- "Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action."
Understanding how the products and designs we create impact the natural world and identifying ways to reduce or eliminate negative effects on the environment.
Environmental Sustainability: The concept of environmental sustainability involves protecting natural resources and ecosystems, ensuring that we meet the needs of present and future generations without degrading the environment.
Carbon Footprint: Carbon footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere by human activities such as production, transportation, and consumption.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A LCA is a method of evaluating the environmental impact of a product or process from cradle-to-grave, including the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, use, and disposal.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: Greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere by various human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, industrial processes, agriculture, and land-use changes. These emissions are the drivers of climate change.
Renewable Energy: Renewable energy refers to any form of energy derived from natural resources that can be replenished over time, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower.
Sustainable Materials: Sustainable materials are those that are environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and economically viable in all stages of the product life cycle.
Circular Economy: The circular economy is a regenerative economic system that aims to keep resources in use for as long as possible and reduce waste by designing out waste and pollution.
Green Building: Green building involves designing and constructing buildings that minimize environmental impact, increase energy efficiency, and improve occupant health and comfort.
Water Conservation: Water conservation involves reducing the usage of water in various activities while ensuring that the water is used in a sustainable manner.
Pollution Prevention: Pollution prevention is the practice of reducing or eliminating waste and pollutants at the source, rather than treating them after they have been created.
Energy use: The amount of energy used by a product, building or process can have a significant impact on the environment. High energy consumption can contribute to depletion of non-renewable energy sources and increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Water use: The amount of water used by a product, building or process can have an impact on local water resources. High water consumption can lead to depletion of water sources and affect ecosystems dependent on those sources.
Waste generation: The production of waste during the manufacture, use or disposal of a product can have an impact on the environment. This includes both hazardous and non-hazardous waste and can include packaging, scrap materials and end-of-life disposal.
Pollution: The release of pollutants into the environment can have a range of impacts, including air pollution, water pollution and soil contamination. Pollutants can have harmful effects on human health and ecosystems.
Resource depletion: The use of non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels and minerals, can lead to depletion of these resources and long-term sustainability challenges.
Land use: The use of land for agriculture, forestry, mining and urban development can impact ecosystems, natural habitats and biodiversity. Land use can also have indirect impacts on climate change and other environmental challenges.
Carbon footprint: The amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the manufacture, use and disposal of a product or process can impact climate change and contribute to long-term sustainability challenges.
Ecological footprint: The impact of human activity on natural ecosystems can be measured by the ecological footprint, which includes land, water and resource use as well as pollution and waste generation. The ecological footprint can be used to assess the sustainability of products, processes and systems.
Social impact: The design of products, processes and systems can have a range of social impacts, including impacts on human health, safety, well-being and equity. Social impact can be assessed through a variety of methods, including life cycle assessment and stakeholder analysis.
- "The term 'environmental impact assessment' is usually used when applied to actual projects by individuals or companies."
- "The term 'strategic environmental assessment' (SEA) applies to policies, plans and programs most often proposed by organs of state."
- "It is a tool of environmental management forming a part of project approval and decision-making."
- "Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative procedure regarding public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be subject to judicial review."
- "The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision-makers consider the environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project."
- "The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as 'the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made'."
- "EIAs are unique in that they do not require adherence to a predetermined environmental outcome."
- "Decision-makers need to account for environmental values in their decisions and to justify those decisions in light of detailed environmental studies and public comments on the potential environmental impacts."
- "The assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects."
- "Policies, plans and programs most often proposed by organs of state."
- "It is a tool of environmental management forming a part of project approval and decision-making."
- "Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative procedure regarding public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be subject to judicial review."
- "The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision-makers consider the environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project."
- "The process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals."
- "EIAs are unique in that they do not require adherence to a predetermined environmental outcome."
- "Decision-makers need to justify those decisions in light of detailed environmental studies and public comments on the potential environmental impacts."
- "The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment."
- "The process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made."
- "Decision-makers are required to account for environmental values in their decisions."