Ecosystem Environmental Assessment

2010 marks the year in which consumers everywhere are more conscious about what they buy and how their purchases impact our planet. Consumers now demand “green” products but there is a lot of misunderstanding in terms of how “green” a product truly is. This article provides the reader a brief introduction on Life Cycle Assessment or LCA, a tool used to understand the real environmental impact of a product. At the end of the LCA overview, the reader will be introduced to an LCA alternative that eco3P.com, the internet’s largest vendor driven eco marketplace, uses to help its vendors communicate to consumers how they identify the “greenness” of their products.

What is LCA?

LCA evaluates the environmental impact of a product from a lifecycle point of view, that is, from the birth (manufacturing) to the death (disposal, end use) of a product. LCA quantifies the environmental impact of not only the product itself, but also its manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal. Other references to LCA are: “life cycle analysis”, “cradle to grave”, “eco-balancing”,” material flow analysis “, or “product auditing”.

In order to identify which products are truly green and to quantify the carbon footprint along the supply chain, an LCA must be conducted. This can be extremely complicated because you need to take into account metrics such as the amount of energy used, raw material being sourced, and how much waste (solid, liquid, and gaseous) is generated. To simplify the analysis, the second generation impacts (i.e. the energy required to source the coal, transport the coal, and then heat the coal to create the fire used to manufacture and mould the raw material) should not be accounted for.

There are two main steps in establishing an LCA:

I won’t discuss exactly how a LCA is done, as it can be complex and time consuming. I will, however, discuss the 2 steps that are involved:

Step 1. Describe which emissions will occur and which raw materials are used during the life of a product. This is usually referred to as the inventory step.

Emissions: Carbon Dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas that is emitted and should be accounted for during the manufacturing process. Others include Nitrous Oxide, Methane, Hydrofluorocarbon gases, Perfluorocarbons, Sulphur Hexafluoride.

Raw materials: Certain raw materials that are used are harmful in various stages of a products lifecycle. Take for example Cadmium – a bluish-white metal that is found naturally in the earth’s crust. Cadmium is a pliable metal and is normally used to replace lead in products like jewellery. However, Cadmium is highly toxic and does not easily corrode. It is also a known carcinogen.

Step 2. Assess what the impacts of these emissions and raw material depletions are. This is referred to as the impact assessment step. Continue Reading

We have become increasingly aware in recent years that the Earth is not endowed with infinite resources. We know now that sometimes a very fine line exists in maintaining a balance which allows human progress and comfort without sacrificing the natural harmony which will be essential to us in the long term. This is no more evident than in Palm Beach County, South Florida and North Carolina.

To effectively conserve nature, not out of some misplaced sentimentality but out of recognition that things do and must change, that some things must be preserved for the good of our planet and the human race. We need effective strategies which will allow us to conserve and allocate our finite resources in areas such as Palm Beach County, South Florida and North Carolina, by research into the existing environment and effective project planning of any developments with an environmental impact analysis. The goal must be to regulate the impact which human actions have on the natural environment which surrounds us and on which we ultimately depend. To threaten that environment threatens the continuation of our species: the human race.

Managing the southeastern United States environment is a complex issue which requires an understanding not only of science but also of policy-making and socioeconomics. Illegal practices are to be stopped and legal practices are to proceed along lines which are not detrimental to the environment. It is often a matter of practical problem-solving which has to appreciate how small-scale local environmental projects in Palm Beach County, South Florida and North Carolina impact upon the wider environment and the other living beings within it. The aim is to enable humans to co-exist with nature, which necessitates some exploitation of its resources and production of waste. Planning should also involve some limitation on the impact which technology and human development have upon the natural environment and its ecosystems. Continue Reading

There have been a lot of intense arguments for and against these two forms of energy production. This is because energy plays a very crucial role in our day to day living. Just imagine a live without essentials such as cars, lamps, refrigerators, etc which need energy to work. I sure bet it’s not a kind of life we crave, having seen the important roles these essentials play in our existence. However, it’s important to state that these two types of energy production have their advantages and disadvantages. This article aims to give an assessment of both forms of energy production.

First off, we start with the non renewable sources of energy production;

Non renewable energy is energy that comes from the ground and is not replaced in a relatively short amount of time. It’s also a source of energy which cannot be used again and again. Fossil fuels are the main category of non renewable energy and they include; coal, oil and natural gas.

The major advantage of this form of energy production is that the energy sources like coal and oil are naturally present in the earth and mining them is relatively easy because of existing technology. And aside being relatively easy to mine, it’s cheap and as a result, they seem widely available and affordable.

On the other hand, one of the major drawbacks of non renewable energy is that it is limited in supply and will one day be depleted. This is very much so because fossil fuels are formed from plants and animals that lived hundreds of million years ago and became buried under the surface of the earth where they transformed into combustible material which we now use. To get new fossil fuels would mean having to wait another hundred million years. Obviously, at the rate of our energy consumption, these fuels cannot occur fast enough to meet our current or future energy demands. Continue Reading