In recent years, the demand for copper has increased considerably due to population growth, economic development, and the transition of the power sector to sustainable energy. Increases in copper production created an additional pressure on the environment resulting in a need for accurate assessment of environmental sustainability of copper extraction. However, environmental sustainability evaluation remains a challenge since it begins with the selection of methods and metrics used to measure it at different space scales and in different time periods, which it is not a trivial task. One alternative solution consists in using environmental sustainability indicators (ESIs), which provide clear and precise information about the conditions, trends, and changes in the environment. The growing importance of environmental sustainability resulted in emergence of huge number of indicators. The abundance of ESIs makes their use a quite challenging task.

This research systematizes and analyzes a set of environmental sustainability indicators used to evaluate the environmental performance of copper production systems. The proposed methodology uses a systematic content analysis focused on the identification of environmental sustainability indicators intended to evaluate the performance of copper production systems. Classification of the main ESI characteristics identified in the references was carried out based on four general dimensions: 1) categories of environmental sustainability; 2) method/ technique used to calculate the indicator; 3) spatial and temporal scales used to quantify the indicator; and 4) types of data sources used to calculate the indicator. A total of 95 indicators were identified and results of the analysis show that the indicators related to energy and water consumption category are used the most often. Besides, we observed a clear tendency to use methodological approaches such as the life cycle assessment and eco-efficiency framework. The “present” timescale, along with the “global” spatial scale, was identified as the most frequent temporal scale analyzed in the documents.

近年来，由于人口增长、经济发展以及电力部门向可持续能源的转变，对铜的需求大幅增加。铜产量的增加给环境带来了额外的压力，因此需要准确评估铜提取的环境可持续性。然而，环境可持续性评估仍然是一个挑战，因为它始于选择用于在不同空间尺度和不同时间段进行测量的方法和指标，这不是一项微不足道的任务。一种替代解决方案是使用环境可持续性指标 (ESI)，它提供有关环境状况、趋势和变化的清晰准确的信息。环境可持续性的日益重要导致大量指标的出现。大量的 ESI 使它们的使用成为一项非常具有挑战性的任务。

本研究对一套用于评估铜生产系统环境绩效的环境可持续性指标进行系统化和分析。拟议的方法使用系统的内容分析，重点是确定旨在评估铜生产系统性能的环境可持续性指标。参考文献中确定的主要 ESI 特征的分类基于四个一般维度：1) 环境可持续性类别；2) 用于计算指标的方法/技术；3) 用于量化指标的空间和时间尺度；4) 用于计算指标的数据来源类型。共识别出95个指标，分析结果表明，与能源和水消耗类别相关的指标使用频率最高。此外，我们观察到使用生命周期评估和生态效率框架等方法论方法的明显趋势。“当前”时间尺度以及“全球”空间尺度被确定为文件中分析最频繁的时间尺度。