Environmental Impact Assessment Quantification By Selection Of Footprints

LCA involves the evaluation of specific elements of a product system to determine its environmental impact. The need for an extended approach that complements environmental and financial considerations has been addressed. Recently has been growing the acceptance of using environmental footprints for the quantification of the environmental impact and sustainability assessment. An overview of the varieties of footprints is presented. Definitions and reviews follow regarding generally accepted, as well as new footprints. The distinction is assessed between indicators of environmental impacts and footprints, among the others are listed Carbon Footprint (CFP), Water Footprint (WFP), Ecological Footprint (ECOFP), Energy Footprint (EFP), Emission Footprint (EMPF), Land Footprint (LFP) Social Footprint (SFP) and recently also Nitrogen Footprint (NFP). Emphasis is given towards an adversarial relationship between some of footprints; challenging are trade-offs between carbon and nitrogen footprints. Comparison of different options for strategic decision making purposes are enhanced and eased by those footprints.