Environmental Damage Assessment of Carbon Capture and Storage

An end‐point life cycle impact assessment is used to evaluate the damages of electricity generation from fossil fuel‐based power plants with carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology. Pulverized coal (PC), integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants are assessed for carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture, pipeline transport, and storage in a geological formation. Results show that the CCS systems reduce the climate change‐related damages but increase the damages from toxicity, acidification, eutrophication, and resource consumption. Based on the currently available damage calculation methods, it is concluded that the benefit of reducing damage from climate change is larger than the increases in other damage categories, such as health effects from particulates or toxic chemicals. CCS significantly reduces the overall environmental damage, with a net reduction of 60% to 70% in human health damage and 65% to 75% in ecosystem damage. Most of the damage is due to fuel production and combustion processes. The energy and infrastructure demands of CCS cause increases in the depletion of natural resources by 33% for PC, 19% for IGCC, and 18% for NGCC power plants, mostly due to increased fossil fuel consumption.     

Combined MFA-LCA for Analysis of Wastewater Pipeline Networks

Oslo's wastewater pipeline network has an aging stock of concrete, steel, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipelines, which calls for a good portion of expenditures to be directed toward maintenance and investments in rehabilitation. The stock, as it is in 2008, is a direct consequence of the influx of pipelines of different sizes, lengths, and materials of construction into the system over the years. A material flow analysis (MFA) facilitates an analysis of the environmental impacts associated with the manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance, rehabilitation, and retirement of the pipelines. The forecast of the future flows of materials—which, again, is highly interlinked with the historic flows—provides insight into the likely future environmental impacts. This will enable decision makers keen on alleviating such impacts to think along the lines of eco-friendlier processes and technologies or simply different ways of doing business. Needless to say, the operation and maintenance phase accounts for the major bulk of emissions and calls for energy-efficient approaches to this phase of the life cycle, even as manufacturers strive to make their processes energy-efficient and attempt to include captive renewable energy in their total energy consumption. This article focuses on the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with the wastewater pipeline network in the city of Oslo.     

Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Ethanol

Corn-ethanol production is expanding rapidly with the adoption of improved technologies to increase energy efficiency and profitability in crop production, ethanol conversion, and coproduct use. Life cycle assessment can evaluate the impact of these changes on environmental performance metrics. To this end, we analyzed the life cycles of corn-ethanol systems accounting for the majority of U.S. capacity to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy efficiencies on the basis of updated values for crop management and yields, biorefinery operation, and coproduct utilization. Direct-effect GHG emissions were estimated to be equivalent to a 48% to 59% reduction compared to gasoline, a twofold to threefold greater reduction than reported in previous studies. Ethanol-to-petroleum output/input ratios ranged from 10:1 to 13:1 but could be increased to 19:1 if farmers adopted high-yield progressive crop and soil management practices. An advanced closed-loop biorefinery with anaerobic digestion reduced GHG emissions by 67% and increased the net energy ratio to 2.2, from 1.5 to 1.8 for the most common systems. Such improved technologies have the potential to move corn-ethanol closer to the hypothetical performance of cellulosic biofuels. Likewise, the larger GHG reductions estimated in this study allow a greater buffer for inclusion of indirect-effect land-use change emissions while still meeting regulatory GHG reduction targets. These results suggest that corn-ethanol systems have substantially greater potential to mitigate GHG emissions and reduce dependence on imported petroleum for transportation fuels than reported previously.     

Life Cycle Inventory Analysis of the Wood Pallet Repair Process in the United States

This study developed gate‐to‐gate life cycle inventory (LCI) data for the repair of 48 by 40 inch (1,219 by 1,016 millimeter [mm]) stringer‐class wood pallets in the United States. Data were collected from seven wood pallet repair facilities. Approximately 1.98 FBM (foot, board measure) (4.67E‐03 cubic meters) of lumber were used for repairing each 48 by 40 inch (1,219 by 1,016 mm) stringer‐class wood pallet, the majority (97%) recovered from damaged pallets received by the pallet repair facilities. Repair equipment powered by electricity made the largest contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Steel nails used for the pallet repair had the largest contribution to GHG emissions among the material inputs, while use of recovered lumber yielded the largest GHG emissions credits. Overall, the repair process for a 48 by 40 inch (1,219 by 1,016 mm) stringer‐class wood pallet had GHG credits rather than a positive GHG emission due to the GHG offsets from co‐products.     

