Comments on the relevance of life cycle costing in sustainability assessment of product systems

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 1059-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwa Hannouf ◽  
Getachew Assefa
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Product Systems

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment with Integrated Circular Economy Principles: A Toy Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3856
Author(s):  
Rebeka Kovačič Lukman ◽  
Vasja Omahne ◽  
Damjan Krajnc
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment

When considering the sustainability of production processes, research studies usually emphasise environmental impacts and do not adequately address economic and social impacts. Toy production is no exception when it comes to assessing sustainability. Previous research on toys has focused solely on assessing environmental aspects and neglected social and economic aspects. This paper presents a sustainability assessment of a toy using environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment. We conducted an inventory analysis and sustainability impact assessment of the toy to identify the hotspots of the system. The main environmental impacts are eutrophication, followed by terrestrial eco-toxicity, acidification, and global warming. The life cycle costing approach examined the economic aspect of the proposed design options for toys, while the social assessment of the alternative designs revealed social impacts along the product life cycle. In addition, different options based on the principles of the circular economy were analysed and proposed in terms of substitution of materials and shortening of transport distances for the toy studied.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Costing in Sustainability Assessment—A Case Study of Remanufactured Alternators

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 2268-2288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erwin M. Schau ◽  
Marzia Traverso ◽  
Annekatrin Lehmann ◽  
Matthias Finkbeiner
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Costing

scholarly journals Visualization of the Sustainability Level of Crude Palm Oil Production: A Life Cycle Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1607
Author(s):  
Najat Omran ◽  
Amir Hamzah Sharaai ◽  
Ahmad Hariza Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Crude Palm Oil

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.

scholarly journals Sustainability assessment of building life cycle costing: A case study of Calabar International Conference Center

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-109
Author(s):  
Godwin Adie Akeke ◽  
Melody Sunday Osok ◽  
Clifford Ugochukwu Nwoji
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Construction Cost ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Energy Costs ◽  
Discount Rates ◽  
International Conference ◽  
Conference Center ◽  
Building Life Cycle

This work presents a study of sustainability assessment of building life cycle (LCC). The analysis was conducted, information model developed. The LCC analysis was forecast for 50 years with the following discount rates 4%, 5%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 12% and 13%. The result showed, the lower the discount rates the higher the cost value and via vasa. The product of net present value (NPV) is > 0, indicating a significant benefit at the end of the study period. The construction cost was 73% of the total forecast costs of the building while operation, maintenance/repair, replacement and decommissioning cost ranks 2%, 8%, 13% and 4% respectively of the building costs. The total forecast life cycle costs ranked 30.24% of the construction cost. The energy costs contributed 54.78% of the total forecast cost. The energy costs were the most cost incurring factor, the use of alternative sources of power supply such as solar will serve as the best and more cost friendly alternative source of energy. The decommissioning costs at the end of CICC building life cycle stand at ₦355,807,000. The study explains a practical analysis on how a life cycle costing of Calabar International Conference Center project was analysed and forecast for a period of 50 years using different discount rates.

scholarly journals Ranking product systems based on uncertain life cycle sustainability assessment: a stochastic multiple criteria decision analysis approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 850-874
Author(s):  
Breno Barros Telles do Carmo ◽  
Manuele Margni ◽  
Pierre Baptiste
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Decision Analysis ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Multiple Criteria ◽  
Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Product Systems ◽  
Conflicting Objectives

Purpose – Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) provides useful and comprehensive information on product system performance. However, it poses several challenges for decision-making process due to (i) multidimensional indicators, (ii) conflicting objectives and (iii) uncertainty associated with the performance assessment. This research proposes an approach able to account uncertain life cycle sustainability performances through multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) process to support decision-making.Design/methodology/approach – Our method is structured in three phases: i) assessing the uncertainty of LCSA performances, ii) propagating LCSA uncertainty into MCDA methods and iii) interpreting the stochastic results. The approach is applied on an illustrative case study, ranking four alternatives to biodiesel supply.Findings –The recommendation generated by this approach provides an information about the confidence the decision maker can have in a given result (ranking of solutions) under the form of a probability, providing a better knowledge of the risk (in this case due to the uncertainty of the preferred solution). As such, stochastic results, if appropriately interpreted, provide a measure of the robustness of the rankings generated by MCDA methods, overcoming the limitation of the overconfidence of deterministic rankings.Originality/value – The fundamental contributions of this paper are to (i) integrate LCSA uncertainty into decision-making processes through MCDA approach; (ii) provide a sensitivity analysis about the MCDA method choice, (iii) support decision-makers’ preference choices through a transparent elicitation process and (iv) provide a practical decision-making platform that accounts simultaneously uncertain LCSA performances with stakeholders’ value judgments.

