ALBERT

Beschreibung: Purpose This study has two aims: first, propose the use of the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework to expand the normal focus of impact pathways in social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) on endpoint impacts to a systematic analysis to find links between the main sources of social issues and impacts; second, develop a new impact assessment method to quantify the lifetime health and economic outcomes associated with social subcategories, for the first time, using decision analytic models. Methods The DPSIR framework is mapped to the corresponding elements of the S-LCA context in relation to the social subcategories defined in the UNEP/SETAC methodological sheets. Next, a more robust approach is developed for cause-impact chains between social subcategories and impacts on human well-being based on decision-analytic models (decision trees and Markov models) using healthcare approaches and data. Finally, the health and economic consequences associated with social subcategories are quantified by using Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and costs based on medical literature and healthcare studies. Results and discussion The method was applied to the “working hours” social subcategory in Canada. The cause-effect chain is built using DPSIR framework in relation to the current social issue in Canada of working more than standard hours. Results of the decision analytic model show that working standard hours is more effective and cost-saving than working more than standard hours from the Canadian healthcare perspective. Working standard hours compared to more than standard hours led to an increase of 0.73 QALY and decrease in cost of $6702 per worker. Based on an estimated 2.4 million Canadian workers working more than standard hours, this resulted in a total gain of 1.7 million QALYs and saving of $16 billion overall. Using cost-effectiveness analysis, possible interventions at multiple entry points of the cause-effect chain within DPSIR framework are proposed to reduce the negative health impacts and associated costs of working more than standard hours in Canada. Conclusions Applying the method on other subcategories could help decision-makers establish the cause-effect aspects of the social performance of their product systems using a quantitative systematic analysis from a life cycle perspective. This approach supports corporate decision-makers to quantify social impacts associated with their product supply chains by calculating QALYs and healthcare costs of their socio-economic conditions enabling them to identify possible interventions to improve the social performance.

Beschreibung: Purpose California’s Central Valley produces more than 75% of global commercial almond supply, making the life cycle performance of almond production in California of global interest. This article describes the life cycle assessment of California almond production using a Scalable, Process-based, Agronomically Responsive Cropping System Life Cycle Assessment (SPARCS-LCA) model that includes crop responses to orchard management and modeling of California’s water supply and biomass energy infrastructure. Methods A spatially and temporally resolved LCA model was developed to reflect the regional climate, resource, and agronomic conditions across California’s Central Valley by hydrologic subregion (San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento Valley, and Tulare Lake regions). The model couples a LCA framework with region-specific data, including water supply infrastructure and economics, crop productivity response models, and dynamic co-product markets, to characterize the environmental performance of California almonds. Previous LCAs of California almond found that irrigation and management of co-products were most influential in determining life cycle CO2eq emissions and energy intensity of California almond production, and both have experienced extensive changes since previous studies due to drought and changing regulatory conditions, making them a focus of sensitivity and scenario analysis. Results and discussion Results using economic allocation show that 1 kg of hulled, brown-skin almond kernel at post-harvest facility gate causes 1.92 kg CO2eq (GWP100), 50.9 MJ energy use, and 4820 L freshwater use, with regional ranges of 2.0–2.69 kg CO2eq, 42.7–59.4 MJ, and 4540–5150 L, respectively. With a substitution approach for co-product allocation, 1 kg almond kernel results in 1.23 kg CO2eq, 18.05 MJ energy use, and 4804 L freshwater use, with regional ranges of 0.51–1.95 kg CO2eq, 3.68–36.5 MJ, and 4521–5140 L, respectively. Almond freshwater use is comparable with other nut crops in California and globally. Results showed significant variability across subregions. While the San Joaquin Valley performed best in most impact categories, the Tulare Lake region produced the lowest eutrophication impacts. Conclusion While CO2eq and energy intensity of almond production increased over previous estimates, so too did credits to the system for displacement of dairy feed. These changes result from a more comprehensive model scope and improved assumptions, as well as drought-related increases in groundwater depth and associated energy demand, and decreased utilization of biomass residues for energy recovery due to closure of bioenergy plants in California. The variation among different impact categories between subregions and over time highlight the need for spatially and temporally resolved agricultural LCA.

Beschreibung: Introduction Most LCA studies are comparative and to an increasing extent the effects uncertainty are included in LCA results. This raises the question how the best option from a set of product alternatives can be selected when the product scores are uncertain. The starting point of this article is a set of Monte Carlo results for a number of alternative products. Indicators for single product alternatives First we discuss different ways of expressing results for product alternatives separately. This includes a discussion of centrality (mean, median, geometric mean, etc.) and dispersion (standard deviation, standard error, confidence interval, etc.). Indicators of difference for two product alternatives A critical review of approaches to single out the superior option on case of a comparison of two is given. This includes familiar approaches such as $$t$$ t tests, but also lesser known ones such the Bhattacharyya coefficient and Cohen’s $$d$$ d . All approaches are defined, discussed, and illustrated with one consistent, downloadable, example. More than two product alternatives The findings for two products are generalized for the multi-product situation. In particular, the issue of inflation of type I errors in multiple comparisons is discussed. Discussion Two main questions are identified: (1) What is the probability that a randomly selected specimen of product A performs better than a randomly selected specimen of product B? (2) How much will a randomly selected specimen of product A perform better than a randomly selected specimen of product B? These two options can both be relevant, but existing approaches for distinguishing product alternatives address one of these two only, or they even turn out to answer a different, less relevant, question. A proposal for a new indicator that addresses both questions simultaneously is offered and its use is illustrated.

Beschreibung: Purpose Repairing, refurbishing and remanufacturing are three strategies of the Circular Economy (CE), aiming at closing product cycles and maintaining materials and resources in the product cycle as long as possible. This paper analyses the environmental impacts of these three circular end-of-use scenarios (repairing, refurbishing and part remanufacturing) when performed on a common, “non-circular” smartphone. The underlying data used for this paper partly have been result of the Horizon 2020 project sustainablySMART, where circular product concepts have been developed and analysed in detail. Methods To analyse the environmental impacts of different circular end-of-use scenarios of smartphones, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is performed. For considering the impact of a smartphone’s first life (e.g. materials, production), an economic allocation is used. Since the goal of the study was to better understand the environmental impacts of processing routes that enable multiple life cycles of a product, allocation according to the economic value is applied instead of applying system expansion. As system expansion provides just an aggregated view of the first and second product life cycles and no decision support at the end of the first life regarding the relevant CE strategy can be given. The economic allocation is based on the ratio between the residual market value and the original price from the scenario’s input stream of smartphones of the respective end-of-use scenario. To reach comparability of the results, a second-use-time-parameter is defined for each scenario. This parameter takes into account that the second use time reaches only a certain share from the average smart phone use time. Results This study shows that through all three circular strategies, a reduction in the investigated impact categories—Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Abiotic Depletion Potential (ADP)—can be achieved. Conclusions The analysed end-of-use scenarios repairing and refurbishing show the highest potential for smartphones in terms of Circular Economy, as most of the environmental impacts can be allocated to the device production, and the impact of additional steps to perform CE-strategies (e.g. collection of discarded phones, refurbishing) is rather low.

Beschreibung: Purpose Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) have a significant potential for contributing to consumption-based approaches to climate change. This paper provides an important building block towards a theoretical model of the factors accounting for variations in the availability of life cycle data across countries. It does so by positing a mechanism linking industry associations’ institutional role within environmental policy processes to the availability of product life data and by empirically validating it. Methods Interviews, qualitative document analysis, web scraping, quantitative text analysis, set-theoretical causal reasoning, and process tracing. Results and discussion Environmental policies that stipulate industry-government deliberations and assign a coordinating or mediating role to industry peak associations can stimulate the exchange of environmental information among industrial sectors. The policy instruments of determination of ‘best available techniques’ (BAT) towards standard setting, negotiated collective agreements and carbon pricing all contribute towards the institutionalisation of organised information exchange within industry. This lowers transaction costs for the monitoring, reporting and verification of sectoral environmental data and can thus be conducive to the creation of sectoral life cycle assessment data, with positive knock-on effects on the availability of firm- and product-specific LCA labels. Conclusions Industry associations’ institutional role within environmental policy processes can partially explain cross-national variations in the availability of product life cycle inventories.

