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Emergy in 60 Minutes
Citation:
BRANDT-WILLIAMS, S. AND D. E. CAMPBELL. Emergy in 60 Minutes. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
“Emergy in 60 Minutes” was written as an introduction to the concept of emergy and its use as an assessment method in environmental science. It has received attention as a method for evaluating and understanding sustainability.
Description:
This web presentation answers basic questions about the relatively new scientific concept, emergy. It dispels some of the confusion surrounding this idea in a PowerPoint presentation. The presentation is written in common language and uses straightforward examples. Emergy indices are explained and examples are given of how they are used. The emergy methods are further explored by considering 10 salient points that cover important aspects of the methodology and its use. Emergy is characterized as a measure of real wealth, i.e., that is the work that an item can do when it is used within a system for its intended purpose. Emergy measures the contributions of the environment, the economy and society in the same units, i.e., solar equivalent joules (semJ). Therefore, changes in all three of these aspects of an environmental system are made directly comparable so that the best decision can be made by finding the alternative that maximizes emergy flow through the entire system that includes its economic, environmental, and social moieties.