Journal articles on the topic 'LCA sustainability'
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1
Yao, Yuan. "Models for Sustainability." BioResources 12, no. 1 (November 2, 2016): 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.15376/biores.12.1.1-3.
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As one of the major methodologies used in the modeling of sustainability, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely used to evaluate the environmental impacts of emerging technologies and to enhance decision making towards sustainable development. However, most of the current LCA models are static and deterministic. More insights could be generated when LCA models are coupled with higher-resolution techniques in a prospective fashion. Instead of trying to accurately predict the future, the purpose and value of integrated prospective models are to explore the boundaries of possibility and to shed light on directions that can lead to sustainable pathways. The biggest challenge is to determine the appropriate model resolution so that both big-picture insights and critical details are included. This challenge is hard to address, especially for interdisciplinary models that try to incorporate more than one dimension related to sustainability. However, improvements can be made continually through efforts from a growing population of interdisciplinary researchers.
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Carvalho, José Pedro, Ismael Alecrim, Luís Bragança, and Ricardo Mateus. "Integrating BIM-Based LCA and Building Sustainability Assessment." Sustainability 12, no. 18 (September 10, 2020): 7468. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12187468.
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With the increasing concerns about building environmental impacts, building information modelling (BIM) has been used to perform different kinds of sustainability analysis. Among the most popular are the life cycle assessment (LCA) and building sustainability assessment (BSA). However, the integration of BIM-based LCA in BSA methods has not been adequately explored yet. This study addresses the relation between LCA and BSA within the BIM context for the Portuguese context. By performing an LCA for a Portuguese case study, a set of sustainability criteria from SBTool were simultaneous assessed during the process. The possibility of integrating BIM-based LCA into BSA methods can include more life cycle stages in the sustainability assessment and allow for normalising and producing more comparable results. BIM automates and connects different stages of the design process and provides information for multi-disciplinary data storage. However, there are still some constraints, such as different BSA/LCA databases and the necessity to manually introduce the embodied life cycle impacts of building materials. The scope of the BSA analysis can be expanded by integrating a complete LCA and be fostered by the support of BIM, effectively improving building sustainability according to local standards.
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Roeleveld, P. J., A. Klapwijk, P. G. Eggels, W. H. Rulkens, and W. van Starkenburg. "Sustainability of municipal wastewater treatment." Water Science and Technology 35, no. 10 (May 1, 1997): 221–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.1997.0386.
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In this study the insustainability of the treatment of municipal wastewater is evaluated with the LCA-methodology. Life-Cycle Assessments (LCA) analyze and assess the environmental profile over the entire life cycle of a product or process. The LCA-methodology proved to be a proper instrument to evaluate the wastewater treatment plant on the sustainability. However, environmental impacts which are caused by sludge handling should still be classified. Besides that, the LCA should be carried out on regional level instead of on national level. In a situation of high nutrient removal the contribution of the treatment of municipal wastewater to the total insustainability level in the Netherlands is relatively low. When the sustainability of the WWTP has to be improved, the most attention has to be paid to the minimization of discharge from pollutions with the effluent and minimization of the sludge production. Because the contribution of energy consumption is relatively low, less attention can be paid to the minimization of the energy demand. The building of a WWTP and the use of chemicals are not determining the insustainability of the WWTP.
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Rezaei Kalvani, Somayeh, Amir Hamzah Sharaai, and Ibrahim Kabir Abdullahi. "Social Consideration in Product Life Cycle for Product Social Sustainability." Sustainability 13, no. 20 (October 13, 2021): 11292. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su132011292.
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Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) is an emerging and pivotal tool for sustainability evaluation of products throughout their life cycle. Understanding deeply published papers helps to modify methods and identify research gaps. The aim of this study is to discover the existing gap in the S-LCA of products and to find the weaknesses of the approach. The method of performing the review was a narrative review where published papers from 2006 to 2020 were included through the use of the Web of Science and Scopus databases. S-LCA is considered to be relevant to a majority of sectors and processes (agricultural, industrial, technology, energy, and tourism). However, there is not sufficient research on evaluation of S-LCA on cereal crops and livestock output. It is indicated that, in the present S-LCA studies, there has been a lack of attention paid to the society and value chain actors and final consumer stakeholders. The elements of sexual harassment and employment relationships are not considered in SLCA studies. Italy has the largest amount of cases of S-LCA studies. The major challenges of applying S-LCA (by using site specific data) is data collection, which is time-consuming. It is recommended to evaluate a comprehensive sustainability assessment by adding cost of social assessment to LCA since there has been a lack of attention on assessment of cost in S-LCA.
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Zimek, Martina, Andreas Schober, Claudia Mair, Rupert J. Baumgartner, Tobias Stern, and Manfred Füllsack. "The Third Wave of LCA as the “Decade of Consolidation”." Sustainability 11, no. 12 (June 14, 2019): 3283. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11123283.
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Several authors have pointed out the importance of systems thinking, and have considered both environmental and social aspects (holistic perspective) of sustainability assessment in the past. Sustainability assessment tools which integrate different aspects (e.g., environmental/social aspects) in order to identify negative impacts have already been developed. Common tools used to assess environmental, social, or economic impacts include the life cycle assessment (LCA), social life cycle assessment (S-LCA), life cycle costing (LCC) and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) approaches. The goal of the present study was to investigate how and to what extent the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, economic; holistic sustainability perspective) have been integrated into the field of LCA. A topic modeling method was applied to examine whether the emphasis placed on integrating environmental, social, and economic aspects in sustainability assessment has resulted in a more comprehensive application of the LCA approach. The results show that topics related to energy and infrastructure are currently prevailing, and that topics related to methods have been decreasing since 1997. A minor discussion of social aspects and a lack of discussion on economic aspects were identified in the present study. These results do not support the predicted “decade of life cycle sustainability assessment.” Consequently, a new period of LCA extension and application is predicted, namely, the third wave of LCA as the “decade of consolidation.” During this period, the LCA framework will be enhanced to reduce existing practical and methodological difficulties and integrate environmental and social aspects in a sustainability assessment to support global sustainable development.
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Bjørnbet, Marit Moe, and Sigurd Sagen Vildåsen. "Life Cycle Assessment to Ensure Sustainability of Circular Business Models in Manufacturing." Sustainability 13, no. 19 (October 4, 2021): 11014. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su131911014.
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Circular business models (CBMs) represent a path for coordinating circular economy (CE) efforts. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for quantifying environmental effects of a product or a service and can therefore evaluate the environmental sustainability of CBMs. This paper explores whether LCA can act as an enabler for manufacturing companies who want to implement a CBM. Following a case-study approach, we draw on the experiences of a specific manufacturing company during the time period 2014–2021. The paper presents key lessons on the interaction between LCA and CE. The study finds that LCA—by providing quantified results on the environmental impacts of circular strategies—limits the risk of problem shifting and challenges the normative rule of closing the loop by including a set of multiple impact categories. LCA offers a common platform and encourages communication with stakeholders. These characteristics make LCA a well-suited tool for CBM development. However, the holistic perspective on environmental problems that LCA provides can also complicate CE’s clear message of ‘closing the loop’. Lastly, LCA is a tool for environmental evaluation, and with the main emphasis of CE also on environmental issues, there is high risk of neglecting social and economic aspects of sustainable development.
