Emergy as a Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicator

Founded in thermodynamics and systems ecology, emergy evaluation is a method to associate a product with its dependencies on all upstream environmental and resource flows using a common unit of energy. Emergy is thus proposed as an indicator of aggregate resource use for life cycle assessment (LCA). An LCA of gold mining, based on an original life cycle inventory of a large gold mine in Peru, is used to demonstrate how emergy can be incorporated as an impact indicator into a process‐based LCA model. The results demonstrate the usefulness of emergy in the LCA context. The adaptation of emergy evaluation, traditionally performed outside of the LCA framework, requires changes to the conventional accounting rules and the incorporation of uncertainty estimations of the emergy conversion factors, or unit emergy values. At the same time, traditional LCA boundaries are extended to incorporate the environmental processes that provide for raw resources, including ores. The total environmental contribution to the product, doré, is dominated by mining and metallurgical processes and not the geological processes forming the gold ore. The measure of environmental contribution to 1 gram (g) of doré is 6.8E + 12 solar‐equivalent Joules (sej) and can be considered accurate within a factor of 2. These results are useful in assessing a process in light of available resources, which is essential to measuring long‐term sustainability. Comparisons are made between emergy and other measures of resource use, and recommendations are made for future incorporation of emergy into LCA that will result in greater consistency with existing life cycle inventory (LCI) databases and other LCA indicators.     

Platinum Group Metal Flows of Europe, Part II

A model of the use of the platinum group metals (PGMs) platinum, palladium, and rhodium in Europe has been developed and combined with a model of the environmental pressures related to PGM production. Compared to the base case presented in Part I of this pair of articles, potential changes in PGM production and use are quantified with regard to cumulative and yearly environmental impacts and PGM resource use, for the period 2005–2020. Reducing sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions of PGM producer Norilsk Nickel could cut the cumulative SO₂ emissions associated with the use of PGMs in Europe by 35%. Cleaner electricity generation in South Africa could reduce cumulative SO₂ emissions by another 9%. Increasing the recycling rate of end-of-life catalytic converters to 70% in 2020 could save 15% of the cumulative primary PGM input into car catalysts and 10% of the SO₂ emissions associated with PGM production. In 2020, PGM requirements and SO₂ emissions would be, respectively, 40% and 22% lower than the base case.
Substituting palladium for part of the platinum in diesel catalysts, coupled with a probable palladium price increase, could imply 15% more cumulative SO₂ emissions if recycling rates do not increase.
A future large-scale introduction of fuel cell vehicles would require technological improvements to significantly reduce the PGM content of the fuel cell stack. The basic design of such vehicles greatly influences the vehicle power, a key parameter in determining the total PGM requirement.     

物质流分析（SFA）方法及研究进展

物质流分析(substance flow analysis,SFA)通过追踪经济-环境系统特定物质的输入、输出、贮存等过程,量化经济系统中物质流动与资源利用、环境效应之间的关系,为资源环境优化管理提供科学依据.系统阐述了SFA的内涵及发展历程,介绍了SFA方法体系,在此基础上对SFA研究现状进行了评述.分析表明,SFA是产业生态学领域内一种重要的产业代谢分析方法,它在污染物迁移路径追踪及环境影响分析、战略性资源生命周期代谢分析、物质社会存量分析等方面具有十分重要的应用价值.提出了SFA的未来应用领域和发展趋势.     

可持续性转型——第五届工业生态学国际大会综述

综述了在葡萄牙里斯本召开的第五届工业生态学国际大会情况.大会的中心议题是\"可持续性转型\",设立了可持续资源管理、工业生态学工具、工业共生、发展中国家的工业生态学等10个议题.在简介会议背景和大会基本数据后,对上述议题归类为社会物质代谢、生态工业发展和工业生态学方法工具3个领域并进行介绍和评述.最后,总结了国际工业生态学的发展现状及趋势,提出了对国内工业生态学发展的4点启示,包括加强实证研究、开展国家层面的物质代谢分析、注意新方法的开发与应用、强化理论基础构建意识.     

