ALBERT

Beschreibung: 9th International Conference on EcoBalance (9th ICEB)—towards and beyond 2020, November 9–12, 2010, Tokyo, Japan Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0282-x Authors Keisuke Nansai, Research Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan Yuki Kudoh, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan Hiroki Hondo, Chair of the Executive Committee of the 9th ICEB, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan Kiyotada Hayashi, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Tsukuba, Japan Kazuyo Matsubae, Tohoku University, Tohoku, Japan Kenichi Nakajima, Research Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan Shinsuke Murakami, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Masaharu Motoshita, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan Seiji Hashimoto, Research Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan Minako Hara, NTT Energy and Environment Systems Laboratories, Kanagawa, Japan Michiyasu Nakajima, Kansai University, Kansai, Japan Rokuta Inaba, Research Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan Yasunari Matsuno, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Yoshikazu Shinohara, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Japan Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung:    The Polish Centre for life cycle assessment (LCA) is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 following the initiative of people involved in Polish scientific and R&D centers dealing with LCA. The role, mission as well structure and organization of PCLCA have been presented. Moreover, the current state of LCA implementation in Poland has been mentioned. However, LCA has been mainly used for scientific research less by industry and business. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-3 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0276-8 Authors Joanna Kulczycka, Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, 31–261 Cracow, Poland Przemysław Kurczewski, Faculty of Working Machines and Transportation, Poznan University of Technology, 60–965 Poznan, Poland Jędrzej Kasprzak, Faculty of Working Machines and Transportation, Poznan University of Technology, 60–965 Poznan, Poland Anna Lewandowska, Faculty of Commodity Science, Poznan University of Economics, 61–875 Poznan, Poland Robert Lewicki, Faculty of Commodity Science, Poznan University of Economics, 61–875 Poznan, Poland Agata Witczak, Faculty of Commodity Science, Poznan University of Economics, 61–875 Poznan, Poland Joanna Witczak, Faculty of Commodity Science, Poznan University of Economics, 61–875 Poznan, Poland Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Freshwater use and consumption is of high environmental concern. While research has primarily focused on agricultural water use, industrial water use has recently become more prominent. Because most industries employ relatively low amounts of water, our study focuses on electricity production, which is involved in almost all economic activities and has a considerable share of the global water consumption. Materials and methods   Water consumption data for different power production technologies was calculated from literature. Due to the global importance of hydropower and the high variability of its specific water consumption, a climate-dependent estimation scheme for water consumption in hydroelectric generation was derived. Applying national power production mixes, we analyzed water consumption and related environmental damage of the average power production for all countries. For the European and North American countries, we further modeled electricity trade to assess the electricity market mix and the power-consumption related environmental damages. Using the Eco-indicator 99 single-score and compatible freshwater consumption damage assessments, the contribution of water consumption to the total environmental impact was quantified. Results and discussion   Water consumption dominates the environmental damage of hydropower, but is generally negligible for fossil thermal, nuclear, and alternative power production. However, as the impact of water consumption has high regional variation, it can be relevant for many power technologies in water-scarce areas. The variability among country production mixes is substantial, both from a water consumption and overall environmental impact perspective. The difference between electricity production and market mixes is negligible for most countries, especially for big countries such as the USA. In Europe, where intensive international electricity trade exists, the difference is more significant. When contrasted with the relatively high uncertainties in water consumption figures particularly for hydropower, the additional error from using production mixes instead of market mixes is rather small. Conclusions   Power production is one of the major global water consumers and involved in life cycles of almost any human activity. Covering the water-consumption-related environmental damage of power generation closes one important gap in life cycle assessment and also improves data availability for the emerging field of water footprints. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-12 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0284-8 Authors Stephan Pfister, ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Dominik Saner, ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Annette Koehler, ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The purpose of this study has been to investigate the effect of different allocation methods on life cycle assessment (LCA) results of products derived from line-caught cod and the consequences of applying these methods considering the main aims of this case study. These aims were for internal improvement work and communication of results to the market. Methods   Standard LCA methodology was applied. Mass allocation, economic allocation, a novel hybrid allocation and gross energy content allocation have been tested on a case study, and the results are discussed. In the case study, allocation problems in the studied case arose in the fishing and processing stages. Avoidance of allocation by splitting of processes, biological causality and system expansion or the avoided product approach was deemed to be not feasible. Results and discussion   Economic allocation gave a much larger spread of impacts between the different products than mass allocation, especially for processing residue, due to large price differences. Hybrid allocation gave impacts in between mass and economic allocation because the set factors give a higher value for products that are for human consumption. Energy allocation gave results close to mass allocation because the energy content is quite similar in different species and products. Economic allocation is sensitive to price changes, the others are not. When used for evaluating environmental performance improvement measures that change the relative yields for human consumption and other purposes, the different methods used reflected very different results. When used in communication to the market, the different allocation methods yield results that could lead to different behaviours by market actors. Conclusions   The different allocation methods gave very different results for the studied products; hence in order to achieve comparability between products, the same method must be used in all the cases. Different allocation methods might be appropriate for different purposes. For external communication to the market, mass allocation might be the preferred method in most cases. For internal improvement work, both economic and mass allocation could be used, but economic allocation might be the best alternative. The comparability of LCA results of products from wild-caught fish is limited, due to the lack of an agreed standard method. It is recommended to consider the different applications of the results when developing such a method. Different purposes might require different methodological choices, e.g. allocation methodology. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0288-4 Authors Erik Svanes, Ostfold Research, Gamle Bedding vei 2b, 1671 Kraakeroey, Norway Mie Vold, Ostfold Research, Gamle Bedding vei 2b, 1671 Kraakeroey, Norway Ole Jørgen Hanssen, Ostfold Research, Gamle Bedding vei 2b, 1671 Kraakeroey, Norway Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Background, aim and scope   Tank-to-Wheels (TtW) makes the largest contribution to the total Well-to-Wheels (WtW) energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil-derived transportation fuels. The most commonly adopted TtW methodologies to obtain vehicle energy consumption, energy efficiency, and GHG emissions used to date all have significant limitations. A new TtW methodology, which combines micro-scale virtual vehicle simulation with macro-scale fleet modeling, is proposed in this paper. The models capabilities are demonstrated using a case study based on data from the passenger car sector in Great Britain. Methods   A simplified internal combustion engine model was developed in-house to simulate engine behaviors across a wide range of engine capacities and technologies. Vehicle simulation was then carried out using the efficiency map output by the simplified engine model for any given gasoline or diesel engine; the simulation was validated for 37 vehicles available on the UK market in terms of their vehicle-certification fuel consumption, with a discrepancy generally within 3%. Real-world fleet and driving data from the Great Britain’s car fleet was extracted from the Transport Statistics Great Britain (TSGB) database between 2001 and 2007TSGB 2001–2007 . A virtual fleet was constructed with the validated virtual vehicles to represent the real-world passenger car fleet in terms of its composition and operating characteristics. This fleet model was shown to match the real-world fleet-averaged fuel consumption within 3% for the gasoline fleet and within 6% for the diesel fleet. Finally, several scenarios were analyzed using the validated fleet model, covering a projection for 2008, driving pattern, lubrication, and fuel. The vehicle-to-vehicle variation was found to be significant in some scenarios, indicating that a fleet-based methodology would be more rigorous and flexible. Discussion   Energy consumption and CO 2 emission figures from previous, well-recognized Europe-oriented studies (e.g., the 2008 JRC/EUCAR/CONCAWE study) were significantly lower than the TSGB real-world results based on the new TtW methodology. It is apparent that using a single vehicle to represent the whole fleet could be misleading; in particular, the relative energy efficiency and CO 2 emission of diesel over gasoline cars might follow a different trend with time for the real-world fleet from that shown in previous studies. Conclusions   Future WtW studies can benefit from the modeling toolset and methodology reported herein in a number of ways: •   TtW analysis can be carried out   thoroughly—on a fleet basis   independently—involving less proprietary information   impartially—not concentrating on a specific vehicle model   and flexibly—allowing detailed analysis of physics, chemistry, and vehicle component performance. •   When comparing different WtW energy pathways, e.g., gasoline vs. diesel passenger cars or natural gas vs. bio-diesel fuelled busses, the absolute aggregate fleet impact can be investigated—conclusions based on a single vehicle may overlook vehicle-to-vehicle variations and potentially mislead policy making. •   Using the virtual fleet database as a platform, a large number of scenarios can be analyzed and detailed impact of fuels properties, vehicle technologies and driving patterns on WtW results investigated. The models will evolve in time together with the researchers’ knowledge base and data base. Recommendations and perspectives   The virtual engine/vehicle/fleet model developed in this work can readily be expanded and upgraded in the future, in terms of model details, coverage, and data quality. The methodology itself is generically applicable to any defined fleet (passenger cars, commercial vehicles, etc.) with any operating characteristics at any given timeframe from any geographic region. Various subjects and their implications for fleet energy consumption and GHG emissions could be studied including, but not restricted to, the following: •   Fuels—injector/valve cleanliness, anti-knock properties, dieselization, bio-components, gaseous fuels etc. •   Engine/vehicle technology—friction and weight reduction, advanced combustion, hybridization etc. •   Driving pattern—vehicle loading, gear-shifting schedule, tire maintenance, cold start, etc. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-12 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0268-8 Authors Hongrui Ma, Shell Global Solutions (UK), Shell Technology Centre Thornton, P.O. Box 1, Chester, CH1 3SH UK Xavier Riera-Palou, Shell Global Solutions (UK), Shell Technology Centre Thornton, P.O. Box 1, Chester, CH1 3SH UK Andrew Harrison, Shell Global Solutions (UK), Shell Technology Centre Thornton, P.O. Box 1, Chester, CH1 3SH UK Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose The area of oil palm plantations in Malaysia is expanding by approximately 0.14 million hectare per year, and with the increasing demand for palm oil worldwide, there is no sign of the expansions slowing down. This study aims to identify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with land conversion to oil palm, in a life cycle perspective. Methods LCA methodology is applied to existing land use change data. The assessment includes the issue of temporary carbon storage in the plantations. Through quantification of emissions from state forest reserve and rubber plantation conversions, the average Malaysian palm oil-related land use changes are calculated. Results and discussion The results show that there are high emissions associated with the conversion of Malaysian state forest reserve to oil palm, whereas the conversion of rubber leaves a less significant carbon debt when indirect land use change is not included. Looking at the average Malaysian land use changes associated with oil palm shows that land use change emissions are responsible for approximately half of the total conventional biodiesel production emissions. The sensitivity analysis shows that the results could be significantly influenced by data variations in indirect land use changes, peat soils, and state forest reserve carbon stock. Conclusions The relatively extensive conversions of the state forest reserve must be reversed and preferably with a shift toward conversion of degraded land in order for the average Malaysian land use changes to have less impact on the production life cycle of palm oil and biodiesel.

Beschreibung: Purpose This article is the first of a series of articles presenting the results of research on the implementation of life cycle management tools in small- and medium-sized companies in Poland. This work is part of a project financed by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PAED) which began in February 2011. It was carried out by the Wielkopolska Quality Institute—a business environment institution associated with the Polish Centre for Life Cycle Assessment (PCLCA). The main practical objective of the project was to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in their business development, e.g. by expanding their horizons beyond the sphere of their operation and identifying new areas for improvement and promotion of the products and services on offer. These publications are a voice in the discussion on the opportunities and pertinence of implementing life cycle thinking (LCT) in small- and medium-sized enterprises and an attempt to identify potential barriers arising from specific characteristics of SMEs which could hinder or even prevent the effective implementation of life cycle techniques. Part 1 presents the situation of SMEs in Poland, general objectives of the project and organisation of the survey process. Methods It was decided to carry out research on the effectiveness of the implementation of LCA and life cycle costing (LCC) in organisations that had received financial support for the implementation of life cycle techniques. Financial constraints, which might potentially be a reason for limited interest in LC techniques among SMEs in Poland, were taken into account. Thus, financial support provided an opportunity for the project to obtain information from a wide range of companies, not only from those companies that were particularly aware of the benefits of LC techniques or had a very good financial situation. Research based on the method of individual in-depth interviews was preceded by an analysis of literature showing the status of SMEs in Poland. Given the results, the project objectives were formulated and the ways of conducting the research were defined. Results and discussion The comparison of Polish SMEs with the same category of companies in the EU shows some similarities, such as the percentage of companies engaged in various businesses. The differences are expressed primarily in the financial potential, which in the case of Polish SMEs, is significantly smaller than the average in the EU. In the SME sector, there are less than half as many small businesses in Poland than in the EU. There are, however, many more microbusinesses in Poland. An evaluation of the prevalence of LCA and LCC techniques indicates that they are used by just 3 % of Polish SMEs, which is a very small proportion compared to the more than 50 % of SMEs taking any environmental measures. Information collected on specific details of Polish SMEs was used to identify the target group and develop a survey questionnaire which aimed to audit, among other things, the approach to environmental and economic analyses in the past and the approach to the LCA and/or LCC analyses that were implemented from the point of view of difficulties in their implementation and potential use of the results. Conclusions Part 1 of the series of articles demonstrates a marginal-scale dissemination of life cycle management techniques among Polish SMEs. Companies definitely prefer to introduce relatively simple solutions that do not require specialised knowledge or unnecessary costs, e.g. they introduce energy-saving bulbs and waste segregation. Only a small percentage of companies implement more complex activities, and most commonly, these are medium-sized companies with greater financial and human capital. So what should be done to make SMEs use life cycle techniques more frequently? Is it appropriate to make changes in the methodology and life cycle techniques as such, or should, rather, the incentive for SMEs to use LCT come from outside as a requirement of public institutions or suppliers in a supply chain? Answers to these questions are provided in the research conclusions presented in parts 2 and 3 of the series of articles.

Beschreibung: Purpose In LCA, a multi-functionality problem exists whenever the environmental impacts of a multi-functional process have to be allocated between its multiple functions. Methods for fixing this multi-functionality problem are controversially discussed because the methods include ambiguous choices. To study the influence of these choices, the ISO standard requires a sensitivity analysis. This work presents an analytical method for analyzing sensitivities and uncertainties of LCA results with respect to the choices made when a multi-functionality problem is fixed. Methods The existing matrix algebra for LCA is expanded by explicit equations for methods that fix multi-functionality problems: allocation and avoided burden. For allocation, choices exist between alternative allocation factors. The expanded equations allow calculating LCA results as a function of allocation factors. For avoided burden, choices exist in selecting an avoided burden process from multiple candidates. This choice is represented by so-called aggregation factors. For avoided burden, the expanded equations calculate LCA results as a function of aggregation factors. The expanded equations are used to derive sensitivity coefficients for LCA results with respect to allocation factors and aggregation factors. Based on the sensitivity coefficients, uncertainties due to fixing a multi-functionality problem by allocation or avoided burden are analytically propagated. The method is illustrated using a virtual numerical example. Results and discussion The presented approach rigorously quantifies sensitivities of LCA results with respect to the choices made when multi-functionality problems are fixed with allocation and avoided burden. The uncertainties due to fixing multi-functionality problems are analytically propagated to uncertainties in LCA results using a first-order approximation. For uncertainties in allocation factors, the first-order approximation is exact if no loops of the allocated functional flows exist. The contribution of uncertainties due to fixing multi-functionality problems can be directly compared to the uncertainty contributions induced by uncertain process data or characterization factors. The presented method allows the computationally efficient study of uncertainties due to fixing multi-functionality problems and could be automated in software tools. Conclusions This work provides a systematic method for the sensitivity analysis required by the ISO standard in case choices between alternative allocation procedures exist. The resulting analytical approach includes contributions of uncertainties in process data, characterization factors, and—in extension to existing methods—uncertainties due to fixing multi-functionality problems in a unifying rigorous framework. Based on the uncertainty contributions, LCA practitioners can select fields for data refinement to decrease the overall uncertainty in LCA results.

Beschreibung: Purpose This paper addresses the application and potential of LCSA in the built environment with a focus on refurbishments of residential buildings. It specifically addresses the phenomenon of interchange of building technologies efficiencies under different life time assessments from economy, ecology and social fields. An approach of optimization rather than hard target numbers is proposed as win–win–win situations are unlikely. Methods A multidimensional Pareto optimization methodology, using LCC, LCA combined with first stages of a social assessment in a feasibility study but potentially later full SLCA, is proposed, which site-specifically visualizes the interchange between different options in building design or modification, and evaluates optimal overall concepts. LCA and LCC are used to analyze a case study from an EU project named BEEM-UP in which solutions for large-scale uptake of refurbishment strategies are developed. Social frame conditions are taken into account by identifying the driving technologies and feeding the consequences of their implementation for the residents into the tenant involvement part of the project. Results and discussion The calculations prove that the general assumptions leading to the methodology hold true at least for this case study. A clear Pareto-optimal curve is visible when assessing LCC and LCA. The example buildings results show certain systems to be dominating clusters on the figures while others clearly can be identified as not relevant. Several of the driving technologies however fail to be applicable because of social frame conditions, e.g., clear requests by the tenants. Based on the conclusions, the potential for including SLCA as a third dimension in the methodology and possible visualization options are discussed. Conclusions The development in the field of social indicators in the building sector has to be strengthened in order to come up with a holistic picture and respectively with appropriate responses to current challenges. While some solutions identified in the LCC/LCA assessment also have good social characteristics, several others have not and solutions identified as lacking might have social advantages that are currently left out of consideration The upcoming Standards EN 15643-5 and ISO 15686-x are a promising step in this direction as is the work to create a conceptual framework for impact assessment within SLCA by the scientific community.

Beschreibung: Purpose In the context of progress of sustainability science, life cycle thinking and, in particular, life cycle sustainability assessment may play a crucial role. Environmental, economic and social implications of the whole supply chain of products, both goods and services, their use and waste management, i.e. their entire life cycle from “cradle to grave” have to be considered to achieve more sustainable production and consumption patterns. Progress toward sustainability requires enhancing the methodologies for integrated assessment and mainstreaming of life cycle thinking from product development to strategic policy support. Life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC) and social LCA (sLCA) already attempt to cover sustainability pillars, notwithstanding different levels of methodological development. An increasing concern on how to deal with the complexity of sustainability has promoted the development of life cycle sustainability frameworks. As a contribution to the ongoing scientific debate after the Rio+20 conference, this paper aims to present and discuss the state of the art of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), giving recommendations for its further development in line with ontological, epistemological and methodological aspects of sustainability science. Methods Building on the review about the state of the art of sustainability science and sustainability assessment methods presented in part I, this paper discuss LCA, LCC, sLCA and LCSA against ontological, epistemological and methodological aspects of ongoing scientific debate on sustainability. Strengths and weaknesses of existing life cycle-based methodologies and methods are presented. Besides, existing frameworks for LCSA are evaluated against the criteria defined in part I in order to highlight coherence with sustainability science progress and to support better integration and mainstreaming of sustainability concepts. Conclusions and outlook LCSA represents a promising approach for developing a transparent, robust and comprehensive assessment. Nevertheless, the ongoing developments should be in line with the most advanced scientific discussion on sustainability science, attempting to bridge the gaps between the current methods and methodologies for sustainability assessment. LCSA should develop so as to be hierarchically different from LCA, LCC and sLCA. It should represent the holistic approach which integrates (and not substitutes) the reductionist approach of the single part of the analysis. This implies maintaining the balance between analytical and descriptive approaches towards a goal and solution-oriented decision support methodology.

Beschreibung: Purpose Sustainability assessment in life cycle assessment (LCA) addresses societal aspects of technologies or products to evaluate whether a technology/product helps to address important challenges faced by society or whether it causes problems to society or at least selected social groups. In this paper, we analyse how this has been, and can be addressed in the context of economic assessments. We discuss the need for systemic measures applicable in the macro-economic setting. Methods The modelling framework of life cycle costing (LCC) is analysed as a key component of the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) framework. Supply chain analysis is applied to LCC in order to understand the relationships between societal concerns of value adding and the basic cost associated with a functional unit. Methods to link LCC as a foreground economic inventory to a background economy wide inventory such as an input–output table are shown. Other modelling frameworks designed to capture consequential effects in LCSA are discussed. Results LCC is a useful indicator in economic assessments, but it fails to capture the full dimension of economic sustainability. It has potential contradictions in system boundary to an environmental LCA, and includes normative judgements at the equivalent of the inventory level. Further, it has an inherent contradiction between user goals (minimisation of cost) and social goals (maximisation of value adding), and has no clear application in a consequential setting. LCC is focussed on the indicator of life cycle cost, to the exclusion of many relevant indicators that can be utilised in LCSA. As such, we propose the coverage of indicators in economic assessment to include the value adding to the economy by type of input, import dependency, indicators associated with the role of capital and labour, the innovation potential, linkages and the structural impact on economic sectors. Conclusions If the economic dimension of LCSA is to be equivalently addressed as the other pillars, formalisation of equivalent frameworks must be undertaken. Much can be advanced from other fields that could see LCSA to take a more central role in policy formation.