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Maraveas, Chrysanthos. "Environmental Sustainability of Plastic in Agriculture." Agriculture 10, no. 8 (July 24, 2020): 310. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10080310.
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This article investigates the environmental sustainability of plastic nets in agricultural environments based on published experimental data. This article focuses on biodegradable and synthetic plastics used in farms as mulching materials and shade materials/greenhouse covering materials (shade nets and plastic films) to protect plants from pests and extreme weather. The sustainability was determined by three factors, carbon footprint from cradle to the end of life (LCA), durability (resistance to photo-oxidation and high tensile strength), and affordability. The LCA analyses showed that the production of polyethylene (PE) requires less energy and generates low quantities of greenhouse gas equivalents. Beyond the LCA data, biodegradable polymers are sustainable based on biodegradability and compostability, ability to suppress weeds, control soil temperatures, and moisture, and augment fertigation and drip irrigation. However, existing technologies are a limiting factor because lab-based innovations have not been commercialized. In addition, industrial production of shade nets, plastic greenhouse covers, and mulching materials are limited to synthetic plastics. The bio-based plastic materials are sustainable based on biodegradability, and resistant to photo-oxidation. The resistance to UV degradation is an essential property because solar radiation cleaves C-C bonds, which in turn impact the mechanical strength of the materials. In brief, the sustainability of plastics in farms is influenced by LCA data, mechanical and optical properties, and performance relative to other materials.
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Ferrari, Anna Maria, Lucrezia Volpi, Martina Pini, Cristina Siligardi, Fernando Enrique García-Muiña, and Davide Settembre-Blundo. "Building a Sustainability Benchmarking Framework of Ceramic Tiles Based on Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)." Resources 8, no. 1 (January 4, 2019): 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/resources8010011.
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The purpose of this paper is to determine indices of environmental, economic and social sustainability related to the Italian production of ceramic tiles in porcelain stoneware in order to contribute to the construction of a reference benchmarking useful to decision makers, designers and end users of ceramic tiles. To achieve this goal, this paper is based on the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) framework that incorporates the three dimensions of sustainability with cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) tools. The study has shown that in the production of porcelain stoneware one of the major environmental problems, in addition to production in the strict sense, is the distribution system of the product to end users and, to a lesser extent but always significant, the process of supplying raw materials. Finally, it was highlighted that the joint use of the three impact assessment tools (LCA, LCC, S-LCA) requires further methodological work to avoid the risk of double counting of sustainability performance. This research has adopted a detailed methodological approach, both in the collection and in the processing of data, keeping the main phases of the production process separate. In this way, it has been possible to highlight that the major environmental criticalities are just beyond the “gate” of the ceramic factories, along the logistics chain. The study also proposes for the Italian ceramic sector not only indicators of environmental sustainability but also economic and social.
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Mahmood, Salwa, Mohd Fahrul Hassan, Abdul Rahman Hemdi, and Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman. "Sustainability in the Product Design: A Review of Recent Development Based on LCA." International Journal of Engineering & Technology 7, no. 3.7 (July 4, 2018): 54. http://dx.doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i3.7.16208.
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In order to achieve sustainable product design process, aspects such of environmental, economic and social should be balanced. This paper discussed on sustainability of product design, conceptual basis of life cycle assessment (LCA), review of LCA at several product design, methodology of proposed framework and discussion on strengths and limitations of LCA. This paper proposed to develop a framework for improving the product design process based on LCA tool. The aims is to calculate potential impact of environment, economic and social aspects during product design process. For environmental aspects, LCA tool will be used. For economic and social considerations, life cycle costing (LCC) and social life cycle assessment will be applied respectively. At the end, proposed framework are able to help designers to improve product design by considering all sustainability aspects.
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Sevigné-Itoiz, Eva, Onesmus Mwabonje, Calliope Panoutsou, and Jeremy Woods. "Life cycle assessment (LCA): informing the development of a sustainable circular bioeconomy?" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 379, no. 2206 (August 2, 2021): 20200352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0352.
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The role of life cycle assessment (LCA) in informing the development of a sustainable and circular bioeconomy is discussed. We analyse the critical challenges remaining in using LCA and propose improvements needed to resolve future development challenges. Biobased systems are often complex combinations of technologies and practices that are geographically dispersed over long distances and with heterogeneous and uncertain sets of indicators and impacts. Recent studies have provided methodological suggestions on how LCA can be improved for evaluating the sustainability of biobased systems with a new focus on emerging systems, helping to identify environmental and social opportunities prior to large R&D investments. However, accessing economies of scale and improved conversion efficiencies while maintaining compatibility across broad ranges of sustainability indicators and public acceptability remain key challenges for the bioeconomy. LCA can inform, but not by itself resolve this complex dimension of sustainability. Future policy interventions that aim to promote the bioeconomy and support strategic value chains will benefit from the systematic use of LCA. However, the LCA community needs to develop the mechanisms and tools needed to generate agreement and coordinate the standards and incentives that will underpin a successful biobased transition. Systematic stakeholder engagement and the use of multidisciplinary analysis in combination with LCA are essential components of emergent LCA methods. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bio-derived and bioinspired sustainable advanced materials for emerging technologies (part 1)’.
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Yasuhiro, FUKUSHIMA. "Technology Assessment for Sustainability." Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan 15, no. 4 (2019): 315. http://dx.doi.org/10.3370/lca.15.315.
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Kazuyo, MATSUBAE. "Sustainability in Island Economy." Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan 18, no. 3 (2022): 123. http://dx.doi.org/10.3370/lca.18.123.
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Mair-Bauernfeind, Claudia, Martina Zimek, Miriam Lettner, Franziska Hesser, Rupert J. Baumgartner, and Tobias Stern. "Comparing the incomparable? A review of methodical aspects in the sustainability assessment of wood in vehicles." International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 25, no. 11 (September 14, 2020): 2217–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01800-1.
