Ch 9: Problem-Solving, Metrics, and Tools for Sustainability

triple bottom line

A reference to the value of a business going beyond dollar protability to include social and environmental costs and benets as well.

COMPLIMENT

An analytical tool developed to provide detailed information on the overall environmental impact of a business. integrates the concepts of life cycle assessment, multi-criteria analysis and environmental performance indicators. method includes setting system boundaries, data collection, calculation of potential environmental impacts and their normalization, aggregation of impacts using a multi-criteria analysis, the weights per impact category are multiplied by normalization potential impacts and the results can be added up for each perspective. strives to be cradle-to-grave but it may be cradle-to-gate

product stewardship

An approach to product development in which products are conceived, designed, manufactured, and marketed within a systems thinking context. It is a way of framing environmental problems that recognizes the three parts of the sustainability paradigm, and incorporates the concepts of sustainable manufacturing, marketing, utility-to-society, impacts of the use of the product, and end-of-life disposition of the product.

ecosystem goods and services

An essential service an ecosystem provides that supports life and makes economic activity possible. For example, ecosystems clean air and water naturally, recycle nutrients and waste generated by human economic activity.

Type I (Direct Costs)

Costs associated with direct operation of the manufacturing or service enterprise that can be readily attributed to a specic activity. Labor, medical, materials, land, and energy are examples of this type of cost.

Type II (Indirect Costs)

Costs similar to Type I that are not easily assigned to a specic activity and thus are born more generally by the company. These include various kinds of overhead costs, outsourced services and subcontracts (e.g. component subassemblies, janitorial needs), and general support activities such as central oces for purchasing, human resources, etc.

systems thinking

In the context of sustainability, a way of conceiving human-created and natural systems as functional parts of a larger, integrated system.

scope 1

Includes GHG emissions from direct sources owned or controlled by the institution production of electricity, heat or steam, transportation or materials, products, waste, and fugitive emissions. Fugitive emissions are due to intentional or unintentional release of GHGs including leakage of refrigerants from air conditioning equipment and methane releases from farm animals.(WRI protocol)

Scope 2

Includes GHG emissions from imports (purchases) of electricity, heat or steam generally those associated with the generation that energy. (WRI protocol)

Scope 3

Includes all other indirect sources of GHG emissions that may result from the activities of the institution but occur from sources owned or controlled by another company, such as business travel; outsourced activities and contracts; emissions from waste generated by the institution when the GHG emissions occur at a facility controlled by another company, e.g. methane emissions from landlled waste; and the commuting habits of community members. (WRI protocol)

measured

Monetary analysis of sustainability does not value the variety of sustainability issues especially those that cannot be _________ as a product or service in today's markets

common impacts

The LCIA groups emissions based on their ______ _______ rather than on their chemical or physical properties, choosing a reference material for which health impacts are well known, as a basic unit of comparison. A key aspect is the conversion of impacts of various substances into the reference unit. This is done using characterization factors, some of which are well-known, such as global warming potential and ozone depletion potential , and LC16 (the concentration of a substance at which fifty percent of an exposed population is killed), and others are still under development.

2480

The average water footprint for the United States was calculated to be ____m3/cap/yr, while China has an average footprint of 700m3/cap/yr. The global average water footprint is 1240m3/cap/yr.

food security

The measure of the availability and access to sucient, safe, and nutritious food.

gross domestic product

The sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources.

blue water footprint

The volume of freshwater withdrawn from surface or groundwater sources that is used by people and not returned; in agricultural products this is mainly accounted for by evaporation of irrigation water from elds, if freshwater is being drawn

green water footprint

The volume of rainwater that evaporates during the production of goods; for agricultural products, this is the rainwater stored in soil that evaporates from crop elds.

actual, average

The water footprint explicitly considers the ________ location of the water use, whereas the ecological footprint does not consider the place of land use. Therefore it measures the volumes of water use at the various locations where the water is appropriated, while the ecological footprint is calculated based on a global _________ land requirement per consumption category.

