Abstract

This study examined sustainability assessment and sustainable behaviour in the remediation of contaminated soil, groundwater, and sediment. Contaminated sites are a huge liability in both developing and developed countries. Sustainable remediation of contaminated sites is drawing huge attention from governments, the industry, and academia in recent years. Sustainability assessment aims to provide a basis for informed and balanced decision making, and it is a critical component of sustainable remediation. The present study expanded existing sustainability assessment tools, which are mostly based on process life cycle assessment (LCA) of specific projects. The expansion occurs in two aspects: on a micro-level, this study developed an economic input-output based hybrid LCA method for project specific sustainability assessment; and on a meso-level, this study developed a generalized LCA framework for evaluating the sustainability of a portfolio of projects. In addition to sustainability assessment, this study aimed to explore sustainability on a society level, namely sustainable behaviour, which is considered a macro-level sustainability assessment.