EEIO models have been developed for many countries, including: the US, such as CEDA ( Suh, 2005), EIO-LCA ( Hendrickson et al., 2006), Eco-LCA ( Zhang et al. It incorporates environmental data into the Input-Output (IO) framework ( Leontief, 1941), and enables calculation of direct and indirect environmental impacts of economic activities or products ( Hendrickson et al., 2006). The “Road Ahead” report used an EEIO model to perform an initial analysis of US goods and services for 2002.ĮEIO analysis has become widely used in broad-scope studies of the environmental impacts of production and consumption by societies, such as total consumption in the US ( Kucukvar et al., 2014), dietary consumption in Italy ( Pairotti et al., 2015), and general world consumption patterns ( Pascual-González et al., 2015). Another method of generating life cycle inventory data that uses readily-available economic input-output data to model a network of goods and services is environmentally-extended input-output (EEIO) analysis ( Tukker, 2006).
#OPENLCA 1.6 USER FULL#
However, the methods typically used for LCA of single products are not scalable or practical to do a full economy analysis that includes product-level detail, given the lack of life cycle inventory data for all products or services consumed in the US ( Huppes et al., 2006). To identify opportunities for reducing environmental impacts, material use and waste generation across the spectrum of goods and services consumed in the US, life cycle assessment was identified as the most appropriate framework. This definition transcends historical material management lenses focused on single impacts (e.g., climate change), single life-stages (e.g., use, waste), political boundaries, or efficiency. In the report “Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead”, the United States (US) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defined sustainable materials management (SMM) as “as fulfilling human needs and prospering while using less materials, reducing toxics and recovering more of the materials used” ( USEPA, 2009a). All USEEIO files are publicly available bringing a new level of transparency for environmentally-extended input-output models. The model and data quality evaluation capabilities are demonstrated with an analysis of the environmental performance of an average hospital in the US. USEEIO is assembled with a new Python module called the IO Model Builder capable of assembling and calculating results of user-defined input-output models and exporting the models into LCA software. In comparison with existing US models, USEEIO is more current with most data representing year 2013, more extensive in its coverage of resources and emissions, more deliberate and detailed in its interpretation and combination of data sources, and includes formal data quality evaluation and description. USEEIO melds data on economic transactions between 389 industry sectors with environmental data for these sectors covering land, water, energy and mineral usage and emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria air pollutants, nutrients and toxics, to build a life cycle model of 385 US goods and services. USEEIO is a new environmentally-extended input-output model of the United States fit for such purposes and other sustainable materials management applications. National-scope environmental life cycle models of goods and services may be used for many purposes, not limited to quantifying impacts of production and consumption of nations, assessing organization-wide impacts, identifying purchasing hotspots, analyzing environmental impacts of policies, and performing streamlined life cycle assessment.
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