Pollutants in the Urban Environment: new sustainability assessment software

Citation

(2010), "Pollutants in the Urban Environment: new sustainability assessment software", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 11 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe.2010.24911bab.001

Pollutants in the Urban Environment: new sustainability assessment software

Article Type: News From: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Volume 11, Issue 2

The Pollutants in the Urban Environment consortium has recently completed a four-year research project, which has created an innovative sustainability assessment software that enables more sustainable management of urban pollution. The consortium was led by the University of Manchester and involved six UK academic partners and 17 other partners from industry and government organisations in the UK and Europe. The all-in-one sustainability assessment software estimates environmental and health impacts as well as the socio-economic costs of different products, technologies and activities in order to help identify more sustainable options. The unique software comprises a combination of pre-existing sustainability modelling tools to enable a fully integrated sustainability assessment. The five-pronged approach adopted comprises a suite of models and tools including life cycle assessment, substance flow analysis, pollutant fate and transport modelling, ecological and health impact assessment and multi-criteria decision analysis. The added value of the software is in its integrated multi-criteria assessment of sustainability, involving all three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. The framework is designed for a range of different groups of users, including industry, government, local authorities, NGOs and researchers. For more information visit the web site: www.pureframework.org/?page=events