The Connection between Efficiency and Sustainability – A Theoretical Approach

The present paper is the result of the approach and research from a common perspective of two issues regarding economic development, with different time lengths: economic sustainability – one of the newest and most modern theories related to the meaning and context of economic development and economic efficiency – an old theory which has been the focus of many generations of specialists. This simultaneous, common approach claiming to reunite various ideas aims to identify a way of putting together the different purposes of the modern economic world, characterized by numerous fluctuations and a spectacular evolution in order to be sustainable and efficient. The study of the literature has fostered one of the solutions of harmoniously combining efficiency and sustainability: the orientation towards eco-efficiency. This solution, tackled in the present paper, is based on two of the newest theories of economic scientific research, although little known and dealt with in the national economic research area: the theory of Factor 4 and the theory of Factor 10, both approaching the sustainable development under the conditions of meeting economic efficiency. The main goal of the paper is to identify and analyse the main benchmarks allowing the clarification of the relation between the concepts of sustainability and efficiency, given that there are some difficulties when attempting to apply the obvious theories about sustainability into practical activities. Thus, the conclusions will show that it is necessary to identify and accept the rules of setting the sustainability condition of an economy, so that the eco-efficiency concept might be approached in a pragmatic manner.