Beschreibung: Purpose Sustainability of a material-based product mainly depends on the materials used for the product itself or during its lifetime. A material selection decision should not only capture the functional performance required but should also consider the economical, social, and environmental impacts originated during the product life cycle. There is a need to assess social impacts of materials along the full life cycle, not only to be able to address the “social dimension” in sustainable material selection but also for potentially improving the circumstances of affected stakeholders. This paper presents the method and a case study of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) specialized for comparative studies. Although the authors’ focus is on material selection, the proposed methodology can be used for comparative assessment of products in general. Methods The method is based on UNEP/SETAC “guidelines for social life-cycle assessment of products” and includes four main phases: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory analysis, life cycle impact assessment, and life cycle interpretation. However, some special features are presented to adjust the framework for materials comparison purpose. In life cycle inventory analysis phase, a hot spot assessment is carried out using material flow analysis and stakeholder and experts’ interviews. Based on the results of that, a pairwise comparison method is proposed for life cycle impact assessment applying analytic hierarchy process. A case study was conducted to perform a comparative assessment of the social and socio-economic impacts in life cycle of concrete and steel as building materials in Iran. For hot spot analysis, generic and national level data were gathered, and for impact assessment phase, site-specific data were used. Result and discussion The unique feature of the proposed method compared with other works in S-LCA is its specialty to materials and products comparison. This leads to some differences in methodological issues of S-LCA that are explained in the paper in detail. The case study results assert that “steel/iron” in the north of Iran generally has the better social performance than “concrete/cement.” However, steel is associated with many negative social effects in some subcategories, e.g., freedom of association, fair salary, and occupational health in extraction phase. Against, social profile of concrete and cement industry is damaged mainly due to the negative impact of cement production on safe and healthy living condition. The case study presented in this article shows that the evaluation of social impacts is possible, even if the assessment is always affected by subjective value systems. Conclusions Application of the UNEP/SETAC guidelines in comparative studies can be encouraged based on the results of this paper. It enables a hotspot assessment of the social and socio-economic impacts in life cycle of alternative materials. This research showed that the development of a specialized S-LCA approach for materials and products comparison is well underway although many challenges still persist. Particularly characterization method in life cycle impact assessment phase is challenging. The findings of this case study pointed out that social impacts are primarily connected to the conduct of companies and less with processes and materials in general. These findings confirm the results of Dreyer et al. (Int J Life Cycle Assess 11(2):88–97, 2006 ). The proposed approach aims not only to identify the best socially sustainable alternative but also to reveal product/process improvement potentials to facilitate companies to act socially compatible. It will be interesting to apply the UNEP/SETAC approach of S-LCA to other materials and products; materials with a more complex life cycle will be a special challenge. As with any new method, getting experience on data collection and evaluation, building a data base, integrating the method in software tools, and finding ways for effective communication of results are important steps until integrating S-LCA in routine decision support.

Beschreibung: Purpose Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Social Life Cycle Analysis (SLCA) are tools acknowledged to have a role to play in the transition towards Sustainable Production and Consumption patterns (SPC). However, the role they play in this transition is seldom discussed, especially for SLCA. In addition, although the importance of taking a life cycle thinking (LCT) in the progression towards SPC seems indisputable, its added value is seldom made explicit. This article wishes to highlight the role of SLCA in the transition towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns and questions the relevance of LCT in this role. Methods To answer this question, we first identify the applications of SLCA that correspond to actions that have to be taken in the transition towards SPC based on the SPC and SLCA literature. Then, the relevance of LCT in the context of the different applications identified previously is questioned through a qualitative discursive analysis approach. Results The social goal of SPC is poorly discussed, and the SLCA literature can be one source of inspiration to define what this goal could be. On the basis of the UNEP-SETAC ( 2009 ) Guidelines’ SLCA ultimate goal, SPC could be a means to improve stakeholders’ social conditions through the improvement of enterprises’ behaviours. The intended applications of SLCA for potentially supporting the improvement of enterprises’ behaviours are found to be the identification of hotspots in order to highlight areas of improvement inside the sphere of influence of the SLCA user and the guidance of purchasing and substitution choices on the basis of enterprises’ behaviours. In this article, it is suggested that, for SLCA to deserve the “LCT label”, it has to capture impact transfers along the products’ life cycle. Otherwise, an “ability-to-act-on” perspective is the proper angle to adopt in the identification of areas of improvement inside the sphere of influence and a “cradle-to-retailer”, the one to adopt when SLCA is used to guide buy/boycott. Conclusions Aside from revisiting the role of LCA and SLCA in SPC and the raison d’être of LCT, we discuss some considerations which we believe should be taken into account when developing SLCA in the context of SPC. In conclusion, this article points to the importance of framing the use of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment tools in their context of use.

Beschreibung: Purpose A major task concerning the greening of freight transportation is to influence the process of choosing an appropriate transport solution for a shipment. This paper presents the results of a detailed environmental benchmark study of freight transport chains recorded during a shipper survey administered in Switzerland in 2008. Materials and methods For the environmental evaluation, life cycle assessment was applied and enhanced with a new method for integrating damage to human health caused by traffic accidents based on the disability adjusted life year concept. Results and discussion The results show that in land-based transport, road generally has a lower environmental performance compared to intermodal and rail-only transport. Exceptions exist, e.g. for long pre- and post-haulage distances in intermodal transport or for very low train-load factors. The most relevant environmental interventions to pay attention to are, according to the methods applied, emissions of CO 2 , NO x and particulates as well as accident damages. Conclusions Rail transport is often, but not always, environmentally preferable than truck transport. Accident damages to human health should be included in each benchmark study. For practical application, a simplified benchmark methodology is proposed requiring a reduced level of detail for the input data.

Beschreibung: Purpose In the European Union project New Energy Externalities Development for Sustainability (NEEDS), power generation technologies were ranked by means of two sustainability assessment approaches. The total costs approach, adding private and external costs, and a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) were used, integrating social, economic and environmental criteria. Both approaches relied on environmental indicators based on life cycle assessment. This study aims to analyse the extent to which the development of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) can draw on these ranking methods. Methods The approaches to rank technologies in the NEEDS project are reviewed in terms of similarities and differences in concept, quantification and scope. Identified issues are discussed and set into perspective for the development of a potential future LCSA framework. Results and discussion The NEEDS MCDA and total costs considerably overlap regarding issues covered, except for several social aspects. Beyond total costs being limited to private and external costs, most notable conceptual differences concern the coverage of pecuniary (i.e. price change-induced) external effects, and potential double-counting for instance of resource depletion or specific cost components. External costs take account of the specific utility changes of those affected, requiring a rather high level of spatial and temporal detail. This allows addressing intra- and inter-generational aspects. Differences between both ranking methods and current LCSA methods concern the way weighting is performed, the social aspects covered and the classification of indicators according to the three sustainability dimensions. The methods differ in the way waste, accidents or intended impacts are taken into account. An issue regarding the definition of truly comparable products has also been identified (e.g. power plants). Conclusions For the development of LCSA, the study suggests that taking a consequential approach allows assessing pecuniary effects and repercussions of adaptation measures, relevant for a sustainability context, and that developing a life cycle impact assessment for life cycle costing would provide valuable information. The study concludes with raising a few questions and providing some suggestions regarding the development of a consistent framework for LCSA: whether the analyses in LCSA shall be distinguished into the three dimensions of sustainable development at the inventory or the impact level also with the aim to avoid double-counting, whether or not LCSA will address exceptional events, whether or not benefits shall be accounted for and how to deal with methodological and value choices (e.g. through sensitivity analyses).

Beschreibung: Purpose From a management perspective, there are two main issues in the life cycle sustainability assessment framework which require further work: (1) the approaches to quicken the resource-consuming inventory and assessment process and (2) the easy-to-understand communication of the results. This study aims at contributing to these needs for quicker and cost-efficient ways to draft strategies that include the life cycle perspective and encompasses all three dimensions of sustainability in an easily communicable way. The focus of the study is on a streamlined, rapid assessment the tool proposed by Pesonen ( 2007 ) called the Sustainability SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and on the empirical testing of whether or not it is understood in the corporate world and if it leads to concrete changes in either strategic- or operative-level activities. Methods The data for the research were empirically collected from a survey targeted to representatives of organizations having used the Sustainability SWOT within the last 5 years. The primary findings, i.e., the generated changes or improvements, were reflected in the various levels of cooperation in a network (along the value chain, in end users, in the institutional framework). Results and discussion The results of the analyses of both the usability of the Sustainability SWOT in business as well as the suggested assessment framework leading to any actual changes were promising. It is encouraging that the streamlined approach tailored according to the logic of business decision-makers (i.e., inclusion of the SWOT) is able to find the acceptance and understanding of that vital group. Remarkably, many changes were initiated—not only at an operative level but also at a strategic level and in the entire value chain—by carrying out an exercise such as the Sustainability SWOT. Conclusions The Sustainability SWOT has proven to be usable and able to generate changes and improvements along the value chain and, in some cases, in the institutional context as well.

Beschreibung: Purpose Sustainability Science (SS) is considered an emerging discipline, applicative and solution-oriented whose aim is to handle environmental, social and economic issues in light of cultural, historic and institutional perspectives. The challenges of the discipline are not only related to better identifying the problems affecting sustainability but to the actual transition towards solutions adopting an integrated, comprehensive and participatory approach. This requires the definition of a common scientific paradigm in which integration and interaction amongst sectorial disciplines is of paramount relevance. In this context, life cycle thinking (LCT) and, in particular, life cycle-based methodologies and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) may play a crucial role. The paper illustrates the main challenges posed to sustainability assessment methodologies and related methods in terms of ontology, epistemology and methodology of SS. The aims of the analysis are twofold: (1) to identify the main features of methodologies for sustainability assessment and (2) to present key aspects for the development of robust and comprehensive sustainability assessment. Methods The current debate on SS addressing ontological, epistemological and methodological aspects has been reviewed, leading to the proposal of a conceptual framework for SS. In addition, a meta-review of recent studies on sustainability assessment methodologies and methods, focusing those life cycle based, supports the discussion on the main challenges for a comprehensive and robust approach to sustainability assessment. Starting from the results of the meta-review, we identified specific features of sustainable development-oriented methods: firstly, highlighting key issues towards robust methods for SS and, secondly, capitalising on the findings of each review’s paper. For each issue, a recommendation towards a robust sustainability assessment method is given. Existing limitations of sectorial academic inquiries and proposal for better integration and mainstreaming of SS are the key points under discussion. Discussion In the reviewed papers, LCT and its basic principles are acknowledged as relevant for sustainability assessment. Nevertheless, LCT is not considered as a reference approach in which other methods could also find a place. This aspect has to be further explored, addressing the lack of multi-disciplinary exchange and putting the mainstreaming of LCT as a priority on the agenda of both life cycle assessment and sustainability assessment experts. Crucial issues for further developing sustainability assessment methodologies and methods have been identified and can be summarised as follows: holistic and system wide approaches, shift from multi- towards trans-disciplinarity; multi-scale (temporal and geographical) perspectives; and better involvement and participation of stakeholders. Conclusions Those are also the main challenges posed to LCSA in terms of progress of ontology, epistemology and methodology in line with the progress of SS. The life cycle-based methodologies should be broadened from comparing alternatives and avoiding negative impacts, to also proactively enhancing positive impacts, and towards the achievement of sustainability goals.

Beschreibung: Purpose To contribute to the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012 by introducing a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) and showing how it can play a crucial role in moving towards sustainable consumption and production. The publication, titled Towards a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment , and published by the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative aims to show how three life cycle techniques—(environmental) LCA, S-LCA and LCC—can be combined as part of an over-arching LCSA. Methods The method was demonstrated by evaluating the characteristics of each phase for each life cycle technique. In defining the goal and scope of an LCSA, for example, different aspects should be taken into account to establish the aim of the study as well as the functional unit, system boundaries, impact category and allocation. Then, the data to be collected for the life cycle sustainability inventory can be either in a unit process or on an organisational level. They can also be quantitative or qualitative. Life cycle sustainability impact assessment should consider the relevance of the impacts as well as the perspective of stakeholders. The interpretation should not add up the results, but rather evaluate them jointly. In order to clarify the approach, a case study is presented to evaluate three types of marble according to the proposed method. Results and discussion The authors have identified that while LCSA is feasible, following areas need more development: data production and acquisition, methodological development, discussion about LCSA criteria (e.g. cutoff rules), definitions and formats of communication and dissemination of LCSA results and the expansion of research and applications combining (environmental) LCA, LCC and S-LCA. The authors also indicate that it is necessary to develop more examples and cases to improve user capacity to analyse the larger picture and therefore address the three dimensions or pillars of sustainability in a systematic way. Software and database providers are called for in order to facilitate user-friendly and accessible tools to promote LCSAs. Conclusions The application demonstrated that, although methodological improvements are still needed, important steps towards an overarching sustainability assessment have been accomplished. LCSA is possible and should be pursued; however, more efforts should be made to improve the technique and facilitate the studies in order to contribute to a greener economy.

Beschreibung: Purpose A widely used theory of the computational structure of life cycle assessment (LCA) has been available for more than a decade. The case of environmental life cycle cost (LCC) is still less clear: even the recent Code of Practice does not specify any formula to use. Methods This paper does not aim to resolve all the issues at stake. But it aims to provide an explicit and transparent description of how to calculate the life cycle cost (in whatever way defined), and the value added across the life cycle. Results and discussion The expressions obtained can be fed into the formulas for eco-efficiency, so that an explicit and reproducible eco-efficiency indicator can be calculated. Conclusions The results are useful for developing life cycle sustainability analysis, combining LCA, LCC, and social LCA.

Beschreibung: Purpose Achieving sustainability by rethinking products, services and strategies is an enormous challenge currently laid upon the economic sector, in which materials selection plays a critical role. In this context, the present work describes an environmental and economic life cycle analysis of a structural product, comparing two possible material alternatives. The product chosen is a storage tank, presently manufactured in stainless steel (SST) or in a glass fibre reinforced polymer composite (CST). The overall goal of the study is to identify environmental and economic strong and weak points related to the life cycle of the two material alternatives. The consequential win–win or trade-off situations will be identified via a life cycle assessment/life cycle costing (LCA/LCC) integrated model. Methods The LCA/LCC integrated model used consists in applying the LCA methodology to the product system, incorporating, in parallel, its results into the LCC study, namely those of the life cycle inventory and the life cycle impact assessment. Results and discussion In both the SST and CST systems, the most significant life cycle phase is the raw materials production, in which the most significant environmental burdens correspond to the Fossil fuels and Respiratory inorganics categories. The LCA/LCC integrated analysis shows that the CST has globally a preferable environmental and economic profile, as its impacts are lower than those of the SST in all life cycle stages. Both the internal and external costs are lower, the former resulting mainly from the composite material being significantly less expensive than stainless steel. This therefore represents a full win–win situation. As a consequence, the study clearly indicates that using a thermoset composite material to manufacture storage tanks is environmentally and economically desirable. However, it was also evident that the environmental performance of the CST could be improved by altering its end-of-life stage. Conclusions The results of the present work provide enlightening insights into the synergies between the environmental and the economic performance of a structural product made with alternative materials. Furthermore, they provide conclusive evidence to support the integration of environmental and economic life cycle analysis in the product development processes of a manufacturing company or, in some cases, even in its procurement practices.

Beschreibung: Purpose The development of product category rules (PCRs) is inconsistent among the program operators using ISO 14025 as the basis. Furthermore, the existence of several other product claim standards and specifications that require analogous rules for making product claims has the potential to reduce any consistency in PCRs present in the ISO 14025 domain and result in unnecessary duplication of PCRs. These inconsistencies and duplications can be attributed to (a) insufficient specificity in related standards, (b) the presence of several standards and specifications, (c) lack of/limited coordination among program operators, and (d) lack of a single global database for PCRs. As a result, current PCR development threatens the legitimacy of life cycle assessment-based product claims. Process Through discussions over the past few years, in multistakeholder organizations, it has become clear that more guidance on the development of PCRs is necessary. In response to this need, the Product Category Rule Guidance Development Initiative ( www.pcrguidance.org ) was launched as an independent multistakeholder effort in early 2012. The premise for the Initiative was that the Guidance would be created by a voluntary group of international stakeholders that would share ownership of the outputs. Outcome The Guidance is now published, along with supplementary materials, on the Initiative website. The guidance document specifies requirements, recommendations, and options on (1) steps to be taken before PCR creation; (2) elements of a PCR; (3) review, publication, and use of PCRs; and (4) best practices for PCR development and management. Supplementary materials include a PCR template, a conformity assessment form, and a list of program operators from around the world. Conclusions The Guidance will help reduce cost and time to develop a PCR by supporting the adaptation of an existing PCR or by building on elements from existing PCRs. It will help reduce confusion and frustration when creating PCRs that are based on one or more standards and programs. Overall, the Guidance is a robust handbook for consistency and clarity in the development of PCRs.

