Critical eco-social assessment

Explain the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, and economic) and give an example of a technology that clearly fails in each one, even if it succeeds in the other two.

The figure shows the diagram of the triple bottom line assessment of a technology, with the central area covered. Explain what each circle represents, what the region where all three overlap means, and why a purely 'green' technology that creates precarious working conditions would not be in that region.

In addition to emissions, a technology is evaluated using social indicators. State four (jobs created and their quality, occupational health and safety, service accessibility, effect on the local community) and explain how each one would be measured in the case of a new recycling plant.

Define what an appropriate technology (or context-appropriate technology) is and explain why a simple solar refrigerator can be more appropriate than a state-of-the-art one in a rural community without a stable electricity grid.

Explain what ecodesign is and cite three specific strategies it applies (reducing materials, facilitating disassembly and repair, choosing recyclable materials, extending lifespan). Give an example of a product that successfully applies at least two of them.

A treadle water pump can bring a well into service where there is no mains electricity, whereas a diesel pump there becomes a problem. Using this example, explain what makes a technology 'appropriate' (locally maintainable, repairable with available parts, affordable, suited to the cultural and energy context).

Explain what "greenwashing" or green image washing is, identify three common techniques (vague language, data from a single life cycle phase, self-awarded labels) and write three questions that a critical consumer should ask when faced with a product advertised as "eco-friendly".

A city presents its "smart city" project (sensors everywhere, centralised traffic and service management) as inherently sustainable. Analyse critically: the energy and material cost of the digital infrastructure, sensor obsolescence, surveillance risks, supplier lock-in, and under what specific conditions the project would indeed be an ecosocial improvement.

France mandates the display of a repairability index on mobile phones and household appliances. Explain which criteria it scores (availability and price of spare parts, ease of disassembly, documentation), how it changes consumer purchasing decisions and manufacturer design choices, and what limitation such an index has if spare parts remain extremely expensive.

An agricultural cooperative is deciding between sprinkler irrigation, drip irrigation, and smart irrigation with moisture sensors. Construct an evaluation matrix with four criteria (water consumption, installation and maintenance cost, energy, required training), assign justified weightings, and score each option from $1$ to $5$. Does the winner change if the price of water increases?

Design an ecosocial evaluation matrix to compare three heating technologies in a secondary school (gas boiler, heat pump, local forest biomass): choose five criteria with justified weightings (emissions, annual cost, local employment, external dependency, technology maturity), score each option from $1$ to $5$ with reasoning, and discuss how the result changes if the weight of emissions is doubled.

Design an ecosocial evaluation matrix to decide whether a secondary school should accept a drone supply delivery service: criteria (energy per parcel compared to a delivery van, noise, airspace safety, delivery driver employment, real usefulness for the school), justified weighting, and a score from $1$ to $5$ in each cell with reasoning. What additional information would you request from the company before scoring?

A municipality replaces its 250 W sodium-vapor luminaires with 70 W LED lamps aiming to cut energy consumption by 72,0 %. However, as the operating cost per light point dropped, the city council installed 40,0 % more streetlights and extended the nightly ornamental lighting by 2,5 hours per day, going from 3.000 to 3.900 annual hours.

1. a) Calculate the real percentage change in the total annual electricity consumption of municipal lighting and interpret the result by applying the concept of Jevons' paradox (direct rebound effect).
2. b) Justify why isolated improvements in the technological efficiency of components do not by themselves guarantee a reduction in the aggregate biophysical impact if they are not accompanied by sufficiency limits.
3. c) Design two technical and energy governance requirements that the municipal tender specifications should have established to ensure net real savings in the electricity supply.

An ecological transition report for an industrialized country projects sustaining an annual economic growth of 2,5 % until 2040 based on “green growth” (massive electrification and digitalization). Nevertheless, the report's technical data reveal that, while energy intensity per unit of GDP decreases by 1,8 % annually, the total consumption of critical materials (copper, lithium, rare earths) increases by 4,2 % annually.

1. a) Interpret these data to justify the technical difference between relative decoupling and absolute decoupling, determining whether the plan achieves a real dematerialization of the economy.
2. b) Re-evaluate the scenario from the perspective of physical limits and the laws of thermodynamics: why do factors such as the energy return on investment (EROI) and the limits on recycling rates prevent indefinite absolute decoupling?
3. c) Design a proposal for the technological restructuring of transport and industry for said country that adopts principles of sufficiency and reduction of material throughput (“planned degrowth”), defining two quantitative physical indicators to monitor the process.

A public transport company tenders the purchase of 40 urban electric buses and must choose between two battery technologies to store 450 kWh per vehicle:

• Option A: NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) cells, with an energy density of 240 Wh/kg and a lifespan of 1.800 full charge cycles.

• Option B: LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells, with an energy density of 150 Wh/kg and a lifespan of 4.200 cycles.

1. a) Calculate the battery mass that each bus must carry in both options and predict the impact that the extra weight of the LFP option will have on energy consumption per kilometer and on tire and road wear.
2. b) Critically evaluate the upstream socio-environmental impacts of raw material extraction for both chemistries, justifying which one presents lower ethical risks and water stress according to its mineralogical composition.
3. c) Knowing that the vehicles complete 300 cycles per year and have an expected lifespan of 14 years, calculate how many battery replacements each fleet will require and provide a technical verdict on the optimal choice considering recyclability and the material footprint throughout the entire life cycle.