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dc.contributor.authorHuijbregts, Mark A J
dc.contributor.authorRombouts, Linda J A
dc.contributor.authorHellweg, Stefanie
dc.contributor.authorFrischknecht, Rolf
dc.contributor.authorHendriks, A Jan
dc.contributor.authorMeent, Dik van de
dc.contributor.authorRagas, Ad M J
dc.contributor.authorReijnders, Lucas
dc.contributor.authorStruijs, Jaap
dc.date.accessioned2007-01-09T10:36:31Z
dc.date.available2007-01-09T10:36:31Z
dc.date.issued2006-02-01
dc.identifier.citationEnviron. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40(3):641-8en
dc.identifier.issn0013-936X
dc.identifier.pmid16509298
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10029/7038
dc.description.abstractThe appropriateness of the fossil Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) as an indicator for the environmental performance of products and processes is explored with a regression analysis between the environmental life-cycle impacts and fossil CEDs of 1218 products, divided into the product categories "energy production", "material production", "transport", and "waste treatment". Our results show that, for all product groups but waste treatment, the fossil CED correlates well with most impact categories, such as global warming, resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, tropospheric ozone formation, ozone depletion, and human toxicity (explained variance between 46% and 100%). We conclude that the use of fossil fuels is an important driver of several environmental impacts and thereby indicative for many environmental problems. It maytherefore serve as a screening indicatorfor environmental performance. However, the usefulness of fossil CED as a stand-alone indicator for environmental impact is limited by the large uncertainty in the product-specific fossil CED-based impact scores (larger than a factor of 10 for the majority of the impact categories; 95% confidence interval). A major reason for this high uncertainty is nonfossil energy related emissions and land use, such as landfill leachates, radionuclide emissions, and land use in agriculture and forestry.
dc.format.extent461917 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoenen
dc.titleIs cumulative fossil energy demand a useful indicator for the environmental performance of products?en
dc.typeArticleen
dc.format.digYES
refterms.dateFOA2018-12-18T14:50:41Z
html.description.abstractThe appropriateness of the fossil Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) as an indicator for the environmental performance of products and processes is explored with a regression analysis between the environmental life-cycle impacts and fossil CEDs of 1218 products, divided into the product categories "energy production", "material production", "transport", and "waste treatment". Our results show that, for all product groups but waste treatment, the fossil CED correlates well with most impact categories, such as global warming, resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, tropospheric ozone formation, ozone depletion, and human toxicity (explained variance between 46% and 100%). We conclude that the use of fossil fuels is an important driver of several environmental impacts and thereby indicative for many environmental problems. It maytherefore serve as a screening indicatorfor environmental performance. However, the usefulness of fossil CED as a stand-alone indicator for environmental impact is limited by the large uncertainty in the product-specific fossil CED-based impact scores (larger than a factor of 10 for the majority of the impact categories; 95% confidence interval). A major reason for this high uncertainty is nonfossil energy related emissions and land use, such as landfill leachates, radionuclide emissions, and land use in agriculture and forestry.


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