Sustainable Systems FORUM #2: U.S. Consumption & Asian Pollution? Revealing the Connection through LCA and Environmental Modeling
U.S. Consumption & Asian Pollution?
Revealing the Connection through LCA and Environmental Modeling
- Why does half of the water use impacts of corn production in US takes place in the only state of Nebraska?
- What fraction of the particulate impacts in China are due to consumption of products consumed in US?
- How much of a cosmetic get taken up by its user? How relevant is our direct exposure as consumers during product use?
While addressing these practical questions, this presentation will illustrate cutting-edge developments in Life Cycle Impact Assessment and environmental modeling applying the KICS (Keep It Cleverly Simple) approach and including:
- USEtox, the UNEP (United Nation Environmental Programme)-SETAC Toxicity model for chemical screening, with the assessment of direct exposure to consumer products and to pesticides residues in crops,
- IMPACT World+, the first Life Cycle Impact Assessment method to provide factors for all continents.
- PANGEA, a flexible multi-scale modeling framework to study the local and global spatial impacts of pollutants.