Quantifying environmental performance of human systems across socioeconomic scales

Talk description:

We, as a species, have managed to drastically degrade the environment (air, water and land) over the last couple of decades, endangering not only our own life support systems but also other species on Earth. In recent years, the tide seems to have turned, with individuals, communities, organisations and nations mobilising to take more action on pressing sustainability challenges such as climate change, air pollution and plastic waste. However, we need to have a holistic and quantitative understanding of the environmental implications of everything we do. Otherwise, how can we know if we are doing the right thing(s)? In this talk, I will explain the methods that are commonly used to quantify the environmental performance of defined human systems (e.g., a product, a household, an organisation, a sector etc) from a whole life cycle perspective. Examples from past and ongoing projects will be used to show that sometimes well-intentioned actions can result in unexpected and undesirable consequences. I will end by sharing some thoughts on future directions in this area.

#esiStateOfTheArt