3.2.3 Water Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.4 Land Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.5 Material Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3 Lessons for the Classification and Integration
of Environmental Footprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.1 General Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.2 Lessons for the Classification of Footprints:
A Two-Category Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3.3 Lessons for the Integration of Footprints:
A Three-Step Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4 Life Cycle Assessment: Nice to Have or Essential
for Environmental Footprints? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2 On the Strengths of LCA for Environmental Footprints . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.1 The Role of Impact Characterization in the Carbon
Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.2 Moving from the Material Footprint to a Resource
Depletion Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3 On the Limitations of LCA for Environmental Footprints:
A Case Study of OEF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5 Understanding the Complementarities of Environmental
Footprints and Planetary Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.2 Why Knowledge of Planetary Boundaries is Important
for Making Environmental Footprints Policy-Relevant? . . . . . . . . . 71
5.3 Why Environmental Footprints Are Important for Making
the PBF Scientifically Robust? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.4 Complementary Use of Environmental Footprints and Planetary
Boundaries for Environmental Sustainability Assessment . . . . . . . 76
5.4.1 The Root of the Environmental Sustainability Concept . . . 76
5.4.2 A Footprint–Boundary ESA (F–B ESA) Framework . . . . . 77
5.4.3 Benefits of the F–B ESA Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.5 Research Agenda for Strengthening the Footprint–boundary
Environmental Sustainability Framework in Future Work . . . . . . . 80
5.5.1 Development of Measurable Aggregated Boundaries
at Multiple Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
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Contents