Beschreibung: Purpose This study compares prior life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on graphene-based materials (GBMs) with new results from original data on ball milling of few-layer graphene. The analysis thus offers an overview of the current state of knowledge on the environmental sustainability of GBM production. Possible future development pathways and knowledge gaps are identified and explained to provide guidance for the future development of GBMs. Methods Comparable scopes, aggregation levels, and impact assessment methods are used to analyse diverse GBMs with three different functional units for graphene oxide, pristine graphene, and other GBMs with different carbon/oxygen ratios or thickness. The ecoinvent v3.4 cut-off database is used for background data in all models to provide a common basis of comparison. Furthermore, uncertainty calculations are carried out to give insights on the current level of knowledge and to check if GBM production methods can be differentiated. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the energy inputs with a detailed description of three future scenarios for the European electricity mix. Results and discussion The general analysis of all results highlights three key strategies to improve the environmental sustainability of GBM production. (1) The use of decarbonised energy sources reduces substantially the impacts of GBMs. This benefit is decreased, however, when conservative forecasts of the future European electricity mix are considered. (2) Increased energy efficiency of production is useful mainly for the processes of electrochemical exfoliation and chemical vapour deposition. (3) The principles of green chemistry provide relevant ideas to reduce the impacts of GBMs mainly for the processes of chemical and thermal reduction and for the production of graphene oxide. Furthermore, the analysis of new data on ball milling production reveals that transforming GBM solutions into dry-mass can substantially increase the environmental impacts because of the energy-intensive nature of this conversion. The uncertainty analysis then shows that it is still difficult to differentiate all production methods with the current knowledge on this emerging technology. Conclusions With our current level of knowledge on GBMs, it is clear that more accurate data is needed on different production methods to identify frontrunners. Nevertheless, it seems that unknowns, like the state of future electricity mixes, might not often hinder such comparisons because conservative forecasts bring similar changes on many production options. Additionally, functional properties and toxicity for GBMs will require further attention to improve our confidence in the comparison of production methods in the future.

Beschreibung: Purpose Garment production and use generate substantial environmental impacts, and the care and use are key determinants of cradle-to-grave impacts. The present study investigated the potential to reduce environmental impacts by applying best practices for garment care combined with increased garment use. A wool sweater is used as an example because wool garments have particular attributes that favour reduced environmental impacts in the use phase. Methods A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare six plausible best and worst-case practice scenarios for use and care of a wool sweater, relative to current practices. These focussed on options available to consumers to reduce impacts, including reduced washing frequency, use of more efficient washing machines, reduced use of machine clothing dryers, garment reuse by multiple users, and increasing number of garment wears before disposal. A sixth scenario combined all options. Worst practices took the worst plausible alternative for each option investigated. Impacts were reported per wear in Western Europe for climate change, fossil energy demand, water stress and freshwater consumption. Results and discussion Washing less frequently reduced impacts by between 4 and 20%, while using more efficient washing machines at capacity reduced impacts by 1 to 6%, depending on the impact category. Reduced use of machine dryer reduced impacts by 

Beschreibung: © The Author(s) 2019

Beschreibung: Purpose Following the urgency to curb environmental impacts across all sectors globally, this is the first life cycle assessment of different wine grape farming practices suitable for commercial conventional production in South Africa, aiming at better understanding the potentials to reduce adverse effects on the environment and on human health. Methods An attributional life cycle assessment was conducted on eight different scenarios that reduce the inputs of herbicides and insecticides compared against a business as usual (BAU) scenario. We assess several impact categories based on ReCiPe, namely global warming potential, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial toxicity, freshwater toxicity, marine toxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity and human non-carcinogenic toxicity, human health and ecosystems. A water footprint assessment based on the AWARE method accounts for potential impacts within the watershed. Results and discussion Results show that in our impact assessment, more sustainable farming practices do not always outperform the BAU scenario, which relies on synthetic fertiliser and agrochemicals. As a main trend, most of the impact categories were dominated by energy requirements of wine grape production in an irrigated vineyard, namely the usage of electricity for irrigation pumps and diesel for agricultural machinery. The most favourable scenario across the impact categories provided a low diesel usage, strongly reduced herbicides and the absence of insecticides as it applied cover crops and an integrated pest management. Pesticides and heavy metals contained in agrochemicals are the main contributors to emissions to soil that affected the toxicity categories and impose a risk on human health, which is particularly relevant for the manual labour-intensive South African wine sector. However, we suggest that impacts of agrochemicals on human health and the environment are undervalued in the assessment. The 70% reduction of toxic agrochemicals such as Glyphosate and Paraquat and the 100% reduction of Chlorpyriphos in vineyards hardly affected the model results for human and ecotoxicity. Our concerns are magnified by the fact that manual labour plays a substantial role in South African vineyards, increasing the exposure of humans to these toxic chemicals at their workplace. Conclusions A more sustainable wine grape production is possible when shifting to integrated grape production practices that reduce the inputs of agrochemicals. Further, improved water and related electricity management through drip irrigation, deficit irrigation and photovoltaic-powered irrigation is recommendable, relieving stress on local water bodies, enhancing drought-preparedness planning and curbing CO2 emissions embodied in products.

Beschreibung: Purpose Life cycle thinking (LCT) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are increasingly considered pivotal concept and method for supporting sustainable transitions. LCA plays a relevant role in decision support, for the ambition of a holistic coverage of environmental dimensions and for the identification of hotspots, possible trade-offs, and burden shifting among life cycle stages or impact categories. These features are also relevant when the decision support is needed in policy domain. With a focus on EU policies, the present study explores the evolution and implementation of life cycle concepts and approaches over three decades. Methods Adopting an historical perspective, a review of current European Union (EU) legal acts and communications explicitly mentioning LCT, LCA, life cycle costing (LCC), and environmental footprint (the European Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint PEF/OEF) is performed, considering the timeframe from 1990 to 2020. The documents are categorised by year and according to their types (e.g. regulations, directives, communications) and based on the covered sectors (e.g. waste, energy, buildings). Documents for which life cycle concepts and approaches had a crucial role are identified, and a shortlist of these legal acts and communications is derived. Results and discussion Over the years, LCT and life cycle approaches have been increasingly mentioned in policy. From the Ecolabel Regulation of 1992, to the Green Deal in 2019, life cycle considerations are of particular interest in the EU. The present work analysed a total of 159 policies and 167 communications. While in some sectors (e.g. products, vehicles, and waste) life cycle concepts and approaches have been adopted with higher levels of prescriptiveness, implementation in other sectors (e.g. food and agriculture) is only at a preliminary stage. Moreover, life cycle (especially LCT) is frequently addressed and cited only as a general concept and in a rather generic manner. Additionally, more stringent and rigorous methods (LCA, PEF/OEF) are commonly cited only in view of future policy developments, even if a more mature interest in lifecycle is evident in recent policies. Conclusion The EU has been a frontrunner in the implementation of LCT/LCA in policies. However, despite a growing trend in this implementation, the development of new stringent and mandatory requirements related to life cycle is still relatively limited. In fact, there are still issues to be solved in the interface between science and policy making (such as verification and market surveillance) to ensure a wider implementation of LCT and LCA.

