Title
Resource Footprints are Good Proxies of Environmental Damage
Author
Steinmann, Z.J.N.
Schipper, A.M.
Hauck, M.
Giljum, S.
Wernet, G.
Huijbregts, M.A.J.
Publication year
2017
Abstract
Environmental footprints are increasingly used to quantify and compare environmental impacts of for example products, technologies, households, or nations. This has resulted in a multitude of footprint indicators, ranging from relatively simple measures of resource use (water, energy, materials) to integrated measures of eventual damage (for example, extinction of species). Yet, the possible redundancies among these different footprints have not yet been quantified. This paper analyzes the relationships between two comprehensive damage footprints and four resource footprints associated with 976 products. The resource footprints accounted for >90% of the variation in the damage footprints. Human health damage was primarily associated with the energy footprint, via emissions resulting from fossil fuel combustion. Biodiversity damage was mainly related to the energy and land footprints, the latter being mainly determined by agriculture and forestry. Our results indicate that relatively simple resource footprints are highly representative of damage to human health and biodiversity. © 2017 American Chemical Society.
Subject
Biodiversity
Environmental technology
Forestry
Fuels
Environmental damage
Environmental footprints
Fossil fuel combustion
Human health
Human health damages
Resource use
Environmental impact
Environment & Sustainability
Urbanisation
2015 Urban Mobility & Environment
CAS - Climate, Air and Sustainability
ELSS - Earth, Life and Social Sciences
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b00698
TNO identifier
777355
Publisher
American Chemical Society
ISSN
0013-936X
Source
Environmental Science and Technology, 51 (51), 6360-6366
Document type
article