Emergy and Environmental Accounting Workshop

Oregon State University's Environmental Sciences Graduate Program is excited to be hosting a live, five day workshop stressing emergy concepts, theory, and principles. Each day is composed of four sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. One or two sessions each day is devoted to a case study that includes “hands-on” computation of emergy or simulation of models to reinforce lecture material and extend understanding of systems concepts.

Cost to Attend

This year's workshop is free to attend, but we do ask that you consider donating to OSU ESGP to support future conferences and engagements. Thank you.

To find the correct fund to donate to, please copy and paste in the following into the "I want to give to" box: Environmental Science Graduate Program Unrestricted Fund

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Workshop Schedule

Materials Day-By-Day Downloads

Zoom link is live 9-5 PST 
Lunch is 12-1:30 PM PST everyday.

Day One - Monday, October 17, 2022
Systems Perspective: What Is Energy, Exergy And Emergy? Primary, Secondary And Tertiary Global Renewable Sources

Morning 1– Introduction    || 9:00 AM PST (35 minutes)

Biophysical economics, the emerging discipline of emergy analysis, systems of value, brief overview of emergy accounting, energy quality, unit emergy values (UEVs),transformity, specific emergy, emdollars.

Morning 2- Systems and Systems Diagrams || 10:00 AM PST(1 hour)

Systems concepts
Introduction energy systems diagramming language
Quantitative diagramming and picture mathematics

Lunch ||  (12:00-1:30)

Afternoon 3- Energy & Exergy || 1:30 PM PST(30 minutes)

Introduction to energy, Laws of Thermodynamics, Maximum Empower Principles, hierarchical organization
Introduction to available energy, exergy, quality, Carnot efficiency

Afternoon 4– Calculating Energy  || 2:00 PM PST (30 minutes)

Computing available energy using Gibbs free energy for materials and energy sources and kinetic energy of renewable sources

Afternoon 5– The Geobiosphere Emergy Baseline (GEB)  || 3:00 PM PST (45minutes)

The evolution of the GEB, difference between solar equivalent joules and solar emjoules, Solar Equivalence Ratio vs. Transformity, secondary and tertiary renewable flows

Day Two - Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Concepts of emergy accounting

Morning 6- Static Emergy Accounting  ||  9:00 AM PST (30 minutes)

Emergy algebra, Emergy evaluation procedure, Static calculation

Morning 7- Emergy Evaluation Procedure  || 9:45 AM PST (30 minutes)

Evaluation procedure: systems diagram, evaluation table,footnotes, summary diagram, and emergy indices

Morning 8– UEVs of Materials, Energy and Products  || 10:30 AM PST(30 minutes)

UEVs of nonrenewable fossil fuels, minerals and metals, slowly renewables, andquaternary product

Lunch (12:00–1:30)

Afternoon 9- The Emergy Accounting Database || 1:45 PM PST(30 minutes)

Introduction to emergy database- (a work in progress)

Afternoon 10- Dynamic Emergy Accounting  || 2:30 PM PST(45 minutes)

Simulation of emergy
Network analysis of emergy

Day Three - Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Emergy Systems Concepts

Morning 11– Emergy and Economy  ||  9:00 AM PST (60 minutes)

Emergy Money Ratio, “Value Added”, international trade, emergy advantage, Emergy Based Exchange Rate, emergy of labor

Morning 12–National Emergy Accounting || 10:00 AM PST (30 minutes)

Emergy evaluation of nations (NEAD) Emergy and trade/trade equity

Lunch (12:00–1:30)

Afternoon 13– Emergy and Ecosystems  || 1:30 PM PST(60 minutes)

What is an ecosystem? GPP &NPP, Succession, Global biomes, Emergy of ecosystem components, Restoration

Afternoon 14– Emergy and Ecosystem Services || 2:45 PM PST (60 minutes)

What are ecosystem services? Natural capital? Case studies–examples of valuation of ES & NC Natural capital degradation and sustainability

Day Four - Thursday, October 20, 2022
Applications of Emergy Methodology

Morning 15– Emergy &The Circular Economy  || 9:00 AM PST (30 minutes)

“Circular Economy” defined
Dimensions of circular economy
Materials recycle
InFORMation Recycle of products, co-products and by-products

Morning 16- Environmental Impact Assessment  || 9:30 AM PST(45 minutes)

Static and dynamic evaluation of marine oil spills

Lunch (12:00–1:30)

Afternoon 17– Emergy Evaluation of Alternatives ||  1:30 PM PST(30 minutes)

Environmental accounting and decision making. Paper or plastic?
River restoration. Restoration of phosphate mined lands.
Power plant cooling alternatives.

Afternoon 18– Emergy Evaluation of Energy Alternatives  || 2:15 PM PST(60 minutes)

Nonrenewable energy sources Net emergy, emergy yield ratio, EROI
Renewable energy sources

Day Five - Friday, October 21, 2022
Simulations & Beyond Growth

Morning 19– Macroscopic mini-models of humanity and nature   ||  9:00 AM PST (60 minutes) 

Theory, models, and simulation of economic interfaces, economic use of nonrenewableresources, environment, natural capital.

Afternoon 20 - Beyond Economics  || 1:30 PM PST (60 minutes)

Afternoon 20 - Simulation Exercise  || 2:30 PM PST