Beschreibung: Purpose Reducing chemical pressure on human and environmental health is an integral part of the global sustainability agenda. Guidelines for deriving globally applicable, life cycle–based indicators are required to consistently quantify toxicity impacts from chemical emissions as well as from chemicals in consumer products. In response, we elaborate the methodological framework and present recommendations for advancing near-field/far-field exposure and toxicity characterization, and for implementing these recommendations into the scientific consensus model USEtox. Methods An expert taskforce was convened by the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment to expand existing guidance for evaluating human toxicity impacts from exposure to chemical substances. This taskforce evaluated scientific advances since the original release of USEtox and identified two major aspects that required refinement, namely integrating near-field and far-field exposure, and improving human dose-response modeling. Dedicated efforts have led to a set of recommendations to address these aspects in an update of USEtox, while ensuring consistency with the boundary conditions for characterizing life cycle toxicity impacts and being aligned with recommendations from agencies that regulate chemical exposure. The proposed updated USEtox framework was tested in an illustrative rice production and consumption case study. Results and discussion On the exposure side, a matrix system is proposed and recommended to integrate far-field exposure from environmental emissions with near-field exposure from chemicals in various consumer product types. Consumer exposure is addressed via sub-models for each product type to account for product type-specific characteristics and exposure settings. Case study results illustrate that product use–related exposure dominates overall life cycle exposure. On the effect side, a probabilistic dose-response approach combined with a decision tree for identifying reliable points of departure is proposed for non-cancer effects, following recent guidance from the World Health Organization. This approach allows for explicitly considering both uncertainty and human variability in toxicity effect factors. Factors reflecting disease severity are proposed to distinguish cancer from non-cancer effects and within the latter to discriminate reproductive/developmental and other non-cancer effects. All proposed aspects have been consistently implemented into the original USEtox framework. Conclusions The recommended methodological advancements address several key limitations in earlier approaches. Next steps are to test the new characterization framework in additional case studies and to close remaining research gaps. Our framework is applicable for evaluating chemical emissions and product-related exposure in life cycle assessment, chemical alternatives assessment and chemical substitution, consumer exposure and risk screening, and high-throughput chemical prioritization.

Beschreibung: Purpose The water footprint (WF) method is widely applied to quantify water use along the life cycle of products and organizations and to evaluate the resulting impacts on human health. This study analyzes the cause-effect chains for the human health damage related to the water use on a local scale in the Province Punjab of Pakistan, evaluates their consistency with existing WF models, and provides recommendations for future model development. Method Locally occurring cause-effect chains are analyzed based on site observations in Punjab and a literature review. Then, existing WF models are compared to the findings in the study area including their comprehensiveness (covered cause-effect chains), relevance (contribution of the modeled cause-effect chain to the total health damage), and representativeness (correspondence with the local cause-effect chain). Finally, recommendations for the development of new characterization models describing the local cause-effect chains are provided. Results and discussion The cause-effect chains for the agricultural water deprivation include malnutrition due to reduced food availability and income loss as well as diseases resulting from the use of wastewater for irrigation, out of which only the first one is addressed by existing WF models. The cause-effect chain for the infectious diseases due to domestic water deprivation is associated primarily with the absence of water supply systems, while the linkage to the water consumption of a product system was not identified. The cause-effect chains related to the water pollution include the exposure via agricultural products, fish, and drinking water, all of which are reflected in existing impact assessment models. Including the groundwater compartment may increase the relevance of the model for the study area. Conclusions Most cause-effect chains identified on the local scale are consistent with existing WF models. Modeling currently missing cause-effect chains for the impacts related to the income loss and wastewater usage for irrigation can enhance the assessment of the human health damage in water footprinting.

Beschreibung: Purpose Previous studies on environmental impacts from domestic laundry have tended to focus solely on private washing machines and detergent. However, public procurement guidelines about the construction of laundry spaces may also be important. This article aims to expand the scope of previous work so that it also includes tumble drying and the building space. By doing this, we examine the potential for shared systems (which are common in Sweden) to reduce the environmental impacts of laundry activities, in comparison with consumer choices associated with machine operation (i.e., wash temperature and amount of detergent). Methods An LCA model was created using product information data from the European Union. Emissions from building use were taken from Swedish cradle-to-grave reports on energy-efficient buildings. The resulting model was run with additional sensitivity analysis of the variables, and the associated emissions from each of the scenarios were calculated. Results and discussion On average, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for private laundries in Sweden were estimated to be 190 g CO2 eq./kg laundry (washed and dried). If a shared laundry was used instead, the resulting emissions decreased by approximately 26%. The greatest contribution to GHG emissions was the use of detergent (22–33% of total emissions), followed by capital goods (11–38% of total emissions). Conclusion Deciding to construct shared laundries in newly built apartment buildings in Sweden, rather than in-unit machines, would reduce the emissions from domestic laundry for these tenants by approximately 26%. This is because materials used for manufacturing whitegoods, as well as the emissions associated with the building itself, play a much bigger role than previously thought. Additionally, since the cleaning efficiency of warm water and some of the components used in detergents rises with temperature, emissions from domestic laundering could for some consumers be reduced further by washing at higher temperature but with less detergent. This pattern could be seen in Sweden within regions with hard water, where the emissions from domestic laundry could be reduced by 6–12%.

Beschreibung: Purpose The assessment of potential environmental impacts associated to mineral resource use in LCA is a highly debated topic. Most current impact assessment methods consider the extraction of resources as the issue of concern, while their dissipation is an emerging concept. This article proposes an approach to account for mineral resource dissipation in life cycle inventories (LCIs), with application to a case study. Methods The definition of mineral resources is first discussed considering both current main LCA practice and the context of resource dissipation. Secondly, the approach is described: considering a short-term perspective (25 years), any flow of resources to (i) environment, (ii) final waste disposal facilities, and (iii) products-in-use in the technosphere, with the resources not providing any significant function anymore (including due to non-functional recycling), is suggested to be reported as dissipative at the level of unit processes. This approach first requires to map the flows of mineral resources into and out of the unit processes under study (“resource flow analysis”), before identifying the dissipative flows and reporting them in LCI datasets. Results and discussion The approach is applied to analyze the direct dissipation of mineral resources along the primary production of copper, using Ecoinvent (v3.5) datasets. The production of 1 kg of copper cathode generates 0.88 kg of direct dissipative flows of resources (primarily calcium carbonate, copper, and to a lower extent iron), with important contributions of “tailings disposal,” “pyrometallurgy,” and “mining and concentration.” Moreover, this article discusses (i) how the developed approach would change the interpretation of results regarding mineral resources in LCA, (ii) how far some key methodological aspects of this approach (e.g., the temporal perspective) can affect the inventory results (e.g., in the case of the primary production of copper, considering a long-term perspective implies a significant shift in main contributions regarding both unit processes and resource flows), and finally (iii) the issue of new data requirements, in terms of availability and adequacy. Conclusions As demonstrated in the case study, existing LCI datasets and supporting documentation contain at least part of the data and information required to consistently compile the dissipative flows of resources at the unit process level, yet with the need for some complementary data and assessments. This approach may be particularly relevant to better support the development of more resource-efficient techniques or product designs. It is still open how to adapt characterization approaches to account for the impact induced by these resource dissipative flows.

Beschreibung: Purpose Several models are available in the literature to estimate agricultural emissions. From life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective, there is no standardized procedure for estimating emissions of nitrogen or other nutrients. This article aims to compare four agricultural models (PEF, SALCA, Daisy and Animo) with different complexity levels and test their suitability and sensitivity in LCA. Methods Required input data, obtained outputs, and main characteristics of the models are presented. Then, the performance of the models was evaluated according to their potential feasibility to be used in estimating nitrogen emissions in LCA using an adapted version of the criteria proposed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and other relevant studies, to judge their suitability in LCA. Finally, nitrogen emissions from a case study of irrigated maize in Spain were estimated using the selected models and were tested in a full LCA to characterize the impacts. Results and discussion According to the set of criteria, the models scored, from best to worst: Daisy (77%), SALCA (74%), Animo (72%) and PEF (70%), being Daisy the most suitable model to LCA framework. Regarding the case study, the estimated emissions agreed to literature data for the irrigated corn crop in Spain and the Mediterranean, except N2O emissions. The impact characterization showed differences of up to 56% for the most relevant impact categories when considering nitrogen emissions. Additionally, an overview of the models used to estimate nitrogen emissions in LCA studies showed that many models have been used, but not always in a suitable or justified manner. Conclusions Although mechanistic models are more laborious, mainly due to the amount of input data required, this study shows that Daisy could be a suitable model to estimate emissions when fertilizer application is relevant for the environmental study. In addition, and due to LCA urgently needing a solid methodology to estimate nitrogen emissions, mechanistic models such as Daisy could be used to estimate default values for different archetype scenarios.

