Many countries have modernised their societies and economies enabling the greatest level of material wellbeing ever experienced. These changes were most prevalent in OECD countries and in urban centres in developing countries. The use of natural resources -biomass, fossil fuels, ores, minerals and water - has grown dramatically from less than 10 billion tonnes in 1950 to over 70 billion tonnes in 2010 (UNEP, 2011). This level of resource use was largely based on the assumption of limitless resources and overlooked the connections between resource use and environmental impacts.