A SUPPLY CHAIN AND LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF THE US MILITARY’S ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
Project Overview
Militaries around the world are a major source of pollution and carbon emissions, yet little is known about their environmental footprint.
Concrete Impacts is a UKRI-Economic Social Research Council funded collaboration between Queen Mary, Lancaster and Durham Universities examining the socio-ecological effects of military supply chains and wider environmental damage.
Research Objectives
Purpose
The purpose of Concrete Impacts is to examine how sand, water & cement were procured and delivered through military supply chains in Iraq and beyond. We do so by developing maps of military supply chains and pinpointing source material hotspots. We will calculate the environmental and pollution footprint of these materials using a novel hybrid Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA).
Analysis
We are co-leading a major initiative to track, analyse and close the military emissions gap, and demand that governments disclose their military emissions data to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Learn more here: militaryemissions.org
Watch a short video about our activities alongside colleagues at the Conflict and Environment Observatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBPInVQhsts
Methods
Our approach is novel because of our use of supply chain analysis – usually reserved as an economic management tool – as a way to measure socio-environmental impact in highly affected population locations or ‘hotspots.’ We will deliver a comprehensive open-sourced datalab that is a user-friendly source for climate, environmental and socio-economic costs of US military procurement of sand, water and cement in a theatre of war.