Beschreibung: Purpose This article aims to estimate the social footprint of a higher education institution (HEI) and its potential contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective. The social organisational life cycle assessment (SO-LCA) of the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), in northern Spain, has been performed, in order to estimate its social impacts. Method The assessment has been run using openLCA software and supported on the PSILCA-based Soca add-on for the Ecoinvent v3.3 database, covering 53 social indicators for almost 15,000 industrial sectors and goods in 189 countries. Results and discussion The analysis undertaken reflects social impacts and associated risk levels for four stakeholders: Workers, Local Community, Society, and Value Chain Actors. Labour activity in the UPV/EHU is the sub-process with the greatest social impact, followed by processes related to transport, energy, materials, and waste management. Among the socio-economic context which supports the academic activity of the UPV/EHU (indirect impacts), the existence of traces of child labour and illiteracy outside the Basque Country stands out. Further analysis would be required in order to more accurately determine the geographical location of such impacts, and also to better tackle the concept of social debt. Conclusion SO-LCA may have great potential for HEIs, helping them to identify hotspots, reduce their social footprint, and raise awareness among the academic community, which undoubtedly contributes to the knowledge, progress, human values, and sustainability these HEIs stand for. Graphical abstract

Beschreibung: Purpose Waste recycling is one of the essential tools for the European Union’s transition towards a circular economy. One of the possibilities for recycling wood and plastic waste is to utilise it to produce composite product. This study analyses the environmental impacts of producing composite pallets made of wood and plastic waste from construction and demolition activities in Finland. It also compares these impacts with conventional wooden and plastic pallets made of virgin materials. Methods Two different life cycle assessment methods were used: attributional life cycle assessment and consequential life cycle assessment. In both of the life cycle assessment studies, 1000 trips were considered as the functional unit. Furthermore, end-of-life allocation formula such as 0:100 with a credit system had been used in this study. This study also used sensitivity analysis and normalisation calculation to determine the best performing pallet. Result and discussion In the attributional cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment, wood-polymer composite pallets had the lowest environmental impact in abiotic depletion potential (fossil), acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential (including biogenic carbon), global warming potential (including biogenic carbon) with indirect land-use change, and ozone depletion potential. In contrast, wooden pallets showed the lowest impact on global warming potential (excluding biogenic carbon). In the consequential life cycle assessment, wood-polymer composite pallets showed the best environmental impact in all impact categories. In both attributional and consequential life cycle assessments, plastic pallet had the maximum impact. The sensitivity analysis and normalisation calculation showed that wood-polymer composite pallets can be a better choice over plastic and wooden pallet. Conclusions The overall results of the pallets depends on the methodological approach of the LCA. However, it can be concluded that the wood-polymer composite pallet can be a better choice over the plastic pallet and, in most cases, over the wooden pallet. This study will be of use to the pallet industry and relevant stakeholders.

Beschreibung: Purpose To estimate life cycle impacts from introducing the yield-enhancing inoculant containing the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum and the signal molecule lipochitooligosaccharide (LCO) in Argentinian soybean production. The study focuses on soybeans grown in rotation with corn in the Buenos Aires province. We also provide the life cycle impact assessment for the inoculant production. The study represents a novel scope in terms of the studied crop, inoculant type, and location. Methods Consequential LCA is used to assess the cradle-to-gate soybean production systems with and without inoculant use. Stepwise is used for quantification of 16 impacts at mid-point level. Also, the LCA-based guidance of Kløverpris et al. (2020) is followed, and we divide the change in impacts caused by the inoculant’s use into four effects. The field effect accounts for changes in field emissions. The yield effect accounts for additional soybean production in the inoculant system that displaces soybean production elsewhere (system expansion). The upstream effect covers the inoculant production and the downstream effect covers post-harvest changes such as soybean transport and drying. Small plot field-trials data is applied in the biogeochemical model DayCent to estimate field emissions, among others. Results and discussion The use of this inoculant reduces environmental impacts from soybean production in all studied impact categories. The main contributing factor is the yield effect, i.e., reduced impacts via avoided soybean production elsewhere including reduced pressure on land and thereby avoided impacts in the form of indirect land-use-change (iLUC). The field effect is the second-largest contributor to the overall impact reduction. Upstream and downstream effects only had minor influence on results. The yield and field effects are closely tied to the yield change from the inoculant use, which was not fully captured in the DayCent modeling. Thereby, a potential underestimation of the environmental benefits of roughly 10% can be expected, corresponding to the difference of empiric yield data and the modeled yield data in DayCent. Conclusion and recommendations The use of this inoculant shows environmental benefits and no trade-offs for the 16 impacts assessed. Results depend primarily on avoided soybean production (the yield effect) which entails iLUC impacts in Brazil and USA, and to a lesser degree on field emissions modelled with DayCent. Better data and parametrization of DayCent, to better capture the change in yields and estimate field emissions, economic modelling for the system expansion assumptions, and accounting for uncertainty in iLUC modelling could improve the assessment.

Beschreibung: Purpose In a context where the transition to a circular economy is increasingly required, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between sustainability and circularity. In this commentary we summarise what are circularity indicators and what is LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), and we discuss their potential role in improving circular decision making. Methods Based on literature, a focus on how circularity indicators and LCA could be used in circular decision making is presented. Moreover, an analysis of recent studies has been carried out to identify the relationship between LCA and circularity indicators. Results and discussion We can state that no authors have concluded that circularity indicators can be used alone to choose the best option in circular economy projects. This is because the circularity indicators only provide a partial view on the environmental performance of a system. At the same time, it appears that the circularity indicators are easier to communicate, and a high degree of circularity could help to build good relationships with customers and increase reputation among stakeholders, as well as to have an easier access to funding. Conclusions and recommendations At the end, we propose a procedure to include both the LCA and the circularity measurement in the assessment of circular economy strategies. While still at an early stage of conceptualisation, it gives an idea on how to integrate environmental sustainability aspects into circular economy initiatives.

Beschreibung: Purpose The soaring demand for cobalt for lithium-ion batteries has increased interest in the utilization of non-conventional cobalt sources. Such raw materials include complex ores containing minerals such as cobaltite and skutterudite, which, while rare, occur around the world, including in Finland, Canada, and the USA. The goal of this study was to evaluate the cradle-to-gate impacts of cobalt sulfate recovery from unutilized cobalt- and gold-bearing ores with the use of process simulation. Methods A literature analysis was conducted to establish the state-of-the-art processing methods for complex cobalt ores containing significant amounts of gold. The drafted process was simulated using HSC Sim software to obtain a mass and energy balance, which was compiled into a life cycle inventory (LCI). The environmental impact categories (global warming, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, photochemical smog creation, water use) were calculated in GaBi software. Uncertainty regarding the possible future raw material composition was studied, and the simulation was used to investigate process performance and to evaluate the effect of variation in the process parameters on the environmental impact indicators. Results and discussion The results indicated that the main cobalt mineral type (cobaltite, linnaeite) had only minor effects on the evaluated impact categories. With cobaltite-dominated ores (High As case), the global warming potential (GWP) was estimated to be 20.9 kg CO2-eq, of which 12.7 kg CO2-eq was attributed to the hydrometallurgical process. With linnaeite-dominated ores, the equivalent values were 20.4 kg CO2-eq and 11.0 kg CO2-eq. The production of a high grade concentrate was observed to greatly decrease the impacts of the hydrometallurgical process, but the cobalt losses in the beneficiation stage and the mineral processing impacts would likely increase. The simulation showed that there is still potential to improve the cobalt recovery (to approximately 96%), which would also affect the indicator values. Conclusions The impacts were estimated prior to intensive metallurgical testing to determine the possible high impact areas in the process. Based on this, it is suggested that, during hydrometallurgical processing, improved treatment of cobalt-containing wash waters and the optimization of oxygen utilization efficiency in pressure leaching are the most significant ways to decrease the environmental impacts. Optimal solutions for the concentrate could be found when experimental data on the minerals processing steps becomes available.

