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Assessment of Urban Sustainability of the Chicago Metropolitan Area Using Green Accounting Methods
Citation:
Demeke, B. AND A. Argoti-Caicedo. Assessment of Urban Sustainability of the Chicago Metropolitan Area Using Green Accounting Methods. International Congress on Sustainability Science & Engineering, Cincinnati, Ohio, August 12 - 15, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This is part of a project that deals with community sustainability assessment and Management as applied to urban areas. In this study we apply economic measure of sustainability using Green Net Metropolitan Product (GNMP) and Genuine Savings to the Chicago Metropolitan Area (CMA). We expect that the results of this analysis will serve Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) in measuring sustainability of the region.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has been expanding the concept of integrated sustainability assessment at the regional and community levels in its research programs. In this regard, this study is part of a multidisciplinary research project on the quantitative assessment of urban systems’ sustainability. Herein, we assess the sustainability trend of the Chicago Metropolitan Area (CMA) by means of metrics rooted in economics, which follow a green accounting methodology. Specifically, we deploy the Green Net Metropolitan Product (GNMP) and Genuine Savings (GS). GNMP adjusts the Gross Metropolitan Product by subtracting the value of consumption of physical capital, the costs associated with depletion of natural resources, and the costs of damages associated with environmental pollution. GS measures changes in total capital stock (wealth), including manmade capital, human capital, and natural capital. Commonly applied conditions for sustainable development are the ability of a given region to maintain non-declining utility over time (i.e. non-declining GNMP) or to maintain non-declining wealth over time (i.e. non-negative GS). We estimate the CMA’s GNMP and GS for the period, 1990-2015, by using economic and environmental data for the counties in the region. These data have been collected from various public outlets, including the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) and USEPA. The data collected from these outlets and other publicly available, secondary sources are related to variables such as Gross Metropolitan Product, Net Income, Savings and Investment, Education Expenditure, pollution emissions, solid waste, water consumption, etc. In estimating the CMA’s GNMP and GS, we have accounted for the damage costs associated with air emissions based on marginal damage cost estimates from the literature via the benefit transfers method as described in Demeke et al. (2018), Heberling et al. (2012), Wu and Heberling (2016). Moreover, we also attempt at accounting for the marginal value of depletion of natural resources in the CMA in terms of water depletion, changes in urban ecosystem services, and the marginal damage cost of solid waste. In addition, we also incorporate the value of time to account for technological change. We expect that the methods and results of this study will assist CMAP planners in incorporating integrated metrics for the planning of regional sustainability. References Demeke, B., W. Ingwersen, A. Weisbrod, M. Ceja, B. Weber (2018). Green Net Value Added as a sustainability metric based on life cycle assessment: An application to Bounty ® paper towel. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol 170, pp 742-752 Heberling, M. T., Templeton, J. J., and Wu, S. 2012. Green net regional product for the San Luis basin, Colorado: An economic measure of regional sustainability. J. Environ. Manag., 111, 287-297. Wu, S. and Heberling, M. T. 2016. Estimating green net regional product for Puerto Rico: An economic measure of sustainability. Environ. Manag., 57, 822-835.