EIO-LCA model of the Canadian Economy

EIO-LCA methods were implemented for the U.S. by researchers within the Green Design Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University. At the University of Toronto, Professor MacLean’s research group has implemented a national Canadian EIO-LCA model. The current model has 117 industrial sectors and includes economic and environmental data for the year 1997 (the most recent available benchmark year). The model has been implemented in MATLAB for computational flexibility. The EIO tables were obtained from the Canadian Input-Output accounts (from Statistics Canada), and the environmental outputs for each industry were obtained from the Canadian System of National Environmental Accounts. The environmental metrics included in the current model are GHG (CO2, nitrous oxide and methane) emissions and energy use.  

Work is ongoing to improve the model and add additional functionality.  This includes the incorporation of additional environmental metrics such as water and conventional pollutants as well as the disaggregation of important energy sectors such as oil and gas extraction.

For more information on this part of the project please contact Alex Charpentier.