Sustainability assessment economic indicators

Note that the quality of sustainability assessment relies largely on the comprehensiveness of the sustainability indicators used and data availability and accuracy. Thus it is imperatively important that an electroplating organization select a set of sustainability indicators suitable for assessing economic, environmental, and social sustainability where data and information are accessible and the uncertainties associated with them are manageable. 

For the retrofit action, which does not affect the external stakeholders, the process assessment area is the most suitable boundary for sustainability analysis (Fig. 11.2). In the process assessment, the areas of improvement are the traditional economic indicators applied to retrofit design analysis. The operational results as well as the investment analysis of the proposed retrofit designs are accounted for. The operational results are the traditional indicators applied by engineers in retrofit design assessment [12]. They should be always contemplated, since after the implementation of a retrofit design those costs are going to be incurred at least for the next 5 years (minimum lifetime for a project). Regarding the operational results, several authors point out different aspects that should... 

Several studies have been recently conducted with efforts to fiuther improve the current status of biofuel sustainability certification. Gnansounou (2011) proposed a logic-based model for the sustainability assessment of biofuels. The proposed model uses a hierarchical stracture to link multiple factors from the more specific variables to the most general one, sustainability performance. The study proposed 7 general and 20 specific indicators for assessing the social, economic, and environmental performance of a biofuel supply chain. 

The authors stated that the sustainability assessment of biofuels shall be conducted through a multicriterial approach, and indicated a list of important issues to be investigated, such as the contribution to GHG emissions reduction land use and carbon stock changes induced by the growing demand for biofuels the efficiency of produced fertilizers the utilization of coproducts and residues the impact of biofuel production on water resources and soil, social, (e.g., food prices) and economic (i.e., production costs) issues. 

Sustainability is important in the context of industry sectors, products, process technologies, and individual process plants. In assessing performance achievement in sustainability, there is a need for suitable sustainability indicators to measure progress in environmental, economic, and social performance. 

The quantitative assessment of environmental impacts can be made using life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, which accounts for both inputs and emissions. LCA can be used to identify the major environmental impact categories and the sources of those impacts within a chemical processing plant. LCA can also be used to identify the major contributions to environmental impact within a product s life cycle. Impact scores derived from LCA can be used along with economic assessment scores and social indicators to provide indicators of overall sustainability of processes and products. Economic assessments are often limited through failure to account for all internal costs and especially the external costs associated with waste. 

IChemE metrics of sustainability consist of 49 indicators classified into three main categories economic, environmental and social. The environmental indicators within the IChemE metrics are similar to those in the CWRT metrics. However, there are some differences. The IChemE metrics include the area of land as an environmental indicator. The actual indicators are (i) the sum of directly occupied and affected land per value added and (ii) the rate of land restoration. Other differences relate to the assessment of the relative impacts of pollutants on the environment and human health. The IChemE indicators do not take into account the life-time of chemicals in various media of the environment. The human health indicator is limited to carcinogenic effects and is normalized to benzene. 

LCSA extends the environmental boundaries of traditional LCA in an attempt to incorporate the concept of sustainable development. It is defined as a method of addressing environmental, economic, and social sustainabiHty of a product system over its life cycle, indicated through the measurement of either positive or negative impacts [3]. LCA has been implemented through an integration of E-LCA, hfe cycle costing (LCC), and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) [3]. Brief definitions of E-LCA, LCC, and S-LCA are described in Table 14.1. 

Being different from other approaches to assess fife cycle sustainability, PROSUITE methodology utiHzes five endpoint impacts, which reduce the risk of overlapping between three pillars of SustainabiHty. For example, the indicator of income, which can be used as a pathway to social SustainabiHty, brings better quality of life. At the same time, income indicator can be considered under the economic sustainabihty point of view [14],... 

---