Terms for ESA tools

Question 1

material

Answer 1

MFA
Material can be either goods or substances in MFA, it can be the material or goods we need to create a product, it can be the waste or it can be the traces of a certain element or compound along the process. In MFA the unit for material should be kg since we are analyzing the conservation of matter.

Question 2

substance

Answer 2

SFA
A substance is a single type of matter. We are here looking at a specific element or compound. To see where emissions originate from in the chemical process or to trace specific pollutants and see where they end up. How much end up in the product and how much in the waste, for example. Unit is kg or mole. Should be in kg for MFA.

Question 3

goods

Answer 3

MFA SFA
The goods are the more complex materials, looking at the bigger picture. What goes in to the system and what goes out? Goods are substances or mixtures of substances with economic value like fuel, plastic (goes in “positive”) or sludge, waste, emissions (goes out “negative”). Unit is kg or volume. Should be in kg for MFA.

Question 4

stock

Answer 4

MFA SFA
Stocks are the material reservoirs for the system. They can be renewable or non-renewable. The forests are renewable stock for wood, the oil in the ground is a non-renewable stock. Are best described in kg, but can also be described in volume, area etc.

Question 5

flow and flux

Answer 5

MFA SFA
Flow and flux describe how material moves within the system, or in and out of the system, it’s what links processes together. Flow is in mass per time and flux is in mass per time and cross section.

Question 6

system, system boundary

Answer 6

MFA SFA
Almost anything analyzed can be described as a system, for example a factory. Within a system there can be many sub systems, for example different parts of the production or manufacturing process, waste treatment, chemical reactions transportation etc.

The system boundary is where we decide what is analyzed and what is left out. It is both what part of
the system we are analyzing and in how much detail we will analyze it. (cradle to gate, cradle to grave)

Question 7

transfer coefficient

Answer 7

MFA SFA
The transfer coefficient is each outgoing flow divided by the incoming flow. It shows how large part (percentage) of the material that ends up in each outgoing flow.

Question 8

hazard

Answer 8

RA
What bad stuff will happen if this substance is released, for example? Is it Toxic to humans, to nature? What is the consequence of an event, like some chemical exposure?

Question 9

risk

Answer 9

RA

The probability of a hazardous event occurring

Question 10

exposure pathway

Answer 10

RA
This is how we are exposed to a substance. Is it through the skin, air, water, radiation? Is it by eating something that has been exposed to a toxin?

Question 11

receptor/endpoint

Answer 11

RA
The receptor, endpoint is where the hazard occurs. Will it affect humans, animals, plants? Does it bioaccumulate in certain organisms? Does it accumulate along the food chain? Bioconcentration or biomagnification.

Question 12

dose-response relationship

Answer 12

RA
Is measured in how large part of the population that is affected. It can also be measured in how large part of the population is killed if exposed, lethal dose. All things are poisonous in different doses.

Question 13

Purpose of hazard identification step?

Answer 13

RA
It’s to identify the hazard and its source, to gather data and to collect and evaluate other necessary information. What kind of health effects or diseases, environmental damage might be produced from exposure? How does a specific chemical interact with the environment, the human body etc?

Question 14

exposure assesment

Answer 14

RA
It is e.g. measurements of the concentrations of a harmful substance and mapping the pathway to see where and how exposure could take place. Is the substance transformed or decomposed along the way and how does that affect exposure? For new substances exposure assessment must rely on predictions. An exposure assessment is quite uncertain and exposure can wary locally and change over time and must therefore always be reevaluated.

Question 15

effect assesment

Answer 15

RA
is the mapping of the possible effects if exposure does occur and what effect different doses of a substance will have. Short-term exposure to high concentrations and long-term exposure to low doses may have different effects. Thresholds like no effect levels (NELs) already exist for most known chemicals, but for new substances this must be estimated or measured through experiments.

