Page 230 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

9

Accounting for Ecosystem Goods and
Services in Life Cycle Assessment and

Process Design

Erin F. Landers, Robert A. Urban and Bhavik R. Bakshi
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering,
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

Abstract
Ecosystem goods and services, such as fresh water, soil, carbon and nitrogen cycles, and
pollination are essential to all human activities. However, many engineering analyses
undervalue or completely ignore them. Some methods attempt to incorporate these
elements, such as ecological footprint, monetary valuation, and conventional life cycle
assessment (LCA), but the focus is on energy consumption and emissions, ignoring the
crucial role of ecosystems. This chapter presents ecologically based LCA (Eco-LCA) to
quantify the role of ecosystem goods and services in the life cycle. The thermodynamic
properties of exergy and emergy allow for the conversion of many different units of
ecosystem goods and services to the common basis of thermodynamic work, to allow
aggregation and comparison of results from Eco-LCA. A case study compares differ-
ent ecosystem services using exergy and emergy, and the different insights that can be
obtained from each. In addition, a case study highlighting the potential use of ecosys-
tems in sustainable process design is presented.

Keywords: Life cycle assessment, ecosystem, process design, ecology, eco-lca

9.1 Motivation

Ecosystem goods and services, such as fresh water, soil, carbon and nitrogen
cycles, and pollination are essential to all human activity. These goods and ser-
vices can be divided into different categories that designate their importance
to life. Provisioning services supply goods such as food, fuels, fresh water,
and other resources we get from nature. Regulating services provide benefits
by controlling ecosystem processes, such as climate regulation, flood regula-
tion, and disease and pest regulation. Cultural services are all of the intan-
gible benefits such as aesthetic and spiritual benefits. Supporting services are
required for all of the other ecosystem services to take place, such as nutrient

Mary Ann Curran (ed.) Life Cycle Assessment Handbook: A Guide for Environmentally
Sustainable Products, (217-232) © 2012 Scrivener Publishing LLC

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