Energy Cost of Living and Associated Pollution for Beijing Residents

China's remarkable economic growth in the last 3 decades has brought about big improvements in quality of life while simultaneously contributing to serious environmental problems. The aim of all economic activities is, ultimately, to provide the population with products and services. Analyzing environmental impacts of consumption can be valuable for illuminating underlying drivers for energy use and emissions in society. This study applies an environmentally extended input‐output analysis to estimate household environmental impact (HEI) of urban Beijing households at different levels of development. The analysis covers direct and indirect energy use and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and nitrogen oxide (NO_x). On the basis of observations of how HEI varies across income groups, prospects for near‐future changes in HEI are discussed. Results indicate that in 2007, an urban resident in Beijing used, on average, 52 gigajoules of total primary energy supply. The corresponding annual emissions were 4.2 tonnes CO₂, 27 kilograms SO₂, and 17 kilograms NO_x. Of this, only 18% to 34% was used or emitted by the households directly. While the overall expenditure elasticity of energy use is around 0.9, there is a higher elasticity of energy use associated with transport. The results suggest that significant growth in HEI can be expected in the near future, even with substantial energy efficiency improvements.     

Mapping the Influence of Food Waste in Food Packaging Environmental Performance Assessments

Scrutiny of food packaging environmental impacts has led to a variety of sustainability directives, but has largely focused on the direct impacts of materials. A growing awareness of the impacts of food waste warrants a recalibration of packaging environmental assessment to include the indirect effects due to influences on food waste. In this study, we model 13 food products and their typical packaging formats through a consistent life cycle assessment framework in order to demonstrate the effect of food waste on overall system greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and cumulative energy demand (CED). Starting with food waste rate estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we calculate the effect on GHG emissions and CED of a hypothetical 10% decrease in food waste rate. This defines a limit for increases in packaging impacts from innovative packaging solutions that will still lead to net system environmental benefits. The ratio of food production to packaging production environmental impact provides a guide to predicting food waste effects on system performance. Based on a survey of the food LCA literature, this ratio for GHG emissions ranges from 0.06 (wine example) to 780 (beef example). High ratios with foods such as cereals, dairy, seafood, and meats suggest greater opportunity for net impact reductions through packaging‐based food waste reduction innovations. While this study is not intended to provide definitive LCAs for the product/package systems modeled, it does illustrate both the importance of considering food waste when comparing packaging alternatives, and the potential for using packaging to reduce overall system impacts by reducing food waste.     

Material and Energy Flows and Environmental Impacts of the Internet in Switzerland

The Internet leads to material and energy consumption as well as various environmental impacts on both the regional and global scale. Yet, assessments of the Internet's energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions are still rare, and assessments of material flows and further environmental impacts are virtually non‐existent. This article investigates material flows, the direct energy consumption during the use phase, as well as environmental impacts linked to the service, “Internet in Switzerland.” In our model, the service, Internet in Switzerland, is divided into various Internet participant categories. All devices used to access or provide Internet services are merged in a limited number of equipment families and, as such, included in an inventory of the existing infrastructure (stock). Based on this inventory, a material flow analysis (MFA) is performed, which includes the current stock as well as flows resulting from growth and disposal. The direct energy consumption for the operation of the infrastructure is quantified. Environmental impacts are calculated with a life cycle assessment approach, using the ecoinvent database and the software, SimaPro, applying four different methods. The MFA results in a 2009 stock of 98,100 tonnes. Approximately 4,130 gigawatt hours per year, or 7% of the total Swiss electricity consumption, were used in 2009 to operate the Swiss infrastructure. The environmental impacts caused during the production and use phases vary significantly depending on the assessment method chosen. The disposal phase had mainly positive impacts as a result of material recovery.     

