The best method that can used to answer is question is called life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Accordingly, you need to perform LCAI for the industry you are interested in and quantify the impacts on human health, eco-system, and abiotic resources. In particular the latter indicator has socio-economic implication which varies from one country to another.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Professor Yehia Khalil, Yale University, USA

Fellow of the University of Oxford, UK

The absolute best way is to compare the energy efficiency of a chemicals manufacturing process plant is to use Pinch Analysis.  Then compare the actual energy consumption versus the economically optimum targets for that site.  Benchmarking methods would be the second-best option, but they are not reliable unless the benchmarks are derived from a large data base, and correction factors are included for site-specific deviations from the generic design on which the benchmark is based. Please look at my posted articles on Pinch Analysis (2004) and Performance monitoring (2009).

The best method that can used to answer is question is called life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Accordingly, you need to perform LCAI for the industry you are interested in and quantify the impacts on human health, eco-system, and abiotic resources. In particular the latter indicator has socio-economic implication which varies from one country to another.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Professor Yehia Khalil, Yale University, USA

Fellow of the University of Oxford, UK

The issue of what is BEST is a subjective value judgment, and so the numerical weight one gives to each of the factors going into the score factors depends on the person doing the evaluation.  I may give high value to environmental impact while others might give zero.  So basically there is no uniformly acceptable definition of best.  However, as a general rule, whatever is good/best thermodynamically is what should be so universally.  Because we humans have decided to evaluate all decisions on the basis of profit/price, which is distorted by government rules such as prices fixing, subsidies, taxes, etc, our decisions are seldom in alignment with nature.  We cannot even begin to define best until we get our economic theory on a sound footing.  That is why I choose to stick with themodynamics.