Sustainable Process Index

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The Sustainable Process Index (SPI*) was developed in the 1990s at TU Graz by a team of scientists (substantially by Ch. Krotscheck) under the leadership of professor Michael Narodoslawsky. [1] [2] The SPI is a member of the ecological footprint family which aggregates and compares different ecological pressures. It allows to evaluate ecologic impacts of industrial products and services like energy production, industrial products, agriculture and buildings. It provides an encompassing evaluation that distinguishes sharply between fossil and renewable energy (as Global Warming Potential does) but taking other emissions to soil water and atmosphere into account as well. Based on the idea, that the primary income of the earth is Solar radiation, in accordance with the principle of Strong sustainability the surface of the earth is the basic dimension of the evaluation. The SPI is therefore in the same family of ecological measurement as the Ecological Footprint. These methods all measure the area that is necessary to support human activities. The SPI takes the whole life cycle into consideration starting from mining of raw materials to further transformation and production of goods to recycling to disposal of waste. This includes grey emissions, the emissions which originate from production and operation of infrastructures. The SPI method is based on the comparison of natural material fluxes with technological material fluxes. The conversion of mass and energy fluxes is strongly defined by two principles of Sustainability. [3]

Graz University of Technology institute of technology in Austria

Graz University of Technology is one of five universities in Styria, Austria. It was founded in 1811 by Archduke John of Austria and currently comprises seven faculties. The university is a public university. It offers 18 bachelors and 33 masters study programmes across all technology and natural science disciplines. Doctoral training is organised in 14 English-speaking doctoral schools. The university has more than 13,000 students, and approximately 2,000 students graduate every year. Science study programmes are offered in the framework of NAWI Graz together with the University of Graz.

Solar energy energy transmitted from the sun

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.

Sustainability process of maintaining change in a balanced fashion

Sustainability is the process of maintaining change in a balanced environment, in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations. For many in the field, sustainability is defined through the following interconnected domains or pillars: environment, economic and social, which according to Fritjof Capra is based on the principles of Systems Thinking. Sub-domains of sustainable development have been considered also: cultural, technological and political. While sustainable development may be the organizing principle for sustainability for some, for others, the two terms are paradoxical. Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Brundtland Report for the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) introduced the term of sustainable development.

Contents

The SPI is the ratio of two areas. One is the area needed to embed a life cycle to generate a product or service in the Biosphere. The other is the statistical area available for every human being on earth, which is m² based on a global population of 7.39 billion people. Contrary to the Ecological Footprint the SPI also takes ocean surface into account, as oceans are key elements of many global material cycles (e.g. the Carbon cycle).

Biosphere The global sum of all ecosystems on Earth

The biosphere also known as the ecosphere, is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the zone of life on Earth, a closed system, and largely self-regulating. By the most general biophysiological definition, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The biosphere is postulated to have evolved, beginning with a process of biopoiesis or biogenesis, at least some 3.5 billion years ago.

Carbon cycle Biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere,

The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component of many minerals such as limestone. Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle, the carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to make Earth capable of sustaining life. It describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere, as well as long-term processes of carbon sequestration to and release from carbon sinks.

The earth’ surface and the atmosphere are complex buildings several compartments have to be considered for a comprehensive ecological evaluation. The SPI includes natural renewable rates, absorption rates and natural exchange rates of substances within and between the compartments air, soil and water. Practically this is defined with maximal rates of material and energy flows which can be absorbed by natural sinks of biosphere.

Method

Human activities influence the natural environment in many different ways. Processes needed to execute these activities need resources, energy and human manpower. Production, delivery and consummation of goods generates emissions and waste. The SPI includes all these different issues affecting the environment. A total area Atot which would be needed to embed human activities into ecosphere can so be aggregated. Atot = AR + AE + AI + AS + AP [m2] (1) AR = ARR + ARF + ARN [m2] (2) AI = AID + AII [m2] (3) The sum for the total area is the sum of all partial areas (Formel 1). AR, the area needed to provide raw materials, is the sum (formula 2) of all areas needed to provide renewable resources (ARR), fossil resources (ARF) and non-renewable resources (ARN). AE is the area needed to provide process energy (incl. electricity). AI, the area needed to provide the infrastructure for the process is the sum (formula 3) of direct land use (AID) and the area needed to provide the area for buildings and process plants (AII). AS is the area needed for the supply of the staff and AP is the area needed for a sustainable embedding of emissions and waste into ecosphere. The SPI aggregates partial footprints from mass, energy and emission inventories of every sub-process and refers them to the end product. This means that atot is the total footprint of a considered product per measurement unit. Seven different categories were defined to guarantee a better visibility of the different impact categories:

Land consumption The expansion of built-up area which can be directly measured in a defined area.

