An environmental resource is any material, service, or information from the environment that is valuable to society. This can refer to anything that people find useful in their environs, or surroundings. Food from plants and animals, wood for cooking, heating, and building, metals, coal, and oil are all environmental resources. Clean land, air, and water are environmental resources, as are the abilities of land, air, and water to absorb society's waste products. Heat from the sun, transportation and recreation in lakes, rivers, and oceans, a beautiful view, or the discovery of a new species are all environmental resources.

The environment provides a vast array of materials and services that people use to live. Often these resources have competing uses and values. A piece of land, for instance, could be used as a farm, a park, a parking lot, or a housing development. It could be mined...