A framework for firm-level ecosystem service valuation and representation
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The private sector -- irrespective of industry -- has begun to increasingly embrace the (environmental) sustainability "megatrend". Corporate leaders agree that sustainable development should be explored at the strategic level; however firms continue to struggle with rationally operationalizing sustainability. Part of the challenge of determining the shape and extent to which concepts of sustainability are incorporated into operational decisions is the form and interpretation of environmental information. This includes two key components: i) information which links operational decisions to environmental impact, including how impact may affect the firm; and, ii) what value is placed on prospects that incorporate such information. In this dissertation, I develop a firm-level ecosystem service valuation framework, designed to address these environmental information and representation gaps. Adopting a "systems" approach from industrial ecology, I link firm operational decisions to their impact on owned ecosystems by representing changes in natural capital within the strict requirements of international accounting norms. I develop the valuation framework through four distinct aspects. In the first, I identify and explain how the developed framework addresses the needs of firms to include ecosystem services within operational decision. This enables the groundwork for more detailed investigations in the other three aspects. In the second aspect, I use ecological models in two cases to demonstrate the ability of the framework to provide fundamental knowledge of a given ecosystem service and its operational limit state(s). The first case -- total suspended solids removal from stormwater runoff via soil -- demonstrates the level of ecosystem service characterization required to enable a market-based valuation. The second case -- phosphorus removal from wastewater effluent via estuary -- provides a much richer example by explicitly demonstrating the inclusion of limit states as part of a comprehensive understanding of the performance of an ecosystem service under various operational loadings. I next turn to the third aspect, which provides a method for the application of a market-based value, using the welfare economics concept of functional substitutability. I conclude with a presentation of my fourth aspect, where I compare the unit value of phosphorus removal yielded by traditional accounting and that of thermoeconomics, in order to explore a more rational determination of engineered service value used within functional substitutability for ecosystem service valuation.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Comello, Stephen Damian |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Civil & Environmental Engineering Department |
| Primary advisor | Lepech, Michael |
| Thesis advisor | Lepech, Michael |
| Thesis advisor | Schwegler, Benedict R, Jr |
| Thesis advisor | Weyant, John P. (John Peter) |
| Advisor | Schwegler, Benedict R, Jr |
| Advisor | Weyant, John P. (John Peter) |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Stephen Damian Comello. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Stephen Damian Comello
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...