Ecometrics

Ecometrics

Ecometrics is the quantitative analysis of economic, environmental, and societal phenomena based on the concurrent development of theory and observation, related by appropriate methods of inference. Broadly defined, Ecometrics is a way to evaluate if an activity is contributing to more sustainable systems of production and consumption. The term was originally trademarked by Interface Global, a cooperation founded by Ray Anderson . Ecometrics is a system of statistical extrapolation and interpolation that uses principles of resource management in economic and environmental studies to analyze trends in consumption, and to make predictions. Ecometrics goes to show that with an understanding of the impacts and trends in both conventional and conscious consumption, agents within the system can cause measurable change(for the triple bottom line) through daily routines. The parameters that cause change are often population, technology, transportation, consumption, public conscious, non-renewable or renewable resources, location, labor conditions, transportation and wealth. Ecometrics is used in labeling programs such as the US EPA Fuel Economy and Environment Label. to determine the environmental advantages of purchasing one car over another. There are many applications of Ecometrics for Environmental Impact Calculators and Infographics, and for political analysis. Because the parameters of ecometrics varies in every location the applications of its resulting measurements are sometimes unilateral. Applied ecometrics exposes the complexity of attaining sustainability, especially given other humanitarian goals such as the triple bottom line.

An instance of ecometrics is if a restaurant is using ecometrics to determine whether to use an electric hand dryer over paper towels, they must determine:

1. The cost of both
2. How much energy the electric dryer would consume, and to what degree the energy is renewable.
3. How long the dryer would last.
4. If the towels were produced using renewable energy and resources, and to what extent they are able to be recycled without inferring greater cost to the environment(not using further energy or chemicals).
5. The cost of continuously purchasing paper towels throughout the businesses existence.
6. Maintenance labor to replace the towel dispenser.

If this restaurant is located in an area with great solar potential, it is likely that a hand dryer could encourage for more solar infrastructure by being an additional load. If it was incredibly far from a paper recycling center, and the potentially recycled material is likely to be downcycled, there would be further impetus to use a hand dryer. In addition to these considerations, the decider must choose how much he is willing to pay for the environment. In the case that has been built, if the hand dryer is to cost more, he must decide if he is willing to take responsibility by preventing the paper waste that would have been produced by buying the hand dryer and necessary energy. In this case as in many the purchaser enables development and life for other members of all trophic levels within his economic system through his purchasing power. The decisions of consumer agents cause change for the world, and in analysing the comprehensive impact of individual agents; ecometrics quantitatively defines sustainable development. As there are diverse environmental and economic parameters, there are numerous unique case studies for ecometric application. The cases that are discussed here are triftcycles, argricultural food systems, and labeling programs. They model material cycles, energy cycles, and environmental parameters systems respectively.

Labeling programs

Transparent labeling programs have been employed to establish coherent truths on the social, environmental and/or health impacts of products. Several illustrations are GoodGuide, EPA Fuel Economy and Environment, Fair Trade, and LEED. These organizations have sought clarity not just by evaluating the impacts of products, but also by releasing their evaluation process. Beyond producers the certification process is available to the general public including interested consumers. Labeling programs can expose major factors of sustainable or unsustainble consumption cycles. The three main components of the material consumer cycle are production, consumption, and disposal.

1. Production
   1. Design
   2. Investment/funding
   3. Material/Energy Procurement // Modular resourcing
   4. Creation // Modular Creation
   5. Assembly
   6. Transportation
   7. Stocking
2. Consumption
   1. Purchase
   2. Use
   3. Deterioration // Planed/Designed Obsolescence
   4. Upgrade//Repair//Maintenance
3. Disposal/Recycling
   1. Allocation//division
   2. Transportation
   3. Waste//Recycling//Compost
   4. Allocation of purified resources into production cycles

Some of the parameters that labeling programs seek to expose are:

