Environmental Priority System

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Environmental Priority System (EPS) is a method for evaluating life cycle assessments , which was first published in 1990 by Bengt Steen (IVL - Swedish Environmental Research Institute) and Sven-Olof Ryding (Swedish Industry Association). It measures the environmental impacts generated by any type of system. Fundamental here is the acceptance of protected goods , the value of which is determined by society. With the so-called willingness to pay approach, these difficult-to-value goods can be recorded in monetary terms with the help of market prices and the costs of sustainable use of energy and resources can be expressed.

Factual information

The EPS model is based on comprehensive emissions balances, but also on far-reaching analyzes of environmental impacts. Similar to the Eco-Indicator -95, when using the model in practice, precalculated values ​​(e.g. raw materials used that are required during manufacture per kilogram of the product to be examined) are included. The EPS model should meet the requirements of holism in order to guarantee the most complete and comprehensive analysis of the environmental impacts. The conception of the model, which is comparable to an accounting system, is derived from this. The aim is a parallel recording of the monetary values ​​of an environmental quality and their change.

Protected goods

Protected goods according to the EPS model are:

  • human health or environmental damage to health
  • biodiversity
  • Production capacity of the ecosystem
  • resources
  • aesthetic values ​​(e.g. culture and recreation)

Action

The application of the EPS model takes place in four steps:

  1. The damage caused by the product is converted into monetary units on the basis of the above-mentioned protected assets
  2. Determination of the environmental impact value by evaluating the standard values ​​with environmental impact points.
  3. Evaluation of the calculated environmental pollution points by multiplying them by a factor that reflects the range of the impact of the damage
  4. Estimation of the share of an activity in the environmental impact value.

The result represents the financially assessable damage to the product.

Valuation method

The basis for the evaluation is the “willingness to pay” approach. H. the willingness of an individual or a state to pay for one or more of the said objects of protection or their preservation. Unit of measurement is an Environmental Load Unit ELU (per kg or a comparable unit), which have a monetary value expressed in the currency ECU . The basic idea is that by using an ECU an environmental change in the amount of an ELU can be prevented or offset. The EPS evaluation method first assigns a value to each environmental change in order to then estimate how large the proportion of emissions, resource extraction, etc., is in the change in the resulting environmental change. Standard values ​​obtained from the collection of empirical data on willingness to pay are assigned to the protected goods.

Scope and critical appreciation

The EPS model is primarily a product rating system. The approach of making goods that cannot be valued in monetary terms comparable offers some companies the necessary starting points to make their products or their manufacture more ecologically sustainable and resource-efficient. Furthermore, it offers expansion potential for the integration of additional aspects (e.g. protected assets, evaluation units and basis) and was used, for example, by the automobile manufacturer Volvo .

Due to the sometimes complex derivation of the environmental impact indices, the difficult to define weighting of the factors, which is shaped by individual preferences, and the large number of data, this model offers room for subjective perceptions. This partially limits the transparency of the EPS model.

literature

  • Chalmers University of Technology, Technical Environmental Planning, Center for Environmental Assessment of Products and Material Systems.
  • S. Bengt: A systematic approach to environmental strategies in product development (EPS). Version 2000 - General system characteristics. (= CPM report 1999. 4). OCLC 249585572
  • S. Bengt: A systematic approach to environmental strategies in product development (EPS). Version 2000 - Models and data of the default methods. (= CPM report 1999. 5). OCLC 249586246

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b N. F. Nissen: Development of an ecological evaluation model for the evaluation of electronic systems. Berlin 2001, p. 53.
  2. ↑ a b c damage cost approach . In: E. Günther: Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon. 2012. (wirtschaftslexikon.gabler.de accessed on May 29, 2012)
  3. ↑ a b c B. Stahl: Method comparison and method development for solving the evaluation problem in product-related life cycle assessments. 1998, p. 34.
  4. ^ A b N. F. Nissen: Development of an ecological evaluation model for the evaluation of electronic systems. Berlin 2001, p. 54.
  5. ↑ B. Stahl: Method comparison and method development to solve the evaluation problem in product-related life cycle assessments. 1998, p. 35.
  6. ↑ Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology: PUIS and its properties: Ecological product evaluation - life cycle-based methods. 2012. (fabrikderzukunft.at accessed on June 1, 2012)