ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a systems framework for holistic assessment of “green initiatives,” deemed to be low-carbon and low-polluting alternatives to the status quo. Although this chapter mainly focuses on the assessment and management of the environmental impacts from transport and energy initiatives, this framework is equally adoptable to other sectors. It extends the concept of local environmental management to a new paradigm by extending the system boundary beyond the main activity to understand the holistic interactions, with due consideration to the material and energy flows on the preceding supply side as well as on the succeeding waste management side. Generic concepts on setting up an analysis, handling uncertainty within the data, and critically assessing the outputs of an analysis in the context of environmental sustainability are presented in a simple manner. Two case studies are presented, one each for a green process and a green project, to demonstrate the application of this concept to assess their overall sustainability.