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Abstract Purpose The choice of materials used for a vehicle can contribute to reduce negative environmental and social impacts. Bio-based materials are considered a promising solution; however, the sustainability effects still need to be assessed. Depending on the material assessed, it is questionable which environmental and social impact categories or subcategories should be included since recommendations in guidelines are vague and case studies in this regard are limited. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the choice of impact categories, methods, and indicators for E-LCA and S-LCA when assessing wood as substitute for conventional materials in automotive applications. Method The research is based on a literature review covering 115 case studies of S-LCAs and E-LCAs focusing either on wood-based products or on components in automotive applications. The selected case studies were analyzed according to the following criteria: considered stakeholder groups and chosen subcategories (S-LCA sample), sector or product system (S-LCA sample), year of publication and geographical scope (S-LCA and E-LCA sample), chosen LCIA method(s) and impact categories, objective(s) of the studies, analyzed materials and used software support (E-LCA samples). Results and discussion For S-LCA some relevant social topics for bio-based product systems, like food security or land- and worker-related concerns, could be identified. The E-LCA literature suggests that the objective and material type determine calculation approaches and impact category choices. Some material-related environmental issues like biodiversity loss in the case of bio-based product systems or ecotoxicity for steel and toxicity in the case of aluminum could be identified. For S-LCA the geographical and sectorial context and the affected stakeholders are the determining factors for methodical choices, however, the results show almost no difference in subcategory choice and geographical context. Influencing factors for methodical choices in E-LCA might be the objective of the study, data availability, the up-to-dateness of the LCIA approach, the geographical scope of the study, the materials analyzed, and the availability of software support. Conclusion Some relevant environmental and social impact categories as well as influencing factors on methodical choices could be identified from existing literature. However, a clear picture on these issues could not be drawn. Further research is needed on the motivation of researches on certain methodical choices as well as on environmental issues connected with materials or geographical-related social topics.
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Gava, Oriana, Fabio Bartolini, Francesca Venturi, Gianluca Brunori, Angela Zinnai, and Alberto Pardossi. "A Reflection of the Use of the Life Cycle Assessment Tool for Agri-Food Sustainability." Sustainability 11, no. 1 (December 23, 2018): 71. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11010071.
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In pursuit of agricultural sustainability and food security, research should contribute to policy-making by providing scientifically robust evidence. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an excellent candidate for generating that evidence, thereby helping the selection of interventions towards more sustainable agri-food. The purpose of this article is proposing a basis for discussion on the use of the LCA tool for targeting and monitoring of environmental policy interventions in agri-food. The problem of reducing the environmental burden in agri-food can be tackled by acting on the supply and/or demand sides and may benefit from the collaboration of supply chain stakeholders. Agri-food policies that most benefit from LCA-based data concern cross-border pollution, transaction costs following the adoption of environmental standards, adoption of less polluting practices and/or technologies, and business-to-consumer information asymmetry. The choice between the methodological options available for LCA studies (attributional, consequential, or hybrid models) depends on the purpose and scope of the study. The possibility of integrating the LCA with economic and social impact assessments—e.g., under the life cycle sustainability assessment framework—makes LCA an excellent tool for monitoring business or sectoral-level achievements with respect to UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
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Presumido, Pedro Henrique, Fernando Sousa, Artur Gonçalves, Tatiane Cristina Dal Bosco, and Manuel Feliciano. "Environmental Sustainability in Beef Production and Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool for Analysis." U.Porto Journal of Engineering 6, no. 1 (April 29, 2020): 11–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.24840/2183-6493_006.001_0002.
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The sustainability of meat production systems has been highlighted by the impact on the environment and the conservation of natural resources. The aim of this manuscript is to provide a specific review of the environmental sustainability of beef production in a life cycle assessment (LCA) context. Questions about the main environmental impacts caused by beef production were discussed. The phases of the LCA were detailed as well as the main functional units, boundaries of the systems and categories of impacts used in recent studies. LCA is a fast, easy and intuitive method that correlates human activities and their environmental performance in different sectors, such as beef production.
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Omran, Najat, Amir Hamzah Sharaai, and Ahmad Hariza Hashim. "Visualization of the Sustainability Level of Crude Palm Oil Production: A Life Cycle Approach." Sustainability 13, no. 4 (February 3, 2021): 1607. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13041607.
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The Malaysian palm oil is an important source of social development and economic growth in the country. Nevertheless, it has been accused of conducting unsustainable practices that may affect the sustainability of this industry. Thus, this study aims to identify the level of sustainability of crude palm oil (CPO) production. Environmental impacts were assessed using the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardized life cycle assessment (LCA). Economic impacts were evaluated using life cycle costing (LCC). Social impact assessment was identified based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines for social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) was used to combine three methods: LCA, life cycle costing (LCC) and S-LCA using the scoring system method. Finally, a presentation technique was developed to visualize the LCSA results. The results show that crude palm oil production requires more improvement to be a sustainable product. The study feasibly enables the decision-makers to understand the significant environmental, economic, and social hotspots during the crude palm oil production process in order to promote palm oil production.
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YAN, M. J., J. HUMPHREYS, and N. M. HOLDEN. "Evaluation of process and input–output-based life-cycle assessment of Irish milk production." Journal of Agricultural Science 151, no. 5 (May 23, 2013): 701–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021859613000257.
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SUMMARYAgricultural specialists, particularly animal scientists, tend to use process-based life-cycle assessments (LCA), which describe the production system as a series of processes, to study the environmental impact of milk production based on their experimental data. Another approach called input–output (I–O) based LCA, which uses the economic transaction tables and national environmental accounts to determine the environmental impact triggered by final demand of milk production, is often less used due to data scarcity and higher uncertainty. In the current paper, process-based and I–O-based LCA models were developed to evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) and acidifying emissions from pasture-based milk production in Ireland. Process-based LCA found 1338·3 kg CO2 eq and 14·4 kg SO2 eq/t energy-corrected milk (ECM), and revealed details related to the farm management. The I–O based LCA found 1003·1 kg CO2 eq and 12·7 kg SO2 eq/tonne ECM and suggested that the agriculture, forestry and fishery (AFF) sector itself was largely responsible for the environmental impact of AFF products, rather than economic interaction with other sectors. The process-based LCA was found to be suitable for developing farm-scale sustainability strategies if variation of tactics across farms is provided, while the I–O based LCA offered potential sustainability guidance at the national scale. Further work is required to incorporate foreign production into the I–O table to account fully for imported goods and services. A detailed disaggregation within the AFF sector is also needed to gain a better understanding of the environmental sustainability of agricultural commodities. The present paper thus provides interesting results for the dairy industry, dairy researchers and LCA practitioners on further understanding of the environmental impact of milk production.
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Martin, BAITZ, and HERRMANN Constantin. "The Cubical Matrix of Sustainability." Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan 16, no. 3 (2020): 188–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.3370/lca.16.188.
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Susumu, Uchida. "Sustainability at the Regional Level." Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan 17, no. 3 (2021): 149. http://dx.doi.org/10.3370/lca.17.149.
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KOVACS, Eniko, Lacrimioara SENILA, Maria Alexandra HOAGHIA, Cecilia ROMAN, and Diana E. DUMITRAS. "Roadmap Towards a Bioenergy Model of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment." Bulletin of University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca. Horticulture 78, no. 1 (May 14, 2021): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.15835/buasvmcn-hort:2020.0029.
