ABSTRACT
Trade-offs across environmental concerns should generally be expected when equivalent products are made from distinct materials, especially when the two materials are fundamentally different. ‘Different’ can be a powerful pollution prevention strategy, but it carries a significant risk of environmental trade-offs, which could lead to regrettable substitutions. Trade-offs between a set of environmental concerns can also turn into an overall draw when switching to a different set of impact categories. There are several types of environmental trade-offs that we need to look out for when assessing a material, product, or technology substitution. Trade-offs across environmental issues are so common in material, product, or technology substitutions that comparative environmental evaluation methods, such as life cycle assessment, are explicitly designed to catch and quantify them. Some environmental trade-offs may be acceptable, but, ideally, we should look for ways to reduce environmental impact across the board.
