Sustainability Evaluation Tool Development and Assessment through Case Studies

摘要

A sustainability evaluation tool encompassing quantitative and qualitative analyses has been developed to assess sustainability indicator significance during the remediation lifecycle. The tool includes ten environmental, social and economic indicators and comprises two parts. The user first evaluates sustainability impacts relating to one or more remediation scenarios, while considering stakeholder value. In the second part, the user can assess how to reduce sustainability impacts associated with each of the remediation scenarios. The tool has been applied to various case studies, chosen to provide examples of the tool’s applicability for sites where remediation of contaminated soil, groundwater and/or sediments, is proposed. For each case study, various stakeholders were identified, and their selected sustainability indicators were analyzed. The take-home messages from the sustainability evaluation tool and the associated case studies will be highly beneficial to remediation teams including associated stakeholders. Such groups will be able to focus limited resources to efficiently apply sustainability principles prior to, during, and after site remediation, ensuring that their efforts are the most effective and least wasteful, while potentially providing additional benefits to the site and stakeholders.