This paper focuses on the analysis of the total environmental impact of industrial processes in terms of cumulative exergy consumption (CExC). It proposes the concepts of cumulative exergy consumption for treatment of emissions (CExCT) and equivalent cumulative exergy consumption (ECExC) based on an acceptable level. The general formulation of the objective function of ECExC is presented. A detailed formulation of the objective function is used to demonstrate the means of the optimization of the parameters of a heat pump distillation, providing the merits of ECExC compared with economics.