An Exploration of the Relationship between Socioeconomic and Well‐Being Variables and Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This research reports on a multivariate analysis that examined the relationship between direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and socioeconomic and well‐being variables for 1,920 respondents living in Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada, using results from the Halifax Space‐Time Activity Research Project. The unique data set allows us to estimate direct GHG emissions with an unprecedented level of specificity based on household energy use survey data and geographic positioning system–verified personal travel data. Of the variables analyzed, household size, income, community zone, age, and marital status are all statistically significant predictors of direct GHG emissions. Birthplace, ethnicity, educational attainment, perceptions of health, life satisfaction, job satisfaction, happiness, volunteering, or community belonging did not seem to matter. In addition, we examined whether those reporting energy‐efficient behaviors had lower GHG emissions. No significant differences were discovered among the groups analyzed, supporting a growing body of research indicating a disconnect between environmental attitudes and behaviors and environmental impact. Among the predictor variables, those reporting to be married, young, low income, and living in households with more people have correspondingly lower direct GHG emissions than other categories in respective groupings. Our finding that respondents with lifestyles that generate higher GHG emissions did not report to be healthier, happier, or more connected to their communities suggest that individuals can experience similar degrees of well‐being regardless of the amount of GHG emissions associated with his or her respective lifestyle.     

The Carbon Footprint of Norwegian Seafood Products on the Global Seafood Market

Greenhouse gas emissions caused by food production are receiving increased attention worldwide. A problem with many studies is that they only consider one product; methodological differences also make it difficult to compare results across studies. Using a consistent methodology to ensure comparability, we quantified the carbon footprint of more than 20 Norwegian seafood products, including fresh and frozen, processed and unprocessed cod, haddock, saithe, herring, mackerel, farmed salmon, and farmed blue mussels. The previous finding that fuel use in fishing and feed production in aquaculture are key inputs was confirmed. Additional key aspects identified were refrigerants used on fishing vessels, product yield, and by‐product use. Results also include that product form (fresh or frozen) only matters when freezing makes slower transportation possible. Processing before export was favorable due to the greater potential to use by‐products and the reduced need for transportation. The most efficient seafood product was herring shipped frozen in bulk to Moscow at 0.7 kilograms CO₂ equivalents per kilogram (kg CO₂‐eq/kg) edible product. At the other end we found fresh gutted salmon airfreighted to Tokyo at 14 kg CO₂‐eq/kg edible product. This wide range points to major differences between seafood products and room for considerable improvement within supply chains and in product choices. In fisheries, we found considerable variability between fishing methods used to land the same species, which indicates the importance of fisheries management favoring the most resource‐efficient ways of fishing. Both production and consumption patterns matter, and a range of improvements could benefit the carbon performance of Norwegian seafood products.     

Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Balance of Individual Gas‐Fired and Oil‐Fired Electricity Plants on a Global Scale

Life cycle greenhouse gas (LC‐GHG) emissions from electricity generated by a specific resource, such as gas and oil, are commonly reported on a country‐by‐country basis. Estimation of variability in LC‐GHG emissions of individual power plants can, however, be particularly useful to evaluate or identify appropriate environmental policy measures. Here, we developed a regression model to predict LC‐GHG emissions per kilowatt‐hour (kWh) of electricity produced by individual gas‐ and oil‐fired power plants across the world. The regression model uses power plant characteristics as predictors, including capacity, age, fuel type (fuel oil or natural gas), and technology type (single or combined cycle) of the plant. The predictive power of the model was relatively high (R² = 81% for predictions). Fuel and technology type were identified as the most important predictors. Estimated emission factors ranged from 0.45 to 1.16 kilograms carbon dioxide equivalents per kilowatt‐hour (kg CO₂‐eq/kWh) and were clearly different between natural gas combined cycle (0.45 to 0.57 kg CO₂‐eq/kWh), natural gas single cycle (0.66 to 0.85 kg CO₂‐eq/kWh), oil combined cycle power plants (0.63 to 0.79 kg CO₂‐eq/kWh), and oil single cycle (0.94 to 1.16 kg CO₂‐eq/kWh). Our results thus indicate that emission data averaged by fuel and technology type can be profitably used to estimate the emissions of individual plants.     