Beschreibung: Introduction   The amount of waste generated in Europe and, beyond, by our production and consumption patterns is significant. A proper waste management is essential in order to reduce detrimental environmental impacts. For the European Union, the general principles of good waste management are outlined in the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC). This directive establishes a five-step hierarchy of waste management starting with the preferred option of waste prevention followed by preparing waste for reuse, recycling and other recovery with disposal (such as landfill) as the last resort. Methods   The European Commission encourages the use of life cycle thinking (LCT) to complement the waste hierarchy for a more environmentally sound and factual support to decision-making in waste management. Results   This has led to the development of a set of guidelines, tailored to the needs of different target audiences, which help apply LCT and quantitative tools such as life cycle assessment to waste management systems and strategies. The main aim of this paper is to present these guidelines, while also providing a structured overview on existing waste management criteria (e.g. the waste hierarchy), concepts and tools. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-3 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0315-5 Authors Simone Manfredi, Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), Joint Research Centre (JRC), via E. Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra, Italy Rana Pant, Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), Joint Research Centre (JRC), via E. Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra, Italy David W. Pennington, Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), Joint Research Centre (JRC), via E. Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra, Italy Andreas Versmann, European Commission, Environment DG, Unit C2–Sustainable Production and Consumption, 1049 Brussels, Belgium Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   In May 2009, the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products (the Guidelines) were launched at the occasion of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26000 (Social Responsibility) meeting in Quebec City, Canada. Developed by a United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (“UNEP/SETAC”) Life Cycle Initiative project group on Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), the Guidelines provide a framework to assess social impacts across product life cycles. A year later, the Methodological Sheets for the Subcategories of Social LCA (“the Methodological Sheets”) are being made available to support practitioners engaging in the field. The Methodological Sheets provide practical guidance for conducting S-LCA case studies by offering consistent, yet flexible assistance. Aim and scope   A Methodological Sheet was developed for each of the 31 subcategories of assessment outlined in the Guidelines. Each sheet includes a subcategory definition tailored to S-LCA, an explanation of how the subcategory relates to sustainable development, information on data assessment, including examples of inventory indicators, units of measurement, and data sources, along with a reference section that points the user to further information. The data assessment section is intended to provide adaptable guidance to LCA practitioners by offering examples and does not prescribe comprehensive procedures. The Methodological Sheets do not provide guidance on aggregating subcategory indicators or characterization models, nor do they discuss interpretation of results. The sheets are focused on the inventory analysis phase of S-LCA. This article will detail the development process of this unique resource, its content and future development, and how it compares to other types of documents, such as the GRI G3, ISO 26000 guidelines on Social Responsibility and the Global Social Compliance reference code. Conclusions   The Methodological Sheets support the framework of S-LCA offered in the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines. They provide consistent guidance to assist LCA practitioners in case studies. At the same time, they have been designed to encourage context-specific application. Content of the Methodological Sheets will continue to evolve. Over time, and when relevant, characterization and interpretation models will be added to the Methodological Sheets. The Methodological Sheets are currently under public review and available on the Life Cycle Initiative website. A finalized version will be available in 2011, integrating comments from the review process. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-9 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0301-y Authors Catherine Benoît-Norris, New Earth, Sustainability Consortium, University of New Hampshire, 22 Trafton Street, York, ME 03909, USA Gina Vickery-Niederman, Environmental Dynamics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA Sonia Valdivia, Sustainable Consumption and Production Branch, UNEP DTIE, 15 rue de Milan, 75009 Paris, France Juliane Franze, GreenDeltaTC, Raumerstrasse 7, 10437 Berlin, Germany Marzia Traverso, Institute for Environmental Engineering, Technical University Berlin, Office Z 1, Str. des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany Andreas Ciroth, Institute for Environmental Engineering, Technical University Berlin, Office Z 1, Str. des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany Bernard Mazijn, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Ghent University, Universiteitstraat 8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The purpose of this study is to document and assess the environmental impacts associated with two competing powder coating solutions using current life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and available data and to check whether there is a conflict between environmental performance and occupational health issues. Materials and methods   Data have been gathered for the manufacture and application of the two different powder coatings. The case study is a cradle-to-gate study, using retrospective data. The data were entered into the SimaPro 7.2.4 LCA software and environmental impacts calculated using IPPC 2007, CML-IA and USEtox™ classification and characterisation methods. The USEtox methods were used both with and without interim factors, and this distinction was very important for the ranking of the alternatives. The study was performed using the functional unit: Surface treatment of the “foot-cross” of one H05 5300 office chair for 15 years (the lifetime of the chair) , where the reference flow was 172 g of powder coating to fulfil this function. Literature about the known health effects associated with chemicals in the two solutions was also consulted in order to assess whether the main concerns driving the desire to replace the epoxy-based powder coating have been addressed and improved through using the polyester-based alternative. Results and discussion   The life cycle environmental impacts evaluated show improvements in the potential environmental impacts analysed due to the substitute polyester-based coating. The results for human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity potentials are dependent on the inclusion of interim characterisation factors. Literature sources provide evidence of irritation and sensitisation effects associated with epoxy resin, but not for the polyester resin alternative. Conclusions   Substitution of the epoxy-based coating by a polyester-based alternative reduces the occupational health risk for workers coming into contact with the powder coating. The results show that this substitution has also led to reduced potential environmental impacts: global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity, when the interim factors for some metals and organics are included in the USEtox calculations. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0302-x Authors Cecilia Askham, Ostfold Research, Gamle Bedding vei 2B, 1671 Kråkerøy, Norway Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   With increasing attention on sustainable development, the environmental and social relevance of palm oil production are now important trade issues. The life cycle assessment (LCA) study of Malaysian oil palm products from mineral soils including palm biodiesel was aimed to provide baseline information on the environmental performance of the industry for drawing up policies pertaining to the sustainable production. The share of greenhouse gas (GHG) contribution by the various subsystems in the oil palm supply chain is considered here. Materials and methods   The life cycle inventory data for the study were collected based on subsystems, i.e., gate-to-gate. The subsystems include activities in oil palm nurseries and plantations, palm oil mills, refineries, biodiesel plants and the use of biodiesel in diesel engine vehicles. Two scenarios were considered: extraction of crude palm oil (CPO) in a mill without and with a system for trapping biogas from palm oil mill effluent (POME). Inventory data were collected through questionnaires. On-site visits were carried out for data verification. Background data for resource exploitation and production of input materials were obtained through available databases and literature. Foreground data for all subsystems were site-specific data from nurseries, plantations, palm oil mills and refineries and biodiesel plants in Malaysia. Results and discussion   Using a yield of 20.7 t oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB)/ha, the results showed that the production of 1 t of FFB produced 119 kg CO 2 eq. The production of 1 t of CPO in a mill without and with biogas capture emitted 971 and 506 kg CO 2 eq, respectively. For the production of 1 t of refined palm oil in a refinery which sourced the CPO from a mill without biogas capture and with biogas capture, the GHG emitted was 1,113 kg and 626 kg CO 2 eq, respectively. For palm biodiesel, 33.19 and 21.20 g CO 2 eq were emitted per MJ of biodiesel produced from palm oil sourced from a mill without and with biogas capture, respectively. Conclusions   GHG contribution by the nursery subsystem was found to be minimal. In the plantation subsystem, the major sources of GHG were from nitrogen fertilizers, transport and traction energy. For the mill, biogas from POME was the major contributor if biogas was not trapped. Excluding contribution from upstream activities, boiler fuel and transport were the major sources of GHG in the refinery subsystem. In the biodiesel subsystem, activities for production of refined palm oil and methanol use were the most significant contributors. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0303-9 Authors Yuen May Choo, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, No. 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia Halimah Muhamad, Product Development and Advisory Services, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, No. 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia Zulkifli Hashim, Biology Division, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, No. 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia Vijaya Subramaniam, Engineering and Processing Division, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, No. 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia Chiew Wei Puah, Engineering and Processing Division, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, No. 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia YewAi Tan, Product Development and Advisory Services, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, No. 6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The agricultural sector fulfils several functions such as the production of food energy and landscape conservation. An equilibrium between economic development and environmental protection should be found and research should aid political decision-making. In recent years, great efforts have been made to assess the environmental and economic implications of changes in both environmental and agricultural policies. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been extended by cost functions and social parameters. The validation of suggestions for political measures can be improved by combining existing environmental and economic models. This approach is applied in this paper in order to compare an increased support for organic farming with specific environmental policy measures, focusing on the resulting impacts and socioeconomic indicators. Materials and methods   The LCA tool Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment (SALCA) has been linked with the economic optimisation model Swiss Agricultural Sector Forecasting System (SILAS). Since the focus lies on agricultural production, the farm gate represents the system boundary of the LCA. By linking SALCA with SILAS, the classic LCA impact categories have been extended by socioeconomic indicators. A reference scenario representing the assumed development of economic conditions between 2008 and 2015 was varied by a support for organic farming and four specific policy measures (support for ecological compensation areas and a tax on energy, fertiliser and concentrates, respectively). To remain comparable, the changes in total payments were set to the same amount in all scenarios (100 million CHF). Results and discussion   A support for organic farming would have favourable effects on several environmental and socioeconomic indicators, but the differences compared to a combination of the four specific measures are small. However, some of these single measures could reach parts of the targets more efficiently: an energy tax would stimulate the application of available energy-saving measures, and a tax on concentrates would lead to a shift from intensive animal husbandry to crop production, reducing imports of concentrates and emissions of ammonia. Overall, the predicted developments in product and factor prices combined with the assumed reductions of public payments until 2015, as represented by the reference scenario, have the greatest effect on environmental impacts. Conclusions   Theoretically, specific policy measures are more efficient than measures directed towards multiple goals. Especially in the case of agriculture, however, a specific measure not only has an impact on the associated target but affects all agricultural functions. The results of the model combination suggest that a support for organic farming lowers the risk of undesirable side effects on environmental and socioeconomic indicators. Before implementing more specific measures, their impacts on the different functions should be estimated. For this purpose, a combination of decision-support models with LCA may be an appropriate instrument. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0286-6 Authors Albert Zimmermann, Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, Reckenholzstr. 191, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland Daniel Baumgartner, Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, Reckenholzstr. 191, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland Thomas Nemecek, Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, Reckenholzstr. 191, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland Gérard Gaillard, Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, Reckenholzstr. 191, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Though the development of biofuel has attracted numerous studies for quantifying potential water demand applying life cycle thinking, the impacts of biofuel water consumption still remain unknown. In this study, we aimed to quantify ecological impact associated with corn-based bioethanol water consumption in Minnesota in responding to different refinery expansion scenarios by applying a life cycle impact assessment method. Method s    This ecological damage assessment method for quantifying water consumption impacts was proposed by Pfister et al. in 2009 (Environ Sci Technol 43: 4098–4104, 2009 ) using an impact characterization factor integrating terrestrial net primary production and precipitation. In this study, we derived the spatially explicit eco-damage characterization factors for 81 watersheds in Minnesota and compiled location-specific water consumption data for all current and planned bioethanol production facilities and feedstock production. The ecological damage caused by bioethanol production (ΔEQ EtOH in m 2 ⋅yr) was then calculated on both watershed and refinery-plant levels. Additional refinery expansion scenarios were established for testing the effectiveness in changing ΔEQ EtOH . Results and discussion   The results show that ecological impact ΔEQ EtOH varied by more than a factor of 3 between watersheds. Minnesota consumed 40 billion liters of water to produce 2.3 billion liters of ethanol as of 2007 (17 L water per liter of ethanol). The geographical distribution of ΔEQ EtOH was shown to be uneven with a cluster of high-impact regions around the center of the state. The planned refinery expansion is expected to increase the state’s corn ethanol production capacity by 75% and ΔEQ EtOH by 65%. However, strategically locating the planned expansion in the low-impact areas is expected to minimize the increases in ΔEQ EtOH down to 19% from 65%. Conclusions   The scenario analysis shows that strategically sourcing corn from low-impact regions can result in significantly less water use impact compared to a baseline scenario. The results indicate that employing the water consumption impact assessment can provide additional insights in policy making. The environmental impacts related to the change of plant infrastructure and agricultural practices associated with the development of the renewable energy industry should be considered as well for identifying the most sustainable alternatives. Content Type Journal Article Category WATER USE IN LCA Pages 1-9 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0328-0 Authors Yi-Wen Chiu, Water Resources Science, University of Minnesota, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Building 362, Lemont, IL 60439, USA Sangwon Suh, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, 3422 Bren Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA Stephan Pfister, ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Stefanie Hellweg, ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Annette Koehler, ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners in Singapore currently rely on foreign life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methodologies when conducting studies, despite the fact that foreign methodologies may not be relevant, adaptable and sensitive to Singapore's circumstances. As a result, work has been undertaken to develop the Singapore IMPact ASSessment (SIMPASS) methodology by adapting and modifying existing LCIA methodologies to suit the Singaporean context. It is envisioned that the use of SIMPASS will improve the accuracy of LCA studies conducted for industries operating in Singapore. Methods   The development is initiated by a compendious review of the available LCIA methodologies, in order to familiarise state-of-the-art developments and best available practice for LCIA in the world. Subsequently, five key design considerations are discussed. Firstly, six impact categories (climate change, acidification, eutrophication, fossil fuel depletion, water use and land use) are identified and prioritised for detailed analysis in this project, in view of their relevance and criticality to Singapore. Subsequently, user issues and the type of LCIA approach are considered. Following which, four areas of protection (namely Human Health, Natural Environment, Natural Resources and Man-made Environment) are selected for consideration in the SIMPASS methodology. Results   With the development approach in mind, extensive research is conducted in the six selected impact categories to construct the characterisation framework for SIMPASS. The characterisation framework is strongly based on current best practices in LCIA characterisation, while the characterisation models are chosen based on their extent of comprehensiveness, scientific sophistication, as well as specificity to Singapore. Conclusions and recommendations   SIMPASS proposes an attractive and feasible LCIA methodology that is highly specific to Singapore. Feasible recommendations are drawn to further develop and operationalise the characterisation framework. Content Type Journal Article Category LIFE CYCLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT (LCIA) Pages 1-7 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0333-3 Authors Yin Tat Chan, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576 Singapore Reginald B. H. Tan, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576 Singapore Hsien Hui Khoo, Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, 1 Pesek Road, Jurong Island, Singapore, 627833 Singapore Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   A workshop was convened on life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to pavement. The workshop’s primary goals were to establish common practices for conducting LCAs for pavements. In general, pavement LCA has been implemented without clear guidelines for modeling assumptions and reporting. This shortcoming has led to challenges in interpreting and comparing pavement LCA outcomes. Methods   A 2-day workshop was convened with 45 participants from academia, US and foreign transportation agencies, and industry. The workshop yielded some agreement and dissent on proposed guidelines for implementing and reporting of pavement LCA. Discourse on particular topics was facilitated through break-out sessions tailored to the workshop attendees and their respective areas of expertise. Results and conclusions   Consensus was not reached for all issues discussed at the workshop. Where consensus did not emerge, dissenting views were recorded and included in workshop reporting. However, the majority of topics did resolve with consensus and informed the development and revision of a publicly available framework and guideline for pavement LCA. This framework and guideline was available at the conference website ( http://www.ucprc.ucdavis.edu/P-LCA/index.html ) and remains available for continued comment. Content Type Journal Article Category CONFERENCE REPORT Pages 1-3 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0334-2 Authors John Harvey, Pavement Research Center, University of California, 3327 Apiary Road, Davis, CA 95616, USA Alissa Kendall, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA Nick Santero, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, 407 McLaughlin Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1712, USA Thomas Van Dam, Applied Pavement Technology Inc, 200 Michigan St., Suite 321, Hancock, MI 49931, USA In-Sung Lee, Pavement Research Center, University of California, 3327 Apiary Road, Davis, CA 95616, USA Ting Wang, Pavement Research Center, University of California, 3327 Apiary Road, Davis, CA 95616, USA Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The purpose of this paper is to characterize the environmental impacts of equipment used in power transmission and distribution. This study is divided in two parts, each addressing different main components of the electrical grid system. This part is concerned with the impacts of transformers and substation equipment while in part 1 a similar analysis is presented for power lines and cables. Methods   The method used here is process-based life cycle assessment. Ecoinvent v 2.2 is used as a background dataset, and the results are obtained with the impact assessment method ReCiPe Midpoint Hierarchist perspective (v1.0). The average European power mix is used to model the electrical energy required to compensate power losses in the electrical equipment. Results and discussion   Assuming a European power mix, results for transformers indicate that power losses are by far the most dominant process for almost all impact categories evaluated here, contributing at least 96% to climate change impacts. An exception is the category of metal depletion, for which production of raw materials is the most relevant process. Within infrastructure-related impacts, the production of raw materials is the most important process. Recycling shows benefits for most impact categories. For some substation equipment using sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ), climate change impacts due to SF 6 leakages surpass impacts due to losses. Conclusions   The results suggest that improvements in component efficiency—reduction of power losses and reduction of SF 6 gas leakages in gas-insulated equipment—would significantly contribute to decreases in overall component impacts. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA FOR ENERGY SYSTEMS Pages 1-8 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0336-0 Authors Raquel Santos Jorge, Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491 Norway Troy R. Hawkins, Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491 Norway Edgar G. Hertwich, Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491 Norway Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The purpose of this study is to provide life cycle inventory data and results for components of electrical grids to the larger community of life cycle assessment practitioners. This article is the first in a series of two, each focusing on different components of power grids. In part 1, the objects under scope are power lines and cables. Systems for overhead, underground, and subsea transmission are modeled here, including HVDC systems used in long-distance transmission. Methods   We use process-based life cycle assessment based on information provided by companies and in reports, Ecoinvent v2.2 as a background dataset and ReCiPe Midpoint Hierarchist perspective v1.0 as the impact assessment method. The average European power mix is used to model the electrical energy required to compensate power losses in the equipment. Results and discussion   Under the assumption of European power mix, power losses are the dominant process for impacts of lines and cables in all impact categories, contributing with up to 99% to climate change impacts. An exception is the category of metal depletion, for which the production of metal parts is the most relevant process. Conclusions   After power losses, processes generating the most impacts for overhead lines are the production of metals for masts and conductors; production of foundations comes third. Recycling of metal parts shows benefits in all impact categories. For cables, infrastructure impacts are dominated by cable production, and recycling of cable materials does not always compensate for the other impacts generated at the end of life. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA FOR ENERGY SYSTEMS Pages 1-7 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0335-1 Authors Raquel Santos Jorge, Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491 Norway Troy R. Hawkins, Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491 Norway Edgar G. Hertwich, Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491 Norway Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   This paper discusses issues associated with the research question: What are the similarities and differences between the REACH and life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches, and how can synergies between these two approaches be exploited to achieve environmental improvements in a holistic perspective? Methods   The Innochem project (Hanssen 2010 ) has been the vehicle for examining two different approaches for product improvement: REACH and LCA. Product LCAs and REACH assessments were performed on several products from each of the two main company participants, i.e. Jotun and HÅG. These companies are downstream users, according to the REACH definition: Jotun producing mixtures and HÅG manufacturing articles. Knowledge of the REACH and LCA aspects associated with these two types of products existed in the project team and was used in the project period (2006–2011) to compare the two approaches. Results   This paper presents similarities and differences between REACH and LCA approaches as related to reducing impacts on the environment. As an illustrative example, the REACH registration dossier is compared to USEtox data for benzene. Conclusions   Combining aspects of LCA with REACH can give companies a competitive edge and benefit society. The greater availability of toxicity data that will result from REACH can strenghten LCA toxicity assessments and methods. The functional life cycle approach and potential synergies from LCA are important when implementing REACH in companies in order to avoid suboptimal solutions and exploit the potential for achieving innovative improvements. Many companies will use both approaches, which may lead to results pointing in the same direction, or contradictory results. Using both approaches and exploiting concurrence and synergies between them will ensure that decision makers are aware of potential conflicts during the product development process and can thus be able to seek solutions that will avoid these conflicts of interest. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA OF CHEMICALS Pages 1-15 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0329-z Authors Cecilia Askham, Ostfold Research, Gamle Bedding vei 2B, 1671 Kråkerøy, Norway Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Erratum to: Life cycle energy consumption and CO 2 emission of an office building in China Content Type Journal Article Category Erratum Pages 1-1 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0360-0 Authors Huijun Wu, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046 People’s Republic of China Zengwei Yuan, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046 People’s Republic of China Ling Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046 People’s Republic of China Jun Bi, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046 People’s Republic of China Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The life cycle assessment of silicon wafer processing for microelectronic chips and solar cells aims to provide current and comprehensive data. In view of the very fast market developments, for solar cell fabrication the influence of technology and capacity variations on the overall environmental impact was also investigated and the data were compared with the widely used ecoinvent data. Methods   Existing material flow models for silicon wafer processing for microelectronic chips and solar cells used for engineering and planning formed a starting point for this analysis. The models represent an average of widely used processes and associated process equipment. The resulting input/output tables formed the data basis for the life cycle assessment. This is a cradle-to-gate investigation, consisting of primary gate-to-gate data for wafer processing. The upstream processes of the necessary inputs were supplemented with data from ecoinvent v2.0. Subsequent manufacturing steps, utilization, and waste disposal of the final products were not included. The software used for creating the inventory and impact assessment was Umberto version 5.5. The Impact 2002+ method was applied for impact assessment. Results   For both semiconductor and solar cell fabrication, energy consumption and upstream chemicals production are most relevant for the overall potential environmental impact when only the gate-to-gate processes are considered. The upstream process for wafer production is dominant in solar cell fabrication, but exerts little influence on semiconductor fabrication. In the case of semiconductor fabrication, a comparison with the present ecoinvent dataset “wafer, fabricated, for integrated circuit, at plant” shows large differences. Conclusions   In the case of silicon solar cells, the results of this study and the ecoinvent data are very similar and the impact of different fabrication processes appears to be minor. Content Type Journal Article Category LIFE CYCLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT (LCIA) Pages 1-19 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0351-1 Authors Mario Schmidt, Institute of Industrial Ecology, Pforzheim University, Tiefenbronner Str. 65, 75175 Pforzheim, Germany Heidi Hottenroth, Institute of Industrial Ecology, Pforzheim University, Tiefenbronner Str. 65, 75175 Pforzheim, Germany Martin Schottler, Verfahrenstechnische Beratung, Bismarckstraße 75, 70197 Stuttgart, Germany Gabriele Fetzer, M+W Germany GmbH, Lotterbergstr. 30, 70499 Stuttgart, Germany Birgit Schlüter, M+W Germany GmbH, Lotterbergstr. 30, 70499 Stuttgart, Germany Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Erratum to: A system dynamics approach in LCA to account for temporal effects—a consequential energy LCI of car bodies-in-white Content Type Journal Article Category Erratum Pages 1-1 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0361-z Authors Peter Stasinopoulos, Research School of Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia Paul Compston, Research School of Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia Barry Newell, Research School of Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia Haley M. Jones, Research School of Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   As capture fishery production has reached its limits and global demand for aquatic products is still increasing, aquaculture has become the world’s fastest growing animal production sector. In attempts to evaluate the environmental consequences of this rapid expansion, life cycle assessment (LCA) has become a frequently used method. The present review of current peer-reviewed literature focusing on LCA of aquaculture systems is intended to clarify the methodological choices made, identify possible data gaps, and provide recommendations for future development within this field of research. The results of this review will also serve as a start-up activity of the EU FP7 SEAT (Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade) project, which aims to perform several LCA studies on aquaculture systems in Asia over the next few years. Methods   From a full analysis of methodology in LCA, six phases were identified to differ the most amongst ten peer-reviewed articles and two PhD theses (functional unit, system boundaries, data and data quality, allocation, impact assessment methods, interpretation methods). Each phase is discussed with regards to differences amongst the studies, current LCA literature followed by recommendations where appropriate. The conclusions and recommendations section reflects on aquaculture-specific scenarios as well as on some more general issues in LCA. Results   Aquaculture LCAs often require large system boundaries, including fisheries, agriculture, and livestock production systems from around the globe. The reviewed studies offered limited coverage of production in developing countries, low-intensity farming practices, and non-finfish species, although most farmed aquatic products originate from a wide range of farming practices in Asia. Apart from different choices of functional unit, system boundaries and impact assessment methods, the studies also differed in their choice of allocation factors and data sourcing. Interpretation of results also differed amongst the studies, and a number of methodological choices were identified influencing the outcomes. Conclusions and recommendations   Efforts should be made to increase transparency to allow the results to be reproduced, and to construct aquaculture related database(s). More extensive data reporting, including environmental flows, within the greater field of LCA could be achieved, without compromising the focus of studies, by providing supporting information to articles and/or reporting only ID numbers from background databases. More research is needed into aquaculture in Asia based on the latest progress made by the LCA community. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA FOR FOOD PRODUCTS Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0369-4 Authors Patrik J. G. Henriksson, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Department of Industrial Ecology, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, the Netherlands Jeroen B. Guinée, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Department of Industrial Ecology, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, the Netherlands René Kleijn, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Department of Industrial Ecology, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, the Netherlands Geert R. de Snoo, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Department of Industrial Ecology, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, the Netherlands Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   A renewable thermoplastic called Novatein Thermoplastic Protein (NTP) has been developed from blood meal—a low-value by-product of the meat processing industry. The aim of this research was to develop a non-renewable energy and greenhouse gas emission eco-profile for cradle to gate production of NTP. Environmental impacts of supplying blood meal as a raw material were investigated using different allocation methods for farming and blood meal production. These included mass, economic, treating low-value by-products as waste and system expansion by substitution. In part 2, the entire system will be analysed on a cradle to gate basis and include the production of thermoplastic (NTP). Methods   A theoretical NTP production facility was analysed for non-renewable primary energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Data for feedstocks and process steps were obtained from published papers, government agency reports and engineering models. Mass and economic allocation models treating low-value by-products as waste and substitution were applied, and a sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate the impact of different methods of allocation on environmental impact. Results and discussion   Non-renewable energy use in blood meal production varied between 5 (substitution) and 38 MJ (simple mass allocation) per kg of NTP. Greenhouse gas emissions varied between 0.4 (substitution), or even less if the biogenic carbon content is considered a credit, and 14 kg (mass allocation) CO 2 e per kg NTP. Conclusions   It was concluded that both mass allocation and a waste assumption should be considered for the cradle to gate system. Mass allocation is common in other attributional studies and allows for a more transparent comparison. The most appropriate treatment of allocation in an attributional profile was to consider blood as a waste with regard to farming and meat processing, but include blood drying. This takes into account the motivations for farming and meat processing, but also recognises that there are other treatment options for blood that do not produce blood meal used in manufacturing NTP. This would allow NTP to be compared to other bioplastics as well as identifying hot spots in its cradle to gate production. It was also anticipated that results may be adapted in future cradle to grave assessments as product systems are developed. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA FOR RENEWABLE RESOURCES Pages 1-12 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0349-8 Authors Jim M. Bier, School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Casparus J. R. Verbeek, School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Mark C. Lay, School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Modern individual mobility Content Type Journal Article Category EDITORIAL Pages 1-3 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0365-8 Authors Hans-Jörg Althaus, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Technology and Society Laboratory, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Service life of building products has an important influence on life cycle assessment (LCA) results of buildings. The goal of this study was to propose a systematic approach to estimate service life of building products by including both technical and social factors. Methods   A hybrid service life prediction method, combining the statistical approach described in American Society for Testing and Materials standard G166 with the Factor Method adopted by International Organization for Standardization standard 15686, was proposed. In their current forms, the two methods are not suitable to provide reliable lifetime estimates for the wide variety of products that are used in buildings. Statistical analysis was preferred over a deterministic approach. Regression analysis was used to define Weibull distribution parameters for each product. These distributions were then used to calculate the mean estimated service life of products with an 80% confidence interval. Using actual lifetime observed from practice instead of design lifetime for reference service life was preferred. This enables the use of a smaller range of coefficients for each factor affecting service life, which decreases subjectivity and increases reliability of results. Results and discussion   Example median service life estimates were demonstrated for common residential interior finishes that are replaced more frequently, and therefore require more maintenance planning and potentially have significant environmental impacts. Probability of renovation distributions was also presented for interior finishes. The proposed method inherently includes social factors in the dataset used to define lifetime distributions, which could be as important as durability for some building product categories. Another advantage is that choosing reference service life based on real-life conditions decreases the range of coefficients necessary for modifying factors in comparison to when design lifetime is used, thus decreasing the subjectivity of results due to variations in assigned values by different users. Conclusions   The Factor Method is the most promising method available to estimate service life of products. Unless additional data points were gathered for investigated products, the presented lifetime distribution results can be directly applied to LCA studies. The proposed hybrid method can also be applied to other products that are studied within the Factor Method. Products whose lifetimes are influenced by social factors are prime candidates to apply this method. Content Type Journal Article Category DATA AVAILABILITY, DATA QUALITY IN LCA Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0367-6 Authors Can B. Aktas, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA Melissa M. Bilec, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Environmental footprints of wood pellets produced in British Columbia (BC) of Canada are to be estimated based on industry surveys and published emission factor data. Method   The streamlined life cycle analysis starts from raw material acquisition and ends at port Rotterdam in Europe for exported pellets or North Vancouver port for domestically used pellets. The raw materials used for pellet production are dry and wet sawmill residues, and allocations are based on dry mass. The pellet production data are based on three pellets mills in western Canada. Results and discussion   For every tonne of BC pellets exported, 295 kg CO 2 equivalent greenhouse gases is released. The human health, ecosystem quality, and climate change impacts of the exported pellets can be reduced by 61%, 66%, and 53%, respectively, if the pellets stay in BC for local applications. Harvesting is the second highest impacting process, following marine transportation. The total amount of primary energy consumed for 1 tonne of exported pellets is 6,372 MJ, and approximately 35% of it is attributed to marine transportation. Exported pellets have 16.4% of nonrenewable energy content and an energy penalty of 33% with energy penalty defined as the amount of primary energy consumed to produce and deliver one unit of process energy using the higher heating value. For domestically used pellets, the energy penalty is 21% and the nonrenewable energy content is 8.59%. Conclusions   Marine transportation is the main contributor for all impact categories. Improving the energy efficiency of the harvesting and pellet plant operations is also a way to effectively reduce these wood pellet's environmental footprints. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA FOR WOOD Pages 1-12 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0358-7 Authors Ann Pa, Clean Energy Research Centre for University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada Jill S. Craven, Clean Energy Research Centre for University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada Xiaotao T. Bi, Clean Energy Research Centre for University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada Staffan Melin, Clean Energy Research Centre for University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada Shahab Sokhansanj, Clean Energy Research Centre for University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Recent literature has highlighted a renewed debate amongst the scientific community about the relevance of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions to future ozone layer management. This raises the question as to whether the life cycle assessment (LCA) community should also consider incorporating N 2 O into its ozone depletion models. This discussion summarises a preliminary investigation into the justification for doing so. Methods   Literature on the atmospheric science of ozone depletion and N 2 O was reviewed, in particular recent proposals for an ozone depletion potential (ODP) factor that can be applied to anthropogenic N 2 O emissions. To identify their potential significance to life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results, these ODP values were applied to both a wastewater management case study and global emissions inventories. The literature review was also used to highlight certain issues that need further consideration if N 2 O is to be incorporated into LCIA models. Results   Atmospheric modelling has shown that continued anthropogenic N 2 O emissions could substantially affect ozone layer recovery. Furthermore, N 2 O now represents one of the biggest remaining opportunities for emissions abatement. The two steady state ODP factors for N 2 O available in the literature are in close agreement, with one of the models used showing reasonable calibration to accepted ODP values for other substances. Analysis of the wastewater case study showed that the incorporation of these interim ODP values for N 2 O could have a substantial impact on LCIA results interpretation. This finding should be equally relevant for other case studies where N 2 O emissions play a prominent role. Conclusions   The inclusion of N 2 O into marginal-impact LCIA ozone depletion models would seem justified, given the relevance of N 2 O emissions to a number of planning debates in which LCA currently has a prominent role. If this is not pursued, then the use of LCIA to support decision-making could mask, rather than reveal, an issue that may be environmentally relevant. Published ODP values for N 2 O could be used as an interim measure. However, they are dependent on assumptions that may not be the most relevant choice for application to LCA studies. Further investigation is therefore required on how best to specify a range of ODP values for N 2 O that can support robust sensitivity analysis in LCIA. Fortunately, the state of atmospheric modelling science would seem sufficiently mature to be able to inform this process. LCA-specific methodological challenges (e.g. choice of time frames, spatial implications) will also need to be addressed. Content Type Journal Article Category NON-TOXIC IMPACT CATEGORIES ASSOCIATED WITH EMISSIONS TO AIR, WATER, SOIL Pages 1-6 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0362-y Authors Joe Lane, Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia Paul Lant, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The purpose of this research was to develop a nonrenewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions ecoprofile of thermoplastic protein derived from blood meal (Novatein thermoplastic protein; NTP). This was intended for comparison with other bioplastics as well as identification of hot spots in its cradle-to-gate production. In Part 1 of this study, the effect of allocation on the blood meal used as a raw material was discussed. The objective of Part 2 was to assess the ecoprofile of the thermoplastic conversion process and to compare the cradle-to-gate portion of the polymer's life cycle to other bioplastics. Methods   Inventory was collected to aggregate nonrenewable primary energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Data were collected from a variety of sources including published papers, reports to government agencies, engineering models and information from a single blood meal production facility. Several assumptions regarding the thermoplastic conversion process were evaluated by way of a sensitivity analysis. Results   The allocation procedure chosen for the impacts of farming and meat processing had the greatest effect on results. Excluding farming and meat processing, blood drying had the greatest contribution to nonrenewable energy use and GHGs, followed by the petrochemical plasticizer used. Other assumptions, such as scarcity of water or inclusion of pigments, although significant when considered for blood meal conversion to NTP alone, were found not to be significant when production of blood meal was included in the analysis. Qualitative differences were observed between NTP and other bioplastics. For example, the profiles of some other bio-based polymers were dominated by fermentation and polymer recovery processes. In the case of NTP, it is the production of the raw material used that is most significant, and thermoplastic modification has a relatively low contribution to GHGs and nonrenewable energy use. Conclusions   For a truly attributional scenario, production of any ruminant animal products does have an associated GHG. Deriving this for blood meal on a mass-based allocation seems to indicate that NTP is less favorable than other cradle-to-gate bioplastic production systems from a global warming perspective. On the other hand, the motivation for developing the material in the first place was to make use of an existing waste product. If it is assumed that the magnitude of blood meal production is independent of fertilizer or plastics demand and, instead, reflects demand for major products such as meat, further development of NTP is justified. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA FOR RENEWABLE RESOURCES Pages 1-11 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0355-x Authors Jim M. Bier, School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Casparus J. R. Verbeek, School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Mark C. Lay, School of Engineering, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The purpose of this paper is to enhance the mathematical and physical understanding of practitioners of uncertainty analysis of life cycle inventory (LCI), on the application of possibility theory. The main questions dealt with are (1) clear definition of the terms—“necessity–possibility,” “probability,” “belief–plausibility,” and of their mutual relationships; (2) what justifies the substitution of classical probability for possibility; (3) mutual comparison of, and transformations in both senses between probability and possibility uncertainty measures; (4) how to construct meaningful input possibility measures from available probabilistic/statistic information; and (5) comparative analysis of the solutions of the problem of data uncertainty propagation in LCI, afforded, respectively, by probabilistic Monte Carlo simulation and possibilistic fuzzy interval arithmetic. Methods   The questions above are addressed from the rigorous mathematical formulations of the theories of probability and statistics, of possibility, and of random sets and belief/plausibility functions, although directed to LCI uncertainty analysis practitioners. On this respect, the paper allows two different levels of reading: a basic level (main text) and a deeper level (Electronic supplementary material). Particular tools used are (a) various transformations between possibility and probability distributions, in both senses, for the continuous case, proposed by Dubois et al. (e.g., Reliable Comp 10:273-297, 2004); (b) Monte Carlo simulation for either independent or dependent input random variables; (c) fuzzy interval arithmetic; and (d) Heijungs and Suh’s ( 2002 ) matrix formulation of LCI problems. Results and discussion   The links among uncertainty measures, uncertain variables, and uncertainty analysis are cleared up. It is recalled how a probability measure can be constructed and attached to an input variable, and its probability distribution and unknown “correct value” be related, in a physically meaningful way. It is justified that, usually, a dual necessity–possibility measure has much less uncertainty information than a comparable probability measure. Although the specialists are not unanimous, it is opined that the theoretical framework developed by Dubois et al. (e.g., Reliable Comp 10:273-297, 2004) is the most convenient one to use in uncertainty analysis, to compare and mutually transform probability and possibility data. This is exemplified in (a) the transformation of the very common triangular possibility and normal standard probability distributions; (b) the general construction of possibility measures from different probability data previously available; and, above all, (c) the comparison of the output information of possibilistic and probabilistic uncertainty analyses of an LCI problem proposed by Tan (Int J Life Cycle Assess 13:585–592, 2008 ). The general problem of data uncertainty propagation through deterministic models (e.g., of LCI) is tackled with (1) classical probabilistic Monte Carlo simulation (for either independent or dependent input random variables); (2) possibilistic fuzzy interval arithmetic; and (3) hybrid methods (only mentioned). Conclusions   (1) The practical conditions in which an analysis of uncertainty should switch from a probability to a possibility basis are still ill-defined, but that seems to be the case when the input information is based on states of large ignorance. (2) A dual necessity–possibility uncertainty measure can be viewed both as an imprecise probability measure that substitutes a definite probability for an interval, and as a belief–plausibility measure. (3) A possibility distribution can be mathematically and physically interpreted as a random set of nested prediction/confidence intervals for the “correct value” of the variable, with confidence levels ranging from 0 to 1. (4) There exist mathematically and physically sound rules to compare/transform probability and possibility uncertainty information under different applicable paradigms (e.g., based on the reliability of the input information). (5) Sometimes, Geer and Klir’s (Int J Gen Syst 20:143–176, 1992 ) confidence index has a physically counterintuitive behavior in uncertainty analysis. (6) The probabilistic Monte Carlo simulation can be used also for dependent random input variables, only requiring more exigent input information (conditional probability distributions) than in the case of independency. (7) The possibilistic fuzzy interval arithmetic uncertainty analysis, although computationally cheap, generates output information quite poor—a good point estimate but a set of (roughly) confidence intervals with very large amplitudes for the “correct value” of each output variable. Recommendations   (1) In probability uncertainty analysis, pay attention to the relation between the “correct value” of a random variable and the parameters of its probability distribution (e.g., mean or mode). (2) Do not precipitate in changing from probabilistic to possibilistic uncertainty analysis: it may be theoretically unjustified and much output uncertainty information is lost. (3) Respect the well-established applicable rules in going from probability to possibility uncertainty information, or vice versa. (4) Be attentive to possible counterintuitive physical meaning of Geer and Klir’s (Int J Gen Syst 20:143–176, 1992 ) confidence index in possibilistic uncertainty analysis. Content Type Journal Article Category UNCERTAINTIES IN LCA Pages 1-12 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0364-9 Authors Jorge C. S. André, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, Pinhal de Marrocos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal Daniela R. Lopes, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, Pinhal de Marrocos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   To construct future visions of how innovative technologies should be used in the envisioned sustainable society while being aware of system-wide environmental impacts, consequential life cycle assessment (c-LCA) is useful. To systematically evaluate the technologies being aware of uncertainties in the choice of technologies made in the future, in this article, we propose a novel graphical representation for theoretical range of impacts that contain results from c-LCA studies. This approach allows analyses of the consequences of technology introduction without conducting a detailed modeling of consequences. Methods   We stand on an assumption that the future environmental impacts reduced by a new technology depends on (1) how much the efficiency of the technology is improved, (2) how much of the less efficient technology is directly and indirectly replaced by the new technology, and (3) how much product is needed in the envisioned future. The difficulty in c-LCA is that (2) and (3) are uncertain from various socioeconomic reasons that are often difficult to predict. By organizing the results from product life cycle assessments in a systematic way, the proposed methodology allows exhibiting the range of consequential changes in environmental impact associated with a technology innovation, taking into account those uncertainties on a plain coordinated by the amount of product needed in the future and environmental impact on the horizontal and vertical axes, respectively. Results   Part 1 describes the methodological framework in detail, whereas Part 2 elaborates on the applications of the methodology. By taking transportation technologies assuming various energy sources in Taiwan, the choices of technologies and the evaluation of technology improvements serve as the case studies to demonstrate the application of the methodological framework. Conclusions   By using the proposed method to organize the assumptions in c-LCA, discussions on different choices of technologies are made more systematic. In this way, stakeholders can focus on visions of future society, which lead to different choices of technologies. Content Type Journal Article Category LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT Pages 1-7 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0359-6 Authors I-Ching Chen, Department of Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Environment Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Rd., Tainan City, 701 Taiwan Yasuhiro Fukushima, Department of Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Environment Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Rd., Tainan City, 701 Taiwan Yasunori Kikuchi, Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan Masahiko Hirao, Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Many life cycle assessment (LCA) studies do not adequately address the actual lifetime of buildings and building products, but rather assume a typical value. The goal of this study was to determine the impact of lifetime on residential building LCA results. Including accurate lifetime data into LCA allows a better understanding of a product’s environmental impact that would ultimately enhance the accuracy of LCA results. Methods   This study focuses on refining the US residential building lifetime, as well as lifetime of interior renovation products that are commonly used as interior finishes in homes, to improve LCA results. Residential building lifetime data that presents existing trends in the USA was analyzed as part of the study. Existing product life cycle inventory data were synthesized to form statistical distributions that were used instead of deterministic values. Product elementary flows were used to calculate life cycle impacts of a residential model that was based on median US residential home size. Results were compared to existing residential building LCA literature to determine the impact of using updated, statistical lifetime data. A Monte Carlo analysis was performed for uncertainty analysis. Sensitivity analysis results were used to identify hotspots within the LCA results. Results and discussion   Statistical analysis of US residential building lifetime data indicate that average building lifetime is 61 years and has a linearly increasing trend. Interior renovation energy consumption of the residential model that was developed by using average US conditions was found to have a mean of 220 GJ over the life cycle of the model. Ratio of interior renovation energy consumption to pre-use energy consumption, which includes embodied energy of materials, construction activities, and associated transportation was calculated to have a mean of 34% for regular homes and 22% for low-energy homes. Ratio of interior renovation to life cycle energy consumption of residential buildings was calculated to have a mean of 3.9% for regular homes and 7.6% for low-energy homes. Conclusions   Choosing an arbitrary lifetime for buildings and interior finishes, or excluding interior renovation impacts introduces a noteworthy amount of error into residential building LCA, especially as the relative importance of materials use increases due to growing number of low-energy buildings that have lower-use phase impacts. Content Type Journal Article Category BUILDINGS AND BUILDING MATERIALS Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0363-x Authors Can B. Aktas, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA Melissa M. Bilec, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, University of Pittsburgh, 3700 O’Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   This study provides a detailed, process-based life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory of an ornamental tree production system for urban forestry. The success of large-scale tree planting initiatives for climate protection depends on projects being net sinks for CO 2 over their entire life cycle. However, previous assessments of urban tree planting initiatives have not accounted for the inputs required for tree production in nurseries, which include greenhouse systems, irrigation, and fertilization. A GHG inventory of nursery operations for tree production is a necessary step to assess the life cycle benefits or drawbacks of large-scale tree planting activities. Methods   Using surveys, interviews, and life cycle inventory databases, we developed a process-based life cycle inventory of GHG emissions for a large nursery operation in California, USA. Results and discussion   The inventory demonstrated that 4.6 kg of CO 2 -equivalent is emitted per #5 (nominally a 5-gallon) tree, a common tree size produced by nurseries. Energy use contributed 44% of all CO 2 -equivalent emissions, of which electricity and propane constituted 78%. Electricity use is dominated by irrigation demands, and propane is used primarily for greenhouse heating. Material inputs constituted the next largest contributor at 36% of emissions; plastic containers contributed just over half of these emissions. Transport emissions accounted for 16% of total nursery GHG emissions. Shipping bamboo stakes from China (43%) and diesel fuel consumed by nursery delivery trucks (33%) were the largest transport emission sources. Conclusions   GHG emissions from the tree production life stage are 20% to 50% of mean annual CO 2 storage rates based on urban tree inventories for three California cities. While considering nursery production alone is insufficient for drawing conclusions about the net climate change benefits of tree planting initiatives, the results demonstrate that nursery production emissions are modest compared with CO 2 storage rates during tree life. Identifying key sources of emissions in the nursery tree production system can help operators reduce emissions by targeting so-called hot-spots. In particular, switching to renewable energy sources, capitalizing on energy and water efficiency opportunities, container light-weighting, and sourcing bamboo stakes from producers closer to the point of use are potential avenues for reduced emissions. Content Type Journal Article Category CARBON FOOTPRINTING Pages 1-9 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0339-x Authors Alissa Kendall, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616, USA E. Gregory McPherson, Urban Ecosystems and Social Dynamics Program, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 1731 Research Park Dr, Davis, CA 95618, USA Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Cadmium telluride photovoltaics (CdTe PV) have grown considerably in the last few years and are now a mainstream energy technology. Concern has been voiced regarding the potential impact caused by the dispersal of the Cd contained in the modules after they are decommissioned. This study presents a new comprehensive analysis of the end-of-life of CdTe PV and reports on the associated Cd emissions to air and water. Methods   Three end-of-life scenarios were considered for CdTe PV. In the first one, 100% of the modules are collected and sent to recycling; in the other two, 85% of the modules are recycled, and the rest are assumed to be either treated as normal municipal solid waste or pre-selected and sent to landfills. All input and output data for module decommissioning and recycling were based on the information directly provided by the world-leading CdTe PV manufacturer (First Solar). The inventory modelling was performed with the GaBi life cycle analysis software package in conjunction with the Ecoinvent v.2 database. Results and discussion   In all scenarios, end-of-life Cd emissions from CdTe PV were found to be relatively low, for instance when compared to those from NiCd batteries, when expressed per kilogram of Cd content. Conclusions   The on-going growth of CdTe PV is unlikely to produce a worrisome increase in the overall Cd emissions to the environment; principally thanks to the expected stringent control of the related Cd-containing waste flows. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA FOR ENERGY SYSTEMS Pages 1-7 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0348-9 Authors Marco Raugei, UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, Escola Superior de Comerç Internacional (ESCI), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Pujades 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain Marina Isasa, UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, Escola Superior de Comerç Internacional (ESCI), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Pujades 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain Pere Fullana Palmer, UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, Escola Superior de Comerç Internacional (ESCI), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Pujades 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The aim of this paper is to conduct a life cycle assessment study of ceramic tiles (single-fired glazed stoneware) in order to identify the stages that produce the greatest impact on the environment and the materials and/or processes that make the largest contribution to that impact. The life cycle is considered to be made up of seven stages: (1) mining the clay, (2) atomising the clay, (3) production of frits and glazes, (4) production of ceramic tiles, (5) distribution, (6) installation and usage, and, on ending their useful life (7) treatment as construction and demolition waste. Materials and methods   A specific life cycle inventory was developed taking 1 m 2 of ceramic tile over a period of 20 years as the functional unit and using annual data gathered directly from 35 Spanish enterprises involved in the different stages of the life cycle of ceramic tiles. This inventory was then used to obtain environmental indicators (global warming, ozone layer depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidation and human toxicity) for each enterprise and each stage of the life cycle under study. Results and discussion   Environmental data were submitted to a statistical analysis. This analysis made it possible to model the distribution of environmental behaviour of the life cycle of ceramic tiles considering the different influences from the different companies that were consulted for each stage in the life cycle. The statistical study allowed also obtaining confidence intervals for the mean and standard deviation of the environmental results obtained for each impact category. Conclusions   The stage of the life cycle with the greatest environmental impact for all the impact categories is the manufacture of the tile, followed by the process of atomising the clay and the distribution of the product. There is a direct correlation between these findings and the high level of energy consumption (mainly natural gas and fuel) in these stages. Moreover, the statistical analysis provided 95% level of confidence intervals for the mean and the standard deviation very accurate which shows that using the mean inventory values from all the enterprises that were consulted within the same stage of the life cycle is a suitable method of working. Future users of the inventory may use the probability distributions obtained for calculating percentiles or other measures to assess their data. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0322-6 Authors Valeria Ibáñez-Forés, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Construction, Universitat Jaume I, Av. Sos Baynat s/n, 12071 Castellón, Spain Maria-Dolores Bovea, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Construction, Universitat Jaume I, Av. Sos Baynat s/n, 12071 Castellón, Spain Amelia Simó, Department of Mathematics, Universitat Jaume I, Av. Sos Baynat s/n, 12071 Castellón, Spain Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Intensive striped catfish production in the Mekong Delta has, in recent years, raised environmental concerns. We conducted a stakeholder-based screening life cycle assessment (LCA) of the intensive farming system to determine the critical environmental impact and their causative processes in producing striped catfish. Additional to the LCA, we assessed water use and flooding hazards in the Mekong Delta. Materials and methods   The goal and scope of the LCA were defined in a stakeholder workshop. It was decided there to include all processes up to the exit-gate of the fish farm in the inventory and to focus life cycle impact assessment on global warming, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, and marine (MAET) and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity (FWET). A survey was used to collect primary inventory data from 28 farms on fish grow-out, and from seven feed mills. Hatching and nursing of striped catfish fingerlings were not included in the assessment due to limited data availability and low estimated impact. Average feed composition for all farms had to be applied due to limitation of budget and data availability. Results and discussion   Feed ingredient production, transport and milling dominated most of the impact categories in the LCA except for eutrophication and FWET. Most feed ingredients were produced outside Vietnam, and the impact of transport was important. Because of the screening character of this LCA, generic instead of specific inventory data were used for modelling feed ingredient production. However, the use of generic data is unlikely to have affected the main findings, given the dominance of feed production in all impact categories. Of the feed ingredients, rice bran contributed the most to global warming and acidification, while wheat bran contributed the most to eutrophication. The dominance of both was mainly due to the amounts used. Fishmeal production, transport and energy contributed the most to MAET. The biggest impacts of grow-out farming in Vietnam are on eutrophication and FWET. Water nutrient discharge from grow-out farming was high but negligible compared with the natural nutrient content of the Mekong River. The discharge from all grow-out farms together hardly modified river water quality compared with that before sector expansion. Conclusions   Feed production, i.e. ingredient production and transport and milling, remains the main contributor to most impact categories. It contributes indirectly to eutrophication and FWET through the pond effluents. The environmental impact of Pangasius grow-out farming can be reduced by effectively managing sludge and by using feeds with lower feed conversion ratio and lower content of fishery products in the feed. To consider farm variability, a next LCA of aquaculture should enlist closer collaboration from several feed-milling companies and sample farms using their feeds. Future LCAs should also preferably collect specific instead of generic inventory data for feed ingredient production, and include biodiversity and primary production as impact categories. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0324-4 Authors Roel Bosma, Aquaculture and Fisheries, Wageningen University, Marijkeweg 40, 6709PG Wageningen, The Netherlands Pham Thi Anh, Department of Environmental Technology and Management, Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam José Potting, Environmental Systems Analysis, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, 6708PB Wageningen, The Netherlands Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   Increasing mobility demands and growing industrial tissue come with a burden for the environment. Inventive solutions are necessary to address this challenge. This paper compares the environmental impact of two alternative container transportation methods over a 25-year time period for a specific trajectory and transport volume in the Antwerp harbor. One is a pipeline concept; the other a road concept to link the Deurganck dock with the right bank in order to transport 2 million containers per year. Materials and methods   With a detailed bill of material and the use of the Ecolizer method, a Monte Carlo simulation was performed to calculate the environmental impact in terms of ECOPOINTS on a life cycle perspective. Results and discussion   The results remark that in 94% of the cases the pipeline concept has less than half of the environmental impact of the road concept. Furthermore, in both concepts the operational phase is the largest contributor to the total environmental impact. Conclusions   The pipeline concept results suggest a much lower total environmental impact over a road concept if a large enough volume of containers can effectively be transported. Some considerations have to be given to the used electricity mix, the applied impact assessment method and the case specificities. Content Type Journal Article Category LCA IN TRANSPORTATION Pages 1-11 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0326-2 Authors Johan Braet, Department of Environment, Technology and Technology Management, Faculty of Applied Economics, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The assessment of biofuels has until now mainly focused on energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. Only little attention has been given to other impacts, although the general importance of water use for the life cycle assessment (LCA) of agricultural products has been recognized in recent publications. The aim of this work is to assess in detail the water consumption along a biofuel production chain taking into account irrigation efficiencies, levels of water scarcity, and type of feedstock, and to integrate those results in a full LCA. Furthermore, we compare the results for biofuels from various feedstocks and regions with conventional petrol. Methods   We calculate the water consumption and overall life cycle assessment results in a case study for the production of methyl ester from irrigated and non-irrigated rapeseed. The results are compared with other irrigated and non-irrigated biofuels based on different feedstocks. Results and discussion   Water consumption in biofuel production chains based on non-irrigated crops does not vary greatly and is in the same range as for fossil fuel. In contrast, as a consequence of irrigation, agricultural water consumption dominates the overall results of all irrigated crops. Consequently, the level of water scarcity plays a key role for the LCA results. In our case study, the environmental impacts of methyl ester from irrigated rapeseed in a water-scarce region, measured in aggregated Eco-Indicator 99 scores, are almost doubled by water consumption. Variations in irrigation efficiency, however, are of little influence on the results, as the assessment method used here is based on consumptive water, which depends mainly on the evapotranspiration of the crop. Conclusions   The focus on greenhouse gas emissions of the main regulatory schemes neglects other relevant environmental impacts and may provide the wrong incentives. Water consumption may thus become a major concern, offsetting the benefits of biofuel use with respect to climate change. Content Type Journal Article Category WATER USE IN LCA Pages 1-9 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0327-1 Authors Mireille Faist Emmenegger, Technology and Society Lab, Empa, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland Stephan Pfister, Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Annette Koehler, Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland Luca de Giovanetti, Technology and Society Lab, Empa, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland Alejandro Pablo Arena, Facultad Regional Mendoza, Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina Rainer Zah, Technology and Society Lab, Empa, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: 2nd International Seminar in Social Life Cycle Assessment—recent developments in assessing the social impacts of product life cycles Content Type Journal Article Category CONFERENCE REPORT Pages 1-4 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0331-5 Authors Catherine Macombe, Cemagref, UMR ITAP, 361 rue Jean-François Breton, 34196 Montpellier, France Pauline Feschet, CIRAD, Observatoire des marchés UPR 26, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France Michel Garrabé, University Montpellier I, Laser, EA 2039, 34960 Montpellier Cedex 2, France Denis Loeillet, CIRAD, Observatoire des marchés UPR 26, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose   The aim of this paper is to describe life cycle costing (LCC) practices in some Swedish organisations, investigate probable changes and determine whether and how environmental costs (internal and/or external) are considered in current LCC. Methods   This paper is based on interviews with LCC practitioners working in authorities and companies in Sweden, mainly the Swedish defence sector, but also other sectors to broaden the study. Results and discussion   Those interviewees who use LCC all employ their own particular method, adjusted from case to case. Inclusion of future costs and use of interest rate is also decided from case to case. Conclusions   The inclusion of direct, indirect, contingent and intangible costs differs between organisations. Even when environmental costs are considered in the LCC, not all the internal (environmental) costs are included. All interviewees believe that LCC can be important for decision making and most also believe that environmental costs, like other costs, influence final decisions, but still LCC is not always performed or used. The companies represented are large, and a particular individual cannot have insights into all methods or procedures used in different departments. The results are thus based upon interviews with individuals representing the companies and the responses might have been different if different individuals had been interviewed. However, since the answers between the different time periods and between the organisations point in the same direction, we found no need to make further interviews. Content Type Journal Article Category LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT Pages 1-6 DOI 10.1007/s11367-011-0325-3 Authors Elisabeth Hochschorner, Division of Environmental Strategies Research, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden Maria Noring, Division of Environmental Strategies Research, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden Journal The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Online ISSN 1614-7502 Print ISSN 0948-3349

