Dear all,
For those whose research includes the quantitative assessment of environmental impacts – as with LCA and environmentally-extended input-output analysis (EEIOA)-- recent research from Yale Center for Industrial Ecology published in the Journal for Industrial Ecology will be of interest.
The model expands on the US EPA's USEEIO model to include the most recent detailed IO data from 2012. Importantly, it uses industry-level investment and depreciation data to incorporate the use of capital assets, such as vehicles, highways, buildings, and computers, into environmental footprints.
They found that capital assets used for production in 2012 contributed 13%, 19%, and 40% of the economy-wide carbon, energy, and material footprints, respectively. Their method provides updated detail and new insights into how much and what types of capital are used by 400+ sectors in the US economy. They have released a user-friendly spreadsheet tool arising from this research, Capital-Inclusive Footprint Tool – United States (CIFT-US). Users can calculate footprints of goods and services consumed in the US from 2005 to 2019.
Here are some pertinent links:
- Berrill, P., T.R. Miller, Y. Kondo, and E.G. Hertwich. 2019. Capital in the American carbon, energy, and material footprint. Journal of Industrial Ecology n/a(n/a). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jiec.12953.
- Miller, T.R., P. Berrill, P. Wolfram, R. Wang, Y. Kim, X. Zheng, and E.G. Hertwich. 2019. Method for endogenizing capital in the United States Environmentally-Extended Input-Output model. Journal of Industrial Ecology 23(6): 1410–1424.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jiec.12931
- Project page and CIFT-US spreadsheet tool download
- Instructional Youtube video for CIFT-US spreadsheet tool
- Yale FES News article on the research: Capital Costs: Yale Research Offers Truer Calculation of 'Footprint' of Purchases
Thank you,
Reid Lifset
Research Scholar, Resident Fellow in Industrial Ecology
Editor-in-chief, Journal of Industrial Ecology
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Yale University
195 Prospect St
New Haven, CT 06511
reid.lifset@yale.edu
+1-203-432-6949 (tel)
@JIndEcol