Multidisciplinary life cycle assessment - a methodological outline for a systems approach to sustainability research

Abstract

Understanding any field of sustainability requires a holistic systems approach, as sustainability is inherently multi-faceted. For example, to map out the economic implication of a technology without its environmental implications provides at best a short term understanding of its sustainability. Yet understanding the environmental implications of an industry or activity without considering how it relates to the wider social context is equally inadequate, because it is only through society that change can occur. As one part of a broad project, the study team attempted to address this problem by modelling multiple sustainability criteria simultaneously for a complex agro-industry - rice - in India.

Citation

Gathorne-Hardy, A. Multidisciplinary life cycle assessment - a methodological outline for a systems approach to sustainability research. (2015) 10 pp.

Multidisciplinary life cycle assessment - a methodological outline for a systems approach to sustainability research

Published 1 January 2015