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The emergent life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, techniques and models were punctuated by divergences concerning the system expansion, allocation rules and causation modeling. Moreover, the unification of the economic, social and ecological perspectives in the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) should be addressed by abstract models providing coherence and normalization. The purpose of this study was to identify, in the context of biomass waste processing into biofuels, some of the most representative generic and specific issues and theoretical gaps encountered in LCA and LCSA modeling, and to synthesize a list of requirements by analyzing some of the most consistent state of the art solutions, in order to develop an abstract LCSA model. The literature review covered selected studies on LCSA and biomass to biofuels and lignocellulosic agricultural waste valorization LCA techniques. A list of requirements resulted from the significant approaches, in support of a formal model to be developed.
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Ma, Jungmok. "Robust optimal usage modeling of product systems for environmental sustainability." Journal of Computational Design and Engineering 6, no. 3 (September 6, 2018): 429–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcde.2018.08.005.
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Abstract Proper modeling of the usage phase in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is not only critical due to its high impact among life cycle phases but also challenging due to high variations and uncertainty. Furthermore, when multiple products can be utilized, the optimal product usage should be considered together. The robust optimal usage modeling is proposed in this paper as the framework of usage modeling for LCA with consideration of the uncertainty and optimal usage. The proposed method seeks to optimal product usage in order to minimize the environmental impact of the usage phase under uncertainty. Numerical examples demonstrate the application of the robust optimal usage modeling and the difference from the previous approaches. Highlights The robust optimal usage modeling is proposed for the usage modeling of LCA. The proposed model seeks to sustainable product usage under uncertainty. Numerical examples demonstrate the difference from the previous approaches.
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Heijungs, Reinout. "Ecodesign — Carbon Footprint — Life Cycle Assessment — Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis. A Flexible Framework for a Continuum of Tools." Scientific Journal of Riga Technical University. Environmental and Climate Technologies 4, no. -1 (January 1, 2010): 42–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/v10145-010-0016-5.
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Ecodesign — Carbon Footprint — Life Cycle Assessment — Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis. A Flexible Framework for a Continuum of Tools Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for answering questions related to environmental impacts of products. It is a comprehensive tool, addressing the entire life cycle, and addressing the full spectrum of environmental impacts. There are two opposite movements occurring: LCA is getting smaller, and it is getting broader. This presentation presents the general framework for a broader life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA), and shows how the practical work related to doing an LCA, a carbon footprint, or an analysis for ecodesign, can be seen as special cases.
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Lauesen, Linne Marie. "Sustainable investment evaluation by means of life cycle assessment." Social Responsibility Journal 15, no. 3 (May 7, 2019): 347–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/srj-03-2018-0054.
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Purpose Sustainability investors are in need of updated standards, indexes and in general better tools and instruments to facilitate company information on its impacts on people, planet and profit. Such instruments to reveal reliable, independent metrics and indicators to evaluate companies’ performances on sustainability exist, however, in research fields that previously have not been used extensively, for instance, life cycle assessments (LCAs). ISO 14001:2015 has implemented life cycle perspective, however, without being explicitly clear on which methodology is preferred. This paper aims to investigate LCA as to improve companies’ transparency towards sustainability investors through a literature review on sustainable investment evaluation. Design/methodology/approach The literature review is conducted through the search engine Google Scholar, which to date hosts the most comprehensive academic database across other databases such as Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge, Science Direct, etc. Search words such as “Sustainable finance”, “Sustainable Investments”, “Performance metrics”, “Life cycle assessment”, “LCA”, “Environmental Management Systems”, “EMS” and “Environmental Profit and Loss Account” were used. Special journals that publish research on LCA such as International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Journal of Cleaner Production and Journal of Industrial Ecology were also investigated in-depth. Findings The combination of using LCA in, for instance, environmental profit and loss accounts studied in this paper shows a comprehensive and reliable tool for sustainability investors, as well as for social responsibility standards such as ISO 14001, ISO 26000, UN Global Compact, GIIN, IRIS and GRI to incorporate. With a LCA-based hybrid input-output account, both upstream and downstream’s impact on the environment and society can be assessed by companies to attract more funding from sustainability investors such as shareholders, governments and intergovernmental bodies. Research limitations/implications The literature review is based on publicly disclosed academic papers as well as five displayed company Environmental Profit and Loss accounts from the Kering Group, PUMA, Stella McCartney company, Novo Nordisk and Arla Group. Other company experiences with integration of LCA as a reporting tool have not been found, yet it is not to conclude that these five companies are the only ones to work extensively with LCA. Practical implications The paper may contribute to the clarification of LCA-thinking and perspective implementation in both ISO 14001 and ISO 26000, as well as in other social responsibility standards such as the UN Global Compact, the Global Impact Investing Networks, IRIS performance metrics, the Global Reporting Initiative and others. Originality/value The paper is one of the first that evaluates LCA and environmental profit and loss accounts for sustainability investors, as well as for consideration of implementation in social responsibility standards such as the ISO 14001 and ISO 26000, as well as in other social responsibility standards such as the UN Global Compact, the Global Impact Investing Networks, IRIS performance metrics and the Global Reporting Initiative.
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Wafa, Wafaurahman, Amir Hamzah Sharaai, Nitanan Koshy Matthew, Sabrina Abdullah J. Ho, and Noor Ahmad Akhundzada. "Organizational Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (OLCSA) for a Higher Education Institution as an Organization: A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis." Sustainability 14, no. 5 (February 24, 2022): 2616. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14052616.
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Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is an approach utilized for products to analyze their sustainability indicators. However, no definite study has determined the sustainability of an organization using the LCA approach. This review focuses on a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of the OLCSA in University. The literature was searched in the Scopus online database considering PRISMA guidelines, and VOSviewer software was used for three types of bibliometric analysis, i.e., co-authorship, co-occurrence, and co-citation were analyzed with their units of analysis. The results show that there is no specific study that has found or assessed the LCSA of an organization. However, 17 articles on O-LCA and 2 on SO-LCA were found, and there were numerous articles available about ELCC in the literature. Researchers mostly used UNEP guidelines for O-LCA, in line with ISO standards. However, they used NPV for E-LCC. Based on VOSviewer software, Matthias Finkbeiner, Forin, Martínez-Blanco Julia, Berger Markus, Lehman, Loss, Manzardo, Scipion, Hall, and Weldu are co-authors. The keyword of “life cycle” was broadly used, and the most cited source was the “International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment”. Adoption of the LCSA framework is recommended for O-LCSA studies to estimate organizations’ sustainability, and to ensure quality education contributing the fourth SDGs.
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Sehlin MacNeil, Kristina, Sheelagh Daniels-Mayes, Skye Akbar, Jillian Marsh, Jenny Wik-Karlsson, and Åsa Össbo. "Social Life Cycle Assessment Used in Indigenous Contexts: A Critical Analysis." Sustainability 13, no. 9 (May 5, 2021): 5158. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13095158.
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This paper evaluates the method Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) from the perspectives of Indigenous methodologies and Indigenous standpoint, in order to identify some strengths and limitations of using S-LCA in Indigenous contexts. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to measure environmental impacts connected with all stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. S-LCA is a methodology designed to include the social aspects of sustainability in the LCA methodology. S-LCA emphasizes stakeholder involvement and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) S-LCA guidelines (2020) lists Indigenous communities as possible stakeholders. With a focus on Indigenous communities in the Arctic region we also include comparative aspects from Australia to generate new conceptualizations and understandings. The paper concludes that S-LCA has the potential to facilitate opposing worldviews and with some further developments can be a valuable methodology for Indigenous contexts.