Beschreibung: Purpose The goal of this work is to analyse the environmental impacts across the productive continuum of market gardening in southern Benin, to determine whether significant differences exist amongst the types of production, and to highlight their hotpots suitable to improvement. Moreover, the relative nutritional quality of products from different production system types were compared to determine whether there were differences and to assess them in relation to the associated environmental impacts. Methods LCA and laboratory analyses were performed on a representative sample of systems and products (carrot, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, watermelon). The resulting scores (single scores for LCA and Nutrient Rich Food scores for nutritional quality) were statistically treated to identify the representativeness of their differences across production sites and production types (featuring distinctive production strategies: Conventional — synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, Organic — organic fertilisers and pesticides and “Lean” — limited inputs). Results and discussion Statistically significant differences across environmental scores were found amongst production sites (for carrot, lettuce and all crops) and types (for carrot and all crops). For tomato, produced on all sites, under all production types, the natural and management-driven variability is large enough that no significant differences were found. Impacts are dominated by direct emissions from (over-)fertilisation and by fuel consumption for water pumping. Despite the absence of significant differences amongst production system types regarding the contents of both β-carotene and polyphenols, the nutritional indices suggest at least marginal differences across types regarding the overall nutritional value of carrot and tomato across types. Based on the limited data available, it cannot be stated that such differences are statistically significant. For carrot, there seems to be a correlation between nutritional quality and environmental impacts, with higher nutritional scores associated with lower environmental impacts. For tomato, it does not seem to exist a correlation. Conclusions Significant differences in environmental scores exist amongst the types of production, with the larger impact associated with organic production, whilst that no statistically significant differences on nutritional quality can be demonstrated across types. Overall improvement of these systems would be achieved by less energy-intensive irrigation, organic waste processing platforms to reduce volatilisation losses, knowledge on the fertilising value of organic waste, and agricultural extension services or technical guides on good agricultural practices to reduce over-fertilisation and other negative environmental impacts.

Beschreibung: Background The social impacts generated by industrial waste treatment processes have not been studied enough, as shown in the literature. Social life cycle assessment studies have mainly focused on the assessment of products and less on industrial waste, especially wastewater, although potentially relevant from an environmental point of view, and also from a social one for various stakeholders. Purpose This case study concerns the social assessment of an innovative technology to treat the wastewater of a microelectronics company. In order to produce electronic components and semiconductors, the company has to treat and dispose of relevant wastewater streams containing various toxic substances. The wastewater streams need to be treated in order to protect the eco-system, representing a high cost for the company and a potential impact on the environment. For this reason, the company developed a LIFE project to demonstrate the viability to decrease the burdens on water bodies. The positive outcome of the test on the pilot plant paved the way for the construction of the full-scale plant that will treat all the wastewater generated by the company. The objective of this paper is the socio-economic assessment of a full-scale plant designed to treat three different kinds of wastewater. Methods The assessment of socio-economic potential impacts of a new technology has been carried out through the PSILCA (Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment) database implementation to evaluate 65 social indicators of a wastewater treatment plant. Results The line with the highest impact is the one which treats tetramethylammonium hydroxide; this is because this wastewater flow is the most abundant (14 and 43 times greater than the other wastewaters, respectively). The most affected stakeholder is the Local Community, followed by the Actors of the Value Chain; in fact, the results referred to the functional unit considered exceed 300,000 medium risk hours in both cases. For the Local Community this result arises from the indicator “Contribution to environmental load,” which is understandable considering the object of the study since this indicator includes health effects. As far as the Value Chain Actors stakeholder is concerned, the two indicators most impacted are “Corruption” and “Social responsibility along the supply chain”. The analysis conducted has also shown that upstream has a fundamental relevance for the social risks detected. Conclusions Considering the current lack of studies on both environmental and social impacts of wastewater treatment, and the fact that Social Life Cycle Assessment has not been widely used in this field, as emerged from literature review, this work is the first use of the PSILCA database to assess an industrial wastewater plant. The use of a social life cycle assessment database allows the value chain of a product system to be considered: the results show that most of the overall social risk derives from upstream sectors.

Beschreibung: Purpose A life cycle assessment was performed for the production of a total mixed ration (TMR) fed to finishing feedlot cattle in California, USA. The goal was to determine the climate change impact of the feed supply chain associated with the production of 1 kg finishing TMR (kg CO2e/kg TMR). A secondary goal was to compare the climate change impact of feed versus finished beef (kg CO2e/kg live weight). Methods The TMR was based on feeds commonly fed to finishing cattle in California. The Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance Partnership (LEAP) guidelines were followed for inventory data collection. System boundaries included the production of crops and feed additives, transportation of TMR components, and compound feed production. Data were sourced from national databases and Ecoinvent™ unit process data. Three scenarios were assessed as a result of allocation at the transportation step: Scenario A (100% empty return load); Scenario B (50% empty return load): and Scenario C (0% empty return load). Energy, mass, and economic allocation, and system expansion of dried distillers grain solubles (DDGS) were assessed for sensitivity analysis. Total feedlot emission data from Stackhouse-Lawson et al. (2012) were used to compare to impacts of TMR production. Results Total emissions were determined to be 0.630 kg CO2e/kg TMR for Scenario A, 0.576 kg CO2e/kg TMR for Scenario B, and 0.521 kg CO2e/kg TMR for Scenario C. Corn production, transportation, and liquid premix production were primary contributors to the life cycle impacts of TMR production. Mass-based allocation of DDGS was found to have the most significant effect on overall impacts of the finishing TMR, with a 42% increase in life cycle emissions compared to other allocation methods. For Scenario A, feed used in Angus feedlot production contributed to 76% of total Angus feedlot emissions. Additionally, feed used in Holstein feedlot production contributed to 58% of total Holstein feedlot emissions. Conclusions and recommendations The present study demonstrates a need to better assess the feed supply chain of feedlot beef production in order to accurately identify areas that have the most significant impacts on overall emissions. This may aid in minimizing impacts associated with feed production and, by extension, beef production. The present study may also serve to inform future decisions for improvements or alterations of the LEAP guidelines.

Beschreibung: Purpose Much progress has recently been made in modelling future background systems for LCA by including future scenario data, e.g. from Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), into life cycle inventory (LCI) databases. A key problem is, however, that this yields potentially dozens of scenario LCI databases (i.e. LCI databases that represent different scenarios and reference years), instead of a single background database, which is very impractical for LCA modelling purposes. This paper proposes an approach to overcome this problem. Methods The approach consists of transforming all scenario LCI databases into a single superstructure database and an associated scenario difference file. The superstructure database is also a regular LCI database, but is constructed to contain all unique exchanges (elementary and intermediate flows) and processes that exist across all scenario LCI databases. The scenario difference file stores the differences between all scenarios and can be used to turn the superstructure into a specific scenario LCI database. This is very fast as it can be done in memory during LCA calculations. Results and discussion A key advantage of the superstructure approach is that a single LCI database can be used to represent different background systems. Therefore, the practitioner does not need to re-link a foreground system to multiple LCI databases, which is work-intensive and invites modelling errors. LCA results for all scenarios and reference years can be calculated automatically. We also illustrate how the superstructure approach has been implemented in the Activity Browser open source LCA software. Although this paper introduces the superstructure approach for background scenarios, it can also be used to model foreground scenarios, and even, as implemented in the Activity Browser, combinations of background and foreground scenarios. Finally, we briefly discuss further challenges that need to be addressed for a more widespread use of background scenarios in LCA. Conclusions The superstructure approach presents a practical solution for making the use of future background scenarios more wide-spread and, therefore, to overcome the problem of performing prospective LCA with temporally inconsistent foreground and background systems. The implementation in the Activity Browser makes the approach available for anyone and may serve as inspiration for other LCA software to implement the superstructure approach or a similar concept. While this may be an important technical milestone, additional coordination between data providers, scenario generators, LCA practitioners, and software developers will be required to further facilitate the use of background scenarios in prospective LCA studies.