Beschreibung: Purpose This paper considers the variabilities that exist in the exploitation of a complex industrial system. Our scenario-based LCA model ensures the reliability of results in situations where the system life cycle is very uncertain, where there is substantial lack of data, and/or where time and resources available are limited. It is also an effective tool to generate exploitation recommendations for clients. Methods Existing quantitative uncertainty methods in LCA require a huge amount of accurate data. These data are rarely available in simplified and upstream LCA for complex industrial systems. A scenario-based approach is the best compromise between acceptable quality of results and resources required. However, such methods have not yet been proposed to improve the environmental knowledge of the system in the case of exploitation scenarios. The method proposed here considers a limited number of scenarios (three or four) that are defined using the Stanford Research Institute matrix. Using results from past projects, relevant parts of the system are listed, and expert knowledge and parameters are associated with these parts and quantified. A classical LCA process then provides the results for the different scenarios. Results and discussion The method was applied to an Alstom Grid AC/DC conversion substation for the primary aluminum industry. A previous study had limited scope, as the life cycle was poorly understood. Relevant parts were, thus, clearly identified as follows: spare parts program, transport failures, preventive and corrective maintenance, updates and revampings, lifetime modulation, and end-of-life. Four scenarios were considered as follows: best case, worst case, baseline (expected future), and a highly different alternative. Results show the pertinence of considering several exploitation scenarios when the life cycle is not predictable, as the environmental impacts may vary widely from one case to another. A sensitivity analysis also shows that some relevant parts such as updates and revampings will need to be carefully considered in futures studies. Conclusions The consideration of three exploitation scenarios (best case, baseline, and worst case) appears to be extremely pertinent when considering simplified LCA of industrial systems with high uncertainties and limited time and resources. This model is also very useful to generate good practice and recommendations towards clients, thus initiating a dialog centered on eco-design and continuous improvement.