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Hayatina, Isye, Amar Auckaili, and Mohammed Farid. "Review on the Life Cycle Assessment of Thermal Energy Storage Used in Building Applications." Energies 16, no. 3 (January 20, 2023): 1170. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en16031170.
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To reduce building sector CO2 emissions, integrating renewable energy and thermal energy storage (TES) into building design is crucial. TES provides a way of storing thermal energy during high renewable energy production for use later during peak energy demand in buildings. The type of thermal energy stored in TES can be divided into three categories: sensible, latent, and sorption/chemical. Unlike sensible TES, latent TES and sorption/chemical TES have not been widely applied; however, they have the advantage of a higher energy density, making them effective for building applications. Most TES research focuses on technical design and rarely addresses its environmental, social, and cost impact. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an internationally standardized method for evaluating the environmental impacts of any process. Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is an expansion of LCA, including economic and social sustainability assessments. This paper aims to provide a literature review of the LCA and LCSA of TES, specifically for building applications. Concerning the low technology readiness level (TRL) of several TES systems, the challenges and benefits of conducting LCA for these systems are highlighted. Furthermore, based on published studies on emerging technologies for LCA, a suggested procedure to carry out the LCA of TES with low TRL is presented.
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Kamble, Sheetal Jaisingh, Anju Singh, and Manoj Govind Kharat. "Life cycle analysis and sustainability assessment of advanced wastewater treatment technologies." World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development 15, no. 2 (April 3, 2018): 169–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/wjstsd-05-2016-0034.
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Purpose Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have long-time environmental impacts. The purpose of this paper is to assess the environmental footprint of two advanced wastewater treatment (WWT) technologies in a life cycle and sustainability perspective and identify the improvement alternatives. Design/methodology/approach In this study life cycle-based environmental assessment of two advanced WWT technologies (moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) and sequencing batch reactor (SBR)) has been carried out to compare different technological options. Life cycle impacts were computed using GaBi software employing the CML 2 (2010) methodology. Primary data were collected and analysed through surveys and on-site visits to WWTPs. The present study attempts to achieve significantly transparent results using life cycle assessment (LCA) in limited availability of data. Findings The results of both direct measurements in the studied wastewater systems and the LCA support the fact that advanced treatment has the best environmental performance. The results show that the operation phase contributes to nearly 99 per cent for the impacts of the plant. The study identified emissions associated with electricity production required to operate the WWTPs, chemical usage, emissions to water from treated effluent and heavy metal emissions from waste sludge applied to land are the major contributors for overall environmental impacts. SBR is found to be the best option for WWT as compared to MBBR in the urban context. In order to improve the overall environmental performance, the wastewater recovery, that is, reusable water should be improved. Further, sludge utilisation for energy recovery should be considered. The results of the study show that the avoided impacts of energy recovery can be even greater than direct impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from the wastewater system. Therefore, measures which combine reusing wastewater with energy generation should be preferred. The study highlights the major shortcoming, i.e., the lack of national life cycle inventories and databases in India limiting the wide application of LCA in the context of environmental decision making. Research limitations/implications The results of this study express only the environmental impacts of the operation phase of WWT system and sludge management options. Therefore, it is recommended that further LCAs studies should be carried out to investigate construction and demolition phase and also there is need to reconsider the toxicological- and pathogen-related impact categories. The results obtained through this type of LCA studies can be used in the decision-making framework for selection of appropriate WWT technology by considering LCA results as one of the attributes. Practical implications The results of LCA modelling show that though the environmental impacts associated with advanced technologies are high, these technologies produce the good reusable quality of effluent. In areas where water is scarce, governments should promote reusing wastewater by providing additional treatment under safe conditions as much as possible with advanced WWT. The LCA model for WWT and management planning can be used for the environmental assessment of WWT technologies. Originality/value The current work provides a site-specific data on sustainable WWT and management. The study contributes to the development of the regional reference input data for LCA (inventory development) in the domain of wastewater management.
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Chandrasekaran, Vidhyalakshmi, and Jolanta Dvarionienė. "A Review of the Environmental Impact of Buildings with an Emphasis on Performance Assessment Tools and Their Incorporation of LCA." Advances in Civil Engineering 2022 (March 14, 2022): 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/9947920.
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Background. The environmental performance of buildings has been a focus of interest over the years in the building sector. Numerous building environmental assessment tools (BEA) have evolved to follow the lead of sustainability by updating categories and criteria from a lifecycle perspective. Therefore, it is timely to review the existing methods that already integrated LCA in their processes. The purpose of this study unfolds in three ways: (1) to review the existing BEA methods and LCA studies in residential buildings, (2) to compare the most adopted BEA methods, and (3) to study the integration of LCA and sustainability aspects applied within each selected BEA method. Methods. Scopus and Web of Science databases were searched for articles published between August 2010 and August 2021 in English. To identify studies and to conduct this review, four keywords, namely “Building Assessment Tools,” “Residential Building,” “LCA,” and “Sustainability” (and their derivatives), were used. The articles were searched so that all four keywords or at least a derivative of each keyword would appear. Furthermore, the outcomes of the database search were categorized as LCA and BEA for the review. Moreover, the seven most adopted rating systems were selected for review and comparison based on (1) the scope of buildings assessed, (2) lifecycle phases assessed, (3) assessment criteria, and (4) the user of tools. Findings. Of the 42 articles that met the enclosure criteria, 20 articles covered the environmental impact and 22 articles covered LCA. The review reveals that most of the analyzed systems focus more on the operational stage than on the other stages. Each BEA method is diverse in terms of its users, criteria, and regions and creates a niche among assessment methods. Conclusions. The main conclusion of this study is that a great deal of work is required to achieve the goal of making the existing “environmental” building assessment tools more sustainable. At the same time, a focus on the better implementation of LCA functionalities at each stage and a complement by integrating socioeconomic-based LCA models were also required.
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Saidani, Michael, Mariia Kravchenko, François Cluzel, Daniela Pigosso, Yann Leroy, and Harrison Kim. "COMPARING LIFE CYCLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT, CIRCULARITY AND SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: RESULTS FROM A HANDS-ON PROJECT WITH 87 ENGINEERING STUDENTS." Proceedings of the Design Society 1 (July 27, 2021): 681–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pds.2021.68.