Type IV (Internal Intangible Costs/Benets)

These are costs and benets that accrue to a business that are connected to a variety of intangibles such as worker morale, consumer loyalty, corporate image, and branding of products and services.

Type III (Contingent Liability Costs)

These are costs associated with environmental cleanup, noncompliance nes, product or service liability, civil suits, and accidents.

end-of-life costs

Those costs that arise through activities associated with the disposition of a product at the end of its useful life. These include costs associated with disposal, recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing.

product chain

Those stages in the conception, design, manufacture, marketing, use, and end-of-life that dene the impacts of a product or service on society

1. environmental systems 2. reducing environmental stress 3. reducing human vulnerability 4. capacity to respond to environmental challenges 5. global stewardship efforts

What are the five categories in ESI?

1. carbon dioxide 2. methane 3. nitrous oxide 4. fluorinated gases

What are the four principal greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere because of human activities?

1. acquisition of materials (through resource extraction or recycled sources) 2. manufacturing, refining, and fabrication 3. use by customers 4. end-of-life disposition (incineration, landfilling, composting, recycling, reuse)

What are the four stages of a complete LCA assessment?

1. scoping 2. inventory 3. impact assessment 4. interpretation

What are the four steps in conducting LCAs?

ecological, carbon, and water

What are the three types of footprints?

(a) identification of "hot spots" where material and/or energy use and waste emissions, both quantity and type, are greatest so that efforts can be focused on improving the product chain: and (b) comparison of results between and among other LCAs in order to gain insight into the preferable product, service, process, or pathway. In both cases, there are cautions that apply to the interpretation of results.

What are the two formal reasons for conducting a LCA?

compound calculation and component-based calculation

What are the two methodologies of the ecological footprint by William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel?

exergy and emergy

What are the two physical approaches to measuring sustainability? These concepts are derived from the second law of thermodynamics which states that a closed system with constant mass and no energy inputs tends toward higher entropy or disorder.

the issue of biofuels

What is an illustrative example of the role of sustainability in solving problems? It is possible to convert grain into ethanol and plant oils into diesel fuel, but the great majority of these resources have been used to feed Americans and the animals they consume. As demand increased, the prices for many agricultural products have risen, meaning that some fraction of the world's poor can no longer afford as much food.

biopolymer

What may not be obvious is that the total greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted from the process, on an equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2) basis, are generally higher for the ___________ in comparison with the petroleum polymers in spite of the lower fossil fuel usage.

life cycle assessment

a comprehensive set of procedures for quantifying the impacts associated with the energy and resources needed to make and deliver a product or service. carried out for two main reasons: (a) to analyze all the steps in a product-chain and see which use the greatest amount of energy and materials or produce the most waste (b) to enable comparisons among alternative products or supply chains and to see which one create the least environmental impact

embodied energy

a cradle-to-gate analysis of the life cycle energy of a product, inclusive of the latent energy in the materials, the energy used during material acquisition, and the energy used in manufacturing intermediate and final products. Embodied energy is sometimes referred to as "emergy" or the cumulative energy demand (CED) of a product or service (scope of LCAs)

gate-to-gate

a partial LCA looking at a single added process or material in the product chain (scope of LCAs)

well-to-wheel

a special type of LCA involving the application of fuel cycles to transportation vehicles (scope of LCAs)

GREET

a spreadsheet-based database developed by Argonne National Laboratory that links energy use to emissions on a life cycle basis. Although it has been widely used for comparing transportation and fuel options (hence its title), this has been used for many other applications that have a significant energy component, including agriculture, material and product development, and strategies for recycling.

