Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost benefit analysis is widely used in policy and project appraisal in the private
and public sectors, for example the UK
Green Book
(HM Treasury. Cost benefit
analysis has been widely applied to contaminated site management decision mak-
ing (Bardos
2008a
,
b
). It is seen as having the potential to consider whatever range
of indicators is seen as important for sustainability appraisal. However, it does have
some serious weaknesses (Therivel
2004
), which include the following: there is no
standard “checklist” of indicators, so CBA is highly specific to the circumstances
and method used for each particular assessment; the valuation procedures for public
costs are both highly technical and also subject to serious inherent weaknesses as
set out in Table
20.3
. Consequently they may not be inclusive of/acceptable to all
stakeholders. This problem is exacerbated where contentious “standard values” e.g.
for a human life are used in a Cost benefit analysis , or values for transportation or
other activities are imported into a remediation Cost benefit analysis from another
analysis that may be totally unrelated even to the environmental sector let alone
contaminated site management. The link between evidence and assumption may in
these circumstances be rather tenuous. Some procedures include a sensitivity analy-
sis step which allows decision-makers to question their judgements and assumptions
through the eyes of other stakeholders.
20.3.4.6 Cost Effectiveness Analysis
Cost-effectiveness analysis
is a simplified derivative of cost-benefit analysis used in
the UK. The aim of cost-effectiveness analysis is to determine “
...
the least cost
option of attaining a predefined target
” without a monetary measurement of ben-
efits (Environment Agency
1999
). Costs are calculated conventionally and benefits
are scored individually. An aggregate score for benefits is then divided by cost to
provide a measure of “cost effectiveness”. The derivation of scores is an application
of multi-criteria analysis (see Box
20.1
). An example applied to site remediation is
given in Harbottle et al. (
2008a
,
b
).
...
20.3.4.7 Eco-Efficiency
Eco-efficiency (EURODEMO
2007b
) is reached by the delivery of competitively
priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while
progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life
cycle to a level at least in line with the earth's estimated carrying capacity. Seven
critical factors for eco-efficiency have been identified:
•
reduce material intensity of goods and services;
•
reduce energy intensity of goods and services;
•
reduce toxic dispersion;
•
enhance recyclability;
•
maximise sustainable use of renewable resources;
•
extend product durability;
•
increase service intensity of goods and services.
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