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AbstractConsidering a growing number of metrics and indicators to assess circular economy, it is of paramount importance to shed light on how they differ from traditional approaches, such as life cycle assessment (LCA) or sustainability performance indicators. This study provides new empirical insights on the correlation between LCA, circularity, and sustainability indicator-based approaches. Specifically, the importance lies in analyzing how the results generated by these different approaches can be used to support the design of products that are not only circular, but also sustainable. A practice-based project involving 87 engineering students (divided into 20 groups) is conducted with the aim to compare and improve the circularity and sustainability performance of three product alternatives of lawn mowers (gasoline, electric, autonomous). To do so, the following resources are deployed: 18 midpoints environmental indicators calculated by LCA, eight product circularity indicators, and numerous leading sustainability indicators. Critical analyses on the usability, time efficiency, scientific soundness, and robustness of each approach are drawn, combining quantitative results generated by each group with the feedback of future engineers.
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Chatty, Tejaswini, Yingkun Qu, Hana H. Ba-Sabaa, and Elizabeth L. Murnane. "EXAMINING THE USER EXPERIENCE OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT TOOLS AND THEIR ABILITY TO CATER TO ECODESIGN IN EARLY-STAGE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE." Proceedings of the Design Society 1 (July 27, 2021): 1441–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/pds.2021.405.
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AbstractWith the topic of sustainability steadily gaining importance and public awareness, there is growing consensus about the need to incorporate environmental considerations in early stage product development (PD). This makes it imperative for PD practitioners to have access to methods and tools, including life cycle assessment (LCA), that support sustainability integration. This paper evaluates existing LCA tools on their ability to cater to the early-stage PD context, by having users apply the tools in practice and exploring their experiences. We find that the challenges to applying LCA in this context emanate primarily from the shortcomings of the tools themselves. Our evaluation metrics for tool critique are derived from a thematic analysis of user interviews we conducted, refined according to information and interaction design principles from human-computer interaction (HCI). This unique approach helps triangulate insights from users with literature, to produce design recommendations for the development of novel LCA tools tailored to the early PD context.
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Nguyen, Thu Trang, Helmut Brunner, and Mario Hirz. "Towards a Holistic Sustainability Evaluation for Transport Alternatives." European Journal of Sustainable Development 9, no. 4 (October 1, 2020): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2020.v9n4p1.
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The transport sector is responsible for a broad range of ecologic impacts, e.g., energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission or air pollution. It is therefore highly important to assess transport solutions in terms of their sustainability. Widely used approaches for sustainability analysis in the transport sector include life cycle assessment (LCA), economic approach, multi-criteria decision analysis (MDCA), and assessments based on indicators. In practice, these approaches consist of several methods, i.e., product-based LCA, fleet-based LCA, cost benefit analysis (CBA), cost effectiveness analysis (CEA), value measurement MDCA, ideal-solution based MDCA, outranking MDCA, and indicator-based assessment. Even though there is a larger number of assessment methods, a holistic framework for sustainability evaluation of different transport solutions is still missing. Selection of suitable assessment methods depends on a vast array of factors. This paper proposes to utilise “application levels” for the selection process. Firstly, the paper provides an analysis of the application levels of the common assessment methods and evaluation criteria within the transport sector based on a literature review. The application levels are illustrated by identifying two dimensions, namely system level and decision-making level, ranging from Low to High. Afterwards, a six-step framework for a holistic evaluation of transport alternatives is proposed.
Keywords: sustainability assessment, economic approach, indicator-based assessment, life cycle assessment, multi-criteria decision analysis, sustainable transport
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Xue, Kai, Md Uzzal Hossain, Meng Liu, Mingjun Ma, Yizhi Zhang, Mengqiang Hu, XiaoYi Chen, and Guangyu Cao. "BIM Integrated LCA for Promoting Circular Economy towards Sustainable Construction: An Analytical Review." Sustainability 13, no. 3 (January 27, 2021): 1310. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13031310.
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Sustainable construction is widely regarded as one of the best decisions to reduce the environmental impact of the buildings. Numerous scientific efforts have been devoted to promoting sustainability by adopting different techniques such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and building information modeling (BIM). The recent circular economy (CE) agenda is prioritizing in different sectors including construction due to increasing concern on the materials efficiency and resources consumption. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the implications, considerations, contributions and challenges of BIM integrated LCA and the CE adoption in the industry by critically analyzing the recent literature. A scientometric analysis was applied to the selected studies to show the knowledge among BIM, LCA and CE relationships. With a comprehensive analysis of major challenges and opportunities of LCA and BIM for construction sustainability, key drivers for sustainable building design were identified and analyzed. A prospective integrated framework for CE adoption into BIM-based LCA of buildings and an evaluation method are proposed by analyzing the contemporary issues. It is believed that the analyzed critical issues, identified future research direction and proposed frameworks and this methodology should contribute to effective implementation of CE into the building for promoting sustainable construction.
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Fu, Feifei, Hanbin Luo, Hua Zhong, and Andrew Hill. "Development of a Carbon Emission Calculations System for Optimizing Building Plan Based on the LCA Framework." Mathematical Problems in Engineering 2014 (2014): 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/653849.
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Life cycle thinking has become widely applied in the assessment for building environmental performance. Various tool are developed to support the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) method. This paper focuses on the carbon emission during the building construction stage. A partial LCA framework is established to assess the carbon emission in this phase. Furthermore, five typical LCA tools programs have been compared and analyzed for demonstrating the current application of LCA tools and their limitations in the building construction stage. Based on the analysis of existing tools and sustainability demands in building, a new computer calculation system has been developed to calculate the carbon emission for optimizing the sustainability during the construction stage. The system structure and detail functions are described in this paper. Finally, a case study is analyzed to demonstrate the designed LCA framework and system functions. This case is based on a typical building in UK with different plans of masonry wall and timber frame to make a comparison. The final results disclose that a timber frame wall has less embodied carbon emission than a similar masonry structure. 16% reduction was found in this study.
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Mancuso, Teresina, Tibor Verduna, Simone Blanc, Giuseppe Di Vita, and Filippo Brun. "Environmental sustainability and economic matters of commercial types of common wheat." Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika) 65, No. 4 (April 24, 2019): 194–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.17221/172/2018-agricecon.
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Common wheat, a fundamental commodity on international markets, is increasingly differentiated into commercial types on domestic markets to meet the demand of processing companies. Improver wheat, biscuit wheat, ordinary and superior bread-making wheat are commercial varieties with specific technological characteristics. Wheat farming systems are constantly evolving, and as a result, related environmental issues emerge. We applied an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis, where the functional unit was 1 tonne of grain for each typology and system boundaries were from cradle to farm gate. Primary data were used in the study, and special attention was paid to fertiliser use. From an LCA perspective, our findings show that nitrogen (N) plays an essential role in plant production although producing different waterborne and airborne emissions and nitrate leaching, for the 4 commercial typologies studied. Furthermore, the impact can be differentiated based on the technological features of the commercial types. Our results led us to observe that the four wheat types show contrasting economic and environmental performances.
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Orola, Anni, Anna Härri, Jarkko Levänen, Ville Uusitalo, and Stig Irving Olsen. "Assessing WELBY Social Life Cycle Assessment Approach through Cobalt Mining Case Study." Sustainability 14, no. 18 (September 19, 2022): 11732. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su141811732.
