Environmental Metrics • non-renewable (N) and non-local (purchased, F)

resources work against sustainable development.

Embodied energy / Emergy / Transformity

Embodied energy, Emergy, and Transformity are

universal measures in the environmental accounting
theory.

Transformity:
All types of energy and real wealth products are related
to the primordial source - solar energy - through
transformity.

Going through multiple transformations via both

technological and natural converters, available energy
acquires new quality, while the load on the environment
due to those transformations increases. Sustainability Metrics based on the above system

Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR): ELR = (F + N) / R

Activity:
Find the different transformations that solar energy Energy Yield Ratio (EYR): EYR = Y / F
goes through to power the air conditioner in our
lecture hall. Sustainability Index (SI): SI = EYR / ELR

Activity:
Transformity indicates how many transformations are Discuss what it means to have
necessary to obtain a particular sort of energy in a usable 1. A higher or a lower ELR score
form and also show how “costly” those transformations 2. A higher or a lower EYR score
are for the environment. 3. A higher or a lower SI score
Emergy:
The available solar energy used up directly or indirectly
to make a service, product, fuel, or another form of Further Reading
usable resource. This term essentially means the solar Emergy-based indices and ratios to evaluate
energy equivalent. Transformity, in this case, is the sustainability: monitoring economies and technology
equivalence factor: toward environmentally sound innovation by M.T.
Brown a, S. Ulgiati
Emergy [seJ] = Energy stored/available [J] x
Transformity [seJ/J] Download from
http://sci-
hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092585
Emergy is usually measured in solar energy joules [seJ], 7497000335
and transformity is therefore expressed as a ratio of solar
energy Joules to regular Joules. Kaya Equation
Emergy based Indices
Observations on the following systems diagram

• It Shows energy flows and transformations

within a generic locality (surrounded by the
system boundary)
• Economic Use box can be seen as a
"transformer" of the available energy and
resources into some Yield (Y)
• inputs to the system are classified as renewable
resources, non-renewable resources, local
resources, and non-local (purchased) resources.
• R is the sum of renewable energy resources and
local energy resources and favor sustainability.
• P = population
• GDP = gross domestic product
• (GDP/P) = GDP per capita
• (E/GDP) = energy intensity per unit of GDP
• (CO2/E) = carbon emissions per unit energy
consumed.
• GDP is the market value of all officially
recognized final goods and services produced
within a country.
• (CO2/E) is technology dependent. The more
fossil fuel burning is involved in the production
 of consumable energy (energy conversion), the
higher the “carbon cost” of that energy. This Activity:
carbon cost is indicated by this factor. Cleaner
technologies are characterized by lower (CO2/E), Try out different online footprint calculators and find
or even zero in an ideal case. out the most suitable one for your context and
◦ Example: a “green bus” uses a hydrogen answer the following
fuel cell stack as an engine and emits only 1. What is your ecological footprint?
water. 2. How can you reduce your ecological
▪ Although the bus has a very low CO2/E footprint effectively?
will the plant that manufacture the bus
have the same?
▪ How about the maintenance of this bus
over its lifetime?

• The Kaya model allows estimating how changing
technological solutions for energy conversion
can help the economy in terms of emission
reduction.
• Determination of the CO2/E factor provides a
quantitative scale for measuring environmental
impact in terms of “carbon cost”.
• The CO2/E metric is common in many
assessment studies discussing alternative energy
sources.
• Keep in mind reported values usually reflect the
lifecycle, "from cradle to grave" emissions, i.e.,
those related to technology manufacturing,
operation, and decommissioning altogether and
not only operational emissions.
Activity:
Take a look at the NREL study lifecycle greenhouse
gas emissions of various energy technologies
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/57187.pdf and
answer the following.
1. What units are used to express the CO2/E
metric?
2. Energy from which technology (out of those
studied) has the highest "carbon cost"?
Which one has the lowest "carbon cost"?
3. Which stage of the technology lifecycle does
result in the most CO2 emissions: in case of
renewable energy systems and in case of
fossil fuel energy systems?
Assignment:(Due on 26th July 2019)
Go throught the UN sustainable 17 development
goals. You will be assigned one goal and prepare a
report on the following parts.
PART 1:
1. How did the issue leading to the SDG begin?
2. What is the relavance of this issue?
3. Who or what is affected by this issue?
4. What can be done to reach this SDG?
5. How is the SDG connected to the other 16
SDGs?
PART 2:
• Come up with a metric/indicator to measure
and monitor the progress of the SDG.
• Apply the metric to a current locality (a
city/company/local area) and assess its
current status.
Submit this on a word file to Moodle.
Note:
Your submission will be assessed by a software for
plaigarism and for every 5% above 25% similarity
you will lose 5 marks.

Ecological footprint

Various Internet sites use combinations of environmental

metrics to calculate the so-called ecological footprint.
This is an illustration how environmental metrics can be
used to compare human lifestyles, which essentially
comes down to the comparison of technologies people
use. These calculators are far from being specific and use
generalized information on environmental impacts.