TRACI

a tool for performing life cycle impact analyses developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It uses inventory data as input information to perform a "mid-point" impact analysis using categories

functional unit of comparison

addressed during LCA inventory analysis: the basis for comparing two or more products, processes, or services that assure equality of the function delivered

allocation of inventory quantities among co-products or services

addressed during LCA inventory analysis: when that same chain produces multiple products it is necessary to allocate the materials, energy, and wastes among them. there are potentially several co-products produced: tallow and other animal products, forest products, cardboard and paper, and salable scrap. There are generally three ways to allocate materials and energy among co-products: mass, volume, and economic value.

WRI protocol

addresses the scope by which reporting entities can set boundaries. These standards are based on the source of emissions in order to prevent counting emissions or credits twice. There are 3 scopes

industrial ecology

an applied science that studies material and energy flows through industrial systems. concerned with such things as closing material loops (recycle and reuse), process and energy efficiency, organizational behavior, system costs, and social impacts of goods and services. life cycle assessment is a principal tool of this.

eco-efficiency

an evolutionary business model in which more goods and services are created with less use of resources, and fewer emissions of waste and pollution

Maximum sustainable yield

an outgrowth of carrying capacity and the goal is to reach the maximum amount of resource extraction while not depleting the resource from one harvest to the next. Sustainability, in this context, can be understood as the point when the rate of resource extraction or harvest (MSY) equals the amount produced by the ecosystem.

scoping

arguably the most important step for conducting an LCA. It is here that the rationale for carrying out the assessment is made explicit, where the boundaries of the system are dened, where the data quantity, quality, and sources are specied, and where any assumptions that underlie the LCA are stated. This is critically important both for the quality of the resultant analysis, and for comparison among LCAs for competing or alternative products.

Community-supported agriculture programs

create share-holders out of consumers, making them more personally invested in the success of local economies, while farmers gain some nancial security.

environmental sustainability index (ESI)

created as a joint effort of Yale and Columbia universities in order to have a way to compare the sustainability efforts and abilities of countries

SimaPro

developed by PRé Consultants in the Netherlands & is a process-based tool for analyzing products and systems for their energy usage and environmental impacts over their life cycle.

emergy performance index

differs in omitting the social variables, and instead creates a single unit that can be used to describe the production and use of any natural or anthropogenic resource.

entropy

disorder

locavore

emphasizes the purchase of locally produced meat and vegetables

carrying capacity

estimates society's total use of the resource stocks and flows provided by an ecosystem relative to the remaining resources needed by the ecosystem for stability and regeneration

environmental performance indicators

examine environmental issues such as pollution, biodiversity, climate, energy, erosion, ecosystem services, environmental education, and many others. Without them, the success or failure of even the most well-intentioned actions can remain hidden. should indicate whether the state of the environment is changed positively or negatively, and they should provide a measure of that change.

greenwashing

exploiting a consumer by disingenuously marketing products or services as environmentally friendly, with the goal of gaining public approval and sales. a concern because these kinds of advertising messages can mislead consumers about the the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benets of a product or service

information pyramid

goes from specific to general: primary data -> analyzed data -> indicators -> indices

outputs

goods or services that result from that activity (inputs)

Confined animal feeding operations

high-density animal farms, have become the primary source of livestock for meat in the U.S., Europe, and many other countries

indicator-based systems

include information that a narrative assessment has but they are organized around indicators or measurable parts of a system. generally found to perform better and are easily measurable and comparable since they are more objective than narrative systems, or use only individual data points.

narrative assessments

include text, maps, graphics, and tabular data. Descriptive documentation of a program, plan, or project.

