The Gouy-Stodola Theorem—From Irreversibility to Sustainability—The Thermodynamic Human Development Index

Umberto Lucia and Giulia Grisolia
Additional contact information
Umberto Lucia: Department of Energy “Galileo Ferraris”, Polytechnic University of Turin, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Giulia Grisolia: Department of Energy “Galileo Ferraris”, Polytechnic University of Turin, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Today, very complex economic relationships exist between finance, technology, social needs, and so forth, which represent the requirement of sustainability. Sustainable consumption of resources, production and energy policies are the keys for a sustainable development. Moreover, a growing request in bio-based industrial raw materials requires a reorganization of the chains of the energy and industrial sectors. This is based on new technological choices, with the need of sustainable measurements of their impacts on the environment, society and economy. In this way, social and economic requirements must be taken into account by the decision-makers. So, sustainable policies require new indicators. These indicators must link economics, technologies and social well-being, together. In this paper, an irreversible thermodynamic approach is developed in order to improve the Human Development Index, HDI , with the Thermodynamic Human Development Index, THDI , an indicator based on the thermodynamic optimisation approach, and linked to socio-economic and ecological evaluations. To do so, the entropy production rate is introduced into the HDI , in relation to the CO 2 emission flows due to the anthropic activities. In this way, the HDI modified, named Thermodynamic Human Development Index THDI , results as an indicator that considers both the socio-economic needs, equity and the environmental conditions. Examples of the use of the indicator are presented. In particular, it is possible to highlight that, if environmental actions are introduced in order to reduce the CO 2 emission, HDI remains constant, while THDI changes its value, pointing out its usefulness for decision makers to evaluate a priori the effectiveness of their decisions.

Keywords: gouy-stodola theorem; human development index; irreversible thermodynamics; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3995/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3995/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3995-:d:529619

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().