Sustainability Assessment of Industrial Systems

Abstract

Sustainability is a vital issue for long-term development of industries and effective environmental protection. The principal aim of sustainable development is the progress on all fronts, i.e., economy, environment, and society. In this paper, a set of new sustainability indices is introduced to assess the environmental and economic performances as well as the sustainability of industrial systems in a uniform structure. In these indices, the values of nonmoneyed and moneyed resources, services, and commodities are quantified using a common unit: emergy. As compared to the existing emergy-based sustainability indices that originated from the study on agricultural or natural ecological systems, the newly defined indices improve the applicability and the effectiveness of the existing indices by addressing the unique features of industrial systems systematically. These new indices reveal strong interdependence among multiple objectives and provide clear guidance to the industries on how to improve their performance on multiple fronts. The utilities of the new indices are demonstrated by case studies.