Integrated Metrics for Improving the Life Cycle Approach to Assessing Product System Sustainability

Wesley Ingwersen, Heriberto Cabezas, Anne V. Weisbrod, Tarsha Eason, Bayou Demeke, Xin Ma, Troy R. Hawkins, Seung-Jin Lee, Jane C. Bare and Manuel Ceja
Additional contact information
Wesley Ingwersen: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Laboratory, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Heriberto Cabezas: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Laboratory, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Anne V. Weisbrod: Global Product Stewardship and Product Supply, The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Tarsha Eason: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Laboratory, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Xin Ma: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Laboratory, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Troy R. Hawkins: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Laboratory, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Seung-Jin Lee: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Laboratory, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Jane C. Bare: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Laboratory, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
Manuel Ceja: Global Product Stewardship and Product Supply, The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 3, 1-28

Abstract: Life cycle approaches are critical for identifying and reducing environmental burdens of products. While these methods can indicate potential environmental impacts of a product, current Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods fail to integrate the multiple impacts of a system into unified measures of social, economic or environmental performance related to sustainability. Integrated metrics that combine multiple aspects of system performance based on a common scientific or economic principle have proven to be valuable for sustainability evaluation. In this work, we propose methods of adapting four integrated metrics for use with LCAs of product systems: ecological footprint , emergy , green net value added , and Fisher information . These metrics provide information on the full product system in land, energy, monetary equivalents, and as a unitless information index; each bundled with one or more indicators for reporting. When used together and for relative comparison, integrated metrics provide a broader coverage of sustainability aspects from multiple theoretical perspectives that is more likely to illuminate potential issues than individual impact indicators. These integrated metrics are recommended for use in combination with traditional indicators used in LCA. Future work will test and demonstrate the value of using these integrated metrics and combinations to assess product system sustainability.

Keywords: product sustainability; sustainability metrics; sustainability indicators; life cycle assessment; ecological footprint; emergy; Fisher information; green net value added; consumer products (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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