Resource Efficiency And Environmental Impact Assessment

Firmly places impact assessment in the broader context of environmental planning, developing a much-needed integrative approach. The topics covered include: decision making and dispute resolution; the role of environmental law; public policy, administration and publication participation; the nature of planning; impact assessment methodology; the application of impact assessment to frontier developments; linear facilities and waste mana

Environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) is an important and often obligatory part of proposing or launching any development project. Delivering a successful ESIA needs not only an understanding of the theory but also a detailed knowledge of the methods for carrying out the processes required. Riki Therivel and Graham Wood bring together the latest advice on best practice from experienced practitioners to ensure an ESIA is carried out effectively and efficiently. This new edition: • explains how an ESIA works and how it should be carried out • demonstrates the links between socio-economic, cultural, environmental and ecological systems and assessments • incorporates the World Bank’s IFC performance standards, and best practice examples from developing as well as developed countries • includes new chapters on emerging ESIA topics such as climate change, ecosystem services, cultural impacts, resource efficiency, land acquisition and involuntary resettlement. Invaluable to undergraduate and MSc students of ESIA on planning, ecology, geography and environment courses, this internationally oriented fourth edition of Methods of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment is also of great use to planners, ESIA practitioners and professionals seeking to update their skills.

"The International Resource Panel (IRP) was established to provide independent, coherent and authoritative scientific assessments on the use of natural resources and their environmental impacts over the full life cycle. The Panel aims to contribute to a better understanding of how to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation while enhancing well-being. The Secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. IRP assessments demonstrate the opportunities for governments, businesses and wider society to work together to create and implement policies that ultimately lead to sustainable resource management, including through better planning, technological innovation and strategic incentives and investments. Materials are vital to modern society, but their production is an important source of greenhouse gases. Emissions from material production are now comparable to those from agriculture, forestry, and land use change combined, yet they have received much less attention from the climate policy community. The IPR authors propose looking beyond energy efficiency to reduce global carbon footprint. This report was developed by the IRP in response to a request from the Group of 7. It conducts a rigorous assessment of the contribution of material efficiency to GHG abatement strategies. More concretely, it assesses the potential reduction of GHG emissions from material efficiency strategies applied in residential buildings and light duty vehicles, and reviews policies that address these strategies. The IRP modelling results show that increasing material efficiency can help enhance efforts in moving towards the 1.5° C target set by the Paris Agreement." -- Page 4 of cover

This book presents specialised methods and tools built on classical LCA. In the first book-length overview, their importance for the further growth and application of LCA is demonstrated for some of the most prominent species of this emerging trend: Carbon footprinting; Water footprinting; Eco-efficiency assessment; Resource efficiency assessment; Input-output and hybrid LCA; Material flow analysis; Organizational LCA. Carbon footprinting was a huge driver for the market expansion of simplified LCA. The discussions led to an ample proliferation of different guidelines and standards including ISO/TS 14067 on Carbon Footprint of Product. Atsushi Inaba (Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Japan) and his eight co-authors provide an up-to-date status of Carbon Footprint of Products. The increasing relevance of Water Footprinting and the diverse methods were the drivers to develop the ISO 14046 as international water footprint standard. Markus Berger (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany), Stephan Pfister (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and Masaharu Motoshita (Agency of Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan) present a status of water resources and demands from a global and regional perspective. A core part is the discussion and comparison of the different water footprint methods, databases and tools. Peter Saling from BASF SE in Ludwigshafen, Germany, broadens the perspective towards Eco-efficiency Assessment. He describes the BASF-specific type of eco-efficiency analysis plus adaptions like the so-called SEEBALANCE and AgBalance applications. Laura Schneider, Vanessa Bach and Matthias Finkbeiner (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany) address multi-dimensional LCA perspectives in the form of Resource Efficiency Assessment. Research needs and proposed methodological developments for abiotic resource efficiency assessment, and especially for the less developed area of biotic resources, are discussed.The fundamentals ofInput-output and Hybrid LCA are covered by Shinichiro Nakamura (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan) and Keisuke Nansai (National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan). The concepts of environmentally extended IO, different types of hybrid IO-LCA and the waste model are introduced. David Laner and Helmut Rechberger (Vienna University of Technology, Austria) present the basic terms and procedures of Material Flow Analysismethodology. The combination of MFA and LCA is discussed as a promising approach for environmental decision support. Julia Martínez-Blanco (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; now at Inèdit, Barcelona, Spain), Atsushi Inaba (Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Japan) and Matthias Finkbeiner (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany) introduce a recent development which could develop a new trend, namely the LCA of Organizations.

This book examines the crucial role of EIA in government decision-making in Europe, the Nordic countries, North America, Asia and the Pacific.