Beschreibung: Introduction In this series of papers, we present a design of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) recycling system considering environmental impacts, chemical hazards, and resource availability. We applied life cycle assessment (LCA), environment, health, and safety (EHS) assessment as well as material flow analysis to the evaluation of the recycling system. Purpose Recycling systems for highly functional plastics such as PMMA have not been studied sufficiently. Along with the popularization of PMMA-containing products such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), the use of PMMA is steadily increasing, which will result in more waste of PMMA in the next decades. In this study, pyrolysis process for recycling waste PMMA into methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer was examined, considering not only general environmental impacts quantified by life cycle assessment but also local environment, health, and safety hazards, and raw material availability. Methods Process EHS hazards assessment was applied to quantify the local effects of the PMMA monomer recycling process. Process hazards are strongly connected with the hazardous properties of chemical substances and stream conditions within the process. Two alternative cooling methods exist, and their difference was analyzed by LCA and EHS assessment. Besides the process hazard, the availability of waste PMMA must be an important point for the feasibility of implementing the PMMA monomer recycling process. The available amount can be quantified by analyzing the material flow of PMMA-containing products. PMMA contained in LCDs as light guide panels was selected as a feasible source of waste PMMA, and the quantity of PMMA flows in the society was evaluated. Results and discussion In the case of PMMA, monomer recycling has less process hazard than the production of fresh MMA from crude oil. The implementation of circulated cooling water could significantly decrease the process hazard in PMMA pyrolysis attributable to chemical hazards. Material flow analysis revealed that the availability of waste PMMA shows a fluctuating trend in the next 20 years because of the sharp peak demand for LCD television sets. The fluctuation is strongly dependent on the lifetime of LCD television sets. Conclusions PMMA monomer recycling has a potential to reduce environmental impacts with a less process hazards than fresh MMA production from crude oil. The availability of waste PMMA has a strong relationship with the lifetime of LCD television sets. The multiple and comprehensive assessments can reveal various aspects of a process technology.

Beschreibung: Purpose Blended cements use waste products to replace Portland cement, the main contributor to CO 2 emissions in concrete manufacture. Using blended cements reduces the embodied greenhouse gas emissions; however, little attention has been paid to the reduction in CO 2 capture (carbonation) and durability. The aim of this study is to determine if the reduction in production emissions of blended cements compensates for the reduced durability and CO 2 capture. Methods This study evaluates CO 2 emissions and CO 2 capture for a reinforced concrete column during its service life and after demolition and reuse as gravel filling material. Concrete depletion, due to carbonation and the unavoidable steel embedded corrosion, is studied, as this process consequently ends the concrete service life. Carbonation deepens progressively during service life and captures CO 2 even after demolition due to the greater exposed surface area. In this study, results are presented as a function of cement replaced by fly ash (FA) and blast furnace slag (BFS). Results and discussion Concrete made with Portland cement, FA (35 % FA), and BFS blended cements (80 % BFS) captures 47, 41, and 20 % of CO 2 emissions, respectively. The service life of blended cements with high amounts of cement replacement, like CEM III/A (50 % BFS), CEM III/B (80 % BFS), and CEM II/B-V (35 % FA), was about 10 % shorter, given the higher carbonation rate coefficient. Compared to Portland cement and despite the reduced CO 2 capture and service life, CEM III/B emitted 20 % less CO 2 per year. Conclusions To obtain reliable results in a life cycle assessment, it is crucial to consider carbonation during use and after demolition. Replacing Portland cement with FA, instead of BFS, leads to a lower material emission factor, since FA needs less processing after being collected, and transport distances are usually shorter. However, greater reductions were achieved using BFS, since a larger amount of cement can be replaced. Blended cements emit less CO 2 per year during the life cycle of a structure, although a high cement replacement reduces the service life notably. If the demolished concrete is crushed and recycled as gravel filling material, carbonation can cut CO 2 emissions by half. A case study is presented in this paper demonstrating how the results may be utilized.

Beschreibung: Purpose In Portugal, the management of end-of-life vehicles (ELV) is set out in targets of the European Union policy for the year 2015, including 85 % recycling, 95 % recovery, and maximum of 5 % landfilling. These goals will be attained only through more efficient technologies for waste separation and recycling of shredder residues or higher rates of dismantling components. Focusing on this last alternative, a field experiment was carried out. There is potential for additional recycling/recovery of 10 %. Methods Three scenarios were proposed for the management of ELV wastes: (1) scenario 1 corresponds to the baseline and refers to the current management, i.e., the 10 % of ELV wastes are shredded whereby some ferrous and non-ferrous metals are recovered and the remaining fraction, called automotive shredder residues (ASR), is landfilled, (2) scenario 2 wherein the ASR fraction is incinerated with energy recovery, and (3) scenario 3 includes the additional dismantling of components for recycling and for energy recovery through solid recovered fuel, to be used as a fuel substitute in the cement industry. The environmental performance of these scenarios was quantified by using the life cycle assessment methodology. Five impact categories were assessed: abiotic resource depletion, climate change, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification, and eutrophication. Results and discussion Compared to the other scenarios, in scenario 1 no benefits for the impact categories of climate change and eutrophication were observed. Scenario 2 has environmental credits due to the recycling of ferrous and non-ferrous metals and benefits from energy recovery. However, this scenario has a significant impact on climate change due to emissions from thermal oxidation of polymeric materials present in the ASR fraction. A net environmental performance upgrading seems to be ensured by scenario 3, mainly due to replacing fossil fuel by solid recovered fuel. Conclusions The proposed additional dismantling of ELV (scenario 3) not only brings environmental benefits but also meets the European recovery and recycling targets. The associated increase of dismantling costs can be compensated by the additional recycling material revenues as well as social benefits by a rise in employment.

Beschreibung: Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) of chemicals is usually developed using a process-based approach. In this paper, we develop a tiered hybrid LCA of water treatment chemicals combining the specificity of process data with the holistic nature of input–output analysis (IOA). We compare these results with process and input–output models for the most commonly used chemicals in the Australian water industry to identify the direct and indirect environmental impacts associated with the manufacturing of these materials. Methods We have improved a previous Australian hybrid LCA model by updating the environmental indicators and expanding the number of included industry sectors of the economy. We also present an alternative way to estimate the expenditure vectors to the service sectors of the economy when financial data are not available. Process-based, input–output and hybrid results were calculated for caustic soda, sodium hypochlorite, ferric chloride, aluminium sulphate, fluorosilicic acid, calcium oxide and chlorine gas. The functional unit is the same for each chemical: the production of 1 tonne in the year 2008. Results and discussion We have provided results for seven impact categories: global warming potential; primary energy; water use; marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecotoxicity potentials and human toxicity potential. Results are compared with previous IOA and hybrid studies. A sensitivity analysis of the results to assumed wholesale prices is included. We also present insights regarding how hybrid modelling helps to overcome the limitations of using IO- or process-based modelling individually. Conclusions and recommendations The advantages of using hybrid modelling have been demonstrated for water treatment chemicals by expanding the boundaries of process-based modelling and also by reducing the sensitivity of IOA to fluctuations in prices of raw materials used for the production of these industrial commodities. The development of robust hybrid life cycle inventory databases is paramount if hybrid modelling is to become a standard practice in attributional LCA.