Greenhouse Gas Emission Estimates of U.S. Dietary Choices and Food Loss

Dietary behavioral choices have a strong effect on the environmental impact associated with the food system. Here, we consider the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with production of food that is lost at the retail and consumer level, as well as the potential effects on GHG emissions of a shift to dietary recommendations. Calculations are based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) food availability data set and literature meta‐analysis of emission factors for various food types. Food losses contribute 1.4 kilograms (kg) carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂‐eq) capita^?1day^?1 (28%) to the overall carbon footprint of the average U.S. diet; in total, this is equivalent to the emissions of 33 million average passenger vehicles annually. Whereas beef accounts for only 4% of the retail food supply by weight, it represents 36% of the diet‐related GHG emissions. An iso‐caloric shift from the current average U.S. diet to USDA dietary recommendations could result in a 12% increase in diet‐related GHG emissions, whereas a shift that includes a decrease in caloric intake, based on the needs of the population (assuming moderate activity), results in a small (1%) decrease in diet‐related GHG emissions. These findings emphasize the need to consider environmental costs of food production in formulating recommended food patterns.     

Evaluation of a Regional Approach to Standards for Plug‐in Battery Electric Vehicles in Future Light‐Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Regulations

Representing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to plug‐in electric vehicles (PEV) in vehicle GHG emissions regulations is complex because of spatial and temporal variation in fueling sources and vehicle use. Previous work has shown that the environmental performance of PEVs significantly varies depending on the characteristics of the electricity grid and how the vehicle is driven. This article evaluates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) GHG emissions accounting methodology in current and future standards for new electrified vehicles. The current approach employed by the EPA in their 2017–2025 model year light‐duty vehicle GHG regulation is compared with an accounting mechanism where the actual regional sales of PEVs, and the regional electricity emission factor in the year sold, are used to determine vehicle compliance value. Changes to the electricity grid over time and regional vehicle sales are included in the modeling efforts. A projection of a future GHG regulation past the 2017–2025 rule is used to observe the effect of such a regional regulation. The results showed that the complexity involved in tracking and accounting for regional PEV sales will not dramatically increase the effectiveness of the regulations to capture PEV electricity‐related GHG emissions in the absence of a major policy shift. A discussion of the feasibility and effectiveness of a regional standard for PEVs, and notable examples of region‐specific regulations instated in past energy policies, is also addressed.     

Uncertainty and Variability in Product Carbon Footprinting

Recent years have seen increasing interest in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions accounting, also known as carbon footprinting, due to drivers such as transportation fuels policy and climate‐related eco‐labels, sometimes called carbon labels. However, it remains unclear whether applications of greenhouse gas accounting, such as carbon labels, are supportable given the level of precision that is possible with current methodology and data. The goal of this work is to further the understanding of quantitative uncertainty assessment in carbon footprinting through a case study of a rackmount electronic server. Production phase uncertainty was found to be moderate (±15%), though with a high likelihood of being significantly underestimated given the limitations in available data for assessing uncertainty associated with temporal variability and technological specificity. Individual components or subassemblies showed varying levels of uncertainty due to differences in parameter uncertainty (i.e., agreement between data sets) and variability between production or use regions. The use phase displayed a considerably higher uncertainty (±50%) than production due to uncertainty in the useful lifetime of the server, variability in electricity mixes in different market regions, and use profile uncertainty. Overall model uncertainty was found to be ±35% for the whole life cycle, a substantial amount given that the method is already being used to set policy and make comparative environmental product declarations. Future work should continue to combine the increasing volume of available data to ensure consistency and maximize the credibility of the methods of life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting. However, for some energy‐using products it may make more sense to increase focus on energy efficiency and use phase emissions reductions rather than attempting to quantify and reduce the uncertainty of the relatively small production phase.     

