Toward Sustainable Production in the Canadian Oil Sands Industry

A dynamic systems modeling approach is being developed for assessing the sustainability of an industrial sector. Assessing systems sustainability is a complex undertaking and entails the synthesis of large quantities of information from different sources. In this approach, those environmental performance measures relevant to the industrial sector in question are first identified. Then a systems model for addressing the key issues of sustainability is built by incorporating those social and economic aspects that impact on the environment, through capturing their inter-linkages over time. Simulation runs are then made using the model to assess novel and innovative technologies for their potentials for contributing toward meeting specific targets of sustainability. This approach is being applied to the oil sands sector, and a user-friendly prototype model has been developed to provide insights on the sustainable development of the oil sands industry in Canada.