scholarly journals A Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment-Based Decision-Analysis Framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwa Hannouf ◽  
Getachew Assefa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Decision Analysis ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Analysis Framework ◽  
Product Systems ◽  
Trade Offs

One of the main challenges in using life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is the difficulty of integrating the interrelationships between the three dimensions (environmental, economic and social dimensions) of LCSA results in decision-making toward proposing sustainability improvements for existing product systems. This paper is addressing this challenge by presenting an LCSA-based decision-analysis framework, which is a systematic and structured framework that appraises the pool of potential actions determined based on LCSA results and evaluates their trade-offs to propose potential sustainability solutions. The framework is composed of two parts: (a) LCSA application; (b) decision-analysis approach. The decision analysis part of the framework is built based on some features from previous decision-making approaches and considering the characteristics of LCSA results. The decision-analysis part of the framework, which is the main focus of this study, is divided into five phases to propose and select some recommendations to improve the sustainability performance of product systems. The framework developed is illustrated using results from a previous LCSA case study. The framework can handle the complexity in understanding the interrelationships between the three dimensions of LCSA results, through a structured way of dividing the process into manageable steps. Further work is still needed to apply this framework to a real case study.

Life cycle costing as a bottom line for the life cycle sustainability assessment in the solar energy sector: A review

Solar Energy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
pp. 238-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Ximenes Naves ◽  
Camila Barreneche ◽  
A. Inés Fernández ◽  
Luisa F. Cabeza ◽  
Assed N. Haddad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Bottom Line

scholarly journals Sustainability improvement in complex systems composed of products and services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Biedermann ◽  
Natalia Muñoz López ◽  
José Luis Santolaya Sáenz ◽  
José Ignacio Valero Martín
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Product Systems ◽  
Sustainability Strategies ◽  
Alternative Systems ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
Space Layout ◽  
System Sustainability

Abstract Purpose A wide number of research efforts have been carried out over the last decades to assess and improve system sustainability. Different methods and tools are increasingly implemented in product systems; nevertheless its application to services and other systems, in which products and services are combined, is rather limited. In this work, an approach to improve the sustainability of systems composed of products and services (P + S systems) is proposed and implemented in two case studies. Methods The sustainability improvement of P + S systems is addressed integrating different methods and approaches. The flows between system approach is used to identify links between all systems involved. The life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) method is applied to simultaneously evaluate environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability with a life cycle perspective. In addition, sustainable design principles are taken into account to propose effective improvement strategies. The systematic development of four phases is required to carry out the integration of these approaches: (i) identification of links between involved systems; (ii) sustainability assessment of the P + S system; (iii) application of sustainability strategies; and (iv) sustainability results comparison. Results and discussion Two different P + S systems are analysed. First, sustainability improvements in the service provided by a clothing boutique are proposed, taking into account that the store where the service is developed and the clothes acquired by the service provider are product systems involved in the service operation. Next, the sustainability of an itinerary exhibition is investigated. Products required for the exhibition space layout as well as the service used to transport all materials between different locations are taken into account. In each case, sustainability indicators obtained in both initial and alternative systems are compared, and variations detected due to strategies applied are analysed. Conclusions Sustainability of P + S systems is evaluated using a set of quantitative indicators, the relative incidence of each system is determined and more sustainable alternatives are projected. Thus, this research supposes an advance towards the sustainable design of complex systems composed of products and services, since effects due to the interconnection between systems are studied and criteria to carry out sustainability-oriented decision making are provided.

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