The Growth of Urban Building Stock: Unintended Lock‐in and Embedded Environmental Effects

Building stocks constitute enduring components of urban infrastructure systems, but little research exists on their residence time or changing environmental impacts. Using Los Angeles County, California, as a case study, a framework is developed for assessing the changes of building stocks in cities (i.e., a generalizable framework for estimating the construction and deconstruction rates), the residence time of buildings and their materials, and the associated embedded environmental impacts. In Los Angeles, previous land‐use decisions prove not easily reversible, and past building stock investments may continue to constrain the energy performance of buildings. The average age of the building stock has increased steadily since 1920 and more rapidly after the post–World War II construction surge in the 1950s. Buildings will likely endure for 60 years or longer, making this infrastructure a quasi‐permanent investment. The long residence time, combined with the physical limitations on outward growth, suggest that the Los Angeles building stock is unlikely to have substantial spatial expansion in the future. The construction of buildings requires a continuous investment in material, monetary, and energetic resources, resulting in environmental impacts. The long residence time of structures implies a commitment to use and maintain the infrastructure, potentially creating barriers to an urban area's ability to improve energy efficiency. The immotility of buildings, coupled with future environmental goals, indicates that urban areas will be best positioned by instituting strategies that ensure reductions in life cycle (construction, use, and demolition) environmental impacts.     

Using Attributional Life Cycle Assessment to Estimate Climate‐Change Mitigation Benefits Misleads Policy Makers

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is generally described as a tool for environmental decision making. Results from attributional LCA (ALCA), the most commonly used LCA method, often are presented in a way that suggests that policy decisions based on these results will yield the quantitative benefits estimated by ALCA. For example, ALCAs of biofuels are routinely used to suggest that the implementation of one alternative (say, a biofuel) will cause an X% change in greenhouse gas emissions, compared with a baseline (typically gasoline). However, because of several simplifications inherent in ALCA, the method, in fact, is not predictive of real‐world impacts on climate change, and hence the usual quantitative interpretation of ALCA results is not valid. A conceptually superior approach, consequential LCA (CLCA), avoids many of the limitations of ALCA, but because it is meant to model actual changes in the real world, CLCA results are scenario dependent and uncertain. These limitations mean that even the best practical CLCAs cannot produce definitive quantitative estimates of actual environmental outcomes. Both forms of LCA, however, can yield valuable insights about potential environmental effects, and CLCA can support robust decision making. By openly recognizing the limitations and understanding the appropriate uses of LCA as discussed here, practitioners and researchers can help policy makers implement policies that are less likely to have perverse effects and more likely to lead to effective environmental policies, including climate mitigation strategies.     

Environmental Assessment of Waste-Solvent Treatment Options

A comparison of various waste‐solvent treatment technologies, such as distillation (rectification) and incineration in hazardous‐waste‐solvent incinerators and cement kilns, is presented for 45 solvents with respect to the environmental life‐cycle impact. The environmental impact was calculated with the ecosolvent tool that was previously described in Part I of this work. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis was performed, and uncertainties were quantified by stochastic modeling in which various scenarios were considered. The results show that no single treatment technology is generally environmentally superior to any other but that, depending on the solvent mixture and the process conditions, each option may be optimal in certain cases. Nevertheless, various rules of thumb could be derived, and a results table is presented for the 45 solvents showing under which process conditions and amount of solvent recovery distillation is environmentally superior to incineration. On the basis of these results and the ecosolvent tool, an easily usable framework was developed that helps decision makers in chemical industries reduce environmental burdens throughout the solvent life cycle. With clear recommendations on the environmentally optimized waste‐solvent treatment technology, the use of this framework contributes to more environmentally sustainable solvent management and thus represents a practical application of industrial ecology.     

When Comparing Alternative Fuel‐Vehicle Systems,Life Cycle Assessment Studies Should Consider Trends in Oil Production

Petroleum from unconventional reserves is making an increasingly important contribution to the transportation fuel supply, but is generally more expensive and has greater environmental burdens than petroleum from conventional sources. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) of alternative fuel‐vehicle technologies typically consider conventional internal combustion engine vehicles fueled by gasoline produced from the average petroleum slate used in refineries as a baseline. Large‐scale deployment of alternative fuel‐vehicle technologies will decrease petroleum demand and lead to decreased production at the economic margin (unconventional oil), but this is not considered in most current LCAs. If marginal petroleum resources have larger impacts than average petroleum resources, the environmental benefits of petroleum demand reduction are underestimated by the current modeling approaches. Often, models include some consequential‐based impacts (such as indirect land‐use change for biofuels), but exclude others (such as avoided unconventional oil production). This approach is inconsistent and does not provide a robust basis for public policy and private investment strategy decisions. We provide an example to illustrate the potential scale of these impacts, but further research is needed to establish and quantify these marginal effects and incorporate them into LCAs of both conventional and alternative fuel‐vehicle technologies.     

