Decision support for sustainable development using a Canadian economic input-output life cycle assessment model

The environmental and human health impacts of engineering activities have reshaped the way engineers make decisions. Increasingly, engineering decision-making is taking into consideration the full life cycle implications of engineering activities. This paper details the development and application of a national economic input-output-based life cycle assessment model, a tool for guiding engineering decision-making, for the Canadian economy. The model consists of 61 industries and 103 commodities and incorporates economic and environmental-resource data, including marginal resource consumption, energy use, releases of National Pollutant Release Inventory compounds, and emissions of greenhouse gases. The model is useful for evaluating various development strategies and analyzing the potential direct and indirect impacts of alternative public policies on the Canadian economy and environment. The model is applied to various sectors of the Canadian economy, and the life-cycle implications of demands for different commodities are determined, including demand for electricity and construction materials for highway design.