Title: An exergy-based Ecological Indicator as a measure of our resource use footprint

Authors: Enrico Sciubba

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Roma 1, La Sapienza, Roma 00184, Italy

Abstract: The concept of 'Ecological Indicator' (EI) is critically analysed to define the properties it ought to possess and to demonstrate that indicators based solely on material-and energy balances do not comply with the necessary properties. It is argued that exergy destruction and exergy of discharge, both acceptable thermodynamic indicators, cannot provide information on the human-specific impact of a pollutant (neither of them measures toxicity and non-energetic externalities). A recently proposed method, Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA), which includes in the exergy flow diagrams non-material and non-energetic production factors like labour, capital and environmental remediation costs, is shown to provide a proper measure of the amount of primary exergy resources consumed in the life-cycle of a material or immaterial commodity.

Keywords: ecological indicators; extended exergy accounting; EEA; pollutant impacts; environmental pollution; resource consumption; resource use.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2012.046811

International Journal of Exergy, 2012 Vol.10 No.3, pp.239 - 266

Received: 05 Aug 2011
Accepted: 31 Aug 2011
Published online: 10 May 2012 *

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