Evaluating the Economic, Social, and Environmental Impacts of Remedy Options Using Sustainable Return on Investment

摘要

Overview. The sustainable return on investment (sROI) methodology is a quantitative approach that captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring the economic, environmental, and social impacts of a project in monetary terms―today and into the future. Many impacts, such as water quality, air quality and nutrient pollution, are not commonly valued in the marketplace. By providing a broader accounting of the benefits and costs, sROI includes externalities and provides a framework for optimal decision-making. sROI is a nonproprietary methodology based on economic principles and includes an uncertainty analysis to demonstrate the likelihood of realizing costs and benefits. This approach involves the development of remediation strategies that are defensible and transparent and provides a more comprehensive picture of remediation projects. Advancing sustainable remediation is a key initiative for DuPont and sROI provides the framework and metrics for the evaluation of remediation projects. A demonstration study of a DuPont remediation project in Brevard, North Carolina, illustrates the process and outcome of an sROI analysis.