Emergy Analysis

Emergy Analysis, developed by systems ecologist Howard T. Odum and formally presented in his 1996 book, is a biophysical accounting method that converts all inputs to a system — energy, materials, labor, and services — into a common unit of solar energy equivalents called solar emjoules (sej). By tracing how much prior environmental work was required to produce each input, it enables researchers, engineers, and policymakers to compare fundamentally different resource types on a single thermodynamic basis.