Beschreibung: Purpose The environmentally friendly construction of agricultural infrastructure is much needed for sustainable development because construction is recognized as a cause of environmental degradation. The objective of this study was to estimate and characterize carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions during construction of agricultural reservoir embankments for the quantitative environmental assessment and management of CO 2 emissions using life cycle assessment method. Methods Two reservoirs with different foundation treatment and construction components were selected in this study and their characteristics in CO 2 emissions were compared. And CO 2 emissions were calculated separately for each of the following major components: construction materials, equipment, and transport. The basic unit of CO 2 emissions for construction materials was calculated using the 2009 input–output tables in Korea and the basic unit of CO 2 emissions for equipment of transport and construction was also calculated based on the amount of fuel used in a unit time. Results and discussion According to the study results, the construction of a water supply process appeared to generate the most emissions among all processes for the two sites. Emissions due to equipment were the highest in site A, while materials generated the most emissions in site B. Differences in emissions are due to differences in the construction process. While the operation time of the equipment in site A increased due to the cofferdam process and a large amount of cement was used in the foundation process in site B. Conclusions Characteristic of CO 2 emissions differs with different construction processes and thus construction processes need to be optimized for environmental friendly development of agricultural infrastructure through estimation and characterization of CO 2 emissions.

Beschreibung: Purpose Bananas are one of the highest selling fruits worldwide, and for several countries, bananas are an important export commodity. However, very little is known about banana’s contribution to global warming. The aims of this work were to study the greenhouse gas emissions of bananas from cradle to retail and cradle to grave and to assess the potential of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along the value chain. Methods Carbon footprint methodology based on ISO-DIS 14067 was used to assess GHG emissions from 1 kg of bananas produced at two plantations in Costa Rica including transport by cargo ship to Norway. Several methodological issues are not clearly addressed in ISO 14067 or the LCA standards 14040 and ISO 14044 underpinning 14067. Examples are allocation, allocation in recycling, representativity and system borders. Methodological choices in this study have been made based on other standards, such as the GHG Protocol Products Standard. Results and discussion The results indicate that bananas had a carbon footprint (CF) on the same level as other tropical fruits and that the contribution from the primary production stage was low. However, the methodology used in this study and the other comparative studies was not necessarily identical; hence, no definitive conclusions can be drawn. Overseas transport and primary production were the main contributors to the total GHG emissions. Including the consumer stage resulted in a 34 % rise in CF, mainly due to high wastage. The main potential reductions of GHG emissions were identified at the primary production, within the overseas transport stage and at the consumer. Conclusions The carbon footprint of bananas from cradle to retail was 1.37 kg CO 2 per kilogram banana. GHG emissions from transport and primary production could be significantly reduced, which could theoretically give a reduction of as much as 44 % of the total cradle-to-retail CF. The methodology was important for the end result. The choice of system boundaries gives very different results depending on which life cycle stages and which unit processes are included. Allocation issues were also important, both in recycling and in other processes such as transport and storage. The main uncertainties of the CF result are connected to N 2 O emissions from agriculture, methane emissions from landfills, use of secondary data and variability in the primary production data. Thus, there is a need for an internationally agreed calculation method for bananas and other food products if CFs are to be used for comparative purposes.

Beschreibung: Purpose The framework of life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA) has been developed within the CALCAS project but the procedure on how an LCSA should be carried out is still far from standardized. The purpose of this article is to propose an approach to put the LCSA framework into practice. This approach is illustrated with an on-going case study on concrete recycling. Methods In the context of an EC-FP7 project on technology innovation for concrete recycling, five operational steps to implement the LCSA framework are proposed: (1) broad system definition, (2) making scenarios, (3) defining sub-questions for individual tools, (4) application of the tools and (5) interpreting the results in an LCSA framework. Focus has been put on the goal and scope definition (steps 1–3) to illustrate how to define a doable and meaningful LCSA. Steps 4–5 are not complete in the case study and are elaborated theoretically in this paper. Results and discussion The experience from the case study shows that the operational steps are especially useful at the stage of defining the goal and scope. Breaking down the sustainability questions into different scales and different aspects gives the possibility to define the sub-questions suitable to be assessed by the individual analytical tools (e.g., LCA, LCC, SLCA, MFA, etc.). The C2CA-LCSA shows a practical approach to model the life cycle impacts of the broad system is to start by modelling the technological system at the micro level and then scale it up with the realistic scenario settings that are generated with the knowledge gained from the MFA studies at the meso-level and from the policy/economic studies at the macro level. The combined application of LCA, LCC and SLCA at the project level shows not all the cost items and only one social impact indicator can be modelled in the process-based LCA structure. Thus it is important to address the left out information at the interpretation step. Conclusions Defining sub-questions on three different levels seems most useful to frame an LCSA study at the early stage of goal and scope definition. Although this study provides some useful steps for the operationlisation of the LCSA concept, it is clear that additional case studies are needed to move LCSA into a practical framework for the analysis of complex sustainability problems.

Beschreibung: Purpose A critical evaluation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) studies was performed in the main scientific bibliographic databases (online and free access) of Brazil where the LCA methodology could be considered. Methods This has been an exploratory study with a qualitative evaluation of quantitative LCA studies with regard to International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 14040 standards. Firstly, the selected papers were those which used the LCA methodology in case studies (quantitative LCA studies). This survey was based on previously chosen keywords which were directly and/or indirectly related to LCA in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. Results and discussion One hundred and twenty papers related to LCA were found, among which 21 have been effectively used the LCA methodology applied to case studies. The study has indicated agriculture and livestock as some promising areas for the use of LCA methodology in Brazil. As for the scope of LCA, it has been found that nine papers have adopted the cradle-to-grave approach, whereas 12 papers have limited the study to some life cycle stage (cradle-to-gate, gate-to-gate, or gate-to-grave). This behavior can be justified by the difficulty in obtaining data from raw material, supply chain, inputs, or about the disposal, reuse, and recycling of products/systems. The criteria set out in the ISO 14040 standard was carried out in 17 out of the 21 selected papers. Conclusions The LCA of Brazilian studies could be improved. For instance, when considering the requirements and guidelines of ISO standards, at the goal phase, the papers have clearly mentioned their target audience. The scope phase requires more explanation about the allocation procedures, once the process/product is not isolated, and for most processes, it may generate more than one product. As regards the Life Cycle Inventory, these studies could improve their data sources, once few papers used primary sources. According to our understanding, the best phase performed by the papers was life cycle impact assessment. Hopefully, LCA will become a known research area and will be adopted by most of the Brazilian scientific community. It is further expected that LCA might have a regular publication in scientific journals (perhaps an own journal).

Beschreibung: Purpose This study aimed to investigate the environmental consequences (on climate change and land use) of an increase in preference for grass-based milk in France using a consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) approach. This increase in preference was assumed to be satisfied domestically, by converting maize silage-based dairy farms (MS farm) to grass-based dairy farms (G farm) while keeping on-farm usable agricultural area and total milk production of farm constant. Methods The possible consequences of an increase in preference for grass-based milk were identified based on cause and effect relationships. The conversion from MS to G farm reduced the use of soybean meal, changed the on-farm cropping pattern and produced more animals but less wheat and no rapeseed. Effects on on-farm soil C were predicted with the RothC model and on global land use change (LUC) with models of global agricultural markets (Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) and Landbouw Economisch Instituut Trade Analysis Project (LEITAP)). System expansion using animals from a suckler beef production system was applied to estimate the impacts of milk and animal co-products from the dairy system. Land occupation and climate change impacts were estimated. The consequences of farm conversion were attributed only to the milk, as preference for grass-based milk drove the conversion process. Results and discussion The conversion from the MS to G farm increases land occupation and climate change impacts for the G farm, respectively, by 9 and 7 % according to GTAP and 14 and 51 % according to LEITAP. Land occupation and climate change impacts of milk produced by the G farm after conversion increased, respectively, by 82 and 13 % with GTAP and 123 and 97 % with LEITAP relative to those for the MS farm (before conversion). The production of additional wheat and rapeseed outside the G farm increased impacts of the G farm (by 29–69 % depending on impacts and model used). Results indicate that the farm conversion would probably have consequences on global LUC and that it is important to account for this in a LCA approach. Conclusions Land use and land use change (LULUC) contributed to the impacts of grass-based milk, and results were highly sensitive to the LULUC model used. The many possible chain-of-event pathways that follow a change in preference for a given product yield high uncertainty in CLCA results. This study only assessed one possible way to meet the increase in preference for grass-based milk; it is necessary to perform a sensitivity analysis to investigate other possible scenarios resulting from this increase in preference.

Beschreibung: Purpose Building a global Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database from scratch with a harmonized method and wide process coverage would require significant resources. Therefore, it is worth examining to what extent existing LCI datasets can be adapted to form the basis of a more common database. This study examines the opportunities and challenges of transforming the existing US Life Cycle Inventory (US LCI) database to meet the intrinsic (e.g., assumptions, methods, completeness) and extrinsic (e.g., data format) requirements of ecoinvent 3. Methods Nineteen US LCI datasets were selected for transformation. Datasets were first converted in batch from EcoSpold 1 to EcoSpold 2 format using an automated tool based on a Python script. Other changes necessary to conform to ecoinvent standards were made manually, such as changing activity and flow names, mapping dummy exchanges, and creating global reference datasets. To address data gaps and other data quality issues, each dataset was assessed against ecoinvent 3 data quality guidelines and missing information was noted. When available, public reports for the US LCI datasets were examined to fill in data gaps. Datasets were also compared against similar processes in ecoinvent to see if there were any significant flows omitted; missing flows were filled by using estimates for these exchanges from similar processes already within ecoinvent. Results and discussion The automated tool for data exchange format conversion saved time and reduced the potential for error. Even so, a nontrivial amount of time and research was spent on the manual changes needed to conform to ecoinvent standards. Addressing data gaps and other data quality issues also required considerable effort. In general, US LCI datasets were missing the following data required by ecoinvent 3: land use, water, and infrastructure exchanges; production volumes; uncertainty and data quality information; and adequate documentation of system boundaries, methodology, and process technology. Much of this missing data could be filled by examining available reports, using ecoinvent data as proxies, or conducting independent research. However, in some cases, such as for water data, adequate estimates could not be determined based on readily available materials. Conclusions This case study showed that it is possible to incorporate existing regional datasets into ecoinvent version 3, but significant resources may be required to restructure the datasets and fill data gaps. While this study focused on the US LCI and ecoinvent databases, its lessons can be applied to any inter-database conversion. In particular, new national LCI database initiatives should consider compatibility with established databases such as ecoinvent when designing the database framework, standards and guidelines.

Beschreibung: Purpose As a consequence of the multi-functionality of land, the impact assessment of land use in Life Cycle Impact Assessment requires the modelling of several impact pathways covering biodiversity and ecosystem services. To provide consistency amongst these separate impact pathways, general principles for their modelling are provided in this paper. These are refinements to the principles that have already been proposed in publications by the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. In particular, this paper addresses the calculation of land use interventions and land use impacts, the issue of impact reversibility, the spatial and temporal distribution of such impacts and the assessment of absolute or relative ecosystem quality changes. Based on this, we propose a guideline to build methods for land use impact assessment in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Results Recommendations are given for the development of new characterization models and for which a series of key elements should explicitly be stated, such as the modelled land use impact pathways, the land use/cover typology covered, the level of biogeographical differentiation used for the characterization factors, the reference land use situation used and if relative or absolute quality changes are used to calculate land use impacts. Moreover, for an application of the characterisation factors (CFs) in an LCA study, data collection should be transparent with respect to the data input required from the land use inventory and the regeneration times. Indications on how generic CFs can be used for the background system as well as how spatial-based CFs can be calculated for the foreground system in a specific LCA study and how land use change is to be allocated should be detailed. Finally, it becomes necessary to justify the modelling period for which land use impacts of land transformation and occupation are calculated and how uncertainty is accounted for. Discussion The presented guideline is based on a number of assumptions: Discrete land use types are sufficient for an assessment of land use impacts; ecosystem quality remains constant over time of occupation; time and area of occupation are substitutable; transformation time is negligible; regeneration is linear and independent from land use history and landscape configuration; biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services are independent; the ecological impact is linearly increasing with the intervention; and there is no interaction between land use and other drivers such as climate change. These assumptions might influence the results of land use Life Cycle Impact Assessment and need to be critically reflected. Conclusions and recommendations In this and the other papers of the special issue, we presented the principles and recommendations for the calculation of land use impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services on a global scale. In the framework of LCA, they are mainly used for the assessment of land use impacts in the background system. The main areas for further development are the link to regional ecological models running in the foreground system, relative weighting of the ecosystem services midpoints and indirect land use.

Beschreibung: Purpose This study aims to investigate the social implications of palm oil biodiesel via a case study using a life cycle assessment framework. Methods The case study was conducted in Jambi Province of Indonesia and involved several stakeholders, such as value chain actors, employees, local community members, government, and nongovernmental organization representatives related in palm oil industry. The assessment was carried out using social criteria developed by adopting the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry/United Nations Environment Programme Code of Practice, supplemented by an expert survey, and supported by literature review. Stakeholders’ perspectives were evaluated by determining the gaps between expected and perceived quality of each social criterion, which are gauged using seven-point Likert scale. Results and discussion Twenty-four social criteria were developed and aggregated into five social impact categories: human rights, working condition, cultural heritage, social–economic repercussion, and governance. These criteria have been weighted, useful for further application in multicriteria decision analysis. The results of the stakeholders’ survey reveal the critical social hotspots, which are the issues within the impact categories of working conditions and cultural heritage. Conclusions In order to achieve the social equitability of palm oil biodiesel, which is an important pillar to sustainability, efforts must be put to address these social hotspots through actions in various policy level.

Beschreibung: Purpose This study of seven foods assessed whether there are modes or locations of production that require significantly fewer inputs, and hence cause less pollution, than others. For example, would increasing imports of field-grown tomatoes from the Mediterranean reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by reducing the need for production in heated greenhouses in the UK, taking account of the additional transport emissions? Is meat production in the UK less polluting than the import of red meat from the southern hemisphere? Methods We carried out a life-cycle inventory for each commodity, which quantified flows relating to life-cycle assessment (LCA) impact categories: primary energy use, acidification, eutrophication, abiotic resource use, pesticide use, land occupation and ozone depletion. The system boundary included all production inputs up to arrival at the retail distribution centre (RDC). The allocation of production burdens for meat products was on the basis of economic value. We evaluated indicator foods from which it is possible to draw parallels for foods whose production follows a similar chain: tomatoes (greenhouse crops), strawberries (field-grown soft fruit), apples (stored for year-round supply or imported during spring and summer), potatoes (early season imports or long-stored UK produce), poultry and beef (imported from countries such as Brazil) and lamb (imported to balance domestic spring–autumn supply). Results and discussion Total pre-farm gate global warming potential (GWP) of potatoes and beef were less for UK production than for production in the alternative country. Up to delivery to the RDC, total GWP were less for UK potatoes, beef and apples than for production elsewhere. Production of tomatoes and strawberries in Spain, poultry in Brazil and lamb in New Zealand produced less GWP than in the UK despite emissions that took place during transport. For foods produced with only small burdens of GWP, such as apples and strawberries, the burden from transport may be a large proportion of the total. For foods with inherently large GWP per tonne, such as meat products, burdens arising from transport may only be a small proportion of the total. Conclusions When considering the GWP of food production, imports from countries where productivity is greater and/or where refrigerated storage requirement is less will lead to less total GWP than axiomatic preference for local produce. However, prioritising GWP may lead to increases in other environmental burdens, in particular leading to both greater demands on and decreasing quality of water resources.

Beschreibung: Purpose Rarely considered in environmental assessment methods, potential land use impacts on a series of ecosystem services must be accounted for in widely used decision-making tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA). The main goal of this study is to provide an operational life cycle impact assessment characterization method that addresses land use impacts at a global scale by developing spatially differentiated characterization factors (CFs) and assessing the extent of their spatial variability using different regionalization levels. Methods The proposed method follows the recommendations of previous work and falls within the framework and principles for land use impact assessment established by the United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Life Cycle Initiative. Based on the spatial approach suggested by Saad et al. (Int J Life Cycle Assess 16: 198–211, 2011 ), the intended impact pathways that are modeled pertain to impacts on ecosystem services damage potential and focus on three major ecosystem services: (1) erosion regulation potential, (2) freshwater regulation potential, and (3) water purification potential. Spatially-differentiated CFs were calculated for each biogeographic region of all three regionalization scale (Holdridge life regions, Holdridge life zones, and terrestrial biomes) along with a nonspatial world average level. In addition, seven land use types were assessed considering both land occupation and land transformation interventions. Results and discussion A comprehensive analysis of the results indicates that, when compared to all resolution schemes, the world generic averaged CF can deviate for various ecosystem types. In the case of groundwater recharge potential impacts, this range varied up to factors of 7, 4.7, and 3 when using the Holdridge life zones, the Holdridge regions, and the terrestrial biomes regionalization levels, respectively. This validates the importance of introducing a regionalized assessment and highlights how a finer scale increases the level of detail and consequently the discriminating power across several biogeographic regions, which could not have been captured using a coarser scale. In practice, the implementation of such regionalized CFs suggests that an LCA practitioner must identify the ecosystem in which land occupation or transformation activities occur in addition to the traditional inventory data required—namely, the land use activity and the inventory flow. Conclusions The variability of CFs across all three regionalization levels provides an indication of the uncertainty linked to nonspatial CFs. Among other assumptions and value choices made throughout the study, the use of ecological borders over political boundaries was deemed more relevant to the interpretation of environmental issues related to specific functional ecosystem behaviors.

Beschreibung: Purpose A method to quantify the climate impact of products called product carbon footprint (PCF) has been gaining popularity in recent years. However, variations of this method have resulted in several competing standards to guide the carbon calculation process. The aim of the current paper was to compare PCF results when calculated according to the different standards. Methods The three leading PCF standards are Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050:2011, ISO.DIN 2 14067 and Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard (PARS) 2011. These standards were compared conceptually, and a case study was performed in which the PCF of a poinsettia plant produced in Germany was calculated according to all three standards. Results and discussion The PCF results were 0.45–0.50, 0.53–0.58 and 0.53–0.59 kg carbon dioxide equivalent according to PAS 2050:2011, ISO.DIN 2 14067 and PARS 2011, respectively. According to all standards, the life cycle stage contributing the most greenhouse gases (GHGs) was the production of the poinsettia plant, and the single process with the highest emissions was the electricity use in the production. It was found that if nonrenewable fuels were used for heating instead of wood chips, then heating would be the highest GHG contributor—accounting for over 80 % of emissions of the total PCF. Conclusions A key finding was that both the production system used and the decisions taken by the person carrying out the PCF calculation result in greater differences in the PCF result than the use of different standards. Differences among the three standards could be harmonised by more specific cut-off rules and exclusion criteria with the publication of ISO.DIN 2 14067, as well as the development and use of product category rules.

Beschreibung: Purpose The focus of land use modeling in life cycle impact assessment has been mainly on taxonomic measures of biodiversity, namely species richness (SR). However, increasing availability of trait data for species has led to the use of functional diversity (FD) as a promising metric to reflect the distinctiveness of species; this paper proposes the use of an FD index to calculate characterization factors (CFs) for land use impacts. Furthermore, we compare the results of the CFs to current practice and assess the increase in complexity introduced by the use of the new indicator. Methods The model proposed is based on data compiled by previous regional meta-analysis on SR and FD, in different land use types in the Americas. The taxonomic groups included were mammals, birds, and plants. Within each study, calculated values for FD for different land use types were compared with the natural or close-to-natural state, taken as the reference situation. FD values among different land uses were standardized, and CFs were calculated. The final results were then analyzed and compared by analysis of variance and post hoc tests. A sensitivity analysis was also applied to verify the influence on the choice of the reference state. Results and discussion The results show that significant differences exist between CFs for SR and FD metrics. Across all taxa, CFs differ significantly between land use types. The results support the use of CF for FD, as a complement to current practice. Distinct CFs should be applied for at least six groups of land use categories. The choice of reference land use type did not significantly alter the results but can be a source of variability. A sensitivity analysis evaluating the impact of alternate land use types as reference types found only few significant changes on the results. Conclusions and recommendations Given the results, we believe the use of CFs based on FD can help on the establishment of possible links between species loss and key ecosystem functions, i.e., on the association between the midpoint indicator (e.g., biodiversity loss) and the damage caused to ecosystem quality, in terms of functions lost. Basing CFs on FD is not without challenges. Such indices are data hungry (requiring species composition and traits) require more complex calculations than current common practice, including decisions on the choice of a method to calculate FD and the selection of traits.