Beschreibung: Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) literature evaluating environmental burdens from lithium-ion battery (LIB) production facilities lacks an understanding of how environmental burdens have changed over time due to a transition to large-scale production. The purpose of this study is hence to examine the effect of upscaling LIB production using unique life cycle inventory data representative of large-scale production. A sub-goal of the study is to examine how changes in background datasets affect environmental impacts. Method We remodel an often-cited study on small-scale battery production by Ellingsen et al. (2014), representative of operations in 2010, and couple it to updated Ecoinvent background data. Additionally, we use new inventory data to model LIB cell production in a large-scale facility representative of the latest technology in LIB production. The cell manufactured in the small-scale facility is an NMC-1:1:1 (nickel-manganese-cobalt) pouch cell, whereas in the large-scale facility, the cell produced in an NMC-8:1:1 cylindrical cell. We model production in varying carbon intensity scenarios using recycled and exclusively primary materials as input options. We assess environmental pollution–related impacts using ReCiPe midpoint indicators and resource use impacts using the surplus ore method (ReCiPe) and the crustal scarcity indicator. Results and discussion Remodelling of the small-scale factory using updated background data showed a 34% increase in greenhouse gas emissions — linked to updated cobalt sulfate production data. Upscaling production reduced emissions by nearly 45% in the reference scenario (South Korean energy mix) due to a reduced energy demand in cell production. However, the emissions reduce by a further 55% if the energy is sourced from a low-carbon intensity source (Swedish energy mix), shifting almost all burden to upstream supply chain. Regional pollution impacts such as acidification and eutrophication show similar trends. Toxic emissions also reduce, but unlike other impacts, they were already occurring during mining and ore processing. Lastly, nickel, cobalt, and lithium use contribute considerably to resource impacts. From a long-term perspective, copper becomes important from a resource scarcity perspective. Conclusions Upscaling LIB production shifts environmental burdens to upstream material extraction and production, irrespective of the carbon intensity of the energy source. Thus, a key message for the industry and policy makers is that further reductions in the climate impacts from LIB production are possible, only when the upstream LIB supply chain uses renewable energy source. An additional message to LCA practitioners is to examine the effect of changing background systems when evaluating maturing technologies.

Beschreibung: Purpose Currently, there is no consensus on how the impacts of land use on the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks would be best quantified within life cycle assessments (LCA) of agricultural products. The impacts of different decisions were tested within a model-based assessment of soil carbon changes on the life cycle global warming impact for spring wheat produced in two example regions in Finland (Southwest Finland and Northern Savonia) on mineral fields. Methods Global warming impact for spring wheat was assessed, including CO2 emissions due to the SOC change. The SOC change assessment was made with the soil carbon model Yasso07. The effects of assumptions on land use history were tested, i.e. the initialisation of the model and time horizon of the analysis (20 or 100 years) on the SOC change estimates. Other greenhouse gas emissions contributing to the global warming impact of spring wheat production were assessed using general LCA methodology taking into account the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the production of input materials and fuels, as well as direct and indirect N2O emissions from the soil due to fertilising and the decomposition of crop residues and organic matter, nitrogen leaching and volatilisation and lime application. Results and discussion The selection of the model initialisation method and timeframe remarkably affected the SOC change estimates. The global warming impact of wheat production, without accounting for SOC changes, was 0.68 and 0.89 kg CO2-eq/kg yield in Southwest Finland and Northern Savonia, respectively. The impact of SOC stock changes on the total global warming impact varied from –4 to 5% in Southwest Finland and from 5 to 21% in Northern Savonia, depending on the assumptions used to initialise the model or the timeframe applied in the analysis. Adding a cover crop as a means to increase the SOC stock removed between –67 and –26% of the total global warming impact in both regions. Conclusions It is essential that all the decisions made in the analysis are transparently reported and communicated. The choice of assumptions regarding the reference state, model initialisation and time horizon of the assessment period should be made based on the scope and goal definition of the LCA study.

Beschreibung: Purpose Besides politics and the private sector, changes in the consumption pattern of individuals can significantly contribute to sustainable development. The recently published Life-LCA method adapts life cycle assessment to analyse human beings and quantifies their impacts. This method is applied for the first time in this case study to provide insights and remaining challenges. Methods The environmental impacts caused by the life cycle of a middle-aged German man (“Dirk”) were determined by the Life-LCA method from his birth until his current age (0–49 years). To determine and quantify reduction options, a current 1-year period was analysed in detail by a baseline scenario of his current consumption and an optimized scenario after changing his consumption patterns. The environmental impact assessment included global warming (GWP), acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), and photochemical ozone creation potentials (POCP). Results and discussion Dirk has emitted 1,140 t CO2-eq., 4.48 t SO2-eq., 1.69 t PO4-eq., and 0.537 t C2H4-eq. emissions over his current lifetime. Transportation dominated all considered impact categories (40 up to 55%). Energy and water consumption is the second most significant product category for GWP (39%). Food products, with 10%, are the third biggest contributor to GWP, but contribute rather significantly to the impact categories AP (34%), EP (42%), and POCP (20%). The optimized scenario analysis revealed significant reductions for all studied impacts in the range of 60–65%. CO2-eq. emissions were reduced from 28 to 10 t/a. The remaining challenges include data collection for childhood, gaps and inconsistencies of existing data for consumer goods, the allocation between product users, and depreciation of long-living products. Conclusion The first Life-LCA case study confirmed the applicability of the Life-LCA method. It showed that the Life-LCA approach allows for tracking individual consumption patterns of a human being. The impacts of behavioural changes were quantified, and significant reduction potentials of the environmental impacts were revealed. Additional case studies on people of different age, region, culture, and lifestyle are needed for further insights and methodological refinements.

Beschreibung: Main purpose To limit global warming at a safe level of 1.5 °C, deep emission reductions in all sectors combined with rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society are required. The ongoing climate urgency has led to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be the most often inventoried life-cycle indicators. But, to draw comprehensive climate mitigation strategies (CMS), adverse potential environmental side-effects and trade-offs should be assessed as well. Methods LCA is used to assess the potential environmental co-benefits and trade-offs of a net-zero-emission neighbourhood (nZEN) in the early planning stages. CMS are designed to test for the effect of (1) mobility patterns less based on the use of passenger cars, (2) a better material use by decreasing the size of the dwellings and increasing the passenger loads, (3) increased lifetimes of buildings and passenger cars, and (4) their combination. Results Across the impact categories, environmental benefits of 5–20% are shown for single CMS and of 22–42% when combined. Interestingly, the highest environmental co-benefits are found for Metal Depletion, highlighting the close interconnection of CMS and decreased pressure on resource use. The use of several climate metrics has shed light on the use of fossil fuels in the production value chains of the materials used to provide the mobility services and shelters to the inhabitants of the nZEN under study. A combination of climate metrics with short- and long-time horizon should be used to give the importance that short-lived GHG such as methane deserve in the climate debate. Conclusion To best mitigate climate change along with environmental co-benefits on a nZEN level, measures should be taken at different points in time. At the early planning stages, incentives should be in place that promote dwellings of reasonable sizes (measured per inhabitant) along with incentives to decarbonize the materials value chains, in- and out-land. Over time, a culture of car- and ride-sharing will have positive environmental benefits. When renovating, incentives that promote the reshaping of dwellings into dwellings of smaller sizes will help to shift the sole focus on nZEB standards to multi-layers strategies.

Beschreibung: Purpose To accomplish the national and international climate goals, building renovation and optimisation of their energy and resource efficiency are essential. Thus, reliable information on the building stock (BS) is necessary. Most previous building typologies are focussing on residential buildings and the operational phase. This paper shows the development of a methodology for generating non-residential building (NRB) typologies for life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) of building constructions. Hereby, archetypes of office, administration and department (OAD) buildings are developed, exemplarily for the German NRB stock. The methodology can further be utilised for quantity surveying of urban material stocks, related recycling scenarios and waste management. Furthermore, the exemplarily generated archetypes provide necessary information for the estimation of realistic refurbishment scenarios. Methods Approaches for the development of NRB archetypes, the descriptions of associated building materials and the LCI of BS were analysed and integrated into a methodology. It provides a clear path on the classification in building usage categories and determination of relevant building parameters for conducting LCI studies. Its aim is the creation of NRB typologies, presenting construction materials and building geometry in a useful way for life-cycle assessments (LCA). To demonstrate the methodology’s usability, it is applied to a case study with the sample of 161 OAD buildings, provided by the German NRB database ENOB:dataNWG. In combination with relevant literature on BS archetypes and materials, a sample OAD building typology has been created. Results and discussion Minimum data requirements for conducting simplified LCI calculation of BSs were identified by analysing existing LCA methods, like the German BNB system. Important clusters for developing NRB archetypes were determined: building usage category, building construction types and building age. These data gaps between required information for simplified LCA studies and available information in ENOB:dataNWG were identified, and solutions for closing these data gaps were proposed and tested. Since building archetypes must reflect the overall BS, uncertainties were discussed. The ENOB:dataNWG database was not completed at the time this paper was written, so comprehensive uncertainty analyses are important next steps. Conclusions This methodology development forms the groundwork for creating LCI building typologies for simplified LCA studies. It shows practically how to deal with a BS database and illustrates which typical values can be chosen for closing data gaps. The methodology was tested on an exemplary sample of OAD buildings. Based on this case study, the methodology concept was proven useful for the generation of a NRB typology.

