6. Environmental impact of embodied energy

The consequences of a human activity, whether it's the design and use of an object, the provision of a service, or the development of an activity such as agriculture, for example, has consequences for the environment that belong to the categories shown in the figure 2 . The main ones are as follows.

• First and foremost, energy resources are consumed. The energy consumed in operation is the focus of all our attention, but the consumption of grey energy is just as important in the overall energy balance. This grey energy, evaluated in terms of primary energy, may be renewable or non-renewable. It may be associated with the processes and transport involved throughout the life of the system under...