Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University , Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2015 Feb 3;49(3):1752-60. doi: 10.1021/es5041442. Epub 2015 Jan 20.
Even though the importance of ecosystems in sustaining all human activities is well-known, methods for sustainable engineering fail to fully account for this role of nature. Most methods account for the demand for ecosystem services, but almost none account for the supply. Incomplete accounting of the very foundation of human well-being can result in perverse outcomes from decisions meant to enhance sustainability and lost opportunities for benefiting from the ability of nature to satisfy human needs in an economically and environmentally superior manner. This paper develops a framework for understanding and designing synergies between technological and ecological systems to encourage greater harmony between human activities and nature. This framework considers technological systems ranging from individual processes to supply chains and life cycles, along with corresponding ecological systems at multiple spatial scales ranging from local to global. The demand for specific ecosystem services is determined from information about emissions and resource use, while the supply is obtained from information about the capacity of relevant ecosystems. Metrics calculate the sustainability of individual ecosystem services at multiple spatial scales and help define necessary but not sufficient conditions for local and global sustainability. Efforts to reduce ecological overshoot encourage enhancement of life cycle efficiency, development of industrial symbiosis, innovative designs and policies, and ecological restoration, thus combining the best features of many existing methods. Opportunities for theoretical and applied research to make this framework practical are also discussed.
尽管生态系统在维持所有人类活动方面的重要性是众所周知的，但可持续工程的方法未能充分考虑到自然的这一作用。大多数方法都考虑到了对生态系统服务的需求，但几乎没有方法考虑到供应。对人类福祉的基础没有充分的核算，可能会导致旨在提高可持续性的决策产生不当结果，并错失利用自然满足人类需求的机会，而这种满足方式在经济和环境方面都具有优势。本文开发了一个理解和设计技术与生态系统协同作用的框架，以鼓励人类活动与自然之间更大的和谐。该框架考虑了从单个过程到供应链和生命周期的技术系统，以及从局部到全球的多个空间尺度的相应生态系统。特定生态系统服务的需求是根据排放和资源利用信息确定的，而供应则是根据相关生态系统的容量信息确定的。指标计算了多个空间尺度上的单个生态系统服务的可持续性，并有助于定义局部和全球可持续性的必要但非充分条件。减少生态超支的努力鼓励提高生命周期效率、发展工业共生、创新设计和政策以及生态恢复，从而结合了许多现有方法的最佳特点。还讨论了使该框架实用化的理论和应用研究的机会。