1. Travel MIles. These include Food miles, and transportation miles that are used consistently in industrial processes. As illustrated the peer-to-peer exchange site, swapexchange, distance is a significant factor in not only the pricing of a product, but also it's non-renewable(and gradual renewable) energy depletion. The concept of Travel Miles shows that globalized trade should be minimized for daily purchases(i.e: daily food), and reduced as much as possible for infrequent purchases(i.e: Electronics). In the past, the limited recycling infrastructure and value of transportation energy resources has limited recycling circuits. Because recycling materials required new infrastructure as well as transportation resources, there was limited cycle development. There were also worries that materials would be downcycled. Non-renewable miles will become inherently unsustainable as non-renewable fuel sources diminishes and becomes increasing controversial as an environmentally destructive resource. The need for fuel efficient transportation methods has been recognized by the EPA and implemented through their SmartWay program.
2. The Unobserved Global Impacts or the Translation of Sustainability. Resources produced in developed countries are often regulated for their environmental impacts. Many industrial countries often do not operate under cohesive regulation, or the regulations that are imposed on producers in consuming countries. This means that producers in external countries may manufacture products under a definition of sustainability that they have defined themselves, and market it to consumer countries with more refined definitions. Under these circumstances energy from non-renewable resources could be used to produce products with minimal hazard regulations, maximizing emissions and hazard production. Fairtrade has sought to improve international standards through their labeling program. .
3. Organic production. By excluding pesticides in agricultural processes, producers minimize their impact upon their surrounding ecosystem. Depending upon their location, producers can prevent water from being contaminated and insects from evolving to become more resilient to pesticides. One can compare the impacts of unorganic meat to organic by considering the environmental impacts of pesticides used feeder foods to the reduced efficiency of food conversion(ECI) due to the fact that no antibiotics or growth hormones are used in the production process. The USDA has a National Organics Program for agricultural production that is widely accepted .
4. Reinvestment into other socially and environmentally benevolent activities. This is where businesses encourage their employees to volunteer, or donate to humanitarian causes. For instance, Toms of Maine encourages employees volunteer their time and donates money to humanitarian causes . Tom’s Shoes donates a pair of shoes for every pair that is sold .
5. Certification of the Material Content. It is necessary to discern materials that are in a product, especially if they are supposedly recycled. An instance of this is the recycling of paper material from post- and pre- consumer material.
6. Ingredients or hazards that are not in the product. Some products have a history of being made with harmful materials or ingredients. Products that are certified as free of these controversial materials are better for consumers and the production ecosystem. Examples of certification are for BPA-Free and EA-Free products products .

Labeling programs highlight sustainable parameters of the consumption cycle in order to promote awareness of practices that benefit the environment, and to encourage conscious consumption. One of the concepts that were established earlier is presented here. By encouraging conscious consumerism, one can not only limit their environmental impact, but also save money. This is the concept where products that are more efficient and durable have less reliance upon complimentary resources, thereby requiring complimentary purchases. For instance, HOVs can travel longer with less, and are thus less reliant upon fuel resources. This concept is the basis for the EPA’s Fuel Economy and Environment Label. A simple calculation that can is used to estimate the efficiency of a car along with it’s continuous cost is:

$TotalCost=Mortgage(real.cost-Rebate/Companyfunding)+(\int _{P}^{L}\!Current.Fuel.price(cost/gal))*avg.weekly.fuel.cons(gal/week)\ +current.fuel.price(cost))+insurance(cost)$

Energy Flows:

With the development of industrial agricultural systems for the food economy has come a utilization of energy flows to provide for more economical production. Although energy flows between trophic levels is an elementary part of life, modern day industrial practices cause impacts upon the environment, prompting greater threats to sustainability. In evaluating the efficiency of agricultural systems to support current consumption and sustain future resources, ecometrics analyzes non-renewable and renewable substances within the environment and economic trends in consumption and production.

Efficiency of Conversion within Energy Flows:

Energy is used up and lost as heat as it moves through ecosystems, and new energy is continually added to the earth in the form of solar radiation. The earth is an open system in regards to energy, it is constantly accepting it in the form of solar radiation. Nutrients and other materials at large however are continuously circulated within and among ecosystems. The primary organism within any food system is capable of utilizing energy to synthesize organic compounds from inorganic precursors, and of storing biochemical energy in the process. The growth of the plant is primary production, this results in the increase of plant biomass to a system. Primary consumers get their energy from primary producers, and thus are able to assimilate the producer’s stored energy. As a generalized trophic level consumers feed on all forms of organisms, and more specifically there are types of consumers by instinct or choice(herbivores, vegetarians, omnivores). Beyond the initial consumer there may be other consumers who derive their energy from consumers preceding them. Primary production provides for all trophic members as it provides energy to primary consumers that in turn provide energy to secondary consumers and so forth. In this way energy is transferred from one form and source to another. The efficiency for consumers to grow is limited by the use of their feed for a metabolic processes and their efficiency of conversion for digested food. The energy that is used for growth is assimilated into new tissue or reproduction and is the net production stored as a result for this process. On average metabolic processes utilize 90% of the gross energy intake, whereas assimilation utilizes 10%. The amount that is assimilated out of all the total energy intake is also the Efficiency of Conversion. The collective energy assimilated in one trophic level is the energy available to the succeeding level. There is consecutively less energy available to succeeding trophic levels. Consider a situation where 1000kcalories are available to beef through grain feed and that their net production after consuming feed is 100kcalories, only 100kcalories would be available to the trophic level above, and beyond that 10kcalories for the next.

