Impact Assessment in Environmental Decision Making, 1997 Environmental Conference Proceedings

The author takes the reader along the pathway of the wood products system, either paper or other wood products, reflecting on the different assessment mechanisms available or in development, to help in decision making. Decision making either for a manager or a policy maker is always done in the face of uncertainty. In a corporation, it involves balancing of shareholders’ demand for superior financial returns with society’s desire for a clean and sustainable environment. The issues of sustainability and eco-efficiency require new analytical tools for their better interpretation. To achieve these objectives, impact assessment methods, in general, should be examined in the context of a model for the product system and for their applicability at each link of the product system chain.

Using a life cycle model for the product system. the author explains each of the three (3) elements of the model, indicating the suitable and available assessment methods for each of them as well as the common endpoints associated with assessments for each element. None of the available assessment methods is applicable across the elements of the model for its entirety. The different endpoints and biological organizational levels make a “one-size-fits- all” assessment approach a scientific impossibility.

The more recently developed ecological risk assessment is also discussed since it provides a novel approach to the assessment of the ecosystem which is different from that of human and other biological organisms. Another assessment discussed is the Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, methodology. A holistic methodology to assess the resources and environmental aspects of the whole product system is naturally of irresistible appeal. Nevertheless, the questionable nature of its impact assessment phase, LCIA, has created conflict in efforts to apply it to policy-making and as an arbitrer of environmentally preferable product systems or configurations.

In concluding, the author while reaffirming the soundness of a product system life cycle approach, is of the opinion that efforts to develop a “one-size-fits-all” assessment methodology are bound to fail. The role of a more and better developed LCA methodology in the future would be as a screening tool, via indicators and/or a ranking system for its impact assessment phase. An example of a scoring outline is provided.