AWWA IMT61461

This paper discusses how sustainability frameworks work towards developing and sustaining a system where the use of resources is restorative and non-harmful, allowing both humans and the ecosystem to thrive. They strive to accomplish this goal by creating little or no damage to natural ecosystems, sustaining natural resources and increasing their productivity, understanding the environmental impacts of different choices, creating little or no waste, and rethinking current design practices. A few of these ideas can specifically be integrated into critical life cycle cost analyses (LCCAs) that are applicable to the water and wastewater industry. Based on these frameworks, two potential methods are discussed for incorporating sustainability principles in a critical LCCA. The first method is to change the way a critical LCCA is developed, by looking not just at one asset but at a whole system design as outlined by Natural Capitalism. For example, rather than analyzing and optimizing just one pump, the analysis would include the entire pumping system: pumps, motors, piping, valves, etc. The second technique is to quantify environmental cost, through specific use of the Ecological Footprint, and integrate it into the critical LCCA. Includes 16 references, figures.