Sustainability Concepts in Decision-Making Tools and Approaches for the US Environmental Protection Agency (2014) / Chapter Skim
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4 Case Studies of Applications of Sustainability Tools and Approaches
4 Case Studies of Applications of Sustainability Tools and Approaches
Pages 47-63
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From page 47... ...
After the presentation of case studies, the chapter discusses the increasing use of natural gas for electricity generation as an exemplar that would benefit from applying sustainability tools in a systems (value-chain) context.
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From page 48... ...
(TSCA) TSCA-mandated screening program approaches Combined sewer Clean Water Act Setting water-quality Applying green infrastructure overflows discharge limits approaches to meet discharge limits Site remediation Resource Conservation and Selecting remedies for Including life-cycle assessments Recovery Act; Comprehensive soil and groundwater for remedy selection and public Environmental Response, contamination involvement for land-use Compensation, and Liability decisions Implementation of Clean Air Act Oversight of state Broadening emission-control National ambient-air implementation plans to planning quality standards attain the standards Renewable-fuel Energy Independence and Standard-setting Augmenting life-cycle standard Security Act assessment with uncertainty analysis 48
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From page 49... ...
A square indicates selection of the tool for consideration in the case study. The table is not intended to provide a comprehensive list of all the sustainability tools or approaches that are being used or could be used.
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From page 50... ...
illustrate the use of key sustainability analytic tools, including chemical alternatives assessments, collaborative problem-solving, green chemistry, and green engineering. To evaluate sustainability implications more fully, other analytic tools could also be applied.
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Tools for Including Sustainability Concepts Green infrastructure -- such as dry basins, wet basins, constructed wetlands, rainwater harvesting, infiltration basins, bioretention swales, green streets, pervious or porous pavements, vacant-lot repurposing, green roofs, impervious surface removal, and reforestation -- may provide more benefits than those obtained with gray infrastructure. Such sustainability tools as collaborative problem-solving and environmental-justice analysis can be used to assess the benefits associated with those alternatives; the benefits include reduced capital expenditures, improved water quality, and more flexibility.
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S wer Source: Courtesy of the Northea Ohio Regio o ast onal Sewer Dis strict, August 19, 2014. Rep printed with pe ermission; cop pyright 2014, Nort theast Ohio Re egional Sewer District.
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Sustainability factors were evaluated for eight remedial options by using LCA software. Sustainability evaluation followed the Sustainable Remediation Forum nine steps for footprint and LCA: define the study goals and scope, define the functional unit, establish the system boundaries, establish the project metrics, compile the project inventory, assess the impacts, analyze the sensitivity and uncertainty of the impactassessment results, interpret the inventory analysis and impact-assessment results, and report the study results (Favara et al.
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From page 54... ...
At contaminated sites where restoration of groundwater is considered unlikely in a reasonable time frame because of resource and technical limitations (NRC 2013b) , EPA should consider sustainability factors holistically within the balancing criteria to modify the selected remedy in such a way that in the long term it meets all protectiveness criteria but achieves a more sus tainable outcome.
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IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL AMBIENT-AIR QUALITY STANDARDS Section 109 of the Clean Air Act requires EPA to set national ambient-air quality standards (NAAQSs) for ambient air pollutants considered harmful to public health and welfare.3 EPA has set 3 In the context of the Clean Air Act, welfare refers to the viability of ecosystems and agriculture, the protection of materials (such as monuments and buildings)
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From page 56... ...
Tools for Including Sustainability Concepts Some sustainability tools are pervasive in the SIP and air-quality management process. For example, under Section 812 of the Clean Air Act, EPA performs estimates of the national costs and benefits of the Clean Air Act.
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Expected Value Added by Applying Sustainability Tools Examining the sustainability considerations of various concentration-reduction strategies has multiple potential benefits, including improvements in local and regional air quality regarding multiple pollutants simultaneously, minimization of potential adverse effects while maximizing benefits, consideration of multiple effects (environmental, health, sociologic, economic, and energy-related) of pollution-control strategies, development of cost-effective approaches that meet NAAQSs, ability to consider effects and tradeoffs to multiple media, and evaluations to determine expected amounts of emission reductions (credits)
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From page 58... ...
Tools for Including Sustainability Concepts A wide variety of sustainability tools could be applied to the decisions related to the RFS, but in this case study the committee focused its attention on the issues related to uncertainty analyses. There was underlying variability and uncertainty in the available life-cycle data used in setting standards according to the RFS, but only a single deterministic life-cycle GHG emission value was set and published.
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RIA are an app As propriate vehi for incor icle rporating a roobust quantification and di iscussion of u uncertainty. FIGURE 4-2 Probability distributions of estimated carbon intensit of various p y c ty petroleum-based fuels and bio ofuels.
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From page 60... ...
Postcustomer use of a product. EPA traditionally focuses on reducing emissions or waste releases from individual or regional source categories irrespective of their relationship to or effect on the sustainability performance of the larger value chains.
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As natural gas continues to displace coal for electricity generation, changes in a aggregate sense c d y , an can be exppected to occur in Greenhouse ga emissions. G as Water use and water quality W y.
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Conclusions 4.2: EPA traditionally focuses on reducing emissions or waste releases from individual or regional source categories irrespective of their relationship to or effects on the sustainability per formance of the larger value chains. Life-cycle and systematic (value-chain)
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From page 63... ...
At those contaminated sites where restoration of groundwater is considered unlikely in a reasonable time frame, due to resource and technical limitations (NRC, 2013) , EPA should consider sustainability factors holistically within the balancing criteria to modify the selected remedy such that the final long-term remedy meets all protectiveness criteria, but achieves a more sustainable long-term outcome.
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