Environmental Results

Michael Nealy

February 24, 2025 17:12

INTRODUCTION

IMPLAN’s Environmental Data provides powerful insights outside of economic impact modeling. When using the IMPLAN’s U.S.-based data, Environmental Categories and Environmental Damages are available within the tool from the Region Details and in the Results of a Project. For example, the environmental data can help a Region understand how its emissions have fallen over time as its Industry mix has changed over time. Or they can help a company illustrate how its emissions are lower than the Industry-average due to the company’s ESG stewardship practices.

OVERVIEW

Environmental data reflective of the Region and Data Year is available by Environmental Category (our general environmental groupings, listed below) in Region Details. This data is derived from the composition of Industries in the Region and EPA data on emissions by Industry. IMPLAN’s Environmental data consist of ratios representing physical emissions or inputs per dollar of Industry Output, with the physical unit depending on the particular pollutant or input under consideration. IMPLAN produces Environmental Output Results by multiplying the Output Effects in each Industry from an analysis by the ratio of Environment Unit Value per dollar of Output in each Industry.

There are currently three different Environmental Release Years available in IMPLAN, 2024, 2023 and 2019. At this time, the 2024 Environmental Release Year is only available for the 528 Industry Set. The 528 Industry Set is specifically for the U.S. data in the 2023 Data Year at this time. All previous Data Years will require the use of the 546 Industry Set and either 2023 or 2019 Environmental Release Years (which are not available for the 2023 Data Year) until the release of the updated IMPLAN 528 Industry Set time series data (coming in 2025).

Below is the list of the 12 major groups of environmental data (“Environment Categories”) that can be found in the 2024 or 2023 Environmental Release Years. Each category has a number of more-detailed “Names” or “Contexts” that represent more specific types of the broader group. Also listed are a few examples of Environmental Names or Environmental Contexts that can be found in each Environmental Category.

Criteria and Hazardous Air Emissions
- Examples:
  - Nitrogen Dioxide
  - Chromium III
  - Formaldehyde
  - Styrene
  - Chlorine
Commercial Non-Hazardous Waste Excluding Construction
- Examples:
  - Tires
  - Ash
  - Aluminum Cans
  - Paper Bags
Commercial Non-Hazardous Waste From Construction Activities
- Examples:
  - Asphalt Pavement
  - Bricks
  - Cardboard
  - Glass
  - Drywall
Commercial RCRA-Defined Hazardous Waste
- Examples:
  - Dried Paint
  - Sodium Azide
  - Waste Oil
  - 2-Butanone
Greenhouse Gasses
- Examples:
  - CO2
  - N2O
  - Sulfur Hexafluoride
Point Source Industrial Releases to Ground
- Examples:
  - Ammonia
  - Lead
  - Zinc compounds
  - Mercury
  - Anthracene
Land Use
- Examples:
  - Land use by m2*a
Mineral Extraction
- Examples:
  - Copper
  - Lead
  - Gold
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Releases from Agriculture
- Examples:
  - Nitrogen
  - Phosphorus
Pesticide Releases
- Examples:
  - Pyraclostrobin
  - Imazamox
  - Carbaryl
Water Withdrawals
- Examples:
  - Water, fresh (emission and resource)
  - Water, saline
Point Source Releases to Water
- Examples:
  - Formaldehyde
  - Nitrogen
  - Zinc
  - Aluminum

All unit values are measures of mass in kilograms (kg), except all Land Use unit values which are measured in square meters per year (m2*a), a few Mineral Extraction values which are measured in megajoules (MJ), and a few Point Source Releases to Water values which are in becquerels (KBq).

Additionally, IMPLAN Estimates of Land Use and Greenhouse Gasses now also include equivalencies data from the ReCiPe method of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) for the 2023 Environmental Release year and beyond. These data extrapolate upon what is already available for Greenhouse Gasses and Land Use, allowing users to compare the environmental damages caused by resource use or flowable pollution in a more equitable fashion.

Land Use data contains measures for converting land used into Characterization Factors (CF) for occupation or transformation of land in terms of annual crop equivalents. Annual crop equivalents place varying types of land use into a comparable state. For example, plots of land with separate contexts such as agricultural and urban human-dominated lands can be converted into an equivalent measure in meters squared for comparison to one another in terms of impact to the environment. In IMPLAN, this unit is expressed as CFocc (annual crop eq). Furthermore, these annual crop equivalents can be converted to endpoint units of species loss per year per meter squared of annual crop equivalents, represented in IMPLAN as Species/M2 annual crop eq.

Greenhouse gas emissions data contain measures for converting greenhouse gasses into Carbon Dioxide equivalents, such that analysts can compare the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of each gas to one another. Conversions are available for kilograms of Carbon Dioxide equivalents per kilograms of each greenhouse gas (kg CO2 eq/kg GHG). Ratios are available to represent global warming potential over 20 years, 100 years, and 1000 years.

RESULTS

All IMPLAN Projects that utilize U.S. Regions will have the following four Environmental Results dashboards: Impact Summary, Impact Industry Details, Damages from Greenhouse Gases, and Damages from Land Use.

All Environmental Results can be filtered by Region, Impact, Group Name, Event Name, Environment Release Year, Environment Name, Industry, and Aggregation Scheme.

