Total balance

Total balance refers to whole-system scientific methods for adding up the whole effect of things, starting from the concepts of life-cycle analysis (LCA) and using scientific methods to mix physical measures with economic measures and the whole system learning curves of their environmental connections. A balance of future compensations assuming a goal of sustainability is the objective. It is aimed at providing people a true measure of the meaning of their choices. The start is using the energy value of money as a measure of the whole economic system, and its widely distributed average effects.

The untraceable portion of whole system impacts may be shown to be many times the scale of the traceable portion when considered that way. It's useful because so much of the impacts distributed in complex systems are unaccountable. The major unaccountable part of economic impacts, for example, is the free use of the money given others for their goods and services. There are no data for what they do with it, making it a perfect hiding place for many times the impacts you readily see.

For whole energy impact of a choice the simple first step is to add up the accountable BTUs used, like electric bills and LCA accounts, and then add the country's GDP for the cost. The global average spent per BTU works out to roughly 6000 BTU per dollar in 2008 based on United States Department of Energy trends. Then there are ways to proportionally adjust that for the details of other things. The effect is to add the impacts of the technology and the impacts of the commerce.