Unsustainability, eMergy and LCA

Unsustainability is the distance from an ideal of sustainability. Sustainability is determined by the degree towhich a system depends on renewable resources for its operation. Emergy Assessment (EmA) identifies the total demand on the ecosphere and sociosphere, and evaluates the ability of a subsystem to sustain itself within a larger system (the planetary ecosystem).

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) identifies inputs from the sociosphere and emissions to the ecosphere, and evaluates a product’s impact in a set of subsystem analyses.The two unsustainability analysis methods are fundamentally different but can be used complementary to provide insight on different levels.

We will present how eMergy is particularly suited for systems analysis and for evaluation of ‘renewability’. We welcome discussions that can develop our understanding of why and what we are measuring and how diverse tools provide us with different types of answers and conclusions.