Industrial Agriculture Energy Flows:

Agricultural production and consumption within the economy is the modern human ecosystem. This system is has been made feasible as industrial practices and transportation systems have improved, allowing for cost-effective production and distribution across scaled markets. The change of these scales is the expansion of the distance between consumer and producer and the increase in consumer population. Industrial production and distribution of agricultural resources utilizes non-renewable resources and harmful chemicals. As the scales of production and distribution have grown, there has been a corresponding increase in the use of non-renewable and chemical resources.

Case Study:

Consider our earlier situation where there is successively 90% less energy available to consecutively larger trophic levels. Say a collective of supermarkets must provide 10Mcalories(10,000,000calories) to provide sustenance to a city, and are only providing meat and plant(processed and other preservatives are another case) products. If the collective were to only sell meat and create a demand for beef, they would cause an economic transaction that enables the production of meat wherein 100Mcalories of feed must be grown to produce 10Mcalories of meat.

$EfficiencyofConversionforingestedfood(ECI)FoodCalories=NetProduction(Calories)$.

$100MCalories(feed)*10\%(ECI)(meet/feed)=10Mcalories(meat)$.

Whereas 10% of the calories from feed could fully provide for the city, 100% of it is used to produce meat. This magnification scales ramifications within unsustainable components of the production process. This is the scaled use of pesticides and non-renewable transportation fuels. Considering that 100Mcalories is grown to eventually produce meat:

$10MCalories=correspondsto=1pesticide/transportational.impact.vegetarian.city$.

$100MCalories=10pesticide/transporational.impact.vegetarian.city$.

The non-renewable resource and pollution impact of a city that consumes all meat is at least 10 times greater than that of a vegetarian city. This assumes that the city eats entirely unorganic meat, and that all meat is actually eaten instead of wasted. It must be recognized that food miles are unavoidable in this scenario unless the food is sourced from local producers. In real life there would be some uncertainty on the residual stock that is wasted.

We can use the following to amount the carbon impacts of travel miles:

$TravelMiles=truck.loads(scalar)distance(mile)Emissions.per.mile(CO2/mile)$

When this concept is applied towards the argricultural production process for the city we identified earlier, the vegetarian and carnivorous scenario we see the following given these parameters:

$1truckload=200kcalories(200,000calories);thereareseparatetrucksformeatandfeed;thatthemeatfacilityis600milesfromthecityandthefarmis300milesfromthecity;eachtrucktypemustgobackandforth(milesarealreadyX2);$

1. The vegetarian Scenario
   1. $10Mcalories(city.veg.intake)/200kcalories(calories/truckload)=50truckloads50truckloads300miles0.654lbs(CO2/Mile)=9,810lbsCO2emitted$
2. The Carnivore Scenario
   1. $100Mcalories(meat.fac.intake)/200kcalories(calories/truckload)=500truckloads500truckloads*.10(ECI)=50meatruckloads$
   2. $((500truckloads300miles)+(50truckloads600miles))0.654lbs(CO2/miles)=180,000lbsCO2emitted$

General Formulas:

$GeneralFormula.truckloads:Nec.intake(Calories)/Max.trans.capacity(Calories/Truckload)=Truckloads.Nec.Intake$

$GeneralFormula.truckload.Emissions:Truckloads.Nec.Intake(scalar)*distance(miles)*emissions(emissions/miles)=Emissions$

This comparison assumes that truckloads of meat and nutritional feed contain the same amount of calories, and does not take into account the energy cost of refrigeration systems, packaging, or other industrial processes that are involved(fertilization). This does not consider the other energy or emissions that are produced and used in the production of fuel. This does not account for the animal gases that could be produced based on the meat, nor the actual efficiency of the animal's specific ECI. The majority of these factors that are unaccounted for in the estimation increase the amount of energy resources that are needed.

