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Environmental Impact Indicators
The environmental footprint of any industrial activity or product can
be defined in terms of the environmental impacts to which it contributes.
These impacts may be local, regional, and global in nature. They include
effects on ecosystems, effects on human health, and the depletion or
increase in natural resources. Most importantly, these impact categories
are common to virtually all industrial processes, and therefore provide
a uniform basis for evaluating and comparing products to one another.
The indicator results calculated by SCS are the effective amounts of
resource depletion, ecosystem disruption, emission loadings, and residual
hazardous wastes associated with all industrial processes included within
the assessment.
Impact Indicators by Impact Group
Renewable Resources Depleted
- Wood Resources
- Water Resources
Energy Resources Depleted
- Fossil Fuel Resources
- Biomass Resources
- Uranium Resources
- Non-Fuel Petroleum Resources
- Mineral Resources Depleted
- Specific mineral or metal
Ecosystem Disruption
(from Direct Physical Disturbance)
Terrestrial & Aquatic Habitat
Key Species (by specific indicator species)
- Air and Water Emission Loadings
- Greenhouse Gas Loading
- Acidification Loading
- Ground Level Ozone Loading
- Stratospheric Ozone Depletion Loading
- PM-10
- Hazardous Air Loading (by specific indicator)
- Hazardous Aquatic Loading (by specific indicator)
- Total Oxidizing Chemicals
- Total Suspended Solids
- Eutrophication Loading
- Thermal Loading
Residual Hazardous Waste
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