Selecting Environmental Systems Analysis Tools: Strengths and Weaknesses for Use in a Decision Support Tool

Abstract

An overview of selected environmental systems analysis (ESA) tools currently used by industry is given, including tools to assess the environmental performance of a company. These tools may be useful for a decision support tool (DST) that takes a company perspective, while considering environmental and economic aspects on the decision-making process. We define criteria for a first selection of ESA tools. The criteria are related to the usefulness of a tool in an analysis that: 1) takes a company perspective; 2) includes environmental and economic aspects of decision making; 3) includes a complete coverage of the potential environmental impacts and 4) allows for an assessment of the consequences of pollution reduction strategies. Based on the purpose of our DST, together with the criteria, we identified twelve tools. These twelve tools are reviewed with respect to their purpose, methodology, final product, strengths, weaknesses and relevance for an environmental analysis taking a company perspective. Next, we present the characteristics of the DST. These characteristics allow for identifying the ESA tools that are a promising basis for the DST. These seven characteristics are: 1 the tool considers a gate-to-gate approach; 2 the tool considers the processes within the company that are relevant for the assessment of the environmental impact; 3 the tool uses company specific data easily available from the process owner; 4 the tool considers up-to-date and company specific pollution reduction options; 5 the tool provides information on the cost-effectiveness of the reduction options; 6 the tool can be used to express the company's environmental performance in one overall environmental indicator; and lastly 7 the tool can be used to explore possible user-defined pollution reduction strategies. Finally, a selection of the tools that are useful for our particular DST is made. We conclude that a combination of the following seven tools is most promising: Life Cycle Analysis, Substance Flow Analysis, Multi-Criteria Analysis, Technology Assessment, Sensitivity Analysis, Scenario Analysis and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.