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The interconnected nature of social, environmental, and economic sustainability aspects must be considered in decision-making to achieve strong sustainability. Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) has been developed to better include social sustainability aspects into life cycle thinking. However, many of the current S-LCA impact assessment approaches have been developed only on a theoretical level, and thus more case studies are needed. We assess the challenges and opportunities of the S-LCA approach through a case study on cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Data for the case study were collected from scientific literature, reports, newspaper articles, and interview material. The applicability and possible strengths and weaknesses of the WELBY approach for the case were interpreted. The results showed that applying the WELBY approach in practice is possible, even though there is a lack of existing case studies. However, there are several challenges that must be addressed before the approach can be more widely used. The main challenge with the WELBY approach is the overestimation of impacts when adding multiple impact categories, as is recommended in the S-LCA guidelines. More case-specific severity weights should be developed to address this challenge. Moreover, the interpretation of the results from the perspective of informal work should be executed carefully. Even though the WELBY approach is promising, more methodological development is still needed to build a more ethical and reliable S-LCA methodology.
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Jeswani, Harish K., Andrew Chilvers, and Adisa Azapagic. "Environmental sustainability of biofuels: a review." Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 476, no. 2243 (November 2020): 20200351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2020.0351.
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Biofuels are being promoted as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels as they could help to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the related climate change impact from transport. However, there are also concerns that their wider deployment could lead to unintended environmental consequences. Numerous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have considered the climate change and other environmental impacts of biofuels. However, their findings are often conflicting, with a wide variation in the estimates. Thus, the aim of this paper is to review and analyse the latest available evidence to provide a greater clarity and understanding of the environmental impacts of different liquid biofuels. It is evident from the review that the outcomes of LCA studies are highly situational and dependent on many factors, including the type of feedstock, production routes, data variations and methodological choices. Despite this, the existing evidence suggests that, if no land-use change (LUC) is involved, first-generation biofuels can—on average—have lower GHG emissions than fossil fuels, but the reductions for most feedstocks are insufficient to meet the GHG savings required by the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). However, second-generation biofuels have, in general, a greater potential to reduce the emissions, provided there is no LUC. Third-generation biofuels do not represent a feasible option at present state of development as their GHG emissions are higher than those from fossil fuels. As also discussed in the paper, several studies show that reductions in GHG emissions from biofuels are achieved at the expense of other impacts, such as acidification, eutrophication, water footprint and biodiversity loss. The paper also investigates the key methodological aspects and sources of uncertainty in the LCA of biofuels and provides recommendations to address these issues.
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Kwofie, Titus Ebenezer, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa, and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala. "Measures to improve the adoption of life cycle assessment in the South African construction industry." Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology 18, no. 2 (September 18, 2019): 480–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2019-0141.
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Purpose In spite of the urge among stakeholders to increase sustainability in the built environment, the South African Construction Industry (SACI) continues to suffer from low level of adoption of strategies such as life cycle assessment (LCA) to increase sustainable building practices in building and infrastructure delivery, hence the need to increase the adoption of sustainable concepts and sustainability practices is an emergent necessity. This study aims to identify the measures that can increase the adoption of LCA toward overcoming the practical difficulties, theoretical concerns and structural differences encountered in making gains in achieving sustainable practices in the SA construction industry. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a deductive research design using a questionnaire survey with mean scores, Kruskal–Wallis and least square regression analysis done. Findings The study determined ten measures that can significantly influence about 88 per cent improvement in the success of LCA adopting in the SA industry. Also, there was a higher level of consensus in the findings which offers credence and good representation of the practical reality in the LCA adoption in South Africa. Originality/value These measures could be seen to embrace behavioural, social, technical and policy dimensions of LCA adoption. The findings are thus crucial in overcoming challenges to LCA methodologies in achieving sustainable building practices in the construction process in building and infrastructural delivery in SACI.
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Kadava, A., S. Murthy, and A. R. Shaw. "ENVISIONing the LCA of a wastewater treatment plant." Water Practice and Technology 13, no. 3 (September 1, 2018): 583–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wpt.2018.065.
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Abstract In today's sustainability market where there are several tools to rate and grade the ‘green’ level of modern day infrastructure, the multi-tiered credit rating system called Envision provides an holistic approach to tackle the issue. Developed by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), Envision has around 60 sustainability credits to score points in order to reach a recognized level of achievement. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is another tool that is gaining industry-wide acceptance for assessing potential environmental impacts. LCA is recognized by Envision as a good way to assess several of the available credits in their system. An LCA performed for Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility (AWTF), Washington, D.C., USA was used as an example case study to show how credits could be calculated for a used water treatment facility.
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KATO, Hirokazu, Takuya TOGAWA, and Hiroyoshi MORITA. "Methodology for Evaluating Sustainability of a City." Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan 8, no. 3 (2012): 265–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.3370/lca.8.265.
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NANSAI, Keisuke, Masaharu MOTOSHITA, Ichiro DAIGO, Seiji HASHIMOTO, Kiyotada HAYASHI, Keiichiro KANEMOTO, Aiichiro KASHIWAGI, et al. "EcoBalance 2016 - Responsible value chains for sustainability." Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan 13, no. 2 (2017): 180–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.3370/lca.13.180.
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Kiyotada, HAYASHI. "Sustainability Consulting in “the World after Corona”." Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan 16, no. 3 (2020): 161. http://dx.doi.org/10.3370/lca.16.161.
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Jayakrishna, Kandasamy, P. Sanjay Guar, R. Senthilkumar, and Nagarajan Aathis. "Sustainability Analysis of Prototyping Processes." Applied Mechanics and Materials 867 (July 2017): 290–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.867.290.
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Development of prototypes draws major focus in contemporary manufacturing organisations. Sustainability analysis and comparison of the prototype manufacturing process plays a vital role in deciding the sustainability level of the product. Sustainability of prototyping depends on model building material and model building process. In this paper based on the customer requirements, Environmental Conscious Quality Function Deployment (ECQFD) was carried out. Increased lives, strength, reduced toxicity of material with biodegradability were the major outputs of ECQFD. Cambridge Engineering Selector (CES) and Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) were used for material selection. Wood, ABS, Poly Lactic acid (PLA) and Lead were selected as cost efficient materials for the case product. A CAD model of the case product was developed and subjected to Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) using solid works sustainability express for the above materials. Prototypes of the case products where produced by wood carving, casting, CNC Milling and 3D printing by considering all input parameters required across each process. LCA was conducted using GaBi for the above process and the results were compared. From this study, it was observed that the case product developed using PLA with 3D printing technology had very less impact on environment and is considered as the best and cost effective prototyping method.
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Godskesen, B., K. C. Zambrano, A. Trautner, N. B. Johansen, L. Thiesson, L. Andersen, J. Clauson-Kaas, et al. "Life cycle assessment of three water systems in Copenhagen - a management tool of the future." Water Supply 10, no. 6 (December 1, 2010): 953–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/ws.2010.631.
