The Risk of Earth Destabilization (RED) index, aggregating the impact we make and what the planet can take

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd The current golden standard for calculating the environmental impact of a product or process is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, leading to results in a large number of impact categories, such as climate change, acidification and toxicity. In the absence of information on which impact category to prioritize, alike products cannot easily be compared and judging environmental sustainability remains difficult. To facilitate transparent communication about the sustainability of products and processes to all members in society, we present a novel environmental index: the Risk of Earth Destabilization (RED) index. Using weighting factors based on the Planetary Boundaries framework, the index takes into account the “planetary urgency” and hence the risk of earth destabilization associated with each of the LCA impacts. The methodology proposed further refines the work done by Tuomisto et al. (2012), thereby contributing to the ongoing efforts within the EU Environmental Product Footprint project for developing weighting factors and building single score indices. A case study on meat consumption options (beef, pork, poultry) illustrates the broad applicability of the RED index and visualization options.

Jaar van publicatie:2018

BOF-keylabel:ja

IOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:6

CSS-citation score:1

Authors from:Higher Education

Toegankelijkheid:Open