Integrated assessment of ecosystem services and sustainability_2020-21

Land use and management serve multiple purposes and generate a host of impacts, whether
negative or positive on the environment. Approaches that integrate across all of these aspects are
necessary when it comes of evaluating and designing management strategies that align best with the
imperative of sustainable development. In particular they make it possible to reveal trade-offs
between individual outcomes (eg biomass production versus water quality), and provide clues on
how to strike appropriate compromises.
The course aims at raising students' awareness of three complementary approaches applicable to the
management of ecosystems and of bio-based industry in general: the ecosystem services framework,
and metabolism and life-cycle approaches. Course attendants will get to grips with the principles of
these approaches, gain insight from their application to agricultural systems and bio-based value-
chains, and gain practical know-how on how to apply them in 3 different case-studies.
They will become familiar with environmental management, the ISO 14 000 standards and the
principles of their implementation in various decision-making contexts to improve the environmental
performance of production systems or organizations.
The course will equip students with the tools and methods currently used in this process for the
environmental assessment of products and services, and their eco-design. Life-cycle assessment,
whose use is currently spreading in all economic sectors for purposes of eco-design, consumer
information or policy design, will occupy a central place in the pedagogy.