Beschreibung: Purpose Municipal solid waste (MSW) can be handled with several traditional management strategies, including landfilling, incineration, and recycling. Ethanol production from MSW is a novel strategy that has been proposed and researched for practical use; however, MSW ethanol plants are not widely applied in practice. Thus, this study has been conducted to analyze and compare the environmental and economic performance of incineration and ethanol production as alternatives to landfilling MSW. Methods The ISO 14040 life cycle assessment framework is employed to conduct the environmental impact assessment of three different scenarios for the two MSW management strategies based on processing 1 ton of MSW as the functional unit. The first scenario models the process of incinerating MSW and recovering energy in the form of process heat; the second scenario also includes the process of incinerating MSW but yields in the recovery of energy in the form of electricity; and the third scenario models the process of converting MSW into ethanol. The economic impacts of each scenario are then assessed by performing benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) and net present value (NPV) analyses. Results and discussion The results from the environmental impact assessment of each scenario reveal that scenario 2 has the highest benefits for resource availability while scenario 3 is shown to be the best alternative to avoid human health and ecosystems diversity impacts. Scenario 1 has the worst environmental performance with respect to each of these environmental endpoint indicators and has net environmental impacts. The results of the economic analysis indicate that the third scenario is the best option with respect to BCR and NPV, followed by scenarios 2 and 1, respectively. Furthermore, environmental and economic analysis results are shown to be sensitive to MSW composition. Conclusions It appears municipalities should prefer MSW incineration with electricity generation or MSW-to-ethanol conversion over MSW incineration with heat recovery as an alternative to landfilling. The contradiction between the environmental impact assessment results and economic analysis results demonstrates that the decision-making process is sensitive to a broad set of variables. Decisions for a specific MSW management system are subject to facility location and size, MSW composition, energy prices, and governmental policies.

Beschreibung: Purpose Integrating soil quality impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA) requires a global approach to assess impacts on soil quality that can be adapted to individual soil and climate contexts. We have developed a framework for quantifying indicators of impact on soil quality, valid for all soil and climate conditions, and considering both on-site and off-site agricultural soils. Herein, we present one of the framework’s impact indicators, which has not yet been quantified in detail in LCA studies: soil compaction. Material and methods The method includes guidelines and tools for estimating midpoint compaction impacts in topsoil and subsoil as a loss of soil pore volume (in cubic metre per functional unit). The life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment are based on simulation modelling, using models simple enough for use by non-experts, general enough to be parameterised with available data at a global scale and already validated. Data must be as site specific and accurate as possible, but if measured data are missing, the method has a standardised framework of rules and recommendations for estimating or finding them. The main model used, COMPSOIL, predicts compaction due to agricultural traffic. Results are illustrated using a case study involving several crops in different soil and climate conditions: a representative pig feed produced in Brittany, France. Results and discussion Predicted compaction impacts result from the combination of site-specific soil, climate and management characteristics. The data necessary to the LCI are readily available from free soil and climate databases and research online. Results are consistent with compaction observed in the field. Within a soil type, predictions are most sensitive to initial bulk density and soil water content. Conclusions The method lays the foundation for possible improvement by refining estimates of initial soil conditions or adding models that are simple and robust enough to increase the method’s capacity and accuracy. The soil compaction indicator can be used in LCAs of bio-based materials and of waste management stages that consider composting. The framework includes other operational indicators (i.e. water erosion, soil organic matter change) to assess impact on soil quality. They complement other impact categories, providing increased ability to identify “impact swapping”.

Beschreibung: Purpose Since the implementation of the European directive (EC/2001/42) on strategic environmental assessment, an ex ante evaluation has become mandatory for plans and programs. This requirement could have significant consequences for the environment. Local authorities, who are in charge of land planning issues, must therefore conduct such assessments. However, they are faced with lack of uniform methodology. The aim of this paper is thus to propose a methodological framework for the required environmental assessment stages in land planning. Methods Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been identified as a promising tool to perform environmental assessment at a meso-level (i.e., territories). Yet, the standardized LCA framework has never been used for assessing the environmental impacts of a territory as such, which can be explained by the complexity that its application would involve. Four major methodological bottlenecks have been identified in this paper, i.e., (1) functional unit definition, (2) boundary selection, (3) data collecting, and (4) the refinement of the life cycle impact assessment phase in order to provide useful indicators for land planning. For each of these challenges, recommendations have been made to adapt the analytical framework of LCA. Results and discussion A revised framework is proposed to perform LCA of a territory. One of the major adaptations needed concerns the goal and scope definition phase. Henceforth, the association of a territory and the studied land planning scenario, defined by its geographical boundaries and its interactions with other territories, will be designated as the reference flow in LCA. Consequently, two kinds of indicators will be determined using this approach, i.e., (1) a vector of environmental impacts generated (conventional LCA) and (2) a vector of land use functions provided by the territory for different stakeholders (e.g., provision of work, recreation, culture, etc.). This revised framework has been applied to a theoretical case study in order to highlight its utility in land planning. Conclusions This work is a first step in the adaptation of the LCA framework to environmental assessment in land planning. We believe that this revised framework has the potential to provide relevant information in decision-making processes. Nonetheless, further work is still needed to broaden and deepen this approach (i.e., normalization of impacts and functions, coupled application with GIS, uncertainties, etc.).

Beschreibung: Purpose Construction and demolition (C&D) waste recycling has been considered to be a valuable option not only for minimising C&D waste streams to landfills but also for mitigating primary mineral resource depletion. However, the potentially higher cement demand due to the larger surface of the coarse recycled aggregates challenges the environmental benefits of recycling concrete. Furthermore, it is unclear how the environmental impacts depend on concrete mixture, cement type, aggregates composition and transport distances. Methods We therefore analysed the life cycle impacts of 12 recycled concrete (RC) mixtures with two different cement types and compared it with corresponding conventional concretes (CC) for three structural applications. The RC mixtures were selected according to laws, standards and construction practice in Switzerland. We compared the environmental impacts of ready-for-use concrete on the construction site, assuming equal lifetimes for recycled and conventional concrete in a full life cycle assessment. System expansion and substitution are considered to achieve the same functionality for all systems. Results and discussion The results show clear (∼30 %) environmental benefits for all RC options at endpoint level (ecoindicator 99 and ecological scarcity). The difference is mainly due to the avoided burdens associated to reinforcing steel recycling and avoided disposal of C&D waste. Regarding global warming potential (GWP), the results are more balanced and primarily depend on the additional amount of cement needed for RC. Above 22 to 40 kg additional cement per cubic metre of concrete, RC exhibits a GWP comparable to CC. Additional transport distances above 15 km for the RC options do result in environmental impacts higher than those for CC. Conclusions In summary, the current market mixtures of recycled concrete in Switzerland show significant environmental benefits compared to conventional concrete and cause similar GWP, if additional cement and transport for RC are limited.

Beschreibung: Purpose Service life of buildings is an essential parameter to evaluate its operational impact in life cycle assessment (LCA). Although most studies assume building service life about 75 to 100 years since no reliable data are available, its accurate quantification is still an unresolved work. To avoid wrong generalizations, the determination of the service life of buildings according to the characteristics of every region is required. Methods Life table, a methodology traditionally used in demographic studies, has been used in this paper to estimate the service life of buildings. This methodology has been applied to the dwelling stock of Spain for each of its 19 regions. Data acquisition and sources have been pointed out. The building obsolescence has been considered in the moment that they are in a ruinous state. Results and discussion Life table of buildings showed that the average service life of a residential building constructed in 2001 in Spain was expected to be 80 years. Significant different results of service life among regions were found, from 54 years for a building in Ceuta to 95 years in La Rioja. It also showed that 50 % of total Spanish dwellings are younger than 30 years, and they are expected to reach the ruinous state in 2063 to 2081. Conclusions Life table applied to buildings allows determining their service life. Its quantification is based on the buildings census, given by official institutions. Building census has to consider the year of construction and the state of conservation of the building to be applied in buildings' life table. Building service life can be used in LCA, renovation and deconstruction of the building stock, and future construction and demolition debris management.

Beschreibung: Purpose Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is increasingly being used for general lighting. Thus, it is timely to study the environmental impacts of LED products. No life cycle assessments (LCA) of recessed LED downlight luminaires exist in the literature, and only a few assessments of any type of LED light source (component, lamp and luminaire) are available. Methods The LCA of a recessed LED downlight luminaire was conducted by using the data from the luminaire manufacturer, laboratory measurements, industry experts and literature. The assessment was conducted using SimaPro LCA software. EcoInvent and European Reference Life Cycle Database were used as the databases. The LCA included a range of environmental impacts in order to obtain a broad overview. The functional unit of the LCA was one luminaire used for 50,000 h. In addition, the sensitivity of the environmental impacts to the life was studied by assessing the LED downlight luminaire of 36,000 h and 15,000 h useful life and to the used energy sources by calculating the environmental impacts using two average energy mixes: French and European. Results and discussion The environmental impacts of the LED luminaire were mostly dominated by the energy consumption of the use. However, manufacturing caused approximately 23 % of the environmental impacts, on average. The environmental impacts of manufacturing were mainly due to the driver, LED array and aluminium parts. The installation, transport and end of life had nearly no effect on the total life cycle impacts, except for the end of life in hazardous waste. The life cycle environmental impacts were found to be sensitive to the life of the luminaire. The change from the French to the European average energy mix in use resulted to an even clearer dominance of the use stage. Conclusions The case study showed that the environmental impacts of the LED downlight luminaire were dominated by the use-stage energy consumption, especially in the case of the European energy mix in use. Luminous efficacy is, thus, a relatively appropriate environmental indicator of the luminaire. As LED technology possesses generally higher luminous efficacy compared to conventional ones, the LED luminaire is considered to represent an environmentally friendly lighting technology. However, data gaps exist in the data in LED product manufacturing and its environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of different LED products need to be analysed in order to be able to precisely compare the LED technology to the conventional lighting technologies.

Beschreibung: Purpose A life cycle assessment was conducted to determine a baseline for environmental impacts of cheddar and mozzarella cheese consumption. Product loss/waste, as well as consumer transport and storage, is included. The study scope was from cradle-to-grave with particular emphasis on unit operations under the control of typical cheese-processing plants. Methods SimaPro© 7.3 (PRé Consultants, The Netherlands, 2013 ) was used as the primary modeling software. The ecoinvent life cycle inventory database was used for background unit processes (Frischknecht and Rebitzer, J Cleaner Prod 13(13–14):1337–1343, 2005 ), modified to incorporate US electricity (EarthShift 2012 ). Operational data was collected from 17 cheese-manufacturing plants representing 24 % of mozzarella production and 38 % of cheddar production in the USA. Incoming raw milk, cream, or dry milk solids were allocated to coproducts by mass of milk solids. Plant-level engineering assessments of allocation fractions were adopted for major inputs such as electricity, natural gas, and chemicals. Revenue-based allocation was applied for the remaining in-plant processes. Results and discussion Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are of significant interest. For cheddar, as sold at retail (63.2 % milk solids), the carbon footprint using the IPCC 2007 factors is 8.60 kg CO 2 e/kg cheese consumed with a 95 % confidence interval (CI) of 5.86–12.2 kg CO 2 e/kg. For mozzarella, as sold at retail (51.4 % milk solids), the carbon footprint is 7.28 kg CO 2 e/kg mozzarella consumed, with a 95 % CI of 5.13–9.89 kg CO 2 e/kg. Normalization of the results based on the IMPACT 2002+ life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework suggests that nutrient emissions from both the farm and manufacturing facility wastewater treatment represent the most significant relative impacts across multiple environmental midpoint indicators. Raw milk is the major contributor to most impact categories; thus, efforts to reduce milk/cheese loss across the supply chain are important. Conclusions On-farm mitigation efforts around enteric methane, manure management, phosphorus and nitrogen runoff, and pesticides used on crops and livestock can also significantly reduce impacts. Water-related impacts such as depletion and eutrophication can be considered resource management issues—specifically of water quantity and nutrients. Thus, all opportunities for water conservation should be evaluated, and cheese manufacturers, while not having direct control over crop irrigation, the largest water consumption activity, can investigate the water use efficiency of the milk they procure. The regionalized normalization, based on annual US per capita cheese consumption, showed that eutrophication represents the largest relative impact driven by phosphorus runoff from agricultural fields and emissions associated with whey-processing wastewater. Therefore, incorporating best practices around phosphorous and nitrogen management could yield improvements.

Beschreibung: Water use, its impacts and management, have become a focus of attention in the past decade in the context of climate change and increasing consumption (in particular of food and agricultural products) due to a growing global population. Many efforts have been made to include water-related issues in life cycle assessment (LCA) in various ways, from the long-standing eutrophication, acidification, and ecotoxicity methods, to the more recent water consumption aspects. Four years on from the first discussion forum on water in LCA (35th Swiss Discussion Forum on LCA, Zürich, 5 June 2008), numerous developments have occurred, resulting in a rich palette of approaches. Significant challenges still remain, related to the complexity of water systems and ecosystems, and certain impacts are still not considered. New challenges have emerged, such as how to fit these “pieces” together to form a coherent and comprehensive approach for assessing the impacts of water use (both degradative and consumptive). Practice has started to apply certain water consumption-related approaches and an early feedback between practitioners and developers is essential to ensure a harmonious further development. The 50th Swiss Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment (DF-50) gave a brief overview of the current status of water use in LCA, and then focused on the following topics in three main sessions: (1) a selection of recent research developments in the field of impact assessment modeling; (2) identification of new and remaining challenges where future effort could be concentrated, with a focus on spatial and temporal resolution; (3) and experiences and learnings from application in practice. Furthermore, several short presentations addressed the issues of inventory requirements and comparison of impact assessment approaches. The DF-50 was concluded with a discussion workshop, focusing on four issues: which degree of regionalization is desirable, how to address data gaps in inventories, the comparability of different impact assessment approaches, and the pros and cons of including positive impacts (benefits). Numerous recent developments in life cycle impact assessment have tackled impact pathways, spatial and temporal resolutions, and uncertainties. They have lead to an increase of the completeness of impact assessment, but also of its complexity. Although developments have also occurred in inventories, the gap between impact assessment and inventory is challenging, which in turn limits the applicability of the methods. Regionalization is confirmed as an essential aspect in water footprinting; however, its implementation requires concerted effort by impact assessment developers and software developers. Therefore, even though immense progress has been made, it may be time to think of putting the pieces together in order to simplify the applicability of these tools: enabling the support of improvements in companies and policy is the ultimate goal of LCA. The recordings and presentations of the DF-50 are available for download from www.lcaforum.ch .

Beschreibung: Purpose This paper concerns the Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC) and the implementing measures (IM) in which ecodesign requirements are set up for energy-using and energy-related products. Previous studies have found that the requirements have a unilateral focus on energy consumption and the use phase. This is not in line with the scientific understanding of ecodesign, where attention should be put on all life cycle phases and all relevant environmental impact categories. This study focuses on the requirements for televisions (TV). A life cycle assessment (LCA) is carried out on two TVs to analyse if other environmental hotspots and life cycle phases should be included in the requirements in the IM of the Ecodesign Directive besides energy consumption in the use phase analysis. Methods The consequential approach is used. The data for the LCA have been gathered from two manufacturers of TVs. In one case, the data were delivered in Excel spreadsheets; in the other case, the authors of this paper together with the manufacturer disassembled a TV and collected the data manually. Results and discussion When applying the consequential approach, the production phase has the highest environmental impact, which is in contradiction with the focus area of the IM. The result of the sensitivity analysis is that the source of electricity is a potentially significant contributor of uncertainty. However, even in a coal-based scenario, the contribution from the production phase is approximately 30 %. Conclusions Based on these results, it is concluded that for future requirement setting in IM, it is necessary to set up requirements that cover more life cycle phases of the product in order to address the most important impacts.

Beschreibung: Purpose Informal recycling is one of the most significant activities within waste management systems in low-income countries. The main aspect of a number of recently implemented waste management systems has been to organise the informal recycling sector. The implementation of formalisation is expected to eliminate social problems related to the informal sector, but this has not been precisely measured and evaluated. A lack of methodology to assess social impacts persists, as does the comparison of different formalisation approaches. The goal of this work is to develop a methodological procedure for assessing the contribution of formalised recycling systems in low-income countries in terms of social impacts, in comparison with informal systems. Methods Some existing social assessment approaches were evaluated by a review of literature. This investigation focuses on the development of the social life cycle assessment approach, the analysed social aspects, proposed indicators and characterisation models within this framework. Results and discussion This study proposes an approach for the social assessment of recycling systems based on formalisation approaches in low-income countries oriented towards the social life cycle assessment methodology (sLCA). The approach developed considers 3 social impact categories, 9 social subcategories and 26 semi-quantitative indicators for the assessment of the social impacts on formalised recyclers. It includes a characterisation procedure that takes into consideration the application of a score system and the calculation of average scores at both the indicator and subcategory levels. Conclusions This research shows that it would be feasible to apply a sLCA-based methodology to evaluate recycling systems based on formalisation of the informal sector. The impact categories and subcategories identified represent the social problems of informal recyclers. The 26 semi-quantitative indicators and the proposed characterisation approach attempt to measure the social impacts that currently are only qualitatively assumed. The applicability and validation of the indicators and characterisation procedure will be determined by further research. The methodology developed will be tested using data from three recycling systems in Peruvian cities.

Beschreibung: Purpose This study aimed to establish a set of disability weights (DWs) for sleep problems and fatigue which could be applied in composite health outcome measures in order to quantify the burden of symptoms and economically evaluate the effects of increasing temperatures on a life cycle approach. Methods The conditions were evaluated by a two-step questionnaire study. In the first step, specialists determined the DW for each condition. The second step was identical to the first, except that the determinations were made by primary care physicians. Both groups of medical practitioners used an interpolation method consisting of a comprehensive set of 31 disease-specific DWs. Results and discussion Mean DWs for sleep disturbance were 0.101 for environmental sleep disturbance, 0.069 for mild sleep disturbance, and 0.086 for moderate sleep disturbance. Mean DWs for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) were 0.099 for a diagnosis of CFS, 0.164 for mild handicap, 0.281 for moderate handicap, and 0.459 for severe handicap. Mean DWs assigned by primary care physicians for sleep disturbance were 0.114 for environmental sleep disturbance, 0.140 for mild sleep disturbance, and 0.126 for severe sleep disturbance. Those for CFS were 0.154 for a diagnosis, 0.099 for mild handicap, 0.147 for moderate handicap, and 0.226 for severe handicap. Conclusions Using the present valuation protocol, it appeared feasible to establish the burden of symptoms as attributable to increasing temperatures. The results can be applied in composite health outcome measures for public health research, environmental research, and economic evaluations.

Beschreibung: Purpose Simulation plays a critical role in the design of products, materials, and manufacturing processes. However, there are gaps in the simulation tools used by industry to provide reliable results from which effective decisions can be made about environmental impacts at different stages of product life cycle. A holistic and systems approach to predicting impacts via sustainable manufacturing planning and simulation (SMPS) is presented in an effort to incorporate sustainability aspects across a product life cycle. Methods Increasingly, simulation is replacing physical tests to ensure product reliability and quality, thereby facilitating steady reductions in design and manufacturing cycles. For SMPS, we propose to extend an earlier framework developed in the Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications (SIMA) program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. SMPS framework has four phases, viz. design product, engineer manufacturing, engineer production system, and produce products. Each phase has its inputs, outputs, phase level activities, and sustainability-related data, metrics and tools. Results and discussion An automotive manufacturing scenario that highlights the potential of utilizing SMPS framework to facilitate decision making across different phases of product life cycle is presented. Various research opportunities are discussed for the SMPS framework and corresponding information models. Conclusions The SMPS framework built on the SIMA model has potential in aiding sustainable product development.

Beschreibung: Purpose The aim of the present paper is to describe the development of a life cycle assessment study of the service of potable water supply in Sicily, Italy. The analysis considers the stages of collection, treatment and distribution of potable water through the regional network, whilst the use stage of water is not included. Methods The selection of a methodological pattern coherently with the requirements of an environmental label, such as the EPDs, aims at allowing comparability among different studies. Results and discussion The analysis shows the shares of impacts along the life cycle chain, i.e. outputs by well fields and spring groups, purification and desalination plants, water losses in the waterworks, electrical consumption of waterworks systems and impacts of network maintenance. With regard to global warming potential (GWP), the impact of purification plants represents a 6–7 % share of the total, whilst desalination is at 74 %. Water losses in the waterworks show an impact of 15–17 %; the contribution owing to electrical consumption of waterworks systems and network maintenance results to be 3 %. Desalination plants represent the major contribution to all impact categories considered. Conclusions In respect to management issues, the most relevant impact categories resulted to be GWP, non-renewable energy resources and water consumption. Since the results for non-renewable energy resources are strictly connected to GWP emissions, carbon footprint and water footprint can be profitably used as single-issue indicators without the risk of burden shifting in studies aiming to evaluate the impact of potable water distribution.

