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Comparative evaluation of green technologies using the Emergy Footprint and other measures of ecosystems services and sustainability
Citation:
Boggess, C. F., D. WHITE, AND D. E. CAMPBELL. Comparative evaluation of green technologies using the Emergy Footprint and other measures of ecosystems services and sustainability. Presented at Ninth American Ecological Engineering Society Annual Meeting, Corvallis, OR, June 24 - 25, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
The work processes and products of the environment are now recognized by scientists and economists alike for the contributions that they make to human and natural systems.
Description:
The work processes and products of the environment are now recognized by scientists and economists alike for the contributions that they make to human and natural systems. Thus, the nature and evaluation of nonmarket goods and services are the subject of much current research in the field of ecological economics. Without measures that account for both human and natural value systems, it is difficult for managers to correctly evaluate projects competing for scarce resources, or to make wise and sustainable business decisions. Emergy analysis provides a common basis and a systems framework to estimate the contributions of the natural environment and the human economy. This evaluation methodology expresses all inputs and outputs in terms of common energy units (solar emjoules), and includes “free” natural resource inputs as well as purchased goods and services. The Emergy Footprint captures the intensity of human system use and alteration of the environment; and therefore, it is an excellent way to evaluate the relative intensity of alternative projects and system designs at the interface of human and natural systems. This study looks at an array of “green” technologies, such as computer equipment, building products, and biofuels, and evaluates their efficacy using the Emergy Footprint as a basis. This measure is compared and contrasted with other sustainability measures such as ecological and carbon footprints and life cycle assessment to determine a measure of “completeness” associated with the impacts captured by each index. In other words, the study ranks how well the indices capture all of the environmental inputs to the system and how well the indices measure system sustainability resulting from the application of “green technology”. We hypothesize that there will be a spectrum of “completeness” of the indicators in characterizing the impacts of a technology and that the Emergy Footprint will provide the most complete accounting and evaluation method available.