Russell non-radial eco-efficiency measure and scale elasticity of a sample of electric/electronic products

In this paper, a Russell non-radial measure of eco-efficiency is proposed. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used for the computations. The inputs considered are the damage indicators provided by the Ecoindicator 99 methodology for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). The single output is consumer price, used as a surrogate of economic value. After projecting onto the efficient frontier using input orientation and obtaining efficient target values for the damage indicators, additional DEA models are solved in order to compute corresponding scale elasticities bounds. The proposed approach is illustrated on a small sample of household electric and electronic products. The results confirm that mobile phones, desktop computers and vacuum cleaners are eco-efficient and, of these, only mobile phones are scale efficient. Bounds on the scale elasticity of all products are reported. Most products show decreasing eco-efficiency returns to scale.