Measuring sustainability: Life cycle approach to regional sustainability assessment on electricity options

Abstract

Sustainable development must equally representing economic, environmental and social values. However, as contradictory to its original intention, majority of existing literature on sustainability assessment only focus on either one or two of the these values. This research proposes a novel framework that considers electricity as product and examines sustainability performance of its various production options with focus on regional characteristics, by combing sustainability theory and life cycle approach. This model is generic and can be applied on a range of electricity options; although it is developed based on the case of UK, but it is also applicable for cases in other countries. To author's knowledge, this is the first sustainability assessment model of its kind.