Methodology for the sustainability assessment of marine technologies

Abstract

This contribution presents an integrated quantitative approach for the holistic assessment of the sustainability of technologies. The methodology envisages environmental, economic and social sustainability assessments separately, then collates them to obtain a single measure of sustainability. Standard life cycle assessment and economic evaluation methods are used to provide quantitative measures for environmental and economic parameters. A new method is used to evaluate the social sustainability, enabling the quantitative integration of all three indices. Individual indices are developed and combined to provide a single performance index of sustainability. This particular tool allows technology stakeholders to incorporate sustainability principles to their design and operation activities. It provides also a benchmark platform for comparing various technologies from a sustainability standpoint. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.