Environmental and economic impacts of solar‐powered integrated greenhouses

Greenhouse vegetable production plays a vital role in providing year‐round fresh vegetables to global markets, achieving higher yields, and using less water than open‐field systems, but at the expense of increased energy demand. This study examines the life cycle environmental and economic impacts of integrating semitransparent organic photovoltaics (OPVs) into greenhouse designs. We employ life cycle assessment to analyze six environmental impacts associated with producing greenhouse‐grown tomatoes in a Solar PoweRed INtegrated Greenhouse (SPRING) compared to conventional greenhouses with and without an adjacent solar photovoltaic array, across three distinct locations. The SPRING design produces significant reductions in environmental impacts, particularly in regions with high solar insolation and electricity‐intensive energy demands. For example, in Arizona, global warming potential values for a conventional, adjacent PV and SPRING greenhouse are found to be 3.71, 2.38, and 2.36 kg CO₂ eq/kg tomato, respectively. Compared to a conventional greenhouse, the SPRING design may increase life cycle environmental burdens in colder regions because the shading effect of OPV increases heating demands. Our analysis shows that SPRING designs must maintain crop yields at levels similar to conventional greenhouses in order to be economically competitive. Assuming consistent crop yields, uncertainty analysis shows average net present cost of production across Arizona to be $3.43, $3.38, and $3.64 per kg of tomato for the conventional, adjacent PV and SPRING system, respectively.     

Construction Materials from Stainless Steel Slags: Technical Aspects,Environmental Benefits,and Economic Opportunities

State‐of‐the‐art technologies that implement theindustrial ecology concept only make it to the market if environmental gains and economic benefits are significant. Therefore, the article investigates, in an interdisciplinary way, two innovative technologies that valorize stainless steel (SS) slags as block masonry (bricks): carbonation and thermo‐alkali‐activation. The technical, environmental, and economic features of three SS bricks—solid bricks, perforated bricks, and lightweight aerated blocks—are compared to commercially available construction materials. Although the produced bricks meet industrial standards, technical challenges, such as optimization of alkali addition and use of metal molds, should be dealt with before upscaling to industrial production. A cradle‐to‐gate life cycle assessment that aggregates the results of the various impact categories shows that the environmental impact of solid and perforated SS bricks is lower than the impact of conventional clay‐baked bricks owing to the avoidance of additives for slag stabilization and energy consumption for sintering clay. The impact of aerated SS bricks was found to be similar to the commercially available aerated blocks. More specifically, the carbon dioxide uptake from carbonation reduces the overall environmental impact, whereas use of alkalis increases the impact. A strengths weaknesses opportunity threats analysis highlights the economic advantages of SS bricks originating from lower energy requirements, reduced dependence on primary resources, and improved metal recovery from slag. However, in order to apply the innovative technologies at industrial scale, challenges related to processing conditions, feedstock variability, and potential competition from existing brick suppliers have to be overcome.     

A Hybrid Approach for Assessing the Multi‐Scale Impacts of Urban Resource Use: Transportation in Phoenix,Arizona

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and urban metabolism (UM) are popular approaches for urban system environmental assessment. However, both approaches have challenges when used across spatial scales. LCA tends to decompose systemic information into micro‐level functional units that mask complexity and purpose, whereas UM typically equates aggregated material and energy flows with impacts and is not ideal for revealing the mechanisms or alternatives available to reduce systemic environmental risks. This study explores the value of integrating UM with LCA, using vehicle transportation in the Phoenix metropolitan area as an illustrative case study. Where other studies have focused on the use of LCA providing upstream supply‐chain impacts for UM, we assert that the broader value of the integrated approach is in (1) the ability to cross scales (from micro to macro) in environmental assessment and (2) establishing an analysis that captures function and complexity in urban systems. The results for Phoenix show the complexity in resource supply chains and critical infrastructure services, how impacts accrue well beyond geopolitical boundaries where activities occur, and potential system vulnerabilities.