Land consumption as part of human resource consumption is the conversion of land with healthy soil and intact habitats into areas for industrial agriculture, traffic and especially urban human settlements. More formally, the EEA has identifid 3 land consuming activities:

  1. The expansion of built-up area which can be directly measured;
  2. the absolute extent of land that is subject to exploitation by agriculture, forestry or other economic activities; and
  3. the over-intensive exploitation of land that is used for agriculture and forestry.

Fields of application

The SPI is applied for different ecological evaluations. Examples are:

Related Research Articles

Environmental engineering is the branch of engineering which applies scientific and engineering principles to:

Ecological footprint

The ecological footprint measures human demand on nature, i.e., the quantity of nature it takes to support people or an economy. It tracks this demand through an ecological accounting system. The accounts contrast the biologically productive area people use for their consumption to the biologically productive area available within a region or the world. In short, it is a measure of human impact on Earth's ecosystem and reveals the dependence of the human economy on natural capital.

Life-cycle assessment is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling. Designers use this process to help critique their products. LCAs can help avoid a narrow outlook on environmental concerns by:

Embodied energy

Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy required to produce any goods or services, considered as if that energy was incorporated or 'embodied' in the product itself. The concept can be useful in determining the effectiveness of energy-producing or energy-saving devices, or the "real" replacement cost of a building, and, because energy-inputs usually entail greenhouse gas emissions, in deciding whether a product contributes to or mitigates global warming. One fundamental purpose for measuring this quantity is to compare the amount of energy produced or saved by the product in question to the amount of energy consumed in producing it.

Carbon footprint total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent

A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.

Ecodesign is an approach to designing products with special consideration for the environmental impacts of the product during its whole lifecycle. In a life cycle assessment, the life cycle of a product is usually divided into procurement, manufacture, use, and disposal.

Sustainable cities, urban sustainability, or eco-city (also "ecocity") is a city designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact [1][1], and resilient habitat for existing populations, without compromising the ability of future generations to experience the same. These cities are inhabited by people whom are dedicated towards minimization of required inputs of energy, water, food, waste, output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register first coined the term "ecocity" in his 1987 book, Eco city Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future. Other leading figures who envisioned the sustainable city are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, as well as authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities.

Carbon accounting refers generally to processes undertaken to "measure" amounts of carbon dioxide equivalents emitted by an entity. It is used by nation states, corporations, individuals – to create the carbon credit commodity traded on carbon markets. Correspondingly, examples for products based upon forms of carbon accounting can be found in national inventories, corporate environmental reports or carbon footprint calculators. Likening sustainability measurement, as an instance of ecological modernisation discourses and policy, carbon accounting is hoped to provide a factual ground for carbon-related decision-making. However, social scientific studies of accounting challenge this hope, pointing to the socially constructed character of carbon conversion factors or of the accountants' work practice which cannot implement abstract accounting schemes into reality.

Biomass Biological material used as a renewable energy source

Biomass is waste material from plants or animals that is not used for food or feed; it can be waste from farming or horticulture, food processing, animal farming, or human waste from sewage plants. It is used in various industrial processes, like energy production or as raw materials for manufacturing chemicals.

Lists of environmental topics Wikimedia list article

The natural environment commonly referred to simply as the environment, is all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth or some part of it. This includes complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries. And it includes universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.

A low-carbon economy (LCE), low-fossil-fuel economy (LFFE), or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the biosphere, but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. GHG emissions due to anthropogenic (human) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming since the mid-20th century. Continued emission of greenhouse gases may cause long-lasting changes around the world, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.

This is a glossary of environmental science.

Sustainable metrics and indices are measures of sustainability, and attempt to quantify beyond the generic concept. Though there are disagreements among those from different disciplines, these disciplines and international organizations have each offered measures or indicators of how to measure the concept.

This page is an index of sustainability articles.

Water footprint The extent of water use in relation to consumption by people

The water footprint shows the extent of water use in relation to consumption by people. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. Water use is measured in water volume consumed (evaporated) and/or polluted per unit of time. A water footprint can be calculated for any well-defined group of consumers or producers, for a single process or for any product or service.

Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a potential greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy (energy from biomass) use with geologic carbon capture and storage. The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops, which extract carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere as they grow, the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants, and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations. There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar, carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial and enhanced weathering.

Index of environmental articles

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, includes all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth.