Life Cycle Sustainability Dashboard

One method to assess the sustainability performance of products is life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), which assesses product performance considering the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of the life cycle. The results of LCSA can be used to compare different products or to support decision making toward sustainable production and consumption. In both cases, LCSA results could be too disaggregated and consequently too difficult to understand and interpret by decision makers. As non‐experts are usually the target audience of experts and scientists, and are also involved in decision‐making processes, the necessity for a straightforward but comprehensive presentation of LCSA results is becoming strategically important. The implementation of the dashboard of sustainability proposed in this article offers a possible solution. An outstanding characteristic of the dashboard of sustainability is the communicability of the results by means of a graphical representation (a cartogram), characterized by a suitable chromatic scale and ranking score. The integration of LCSA and the dashboard of sustainability into a so‐called Life Cycle Sustainability Dashboard (LCSD) is described here. The first application of LCSD to a group of hard floor coverings is presented to show the applicability and limitations of the methodology.     

Can Industrial Restructuring Lead to a Sustainable Future? A Critical Environmental Risk Assessment of Industrial Policy in Shandong Province,China

Shandong Province is attempting to realize a sustainable development path by industrial restructuring. This article attempts to forecast the outcomes of this policy, looking ahead to 2010 and 2020 by quantifying its resource demand and environmental effects. Prediction and analysis indicate that the industrial restructuring policy of Shandong Province is likely to prove beneficial to the environment, reducing energy and water consumption from the 2004 baseline. However, the analysis also indicates that the high anticipated economic growth rates will override any resource saving and pollutants reduction achieved. Natural resource supplies are insufficient to meet demand, and environmental quality is likely to deteriorate, rendering economic growth targets unachievable. However, if Shandong puts in place policies designed to achieve average energy and water consumption efficiency, SO₂ emission efficiency and wastewater treatment efficiency of OECD countries in 2004, then energy consumption, SO₂ emissions, wastewater, and Chemical Oxygen Demand discharges in 2020 will reduce in real terms with only water demand showing a slight increase over the 2004 baseline. The assessment suggests that further measures such as developing new and alternative energy sources, raising the utilization efficiency of energy and water resources, and improving pollution treatment are required if Shandong Province is to realize a balanced and sustainable development for its society, economy, and environment.     

基于扩展耗模型的可持续发展水平区域空间差异——以中国31个省市为数据源

将区域作为一个以人类生产和消费为中心的社会-经济-自然复合生态系统,构建了一种基于生物物理视角的生态热力学方法,从整体角度对区域的可持续发展水平进行定量评价。该方法囊括了维持复合生态系统运转过程中的自然资源投入、人力资源投入和环境污染损害成本投入等三种要素,完善了可持续发展评价以及绿色GDP核算中人力资源投入和环境成本的价值体现。然后以我国为例,核算了我国31个省市2006—2015年间可持续发展水平的时间动态,并以各省为边界,计算了2015年的区域可持续发展水平差异。计算结果显示:(1)十年间,我国整体上的可持续发展水平在逐步提高,能反映出我国生产率水平的提高和资源利用效率的提高;(2)从要素投入看,自然资源投入仍然占主要,但比例在逐渐降低。环境成本投入比例呈逐步降低趋势,说明环境保护取得了成效。另外,在2010年后,人力资源投入比例增加很快,反映了我国经济发展中劳动力成本上升明显。(3)各省市的计算结果差异较大,在不考虑区域间进出口的情况下,从GDP产出角度,北京的可持续发展水平最高,西藏最低。通过将本文的评价结果与绿色发展指数的评价结果进行比较,发现具有较好的一致性。建立的方法框架是对能值分析方法的扩展和完善,在今后的研究中,还需要继续对该方法框架中没有考虑全面的因素加以考虑,以便于更全面客观地反映区域的可持续发展水平。