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Developing business ideas for drone technologies
Developing business ideas for drone technologies

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3.1 Eco-social costs

When considering the eco-social costs of a business, the questions at issue are:

  • What ecological or social costs is the business model causing?
  • Which key resources are non-renewable?
  • Which key activities consume substantial resources?

For instance, eco-social costs for a drone spraying business would be consumption of materials and energy to deliver the value proposition and accomplish key activities (i.e. spraying chemicals on specific trees or even leaves of a tree and disposal of old drones and parts). Re-using and recycling materials could help to minimise such costs.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is commonly used to assess the eco-social costs for a business. LCA is the systematic analysis of the potential environmental impacts of products or services during their entire life cycle (‘cradle-to-grave’ analysis). In the following video, an expert on LCA will introduce you to the aims, method and outcomes of LCA.

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According to Barrionuevo (2023, p. 14), the implementation of LCA enables:

  • the evaluation of the environmental burdens linked with a product, process or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and materials usage as well as wastes released into the environment
  • the assessment of the impact of the energy and materials utilised and released into the environment
  • the identification and assessment of opportunities for environmental enhancements.

When a LCA is performed, it is necessary to define the scope of the analysis (Step 1) by identifying the product or system to be studied (definition of the system boundaries) and the related input and outputs. Figure 7 shows a model of this process.

A flow chart moving from inputs to outputs
Figure 7 Graphic representation of flows in and out of the system (Barrionuevo, 2023)

A whole life cycle of a product/service encompasses a number of stages:

  • material extraction
  • production
  • packaging and distribution
  • use
  • end of use
  • waste treatment or recovery.

Step 2 of the assessment aims to identify indicators which quantify the different inputs (e.g. energy, water, resources, land) and outputs (e.g. emissions, wastes, products) of the life cycle of an industrial process, technology, or commodity. This allows the flows of energy, resources and materials in and out of the system being studied to be mapped. Indicators should measure distinct quantities like volume, mass, or weight. The kind and quality of the data used to compile this inventory will determine the robustness of the results obtained.

In Step 3, impact categories, such as climate change, acidification, terrestrial toxicity, etc. are selected. The results of Step 2 are then categorised. In the last phase (Step 4), the results are interpreted to identify significant issues and to provide recommendations on possible limitations of the study.

The following results of LCA for the Drone Spraying Use Case are expected:

  • the adoption of electric-powered drones is anticipated to yield several environmental benefits, including a reduction in groundwater and soil contamination, prevention of biodiversity loss, and mitigation of soil compaction
  • employing electric-powered drones is expected to result in a decreased carbon footprint and lower fuel consumption
  • the enhanced efficiency of utilising UAVs for pest control is projected to lead to decreased operational and input costs.
(Barrionuevo, 2023)

To conclude the overview of LCA, the following video offers some final advice from Bruno Barrionuevo, the ICAERUS expert on LCA. He offers four suggestions to apply LCA successfully.

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