Environmental Impact and Sustainability

Life cycle assessment and environmental impact analysis examine the full resource and emissions burden of products, industries, and economies—from raw material extraction through disposal—using tools like carbon and water footprint accounting, embodied energy tracking, and input-output models that trace flows across interconnected supply chains. By quantifying how industrial structure, global trade, and socioeconomic factors drive greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption, researchers can identify where interventions will have the greatest effect rather than simply shifting burdens elsewhere. A central open question is how to attribute responsibility for emissions equitably when production and consumption are geographically separated, particularly as countries set carbon neutrality targets while remaining deeply embedded in global trade networks. Active work is also refining decomposition methods to distinguish how much emissions change is driven by technology, efficiency, economic growth, or shifts in industrial composition—distinctions that matter enormously for policy design.

Works

74,182

Total citations

1,283,733

Keywords

Life Cycle AssessmentEnvironmental ImpactCarbon FootprintWater FootprintEmbodied EnergyInput-Output Analysis