Beschreibung: Purpose Spent coffee grounds (SCG) are biowastes extensively generated within the coffee supply chain. Nowadays, their disposal represents an increasing environmental concern due to its toxicity and organic nature. With the estimated increase of coffee production and consumption in the upcoming years, there is an imperative need to find a proper reverse option, along with a novel industrial application, which allows for the valorization of this coffee by-product within a circular economy perspective. This study aims at investigating a potential reuse of spent coffee grounds to produce novel construction materials to be used for sustainable buildings. Methods After having illustrated the forward flows within the coffee life cycle and the potential reverse flow options, an evaluation method based on multi-criteria analyses was elaborated to test not only the technical but also the environmental and economic performances of novel materials originating from the incorporation of SCG as an aggregate in natural hydraulic lime and geopolymer-based mortars. Moreover, we focus on the reuse of another waste streams— biomass fly ash—deriving from the paper-pulp industry, rarely investigated in both traditional construction applications and in geopolymer manufacture. The two (geopolymer- and lime-based) mortar typologies are here studied and compared as potential green material for applications in construction, with satisfying engineering performance and high insulation attitude, giving a new life to a common organic waste. Consequently, we compare eight formulations by means of multi-criteria approaches that are nowadays claimed as a useful and effective decision aiding support instrument to assess the development of new sustainable construction materials. They permit to consider simultaneously some controversial and often uncertain aspects like technological (as the usual scientific studies do), environmental, and economic (more difficult to easily approach and evaluate). For this purpose, in this paper, we have analyzed the performance of the novel bio-composite mortars using VIKOR and TOPSIS methods to rank a set of alternatives according to various evaluation criteria that often conflict one with each other. Results Results show that adding spent coffee grounds can efficiently improve the technical and sustainable performances of the novel mortars for different applications in the building sector. The presence of SCG increases water absorption and improves the insulation performance along with an environmental impact reduction. The considered technological properties are highly promising—such as the improvement in thermal insulation. In particular, even the addition of only 5% SCG leads to a significant reduction of the thermal conductivity and consequently to a greater insulating performance. Conclusions To date, most of the available literature on recycling SCG in construction materials do not consider mortar-based applications and, moreover, nor multi-criteria approaches. Therefore, our study proposes itself as an innovative track solution to food waste management lowering the employment of non-renewable natural resources and the costs associated to construction material production. At the same time, a novel and innovative way of such waste disposal is suggested, pursuing the sustainability and substantially reducing the environmental impact of construction and building materials. This study is a fundamental step in assessing the applicability of our designed and produced materials and its potentials to be produced at an industrial scale.

Beschreibung: Purpose and context This paper aims to establish principles for the increased application and use of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). Sustainable development (SD) encompassing resilient economies and social stability of the global system is growingly important for decision-makers from business and governments. The “17 SDGs” emerge as a high-level shared blueprint for peace, abundance, and prosperity for people and the planet, and “sustainability” for supporting improvements of products and organizations. A “sustainability” interpretation—successful in aligning stakeholders’ understanding—subdivides the impacts according to a triple bottom line or three pillars: economic, social, and environmental impacts. These context and urgent needs inspired the LCSA framework. This entails a sustainability assessment of products and organizations in accordance with the three pillars, while adopting a life cycle perspective. Methods The Life Cycle Initiative promotes since 2011 a pragmatic LCSA framework based on the three techniques: LCSA = environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) + life cycle costing (LCC) + social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). This is the focus of the paper, while acknowledging previous developments. Identified and reviewed literature shows challenges of addressing the three pillars in the LCSA framework implementation like considering only two pillars; not being fully aligned with ISO 14040; lacking interconnectedness among the three pillars; not having clear criteria for results’ weighting nor clear results’ interpretation; and not following cause-effect chains and mechanisms leading to an endpoint. Agreement building among LCSA experts and reviewing processes strengthened the consensus on this paper. Broad support and outreach are ensured by publishing this as position paper. Results For harmonizing practical LCSA applications, easing interpretation, and increasing usefulness, consensed ten LCSA principles (10P) are established: understanding the areas of protection, alignment with ISO 14040, completeness, stakeholders’ and product utility considerations, materiality of system boundaries, transparency, consistency, explicit trade-offs’ communication, and caution when compensating impacts. Examples were provided based on a fictional plastic water bottle Conclusions In spite of increasing needs for and interest in SD and sustainability supporting tools, LCSA is at an early application stage of application. The 10P aim to promote more and better LCSA applications by ensuring alignment with ISO 14040, completeness and clear interpretation of integrated results, among others. For consolidating its use, however, more consensus-building is needed (e.g., on value-laden ethical aspects of LCSA, interdependencies and interconnectedness among the three dimensions, and harmonization and integration of the three techniques) and technical and policy recommendations for application.

Beschreibung: Purpose With antibiotic resistance (ABR) portrayed as an increasing burden to human health, this study reviews how and to what extent toxicological impacts from antibiotic use are included in LCAs and supplement this with two novel approaches to include ABR, a consequence of antibiotic use, into the LCA framework. Methods We review available LCA studies that deal with toxicological aspects of antibiotics to evaluate how these impacts from antibiotics have been characterized. Then, we present two novel approaches for including ABR-related impacts in life cycle impact assessments (LCIAs). The first approach characterizes the potential for ABR enrichment in the environmental compartment as a mid-point indicator, based on minimum selective concentrations for pathogenic bacteria. The second approach attributes human health impacts as an endpoint indictor, using quantitative relationships between the use of antibiotics and human well-being. Results and discussion Our findings show that no LCA study to date have accounted for impacts related to ABR. In response, we show that our novel mid-point indicator approach could address this by allowing ABR impacts to be characterized for environmental compartments. We also establish cause-effect pathways between antibiotic use, ABR, and human well-being that generate results which are comparable with USEtox and most endpoint impact assessment approaches for human toxicology. Conclusions Our proposed methods show that currently overlooked impacts from ABR enrichment in the environment could be captured within the LCA framework as a robust characterization methodology built around the established impact model USEtox. Substantial amounts of currently unavailable data are, however, needed to calculate emissions of antibiotics into the environment, to develop minimum selective concentrations for non-pathogenic bacteria, and to quantify potential human health impacts from AB use.

Beschreibung: Purpose In this work, we study a land use impact model with the aim of obtaining spatially differentiated as opposed to default average characterisation factors. In particular, we study the application of LANCA®, a multi-indicator model with available country average characterisation factors expressing the alteration of the soil quality level of the current land use of one kind with respect to a reference situation. Method To this purpose, we use the LANCA® method documentation at a higher spatial resolution and apply all the required elemental steps. From a user perspective, we score the transparency of the method down to the basic methodological references and single out the source of errors that the user may incur when: (i) collecting the input data, (ii) selecting the appropriate soil/land classes and (iii) applying the individual calculation steps. For a greater insight, we couple the source of errors with a sensitivity analysis. Results In the comparison between a site-specific test area and the related country default values, we obtained relevant discrepancies regarding the erosion resistance and the physicochemical filtration of the soil. For example, we find that the erosion resistance potential is −1.06 * 10−3 kg m2 a−1 locally while the country default value is 13.1. We explain differences through the sensitivity analysis and having analysed in depth the underpinned soil erosion equation and the critical steps for its calibration. Together with systematic errors, we find that the method generally implies 9 scarcely guided steps out of 42, and one-third of the basic methodologies are not fully explained or accessible. These factors make the results related to Biotic Production, Mechanical Filtration, Physicochemical Filtration and Groundwater Regeneration user dependent and — in this sense — difficult to replicate. Conclusions From the analysis, we distil 7 main directions for improvement addressed to LANCA® and soil models especially in sight of a broader application of a regionalised life cycle impact assessment.

