Working definitions for the terms that recur across this project: the circular economy, water resource recovery and reuse, and the life cycle methods -- LCA, LCC and S-LCA -- that AWARE combines into one sustainability assessment. They are written for a general reader rather than for specialists.
Showing entries beginning with M.
A wastewater treatment technology that combines biological treatment with membrane filtration, producing high-quality effluent suitable for demanding reuse. It is compact but energy-intensive. Two AWARE study cases use it: the…
Two levels at which impacts can be reported. Midpoint indicators sit early in the cause-effect chain -- kg CO₂ equivalent, kg phosphorus equivalent -- and are relatively certain. Endpoint indicators…
Expressing environmental or social impacts in money so they can be weighed directly against financial costs. Common routes are willingness to pay (what people would give up to obtain an…
A family of methods for choosing between options when several criteria that cannot be reduced to one unit matter at once -- environmental, economic and social results, for instance. It…
Many processes produce more than one useful output: a wastewater plant delivers clean effluent and may also yield biogas, sludge for agriculture or recovered nutrients. Allocation is the rule for…
Definitions are written for this site in plain language. The selection of terms was checked against the Life Cycle Initiative terminology (UNEP), the ILCA Common Glossary and the SimaPro LCA glossary, and against ISO 14040/14044, ISO 14046, ISO 14075 and the UNEP Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment (2020).