Earth Overshoot Day

Earth Overshoot Day (EOD), previously known as Ecological Debt Day (EDD), is the calculated illustrative calendar date on which humanity’s resource consumption for the year exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. Earth Overshoot Day is calculated by dividing the world biocapacity, by the world ecological footprint, and multiplying by 365, the number of days in one Gregorian common calendar year:

Ecometrics is the quantitative analysis of economic, environmental, and societal systems based on the concurrent development of empirical theory, related by appropriate methods of inference in attempts to create more sustainable systems. Broadly defined, Ecometrics is a way to evaluate if an activity is contributing to more sustainable systems of production and consumption. Ecometrics is a system of statistical extrapolation and interpolation that uses principles of resource management in economic and environmental studies to analyze trends in consumption. With a comprehensive understanding of ecometrics, and thereby an understanding of the impacts of specific conscious or conventional opportunity costs, agents within economic systems can cause measurable change for the triple bottom line. The term was originally trademarked by Interface Global, a corporation founded by Ray Anderson. The parameters that cause change are often population, technology, transportation, consumption, public conscious, non-renewable or renewable resources, location, labor conditions, transportation and wealth. Ecometrics is used in labeling programs such as the US EPA Fuel Economy and Environment Label to determine the environmental and financial advantages of purchasing one car over another. There are many applications of Ecometrics for Environmental Impact Calculators infographics, and for political analysis. Because the parameters of ecometrics vary drastically for any activity, the applications of its resulting measurements are sometimes unilateral. Applied ecometrics exposes the complexity of making sustainable decisions, especially given other humanitarian goals such as third world economic development. In this way ecometrics shows any choice within consumption and production systems as wicked problems.

Renewable energy in Afghanistan

Renewable energy in Afghanistan includes biomass, hydropower, solar, wind power. Afghanistan is a landlocked country located in Asia that holds a spot as one of the countries with a smaller ecological footprint. It has been contended at different levels that hydropower may be an easier source of renewable energy for Afghanistan than other nations due to their geographical location. Their mountainous environment facilitates hydro dams and other facets of hydro energy.

References

  1. ↑ Narodoslawsky, M.; Krotscheck, C. (1995). "The Sustainable Process Index (SPI): Evaluating processes according to environmental compatibility". Journal of Hazardous Materials. 41 (2-3): 383–397. doi:10.1016/0304-3894(94)00114-V.
  2. ↑ Krotscheck, C; Narodoslawsky, M (1996). "The Sustainable Process Index: A new dimension in ecological evaluation". Ecological Engineering. 6 (4): 241–258. doi:10.1016/0925-8574(95)00060-7.
  3. ↑ 2. SUSTAIN report: Umsetzung nachhaltiger Entwicklung in Österreich (engl. Umsetzung nachhaltiger Entwicklung in Österreich), Roland Albert, Paul H. Brunner, Elisabeth Fromm, Jochen Gassner, Andrea Grabher, Ruth Kratochvil, Christian Krotscheck, Thomas Lindenthal, Rebecka Milestad, Anton Moser, Michael Narodoslawsky, Michael Pollak, Lothar Rehse, Horst Steinmüller, Heinz Peter Wallner, Robert Wimmer, Heinrich Wohlmeyer, Berichte aus Energie- und Umweltforschung 38/2001, Im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie, Graz, Dezember 2001, 175 S.
  4. ↑ Daly, H.E., Steady-State Economics. Island Press, Washington DC, 1991.
  5. ↑ Narodoslawsky, M.; Krotscheck, C. (1995). "The Sustainable Process Index (SPI): Evaluating processes according to environmental compatibility". Journal of Hazardous Materials. 41 (2-3): 383–397. doi:10.1016/0304-3894(94)00114-V.
  6. ↑ Krotscheck, C; Narodoslawsky, M (1996). "The Sustainable Process Index: A new dimension in ecological evaluation". Ecological Engineering. 6 (4): 241–258. doi:10.1016/0925-8574(95)00060-7.
  7. ↑ Ecological assessment of integrated bioenergy systems using the sustainable process index; Krotscheck, C.; König, F.; Obernberger, I.; Biomass and Bioenergy (2000), 18 (4), 341-368
  8. ↑ Ecological footprint — a tool for assessing sustainable energy supplies; Stöglehner, G.; Journal of Cleaner Production 11 (2003), 267–277
  9. ↑ Sustainable Process Index; Narodoslawsky, M.; Niederl, A.; In Renewable-Based Technology: Sustainability Assessment (2005); Ed: Dewulf, J.; van Langhove, H., John Wiley & Sons
  10. ↑ Game Greengang vs. Captain Carbon: http://game.greengang.at/
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