Beschreibung: Purpose The inclusion of insect protein into the food system has been proposed as a promising solution to ensure future food security and mitigate negative environmental impacts related to food production. However, the market volume for edible insects in Europe is still small; consequently, producers need a decision-support system to ensure the sustainable upscaling of the sector. The study analyzed environmental and economic impacts of insect production to identify the most eco-efficient production scenarios. Methods A novel modular eco-efficiency assessment approach was developed to analyze the production of dried Hermetia illucens larvae. An exemplary, industrial-scale insect production system was disaggregated into a total of 29 module variants that can be combined into 4608 distinct production scenarios, which are characterized by different feeds, energy efficiencies, and processing technologies. Environmental life cycle and cost assessments were carried out for each module variant, and eco-efficiency assessment was used to jointly assess these two sustainability dimensions. Additionally, the influence of the insect feed on the production system performance and impact was investigated by employing feed-specific scaling factors. These were used to aggregate module results into production scenario results. Results and discussion The most eco-efficient production scenarios include energy-efficient rearing facilities that rely on blanching and microwave drying for processing. The insect feed is the largest contributor to the environmental impacts and costs, but from an eco-efficiency standpoint, the choice of feed might not be crucial. Waste-type feeds (e.g., manure, fruit, and vegetable waste) have low environmental impacts and costs, but the production scenarios based on these feeds are less efficient. The low impacts of the feed are offset by higher impacts during the rearing and processing stages. Conversely, scenarios based on higher quality feeds (e.g., by-products like wheat middlings or distiller’s grains) require less resources, but the initial feed impacts and costs are higher. Moreover, of the feed types studied, only highly processed ones, such as compound chicken feed, should be avoided for insect rearing. Conclusions The developed modular assessment approach is efficient in assessing multiple potential insect production scenarios. It can be adapted to incorporate additional variations of the production system via additional modules. Limitations include the potential for redundant module combinations and the up-front time investment needed. Finally, the results are sensitive to methodological choices: thus, these should be carefully considered and communicated during the design of the modular assessment system.

Beschreibung: Purpose Currently, social, environmental, and economic risks and chances of bioeconomy are becoming increasingly a subject of applied sustainability assessments. Based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) aims to combine or integrate social, environmental, and economic assessments. In order to contribute to the current early stage of LCSA development, this study seeks to identify a practical framework for integrated LCSA implementation. Methods We select possible indicators from existing suitable LCA and LCSA approaches as well as from the literature, and allocate them to a sustainability concept for holistic and integrated LCSA (HILCSA), based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to conduct a practical implementation of HILCSA, we choose openLCA, because it offers the best current state and most future potential for application of LCSA. Therefore, not only the capabilities of the software and databases, but also the supported methods of life cycle impact assessments (LCIA) are evaluated regarding the requirements of the indicator set and goal and scope of future case studies. Results and discussion This study presents an overview of available indicators and LCIAs for bioeconomy sustainability assessments as well as their link to the SDGs. We provide a practical framework for HILCSA of regional bioeconomy, which includes an indicator set for regional (product and territorial) bioeconomy assessment, applicable with current software and databases, LCIA methods and methods of normalization, weighting, and aggregation. The implementation of HILCSA in openLCA allows an integrative LCSA by conducting all steps in a single framework with harmonized, aggregated, and coherent results. HILCSA is capable of a sustainability assessment in terms of planetary boundaries, provisioning system and societal needs, as well as communication of results to different stakeholders. Conclusions Our framework is capable of compensating some deficits of S-LCA, E-LCA, and economic assessments by integration, and shows main advantages compared to additive LCSA. HILCSA is capable of addressing 15 out of 17 SDGs. It addresses open questions and significant problems of LCSAs in terms of goal and scope, LCI, LCIA, and interpretation. Furthermore, HILCSA is the first of its kind actually applicable in an existing software environment. Regional bioeconomy sustainability assessment is bridging scales of global and regional effects and can inform stakeholders comprehensively on various impacts, hotspots, trade-offs, and synergies of regional bioeconomy. However, significant research needs in LCIAs, software, and indicator development remain.

Beschreibung: Purpose Current patterns of household goods consumption generate relevant environmental pressures and impacts. Environmental impacts are not only limited to the European territory but also to third countries from where products are imported. Assessing the entire life cycle of products enables considering trade-related transboundary effects along supply chains. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the assessment of the environmental impacts of household goods consumption in Europe, modelled through the consumption footprint indicator. Methods The consumption footprint indicator was designed to assess the environmental impact of household consumption by covering five areas of consumption (food, mobility, housing, household goods and appliances), each of them modelled as a basket of products (BoP) representing the most consumed products by EU citizens. This paper focuses on the BoP household goods, entailing a large variety of products from clothes to personal care products. Consumption intensity was obtained from consumption statistical data for years 2010 and 2015. Life cycle inventory data for 30 representative products were obtained from EU Ecolabel background reports, screening reports of the Product Environmental Footprint pilots and literature. The 16 impact categories of the Environmental Footprint 3.0 method were employed for the impact assessment. Results and discussion Main impacts generated by household goods in EU (calculated after normalization and weighting) were on climate change, fossil resource use and water use. Components’ manufacture was the most impacting stage for several impact categories. Paper products, detergents, furniture and clothes were the product groups contributing the most due to a combination of consumption intensity and environmental profile of products. Environmental impacts due to household goods consumption were higher in 2015 than in 2010. Conclusions The impacts of EU household goods consumption are driven by both consumption intensity and the environmental impact profile of products. Therefore, sustainable actions should focus not only on the environmental profile of products, but also on consumer choices and behaviours. Recommendations The BoP household goods model can be used as a baseline to assess the effect of consumer choices, by creating and comparing consumers’ profiles that differ in the composition of the BoP and in the apparent consumption (defined as Production—Exports + Imports). The availability of detailed inventories for all the life cycle phases allows for modelling scenarios to assess the potential effect of innovations in the production phase and of the choice of alternative raw materials and ingredients.

Beschreibung: Purpose New environmental strategies are emerging for cities to become more self-sufficient, such as hydroponic crop production. The implementation of such systems requires materials that usually originate in countries with low labour costs and other legal regulations. To what extent could these strategies be shifting problems across the globe? To answer this question, we performed a comprehensive environmental and social assessment of the various extended soilless systems used to grow vegetables on urban roofs. Methods Three different growing media constituents were chosen for this study: perlite, peat and coir; which are produced in three countries, Turkey, Germany and the Philippines, respectively, and are imported to Spain. By using a life cycle assessment, we evaluated the environmental performances of the production and transport of these growing media. Additionally, we performed a social life cycle assessment at different levels. First, we used the Social Hotspots Database to analyse the constituents in aggregated sectors. Second, we performed a social assessment at the country and sector levels, and finally, we evaluated primary company data for the social assessment of the constituents through questionnaires given to businesses. Results and discussion The coir-based growing medium exerted the lowest environmental burden in 5 out of 8 impact categories because it is a by-product from coconut trees. In contrast, perlite obtained the highest environmental impacts, with impacts 44 to 99.9% higher than those of peat and coir, except in the land use. Perlite is a material extracted from open-pit mines that requires high energy consumption and a long road trip. Regarding the social assessment, peat demonstrated the best performance on all the social assessment levels. In contrast, coir showed the worst scores in the Social Hotspots Database and for the impact categories of community infrastructure and human rights, whereas perlite displayed the lowest performance in health and safety. Nevertheless, coir and perlite evidenced much better scores than peat in the impact subcategory of the contribution to economic development. Conclusions This study contributes to a first comparison of three imported growing media constituents for urban rooftop farming from environmental and social perspectives to choose the most suitable option. Peat appears to be the best alternative from a social perspective. However, from an environmental standpoint, peat represents a growing medium whose availability is aiming to disappear in Germany to preserve peatlands. Therefore, we identify a new market niche for the development of local growing media for future rooftop farming in cities.