IMPACT SUMMARY

This Impact Summary dashboard displays the Environmental Output for each of the 12 Environmental Categories by IMPLAN Industry in their respective units:

Criteria and Hazardous Air Emissions
Commercial Non-Hazardous Waste Excluding Construction
Commercial Non-Hazardous Waste From Construction Activities
Commercial RCRA-Defined Hazardous Waste
Greenhouse Gasses
Point Source Industrial Releases to Ground
Land Use
Mineral Extraction
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Releases from Agriculture
Pesticide Releases
Water Withdrawals
Point Source Releases to Water

The Environmental Output values here are the sum total for each Industry by Environmental Category across all Regions, Events, and type of Effects. The only default filters that will be applied to these Results are Dollar Year, Environmental Release Year, and Aggregation Scheme.

IMPACT INDUSTRY DETAILS

The Impact Industry Details Results dashboard shows the Environmental Output for each impacted IMPLAN Industry in the Project:

Environment Name = the emissions output by each environmental category
Environment Unit = all unit values are measures of mass in kilograms (kg) except Land Use unit values are square meters per year (m2*a), part of Mineral Extraction in megajoules (MJ), and part of Point Source Releases to Water in becquerels (KBq)
Environmental Output = Total output of emissions by each environmental category
Unit per $ of Output = Ratio of physical environment unit value per dollar of Output

The Environmental Output and Units per $ of Output values here are the total for each Industry by Environmental Category across all Regions, Events, and type of Effect. The only default filters that will be applied to these Results are Dollar Year, Environmental Release Year, Aggregation Scheme, and Environmental Category, which is set to Greenhouse Gases.

DAMAGES FROM GREENHOUSE GASES

The Damages from Greenhouse Gases Results dashboard displays greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide equivalents, kg CO2 eq, that represent global warming potential (GWP) over 20 years, 100 years, and 1,000 years for each impacted IMPLAN Industry in the Project.

"GWP20, 100, 1000" refers to the "Global Warming Potential" of a greenhouse gas, with "20" indicating the potential over a 20-year timeframe, and "100" signifying the potential over a 100-year timeframe, and "1000" signifying the potential over a 1,000-year timeframe. The EPA typically uses the "100-year GWP" to compare the environmental impact of different greenhouse gases, meaning they consider how much heat a gas will trap over a 100-year period relative to carbon dioxide (CO2) which is assigned a GWP of 1 per kilogram. To learn more about GWP, read the EPA’s Understanding Global Warming Potentials.

This dashboard contains two tables: Global Warming Potential by Impact and Global Warming Potential by Industry. The Global Warming Potential by Impact table breaks the total GWP20, GWP100, and GWP1000 out by type of Effect only, meaning that these are the summed values across all Industries. The Global Warning Potential by Industry table shows GWP20, GWP100, and GWP1000 by Impacted Industry only, meaning that these are the summed values across type of Effect. However, users can utilize the Impact filter to view the Industry data by a type of Effect, which is described in more detail in the following section.

DAMAGES FROM LAND USE

The Damages from Land Use dashboard converts the land use into crop equivalents and species years for each impacted IMPLAN Industry in the Project. This dashboard contains two tables: Land Use Crop Equivalents and Species Years Damaged by Land Use. The Land Use Crop Equivalents table provides the Annual Crop EQ for each impacted Industry, broken out by type of Effect.

Annual Crop EQ = converts varying types of land use into an equivalent measure in meters squared for comparison to one another in terms of impact to the environment

The Species Years Damaged by Land Use provides the Species Years for each impacted Industry, broken out by type of Effect.

Species Years = converts the annual crop equivalents to endpoint units of species loss per year per meter squared of annual crop equivalents

The Annual Crop EQ and Species year here are the total for each Industry by Environmental Category across all Regions, and Events. The only default filters that will be applied to these Results are Dollar Year, Environmental Release Year, Aggregation Scheme, and Environmental Category, which is set to Greenhouse Gases.

FILTERING, SORTING, AND DOWNLOADING RESULTS

When viewing the Results of any IMPLAN Project, the values in each visualization will be the total Results of all Events in all Regions. However, filters can be applied to drill into the Environmental Results of a specific Event, or a specific Region. For data tables, sorting gives users the ability to change the row order by any column in the table (to ascending or descending). If a user would like to export the data table or save a visualization, the tile actions icon can be used to download it directly from IMPLAN.

Filters

Remember that the only default filters that will be applied to all tables in the Environmental dashboards will be the Dollar Year, Aggregation Scheme, and Environmental Release Year. However, users can apply filters to separate into detailed subsets of Results. For example, to display only the Induced Environmental Results in the Impact Summary table, simply filter on Impact, and select Induced.

Sorting

Result tables can be sorted by any of the columns by clicking on the sort icon within the column.

All data in the table will be sorted in descending order (highest values listed at the top of the table) relative to the column title. To change how the data is sorted, click on another field. When the view has been sorted by a column other than Industry Display, the selected column title will appear with an arrow to its right indicating that the table has been sorted by this column header. Hold down the shift key to sort by multiple columns.

Downloading

Remember, that IMPLAN users can also download an entire dashboard or individual tables and visualizations. The export function allows data to be exported directly to various file types by clicking the Tile actions or Dashboard Actions Icon. To download an entire dashboard, click the dashboard Actions in the upper right hand corner of the dashboard, and clicking Download (either as a PDF or CSV file):