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Environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to evaluate three different water systems of the water sector in Copenhagen, Denmark, including technologies within water supply, facilities recycling water and treatment of sewer overflow. In these three water systems LCA was used to evaluate the environmental impacts of each of the processes involved. The overall conclusion was that LCA is suitable as a decision support tool in the water sector as it provides a holistic evaluation platform of the considered alternatives categorized in environmental impact categories. The use of LCA in the water sector of this region has limitation since it not yet considers impact categories assessing freshwater scarcity and ecological sustainability.
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Haanstra, Willem, Willem-Jan Rensink, Alberto Martinetti, Jan Braaksma, and Leo van Dongen. "Design for Sustainable Public Transportation: LCA-Based Tooling for Guiding Early Design Priorities." Sustainability 12, no. 23 (November 24, 2020): 9811. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12239811.
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Environmental sustainability is an increasingly important subject for public transportation organizations. For passenger train operators, modernization projects provide key opportunities to improve the environmental impact of their rolling stock by making informed design decisions at the midpoint of the life cycle of their trains. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely adopted as the main instrument for evaluating environmental impact. However, in the past LCA was rarely used in the earlier design stages, where it is most effective, due to constrained access to data, information, and LCA-specific expertise. To this end, a purpose-built streamlined LCA tool for train modernization is developed and demonstrated, following a Design Science Research approach. The developed tool simplifies the application of LCA employing four main design principles: (1) sacrificing the declarative function of LCA, (2) the use of Input–Output-based Life Cycle Inventory, (3) the inclusion of ‘shadow costs’, (4) the limitation of the included environmental impact categories. By streamlining the application of LCA in this way, it becomes possible to introduce LCA-based principles and ways of thinking into a process that would otherwise be inaccessible to performing LCA in: the early design stages of modernization projects.
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Olsen, Stig I., Peter Fantke, Alexis Laurent, Morten Birkved, Niki Bey, and Michael Z. Hauschild. "Sustainability and LCA in Engineering Education – A Course Curriculum." Procedia CIRP 69 (2018): 627–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2017.11.114.
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Zhu, Yongxian, Steve Skerlos, Ming Xu, and Daniel R. Cooper. "System level impediments to achieving absolute sustainability using LCA." Procedia CIRP 90 (2020): 399–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2020.02.137.
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Amouri, Mohammed, Faroudja Mohellebi, Toudert Ahmed Zaïd, and Majda Aziza. "Sustainability assessment of Ricinus communis biodiesel using LCA Approach." Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 19, no. 3 (August 13, 2016): 749–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10098-016-1262-4.
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Danatzko, Joseph M., Halil Sezen, and Qian Chen. "SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS FOR STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS." Journal of Green Building 8, no. 1 (April 2013): 120–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.3992/jgb.8.1.120.
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The engineering community has been striving to design more sustainable buildings in an attempt to reduce both environmental impact and energy use during all phases of design, construction and operation. Design professionals currently have very limited guidance or tools to incorporate life-cycle and sustainability concepts into their designs. After reviewing the capabilities and limitations of four current life cycle analysis (LCA) computer programs, this research has selected the Athena Impact Estimator v4.0 to perform parametric studies of structural members made up of different construction materials. The energy consumption values are calculated and compared for columns, beams, concrete suspended slabs, precast double-tee sections and various other floor types. While Athena did offer some insights based on its LCA results, this research has concluded that existing LCA and sustainability analysis programs have too few options to meet the current needs of design professionals. A more accurate, sophisticated whole-building LCA tool needs to be developed to assess sustainable properties of design alternatives and to produce the most sustainable structural systems.
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Watson, K. J., and S. G. Wiedemann. "Review of Methodological Choices in LCA-Based Textile and Apparel Rating Tools: Key Issues and Recommendations Relating to Assessment of Fabrics Made From Natural Fibre Types." Sustainability 11, no. 14 (July 15, 2019): 3846. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11143846.
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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a key tool for determining environmental impacts for textiles and apparel and is the basis for the publicly available Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI) developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). This paper reviews and evaluates the Higg MSI with respect to rating of fabrics made from natural fibre types, with the aim of providing a constructive analysis of methodological issues identified by comparison with the International Standards and LCA guidelines. The major issues identified by the review were: (1) lack of sufficient guidance for comparative analysis and public disclosure; (2) incomplete system boundaries and the choice of functional unit; (3) the choice of attributional LCA methods and variable methods applied for handling multi-functionality; (4) use of generalised data and small datasets, without reported sensitivity or uncertainty; (5) exclusion of important impact categories, choice of LCIA methods and lack of coverage of non-LCA assessed issues; and (6) the choice of the weighting and normalisation approach. This review found that the provision of, and adherence to the appropriate standards and best practice in LCA would rectify most of these issues. To achieve the laudable aims of the Higg MSI, further development and refinement is needed to ensure robust information is provided to improve the sustainability of textiles.
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Ruckli, Antonia Katharina, Sabine Dippel, Nora Durec, Monika Gebska, Jonathan Guy, Juliane Helmerichs, Christine Leeb, Herman Vermeer, and Stefan Hörtenhuber. "Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Pig Farms in Selected European Countries: Combining LCA and Key Performance Indicators for Biodiversity Assessment." Sustainability 13, no. 20 (October 12, 2021): 11230. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su132011230.
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The aim of this study was to combine Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) assessment focusing on biodiversity in order to examine the environmental impacts of different pig farm types (13 breeding, 23 finishing and 27 breeding-to-finishing farms) in seven European countries. In addition, the relationship between environmental impacts and selected farm management characteristics was explored. Fossil energy depletion (FED), global warming (GWP), acidification (AP) as well as marine (MEP) and fresh water (FEP) eutrophication potential were assessed by an attributional LCA and expressed per kilogram body mass net sold (BMNS). In addition, the potential biodiversity performance of all crop-livestock farms within the sample (n = 56) was evaluated with a KPI assessment of biodiversity-related field management characteristics. We found no relationship between LCA results and biodiversity scores (KPI). LCA and biodiversity performance varied more within than across farm types (breeding, finishing, breeding-to-finishing). For example, the GWP expressed per kg BMNS of the breeding unit of breeding-to-finishing farms was on average (median) 2.77 (range: 1.40–4.78) and of breeding farms 2.57 (range: 1.91–3.23) kg CO2-eq. The average (median) biodiversity theme score for breeding farms was 51% (range: 36–70%), for breeding-to-finishing farms 38% (range: 30–68%) and for finishing farms 43% (range: 28–67%). Several farm management characteristics (e.g., FCR, productivity, proportion of solid manure) correlated with all/some LCA results. Biodiversity performance depended especially on KPIs related to ecological focus areas, fertiliser management and GMO crops. The large range regarding environmental performance in both LCA and KPI assessment across farm types indicates that farm-specific improvement measures should be implemented to enhance overall environmental sustainability on farm. In conclusion, combining LCA with KPI assessment provides a more comprehensive environmental impact assessment of pig farms.