Humans within the agricultural ecosystem humans are the nth degree consumers and are have the ability to make dietary decisions. As omnivores humans have the option to be primary or any successive degree consumers. By consuming plants instead of meat, humans can prevent pollution and other environmental impacts. This cause has prompted diets such as environmental vegetarianism.

Material cycles

Thriftcycles and Communal Renting organizations There are links between energy system and resource development systems. Finished consumer products in the market are made from materials that are created in specific regions that permit a cost-effective creation of those materials. Conventional consumption flows in a chain where products are constructed from scratch and are disposed of at the end of an open chain. Resources within conscious cycles participate in the stages of a closed loop by serving a purpose multiple times. Resource exchange organizations such as Zolink, SwapTree, Thredup, BookMooch, Groundswell, and Reuseit are oriented towards exchange markets without the presence of an profiting body. Whereas some of these movements are more social organizations, organizations with private interests have been established such as Zipcar, Dim Dom Toys, and Buffalo Exchange. It is not necessary that the impact of these organizations will cause for less consumption to occur, merely for more access to be granted to communities. This is the idea of collaborative consumption. Beyond the usual demands that are present to individual consumers in the consumer market, collaborative consumer agencies create a demand for products that are:

• Durable and reusable, as so to last an extensive time. Products that have designed obsolescence are disregarded.
• Widely accepted by the majority as a viable tool or apparel.
• Versatile for many purposes without needing complimentary resources. for instance if a Ladder is too voluminous, then the user must rent another form of transportation to move it. A compactible ladder would be more adaptable in this renting scenario.
• Low of liabilities. If a toy company has a track record of producing products with poisons, defects, or chocking hazards then consumer collectives are taking a risk with purchasing their materials.

These demands create the need for more safe, sustainable, and consumer oriented products.

Collaborative consumption is expected to change the market by

• Lowering individual consumption.
• Increasing access to products to financially unable people.
• Through the way which producers price materials.
• Our interaction with products.

Ecometrics can evaluate this through imagining several representative values. It is recognized that if people were to borrow tools from tool libraries multiple measurement of reuse could be measured: The usage of a product over it's total owned or purchased lifetime.

$Usage(time)/Lifetime(time)$

The amount of value gained from it's purchase over the amount of money spent on it.

$Value=benefit.value/money$

The amount of space devoted to products. The decrease in space used to serve a value, when library systems are employed.

$Decrease.space(units.space)=unit.space(unit.space)*(num.users.individual.cons(scalar)-num.max.rent.units.stocked(scalar))$

The ratio of space that would be used by consumer if they were to purchase the tool themselves over the space that is utilized within a community to provide the same value that the product supplies.

$Ratioofindv.space/rentspace=unit.space(num.users.individual.consumed/num.max.rent.units.stocked)$

$num.max.rent.units.stocked=max.users.per.day*max.rent.period*num.stocked/rent.period$

The amount of wasted products within a given community. The decrease in waste when library systems are employed and accepted.

$Decrease.waste=unit.waste*(num.users.individual.cons-num.max.rent.units.stocked)$

The ratio of waste that would be produced by consumer if they were to purchase the tool themselves over what would would be produced in collaborative consumption were employed.

$Ratioofcoll.indv.waste/coll.rent.waste=unit.waste(numusers.individual.consump/num.max.rent.units.stocked)$

$num.max.rent.units.stocked=max.users.per.day*max.rent.period*num.stocked/rent.period$

The externalized impact of not consuming an additional product. Considering that the product is made far away from the consumer, the impact of production is unobserved.

$impact.of.production=emissions.energy.prod+pollution.energy.prod+emissions.material.prod+pollution.material.prod$

See Also

Freight Truck Efficacy http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/Comparative_Evaluation_Rail_Truck_Fuel_Efficiency.pdf Livestock growth accounts for 18% of GHG emissions http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1810336,00.html The efficiency of grasshopers http://people.howstuffworks.com/entomophagy3.htm Insect Nuitrition http://www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectnutrition.html, http://chamownersweb.net/insects/nutritional_values.html Water intake beef http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/PDF/FSA-3021.pdf sustainable food systems http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS01-06.pdf