Recycling alone is a single measure and cannot fulfil the overall goal of achieving sufficient services in a society while minimizing levels of environmental impact from material/resources consumption. Moreover, as a first priority, alternatives emphasizing reduction are preferable to either recycling or resource circulation. The Japanese Junkan Shakai plan, launched at national and local community levels, stresses community-based recovery, repair by craftsmen, use of eco-bags and mottainai (meaning “waste not” in Japanese), embodying a simple life decoupled from material affluence and emphasizing spirituality. The experience gained in establishing an international standard for the concept and application of product-based CF, or business-site-based GHG accounting, may contribute to monitoring and evaluation of progress and the comparison of the extent of resource circulation and related sustainability.