Ilmo Mäenpää

How Can the Eco‐Efficiency of a Region Be Measured and Monitored?

The concept of eco‐efficiency is commonly referred to as a business link to sustainable development. In this article, ecoefficiency is examined at a regional level as an approach to promoting the competitiveness of economic activities in the Finnish Kymenlaakso region and mitigating their harmful impacts on the environment. The aim is to develop appropriate indicators for monitoring changes in the eco‐efficiency of the region. A starting point is to produce indicators for the environmental and economic dimensions of regional development and use them for measuring regional eco‐efficiency. The environmental impact indicators are based on a life‐cycle assessment method, producing different types of environmental impact indicators: pressure indicators (e.g., emissions of CO), impact category indicators (e.g., CO equivalents in the case of climate change), and a total impact indicator (aggregating different impact category indicator results into a single value). Environmental impact indicators based on direct material input, total material input, and total material requirement of the Kymenlaakso region are also assessed. The economic indicators used are the gross domestic product, the value added, and the output of the main economic sectors of Kymenlaakso. In the eco‐efficiency assessment, the economic and environmental impact indicators are monitored in the same graph. In a few cases eco‐efficiency ratios can also be calculated (the economic indicators are divided by the environmental indicators). Output (= value added + intermediate consumption) is used as an economic indicator related to the environmental impact indicators, which also cover the upstream processes of the regions activities. In the article, we also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of using the different environmental impact indicators.

An Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis to Support Sustainable Use of Forest Resources

The use of environmentally extended input-output analysis was demonstrated for quantifying the overall sustainability impacts of forest industries in the Finnish economy in 2005. Direct greenhouse gas emission, land use, employment and import impacts of economic sectors were transformed into impact intensities of products. The intensities were used to construct a final demand based emission inventory demonstrating the relative importance of export, investment and consumption activities in causing environmental and social impacts. The calculations were presented using an aggregated input-ouput table, which makes it possible to repeat the calculations using standard spreadsheet software. Therefore the study can be used as an accessible primer to the use of input-output methods in sustainability assessment.

The eco‐efficiency of regions – case Kymenlaakso

The ECOREG project, which is funded by the Life‐Environment programme, aims to demonstrate the concept and implementation of eco‐efficiency, using the Finnish Kymenlaakso region as a case study. Indicators for regional eco‐efficiency, combining the ecological, economic, social and cultural aspects of development, will be designed and quantified for the year 2000. A long‐term (2005, 2010, …) mechanism will also be prepared for evaluating progress made in regional eco‐efficiency in Kymenlaakso and for prioritizing actions needed for further improvement.

Metal Mining and Environmental Assessments

When mining is included in life cycle assessment (LCA), the solving of multifunctionality can be necessary in the inventory phase, as many mines produce multiple metals. Although the methodology of LCA is standardized, the methodology for solving this multifunctionality by allocation has remained controversial. In this article, we review the problems of allocation in the context of mining and introduce a new allocation method applicable to metal mining. The new normalized mass‐based (NMB) allocation method is a derivative of a mass‐based (MB) allocation method. In the new method, the masses of mined metals are normalized with predefined reference values to enable better description of the physical and economic causalities of the mining system. The NMB allocation method is compared to the MB and value‐based (VB) allocation methods in case studies. The results indicate that the most suitable methods for allocation in metal mining are NMB allocation and VB allocation (when based on average prices). The ability to reflect changes in production and the economic value of metals without the need for additional price data make the NMB allocation method a reasonable option for allocation in environmental studies related to metal mining.