A growing population with higher average income requires more food, more industrial products, more energy and more water, thus placing additional strain on the earth’s material resources and the environment. As production and consumption have become displaced with increasingly globalised value chains, questions also arise about the distribution of the environmental burden associated with resource use. This includes actions and investments to support technological change and innovations, and integrated life-cycle-oriented management approaches, such as 3R policies, sustainable materials management and circular economy initiatives.