cradle-to-gate

includes material acquisition, manufacturing / refining / fabrication (factory gate), but excludes product uses and end-of-life (scope of LCAs)

cradle-to-cradle

includes the entire material cycle, including recycling/reuse (scope of LCAs)

cradle-to-grave

includes the entire material/energy cycle of the product / material, but excludes recycling / reuse (scope of LCAs)

extended product / producer responsibility

involves the creation of nancial incentives, and legal disincentives, to encourage manufacturers to make more environmentally friendly products that incorporate end-of-life costs into product design and business plans

sequestered

isolated and hidden away

Energy Independence and Security Act

limits the amount of grain that can be converted into biofuels in favor of using agriculturally derived cellulose, the chief constituent of the cell walls of plants. This has given rise to a large scientific and technological research and development program to devise economical ways to process cellulosic materials into ethanol, and parallel efforts to investigate new cellulosic cropping systems that include, for example, native grasses created to move nation towards energy independence and security by increasing clean renewable fuel production, increasing research on greenhouse gas, and improve the government's energy performance.

impacts

longer-term and more extensive results of the outcomes and outputs, and can include the interaction of the latter two indicators.

lease-and-take-back

model in which products must eventually come back to the manufacturer or retailer, who then must reckon with the best way to minimize end-of-life costs.

inputs

natural resources or ecosystem services being used

The Kyoto Protocol

proposes accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from a baseline year of 1990. Sometimes calculations may be made for the current year or back to the earliest year that data is available

ecological footprint

represents the area of land on earth that provides for resources consumed and that assimilates the waste produced by a given entity or region. beneficial because it provides a single value (equal to land area required) that reflects resource use patterns

component-based calculation

resembles life-cycle analysis in that it examines individual products and services for their cradle-to-grave resource use and waste, and results in a factor for a certain unit or activity. is better for individuals or institutions since it accounts for specific consumption within that entity. however, it may under-count and double-count activities and products

EIO-LCA

takes a dierent approach to the development of a life cycle assessment. In comparison with the somewhat complicated bottom-up approach described above, EIO-LCA uses a more aggregated, matrix-based approach in which the economy is composed of several hundred sectors, each linked to the other through a series of factors. EIO was rst developed in the 1950s by Wassily Leontief (1905-1999) who was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics for his work. EIO has proven to be a very useful tool for national and regional economic planning.

life cycle impact assessment

takes the inventory data on material resources used, energy consumed, and wastes emitted by the system and estimates potential impacts on the environment.

emergy

the amount of energy of one kind (solar) that has been used directly or indirectly (through a transformation process) to make a service or a product of one type and it is expressed in units of (solar energy) emjoule. It can be thought of as a measure of all the entropy that has been produced over the whole process of creating a given product or service. It allows us to account for all the environmental support needed by human and eco-systems or inputs.

ghost acres

the amount of land required to produce animal feed. also extend to the areas required to provide the fuel, water, and other resources needed for animal feed & support

food miles

the distance food travels from production to consumption

exergy

the maximum work that can be extracted from a system as it moves to thermodynamic equilibrium with a reference state, as in the example of burned wood above. It has been used to study efficiency of chemical and thermal processes.

resilience

the time needed for a system that provides desirable ecosystem goods and services to go back to a defined dynamic regime after disturbance.

grey water footprint

the volume of water required to dilute pollutants released in production processes to such an extent that the quality of the ambient water remains above agreed water quality standards.

Type V (External Costs)

those associated with environmental degradation. They are external in the sense that normal nancial accounting does not include them; the damage is born in a general sense by society at large. Environmental protection requirements that are enforceable by various laws (see section Government and Laws on the Environment), and mandated market or taxation mechanisms, are policy decisions meant to internalize these costs, forcing the generator of the pollution to either pay for the damage or prevent damage in the rst place.

outcomes

typically cannot be quantified and instead represent environmental, social, and economic dimensions of wellbeing

compound calculation

typically used for calculations involving large regions and nations and is shown in Figure Compound Calculation Steps for Ecological Footprint Analysis

Analytic Hierarchy Process

used to determine the weights of the environmental indicators; multi-attribute decision model. 5 steps.

Total Cost Assessment

useful organizational framework for envisioning dierent kinds of costs and benets that businesses encounter

indicator

will reflect changes over time that show whether a system is becoming more or less sustainable, and generally substitutes for something else or represents several measures