Beschreibung: Purpose The main goal of any life cycle assessment (LCA) study is to identify solutions leading to environmental savings. In conventional LCA studies, practitioners select from some alternatives the one which better matches their preferences. This task is sometimes simplified by ranking these alternatives using an aggregated indicator defined by attaching weights to impacts. We address here the inverse problem. That is, given an alternative, we aim to determine the weights for which that solution becomes optimal. Methods We propose a method based on linear programming (LP) that determines, for a given alternative, the ranges within which the weights attached to a set of impact metrics must lie so that when a weighting combination of these impacts is optimized, the alternative can be optimal, while if the weights fall outside this range, it is guaranteed that the solution will be suboptimal. A large weight value implies that the corresponding LCA impact is given more importance, while a low value implies the converse. Furthermore, we provide a rigorous mathematical analysis on the implications of using weighting schemes in LCA, showing that this practice guides decision-making towards the adoption of some specific alternatives (those lying on the convex envelope of the resulting trade-off curve). Results and discussion A case study based on the design of hydrogen infrastructures is taken as a test bed to illustrate the capabilities of the approach presented. Given are a set of production and storage technologies available to produce and deliver hydrogen, a final demand, and cost and environmental data. A set of designs, each achieving a unique combination of cost and LCA impact, is considered. For each of them, we calculate the minimum and maximum weight to be given to every LCA impact so that the alternative can be optimal among all the candidate designs. Numerical results show that solutions with lower impact are selected when decision makers are willing to pay larger monetary penalties for the environmental damage caused. Conclusions LP can be used in LCA to translate the decision makers’ preferences into weights. This information is rather valuable, particularly when these weights represent economic penalties, as it allows screening and ranking alternatives on the basis of a common economic basis. Our framework is aimed at facilitating decision making in LCA studies and defines a general framework for comparing alternatives that show different performance in a wide variety of impact metrics.

Beschreibung: Purpose Environmental data for steel products are generally proposed at a continental or a global scale. The question we are tackling here is: does the fact that steel as a global market necessarily reduces the need for national data? Methods In this study, the environmental impact of reinforcing steel sold in France is evaluated. To do so, a specific environmental inventory is adapted from Ecoinvent database. CML method is used for impact calculation and both methods “recycled content” as well as “end of life recycling approach” are tested. Results and discussion This study shows that there is a specificity of reinforcing steel products sold in France compared to European value. It is due to the fact that reinforcing steel is mainly made with recycled steel as the market growth for construction product in France is limited allowing a very high recycled content. This result is not sensitive neither to the allocation method used for recycling (cut-off approach or system expansion) nor to transport distance and electricity country mix used. Conclusions The result of this study can be used with confidence in every construction site work located on the French territory. Furthermore, the present study advocates for an adaptation of global database to local context defined by a specific industrial sector and a geographic region even for product such as steel that may be considered as a first approximation as a global product.

Beschreibung: Purpose In this study, a life cycle assessment of a bioplastic based diaper was performed. The product has several innovative elements, due to the implementation of eco-design principles, such as: (1) introduction of biopolymers (namely polylactic acid (PLA) and Mater-bi®), (2) relevant reduction of petrochemical plastics, and (3) minimization of energy consumptions and use of renewable energy in manufacturing. The aim of the study is to evaluate the environmental benefits gained through eco-innovation, while identifying further areas of improvement. Methods The bio-based diaper has been evaluated using a “cradle-to-gate” analysis. The functional unit is one diaper, assuming an average size among the different commercial options. A case study of an enterprise in Italy (WIP S.p.A) was carried out to collect as much reliable primary data as possible. In order to highlight potential areas of improvement and to compare the environmental performance of the product, a sensitivity analysis based on three different impact assessment methods (adopting ReCiPe 2008, IMPACT 2002+ and Cumulative Energy Demand (CED)) and a comparison with a standard commercial diaper were performed. Finally, three possible end-of-life scenarios including composting of WIP diaper were hypothesized and tested. Results and discussion Contribution analysis suggested that sourcing and production of raw materials used in WIP diaper manufacturing contributed most significantly to the potential environmental impacts. Adopting ReCiPe method, pulp, and sodium polyacrylate present the highest environmental burdens in WIP diaper system. Applying IMPACT2002+ method, PLA relative contribution to the toxicity increases, due to the generation of the electricity used in corn production and in PLA production phases. For both methods, impacts related to energy consumption of the WIP diapers’ production process look to be negligible. WIP diaper performance has room for improvement, since critical points were detected in the life cycle stages of raw materials used. However, the results of the normalization step, according to ReCiPe method, state that WIP diapers can bring environmental benefits, compared to standard ones. Moreover, if composting end-of-life scenario is included in the assessment, there is a significant improvement in WIP diaper environmental performance compared to a standard diaper. Conclusions Integrating eco-innovation and eco-design principles in the production of the bio-based diaper leads to a better environmental profile, compared to the standard one. Nevertheless, there are several areas of concerns to be considered in order to further improve its environmental performance. So far, the possible improvements identified from the case study are: (1) the selection of biopolymers suppliers with better production systems from an environmental point of view, (2) the reduction of distances along the supply chain, and (3) the implementation of composting procedures for the end of life. In conclusion, the introduction of biopolymers in diaper composition could lead them to be preferable compared to standard diapers, but criticisms arise, which need to be solved, to avoid the risk of burdens shifting.

Beschreibung: Purpose The environmental issue is a particular concern for chainsaw oils because these fluids represent a total loss system. The aim of this study is to quantify the environmental impacts of a biobased chainsaw oil made on the farm in Wallonia (a region of Belgium) and to compare it with a model mineral chainsaw oil. With this study, the aim is also to participate in the development of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology applied to the biolubricant sector since LCAs on these products are quite limited and rarely sufficiently detailed. Method In this LCA, the attributional approach is applied. Seven impact categories are studied. The methods for life cycle impact assessment are IPCC, ReCiPe, CML and USEtox. The functional unit is 1 kg of base oil. Seven sensitivity analyses are performed. Results and discussion Results indicate that the biobased chainsaw oil made on the farm has a lower impact for the global warming potential, the abiotic depletion potential, the ozone depletion potential and the photochemical oxidation potential. On the contrary, it has larger acidification, aquatic eutrophication and aquatic ecotoxicity potential impacts. Regarding the contribution of the life cycle stages of the biobased chainsaw oil, the agricultural stage causes the highest contribution in all impact categories. For the mineral chainsaw oil, the refining stage is preponderant for all impact categories except for the global warming potential for which the end-of-life stage contributes the most. When taking additives into account, conclusions regarding the comparison between the oils are not reversed. Even if it was necessary to consume more biobased than mineral chainsaw oil, conclusions regarding the comparison of the oils would not be reversed. In the same way, a different allocation procedure for rapeseed oil and rape meal, a different rape seeds yield or different extraction yields in the refining stage of the mineral base oil do not change the results of the comparison. For the biobased chainsaw oil, the substitution of only one active substance in the agricultural stage could result in an important decrease of the freshwater ecotoxicity impact. Conclusions The biobased chainsaw oil has a lower impact in four out of the seven impact categories and a higher impact in three impact categories. By providing a detailed LCA on a biobased chainsaw oil, this study contributes to the development of LCA applied to biobased lubricants.

Beschreibung: Purpose The goal of this study is to develop an estimate of water use and consumption in automotive manufacturing to enhance the data quality of vehicle life cycle assessments that include life cycle water impacts. A benchmark is developed to compare water resources across manufacturing and nonproduction-related manufacturing processes, including an indication whether indirect water consumption due to electricity generation is significant. Methods Data from 12 original equipment manufacturers’ (OEM’s) sustainability reports are examined for the years 2006 to 2010. Distinctions are made between “water use” and “water consumption.” These factors are divided by total reported production to develop use and consumption values in cubic meter/vehicle for comparison. Additionally, total energy consumption is converted to indirect water consumption based on the water consumed in the generation of electricity for the electricity grid mix. Results and discussion Excluding outliers, average direct water use is 5.20 and 5.95 m 3 /vehicle for manufacturing and company-wide activities, respectively, with corresponding standard deviations of 1.42 and 1.20 m 3 /vehicle. Average direct water consumption was calculated to be 1.25 and 4.29 m 3 /vehicle for manufacturing and company-wide activities, respectively, with corresponding standard deviations of 0.52 and 1.56 m 3 /vehicle. Average indirect water consumption due to electricity consumption is found to be 2.21 m 3 /vehicle. Variability arises through different understandings on the words “consumption” and “use,” reporting continuity between years and in classification of data as it relates to manufacturing, nonmanufacturing, or company-wide activities. Conclusions These water values show that needs vary widely across OEMs. Additionally, the magnitude of the indirect water consumption results indicates that OEMs should focus on both indirect and direct water consumption to reduce their overall water footprint. The results also highlight the potential for significance and variability in indirect water consumption, in particular for “cradle-to-gate” type of impact assessments, dependent on electricity generation water consumption assumptions. It is hoped that with the introduction of water reporting standards like the International Organization of Standardization 14046, manufacturers will provide a more comprehensive summary of their water use and consumption in the future.

Beschreibung: Purpose The goal of this study is to evaluate and compare the environmental impact (with a focus on global warming potential) of five hand drying systems: hands-under (HU) dryers, high-speed hands-under (HSHU) dryers, high-speed hands-in (HSHI) dryers, cotton roll towels, and paper towels. Another objective is to incorporate uncertainty into this comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) as a means of understanding the statistical robustness of the difference between the environmental impacts of the hand drying systems. Methods We conducted a life cycle assessment in accordance with the ISO 14040/14044 standards using data primarily from publicly available reports. As part of the study, we performed a parameter uncertainty analysis for multiple scenarios to evaluate the impact of uncertainty in input data on the relative performance of products. In addition, we conducted a probabilistic scenario analysis of key drying system parameters in order to understand the implications of changing assumptions on the outcomes of the analyses. Results and discussion The scope of the analyses enabled us to draw robust conclusions about the relative environmental performance of the products. We can say with a high degree of confidence that the high-speed dryers have a lower impact than paper towels and cotton roll towels. Differentiating the performance of the hand dryers requires being more specific about framing assumptions. Under certain conditions, the HSHI dryer is expected to have a lower impact than the HU and HSHU dryers. However, under other conditions, one cannot say that the HSHI dryer is clearly better than the other dryers. We cannot differentiate the performance between the HU dryer, cotton roll towels, and paper towels. Conclusions This work demonstrates the importance of going beyond traditional uncertainty analyses for comparative LCAs that are used for assertions of relative product environmental impact. Indeed, we found instances where the conclusions changed as a result of using the probabilistic scenario analysis. We outline important elements that should be included in future guidance on uncertainty analyses in comparative LCAs, including conducting parameter and scenario uncertainty analyses together and then using the outcomes to guide selection of parameters and/or choices to analyze further.

Beschreibung: Purpose The industrial ecosystem identified in and around the Campbell Industrial Park in Honolulu County, Hawai’i involves 11 facilities exchanging water, materials, and energy across an industrial cluster. This paper highlights the advantages of this arrangement using life cycle assessment to determine the energy and environmental costs and benefits of the existing pattern of exchanges. Methods A consequential approach was used to evaluate each material substitution for four environmental impact categories: primary energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, acidification, and eutrophication. Each material exchange included avoided production and reduced use of virgin materials, any necessary pre-processing or transportation of local by-products, and avoided treatment or disposal of these by-products. Results and discussion All exchanges exhibited positive net savings across all environmental impact categories, with the exceptions of waste oil and tire-derived fuel burned as substitutes for coal. The greatest savings occur as a result of sharing steam between a combined cycle fuel oil-fired cogeneration plant and a nearby refinery. In total, the environmental savings realized by this industrial cluster are significant, equivalent to 25 % of the state’s policy goal for reducing the industrial component of GHG emissions over the next decade. The role of policy in supporting material and energy exchanges is also discussed as the central cluster of two power plants and two refineries share steam and water in part under regulatory requirements. Conclusions The results show environmental benefits of the sharing of by-product resources accrued on a life cycle basis, while for the local context, the reduction of imported fuels and materials helps to reduce the external dependency of Oahu’s remote island economy. The environmental benefits of materials exchanges are often ignored in energy policy, though, as in this case, they can represent considerable savings.

Beschreibung: Purpose To assess the diverse environmental impacts of land use, a standardization of quantifying land use elementary flows is needed in life cycle assessment (LCA). The purpose of this paper is to propose how to standardize the land use classification and how to regionalize land use elementary flows. Materials and methods In life cycle inventories, land occupation and transformation are elementary flows providing relevant information on the type and location of land use for land use impact assessment. To find a suitable land use classification system for LCA, existing global land cover classification systems and global approaches to define biogeographical regions are reviewed. Results and discussion A new multi-level classification of land use is presented. It consists of four levels of detail ranging from very general global land cover classes to more refined categories and very specific categories indicating land use intensities. Regionalization is built on five levels, first distinguishing between terrestrial, freshwater, and marine biomes and further specifying climatic regions, specific biomes, ecoregions and finally indicating the exact geo-referenced information of land use. Current land use inventories and impact assessment methods do not always match and hinder a comprehensive assessment of land use impact. A standardized definition of land use types and geographic location helps to overcome this gap and provides the opportunity to test the optimal resolution of land cover types and regionalization for each impact pathway. Conclusions and recommendation The presented approach provides the necessary flexibility to providers of inventories and developers of impact assessment methods. To simplify inventories and impact assessment methods of land use, we need to find archetypical situations across impact pathways, land use types and regions, and aggregate inventory entries and methods accordingly.

Beschreibung: Purpose This paper presents a case study of margarine, demonstrating the application of new characterisation factors (CF) for land use and a number of land use change impacts relating to biodiversity and ecosystem services. The objectives of this study were to generate insights as to the ease of applying these new factors and to assess their value in describing a number of environmental impacts from land use and land use change relating to the margarine product system. Methods This case study is a partial descriptive life cycle assessment (LCA) of margarine. The functional unit of the study is 500 g of packaged margarine used as a spread in the UK and Germany. The life cycle stages included were: agricultural production, oil processing, margarine manufacture and transportation to regional European distribution centres. Essential for the application of the new CF was the identification and quantification of the inventory flows for land occupation (land use) and land transformation (land use change) flows. A variety of methods have been applied to determine the inventory flows for the agricultural and industrial stages in the life cycle. These flows were then assessed using the new CF and land use-related environmental impact categories recommended in this special issue. Results and discussion Land occupation was the major determinant for all the new impact categories with the exception of the water purification potential. Many of the impact categories followed a similar pattern and therefore, the inventory result for land occupation in this case study explains a large share of most of the impacts. Where land occupation alone is not a suitable proxy for environmental impacts (i.e. for freshwater regulation potential), differentiation at the level of biomes has proven relevant. In addition, the land use types distinguished so far were found to be useful in highlighting likely hotspots in the life cycle, although further differentiation of ‘agricultural land’ is suggested to account for the differences between annual and permanent crops. Conclusions The new land use impact assessment methods applied help to identify hotspots in the life cycle of margarines, with different proportions and sources of vegetable oils. The specific impacts of each vegetable oil are determined mainly by the yield (and thus land occupation), but also by the type of agriculture (annual vs. permanent crops) and the sourcing location (and thus the sensitivity of biomes and occurrence of land use change). More research is needed to understand the usefulness of the various impact categories. For land use types, further refinement is required to describe different agricultural systems consistently across impact categories (e.g. annual vs. permanent cropping). In addition, the conceptual basis for the CFs applied in this case study (i.e. use of a potential reference for occupation and transformation) has limitations for some types of decisions normally supported by LCA.

Beschreibung: Purpose Consequential Life Cycle Assessment (C-LCA) is a “system modelling approach in which activities in a product system are linked so that activities are included in the product system to the extent that they are expected to change as a consequence of a change in demand”. Hence, C-LCA focuses on micro-economic actions linked to macro-economic consequences, by identifying the (marginal) suppliers and technologies prone to be affected by variable scale changes in the demand of a product. Detecting the direct and indirect environmental effects due to changes in the production system is not an easy task. Hence, researchers have combined the consequential perspective with different econometric models. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess an increase in biocrops cultivation in Luxembourg using three different consequential modelling approaches to understand the benefits, drawbacks and assumptions linked to each approach as applied to the case study selected. Methods Firstly, a partial equilibrium (PE) model is used to detect changes in land cultivation based on the farmers’ revenue maximisation. Secondly, another PE model is proposed, which considers a different perspective aiming at minimising a total adaptation cost (so-called opportunity cost) to satisfy a given new demand of domestically produced biofuel. Finally, the consequential system delimitation for agricultural LCA approach, as proposed by Schmidt (Int J Life Cycle Assess 13:350–364, 2008 ), is applied. Results and discussion The two PE models present complex shifts in crop rotation land use changes (LUCs), linked to the optimisation that is performed, while the remaining approach has limited consequential impact on changes in crop patterns since the expert opinion decision tree constitutes a simplification of the ongoing LUCs. However, environmental consequences in the latter were considerably higher due to intercontinental trade assumptions recommended by the experts that were not accounted for in the economic models. Environmental variations between the different scenarios due to LUCs vary based on the different expert- or computational-based assumptions. Finally, environmental consequences as compared with the current state-of-the-art are lame due to the limited impact of the shock within the global trade market. Conclusions The use of several consequential modelling approaches within the same study may help widen the interpretation of the advantages or risks of applying a specific change to a production system. In fact, different models may not only be good alternatives in terms of comparability of scenarios and assumptions, but there may also be room for complementing these within a unique framework to reduce uncertainties in an integrated way.

Beschreibung: Purpose The choice of a sustainable packaging alternative is a key issue for the improvement of the environmental performances of a product, both from a production perspective and end-of-life management. The present study is focused on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of two packaging alternatives of a poultry product, in particular a polystyrene-based tray and an aluminum bowl (70 wt% primary and 30 wt% secondary aluminum) were considered. Methods The LCA was performed according to ISO 14040-44 and following a “from-cradle-to-grave” perspective. The following stages were considered: production, use phase (i.e., cooking), and end-of-life. Different end-of-life scenarios were hypothesized. Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Cumulative Energy Demand, and ILCD midpoint method were used in the impact assessment (LCIA). Results and discussion The aluminum bowl was carefully designed in order to allow its use during the cooking stage of the poultry product in the oven and to reduce the cooking time (40 min instead of 50 min needed when using a conventional bowl) at 200 °C: cooking time reduction allows electric energy savings equal to 0.21 kWh (1.38 kWh instead of 1.59 kWh). Electric energy savings become of primary importance to reduce overall emissions, in particular CO 2 eq emissions, especially in those countries such as Italy and Germany where there is a predominance of fossil fuels in the electric energy country mix. Conclusions Over the entire life cycle of the two alternatives considered (taking into account production, transport, cooking, and end-of-life), cooking stage has the most impact; so, the specific design of the packaging bowl/tray can allow significant lowering of the overall CO 2 eq emissions. In addition, when designing an aluminum-based packaging, the content of the secondary material can be significantly increased in order to reach higher sustainability during the production stage.

Beschreibung: Purpose Forest residues are becoming an increasingly important bioenergy feedstock. This study evaluates the environmental impacts associated with the production of fuel chips from eucalypt logging residues in Portugal, in order to identify the supply chains and machinery that bring the best environmental performance. Besides, the stages and operations with the largest environmental impact are identified. Methods Life cycle assessment methodology is used starting with forest management up to delivery of chips to power plant. Three different configurations for logging residue processing were simulated as follows: roadside chipping of loose residues, terminal chipping of loose residues, and terminal chipping of bundled residues. In addition, the use of different equipment for tree felling and extraction of logging residue was considered. The default impact assessment methodology was the CML. In a sensitivity analysis, calculations were performed using characterization factors recommended by the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD). Different allocation criteria were tested for partitioning the environmental burdens between wood and forest residues produced during the stage of forest management. Results and discussion Roadside chipping of loose residues seems to have less impacts regardless of the equipment used in tree felling and residue forwarding. However, for photochemical oxidant formation, this is not the case when trees are felled with a chainsaw when the CML methodology is applied. For the systems with terminal chipping, the better option will depend both on type of machinery used and distances traveled between the forest site and the power plant. The forest management stage has a relevant contribution to all the supply chains analyzed. Chipping and bundling have also important impacts, as well as forwarding when this operation is accomplished with a modified farm tractor. Moreover, transports have a significant impact when loose residues are chipped in a terminal. Conclusions The choice of the allocation method between wood and residues affects significantly the absolute results, but it is irrelevant when the objective is to select the best supply chain configuration. The results obtained are valid for the input data considered, which rely on average values representative of the current most typical practices in Portugal. However, this methodology can also be applied as a decision supporting tool to select the supply chain with the best environmental performance on a case by case basis, using site-specific data.