challenge.

Waste

Article

Rethinking the future of plastics
– A new report finds that applying circular-economy principles could dramatically reshape the economics of this workhorse of the... global economy—and help the environment.
Article

Managing waste in emerging markets
– Growing economic prosperity is rapidly increasing waste volumes in emerging countries. We discuss how governments can react to... contain human and ecological health risks.
Report

Saving the ocean from plastic waste
– An estimated eight million metric tons of plastic waste leaks into the ocean every year. Action in just five countries could stem... that tide.

Expert perspectives

Commentary

Short-termism and the threat from climate change
– By not acting now, we’re allowing the future costs of the greenhouse-gas crisis to compound. Eventually, the consequences... will be irreversible.
Book Excerpt - McKinsey Quarterly

Perspectives on the long term
– What will it take to shift markets and companies away from a short-term way of thinking?
Interview

Navigating the circular economy: A conversation with Dame Ellen MacArthur
– The yachtswoman and founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation discusses her vision for a global economy in which scarce resources... are reused and not sent to landfills.

From our archives

Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Mobilizing for a resource revolution
– Over the next quarter century, the rise of three billion more middle-class consumers will strain natural resources.
Interview

How resource scarcity is driving the third Industrial Revolution
– The authors of the new book Resource Revolution argue that high resource prices are spurring innovations powerful enough... to unlock a new phase of global economic growth.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Are you ready for the resource revolution?
– Meeting increasing global demand requires dramatically improving resource productivity. Yet technological advances mean companies... have an extraordinary opportunity not only to meet that challenge but to spark the next industrial revolution as well.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly

Mobilizing for a resource revolution
– Over the next quarter century, the rise of three billion more middle-class consumers will strain natural resources.
Interview - McKinsey Quarterly

Voices on the resource revolution
– Historian Niall Ferguson, the CEO of a water services company, and Boeing’s lead environmental executive reflect on the resource... transition under way, where it could be headed, and what it means for leaders now.

Featured publications

Issue

The circular economy: Moving from theory to practice
– A special collection of articles about the transition taking place as companies use circular-economy concepts to capture more... value from resources and to provide customers with better experiences.
Issue

McKinsey on Sustainability & Resource Productivity, Number 4
– This publication offers some ideas about whether—and how—the global economy can be nudged onto a less resource-intensive... path toward sustainable growth.