Stimulating thinking: What is a resource?
We tend to think of resources in terms of material things that are of use to us. Things that are not of use to us, we think of as wastes.
But what might be a waste to us, might be a useful resource to someone else – and vice versa.
We also tend to think of resources as physical things, but spare capacity in a warehouse, or unused land, or knowledge about a process, can all be viewed as resources.
This section introduces examples of different types of resources, where these resources might be found in different areas of your organisation, and finally how resources can be substituted by by-products or ‘waste’.