Trade-offs across the water-energy-food nexus: A triple bottom line sustainability assessment of desalination for agriculture in the San quintín Valley, Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 445-452
Author(s):  
Gemma Smith ◽  
Lauren Bayldon Block ◽  
Newsha Ajami ◽  
Alberto Pombo ◽  
Lizzette Velasco-Aulcy
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Triple Bottom Line ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Trade Offs

scholarly journals Trade-offs in triple-bottom-line outcomes when recovering fisheries

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J Brown ◽  
Glenn Althor ◽  
Benjamin S Halpern ◽  
Md Sayed Iftekhar ◽  
Carissa J Klein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Triple Bottom Line ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Trade Offs

BIM-enabled sustainability assessment of material supply decisions

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 668-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Ahmadian F.F. ◽  
Taha H. Rashidi ◽  
Ali Akbarnezhad ◽  
S. Travis Waller
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Material Supply ◽  
Trade Offs

Purpose Enhancing sustainability of the supply process of construction materials is challenging and requires accounting for a variety of environmental and social impacts on top of the traditional, mostly economic, impacts associated with a particular decision involved in the management of the supply chain. The economic, environmental, and social impacts associated with various components of a typical supply chain are highly sensitive to project and market specific conditions. The purpose of this paper is to provide decision makers with a methodology to account for the systematic trade-offs between economic, environmental, and social impacts of supply decisions. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a novel framework for sustainability assessment of construction material supply chain decisions by taking advantage of the information made available by customized building information models (BIM) and a number of different databases required for assessment of life cycle impacts. Findings The framework addresses the hierarchy of decisions in the material supply process, which consists of four levels including material type, source of supply, supply chain structure, and mode of transport. The application is illustrated using a case study. Practical implications The proposed framework provides users with a decision-making method to select the most sustainable material alternative available for a building component and, thus, may be of great value to different parties involved in design and construction of a building. The multi-dimensional approach in selection process based on various economic, environmental, and social indicators as well as the life cycle perspective implemented through the proposed methodology advocates the life cycle thinking and the triple bottom line approach in sustainability. The familiarity of the new generation of engineers, architects, and contractors with this approach and its applications is essential to achieve sustainability in construction. Originality/value A decision-making model for supply of materials is proposed by integrating the BIM-enabled life cycle assessment into supply chain and project constraints management. The integration is achieved through addition of a series of attributes to typical BIM. The framework is supplemented by a multi-attribute decision-making module based on the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution to account for the trade-offs between different economic and environmental impacts associated with the supply decisions.

scholarly journals Principles for the application of life cycle sustainability assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 1900-1905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Valdivia ◽  
Jana Gerta Backes ◽  
Marzia Traverso ◽  
Guido Sonnemann ◽  
Stefano Cucurachi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Life Cycle Initiative ◽  
Iso 14040 ◽  
Trade Offs

Abstract 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.

scholarly journals MEASURING UP: A CASE FOR REDRAWING THE SYSTEM BOUNDARIES OF SUSTAINABILITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Sturlaugson ◽  
Rebekah Radtke ◽  
Anita Lee-Post
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Triple Bottom Line ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
Prototype System ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
University Of Kentucky ◽  
The University

The primary goal of this paper is to examine the role that sustainability assessment and reporting plays in creating a sustainable campus for academic excellence. A prototype sustainability assessment and reporting system is developed for triple bottom line impact analysis of the built environment of the newly expanded and renovated Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. The prototype system utilizes a toolkit to collect environmental, social, and economic data of the building's built environment for sustainable design performance analyses. The system also employs a comprehensive set of sustainability metrics to measure and report the building's triple bottom line impacts on academic success. In sum, our study succeeds in (1) expanding the definition and evaluation of campus buildings' sustainability to include environmental, social, and economic factors, (2) providing campus stakeholders with a toolkit for assessing the sustainability of campus buildings, and (3) creating a comprehensive sustainability metric for benchmarking and tracking campus buildings' triple bottom line impacts on academic success.

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