Monthly Archive for January, 2011

Any questions about input-output analysis? You might have heard about ‘IOA’, or ‘environmentally extended IOA’, but might not be sure what exactly it means and for what and how it can be used. For those who would like to know more about it – and indeed for those who are already familiar with IOA! – there is a book, at last, that will give you plenty of answers. The Sustainability Practitioner’s Guide to Input-Output Analysis has been written for the non-technical reader with an interest in learning about and applying a modelling technique that has gained in momentum in the environmental arena over the past decade but has remained somewhat elusive to practitioners outside the research field.

I’m saying ‘at last’ because such a generalised representation of input-output theory, practice and applications to questions of sustainability has not been compiled before.

The review continues

The book impressively demonstrates the versatility of IOA and its usefulness for the sustainability practitioner. It is divided in five distinctive parts which cover the facets of sustainability practice. The first part introduces the concept and the practicalities of IOA, covering fundamental operations such as the compilation of IO tables, the analysis of supply chains or the assumptions inherent in the technique. Novices and IOA practitioners alike will appreciate the brief resume of Wassily Leontief’s life, the founder of modern input-output economics and Nobel Laureate. Leontief’s legacy seems more alive than ever, in particular because he always intended and foresaw the use of IOA for environmental analyses. Part one also explains the differences between IOA and other ways of undertaking life-cycle analyses.

Part two is an excellent example of how theory can be translated into practice. Real-world examples of footprint analysis and economy-wide triple-bottom-line accounting demonstrate impressively the versatility of IOA. It is not a coincidence that the increase in environmental IOA applications in recent years has paralleled an equal rise in the popularity of footprint analyses, most often involving the life-cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint). The ability of IOA to deliver cost-efficient and comprehensive estimates on all scales from individual via organisational to national scale has helped its application for consumption-based accounting. The examples presented in the book range from Australia to the UK, from company to industry sectors, and from local authority to regional government level. It’s encouraging to see that IOA is not merely presented as the solution to all questions but that practical problems and negative experiences are also described, e.g., in the Australian ‘Balancing Act’ study.  This helps to overcome similar challenges in the future.

Excerpts of the review are from: Wiedmann, T.(2010) ‘The sustainability practitioner’s guide to input-output analysis edited by: Joy Murray and Richard Wood’, International Journal of Sustainable Development, Vol. 13, No.3  pp. 308 – 310.

The Sustainability Practitioner’s Guide to Input-Output Analysis edited by Joy Murray andRichard Wood is available from the On Sustainability imprint.