Question 16

risk characterization

Answer 16

RA
is the framework to define how significant this risk is based on all the previous steps in the risk assessment, where the uncertainties, assumptions and methods of each step are considered. What risk does a specific substance pose to humans, environment or any other affected group and how certain are we about this? It involves a risk ratio (exposure/threshold) and the results from the effect assessment to see how badly this needs to be prevented. Different risk assessment will always end up with different values and the result is never exact or final. The aim here is to define “safe zones” for the use of different substances and try to stay within these.

Question 17

functional unit

Answer 17

LCA
What is the result or mass flow out of this system? What is produced and in what unit do we mesure that which is produced?

Question 18

weighting

Answer 18

LCA

Used in the impact assesment part to express the selective importance of different parameters

Question 19

Net present value

Answer 19

CBA
The present value of a project, good, substance. Future costs and benefits are discounted. No costs or benefits before t=0 is counted.

NVP = sumBt(1+i)^-t - sumCt(1+i)^-t

Question 20

index

Answer 20

LCA

Aggregated data into a one-dimentional index, to better comunicate and compare the over all environmental impacts.

Question 21

normalization

Answer 21

LCA
Is (just like weighting) done in the last part of the Impact assesment step in LCA. Normalizing a result is making it more understandable or applying it to reality or avarage use/consumption etc. Instead of saying how CO2 is released from 1L of gas we can use avarage statistics and say how large percent of an avarage persons CO2 emissions comes from using gas? Depending on the audience that kind of data might be easier to understand.

Question 22

environmental risk

Answer 22

RA
Actual or potential threat of adverse effects on living organisms and environment by emissions, resource depletion, wastes etc. The risk is a combination of the severity and the likelihood of an hazardous event occuring.

Environmental risk is an umbrella term and includes ecological risk and risk assessment of chemicals.

Question 23

indicator

Answer 23

LCA (and others?)
Indicators are simple measurments or signals that we use to monitor complex systems. A sensitive spiecis can be an early indicator and show if there is something out of balance in the environment.

Ongoing research on Chalmers about Biodiversity indicators for LCA.

Indicator can olso be the final product/index from an LCA like Eco-indicator 99

Question 24

screening

Answer 24

EIA
The process performed in the vary early stage of an EIA, and answers the questin: Is an EIA needed? The screening process also makes sure that proposals that will have a significant impact on the environment will undergo an EIA.

Question 25

classification

Answer 25

LCA
Compulsory in the impact assessment part of LCA (ISO standard) together with characterisation. Classification simply means sorting the inventory parameters according to the type of environmental impact they contribute to.

Question 26

characterisation

Answer 26

LCA
Compulsory in the impact assessment part of LCA (ISO standard) together with classification. The relative contributions of the emissions and resource consumption to each type of environmental impact. Ex. Emissions of GHG are put together into GWP.

Question 27

exposure

Answer 27

RA
long-term exposure or short term exposure
Different exposure routes can be combined to determine a total daily intake (total exposure).

Question 28

stakeholders

Answer 28

EIA
A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in a project.

It’s a common term and can of course be used anywhere but in EIA it is extra relevant since a main part of the EIA is to find an agreement between the stakeholders of the best solution. (Might not be the scientific best solution.)

In EIA many different stakeholders are usually involved: scientists, local community, politicians, economists etc.

Question 29

willingnes to pay (WTP)

Answer 29

Valuation method - used in CBA (also LCA weighting)

The individual’s willingness to pay an amount of money tells us that the amount paid is worth the sacrifice of the other things that could have been purchased with the money.

“How much I am willing to pay to get to the top of Mount Everest (safely)?”

“How much am I willing to pay more for a “green” product compared to its more polluting counterpart?”

Question 30

willingnes to accept (WTA)

Answer 30

Valuation method - used in CBA (also LCA weighting)

How much do I need to get paid to accept something bad? Some things are considered priceless, but most have a price. Money can be invested in other good in the world.

Question 31

retrospective vs prospective indicators

Answer 31

Indicators
Retrospective: monitoring, acounting, documenting what has happened

Prospective: decision-making, predicting what will happen.