Carbon footprint and Life Cycle Costing of beef cattle in the Brazilian midwest

Despite the existence of many life cycle costing (LCC) methods, LCC is not widely adopted and LCC methods are usually further tailored by practitioners. Moreover, little is known about how practising LCC improves life cycle management (LCM) especially if LCM is considered emergent and constantly developing. In a manufacturing company, LCC is prescriptively introduced to improve LCM. In the first part, this study describes how various methodological choices and other aspects of practising LCC were the outcome of contestation and conformity with extant practices and not only the best way to fulfil the LCC’s objective. This contestation can even influence if LCC is adopted. In the second part of the research, the implications of practising LCC on LCM are explored. LCC is found to positively propel LCM in many ways e.g., by spreading the life cycle idea, but may lead to a narrower understanding of the term life cycle resulting in the sustainability focus of LCM being overridden. The article also discusses how the findings can be taken into consideration when researchers develop LCC methods and when industry practises LCC.

Download Full-text

A life cycle assessment framework for quantifying the carbon footprint of rural households based on survey data

MethodsX ◽

10.1016/j.mex.2021.101411 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 101411

Author(s):

Yechennan Peng ◽

Liang Emlyn Yang ◽

Jürgen Scheffran

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Survey Data ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Rural Households ◽

Assessment Framework

Download Full-text

Life-Cycle Assessment of Carbon Footprint of Bike-Share and Bus Systems in Campus Transit

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13010158 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 158

Author(s):

Sishen Wang ◽

Hao Wang ◽

Pengyu Xie ◽

Xiaodan Chen

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Co2 Emission ◽

Raw Material ◽

Transit System ◽

Two Systems ◽

Bus System ◽

Bike Share

Low-carbon transport system is desired for sustainable cities. The study aims to compare carbon footprint of two transportation modes in campus transit, bus and bike-share systems, using life-cycle assessment (LCA). A case study was conducted for the four-campus (College Ave, Cook/Douglass, Busch, Livingston) transit system at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ). The life-cycle of two systems were disaggregated into four stages, namely, raw material acquisition and manufacture, transportation, operation and maintenance, and end-of-life. Three uncertain factors—fossil fuel type, number of bikes provided, and bus ridership—were set as variables for sensitivity analysis. Normalization method was used in two impact categories to analyze and compare environmental impacts. The results show that the majority of CO2 emission and energy consumption comes from the raw material stage (extraction and upstream production) of the bike-share system and the operation stage of the campus bus system. The CO2 emission and energy consumption of the current campus bus system are 46 and 13 times of that of the proposed bike-share system, respectively. Three uncertain factors can influence the results: (1) biodiesel can significantly reduce CO2 emission and energy consumption of the current campus bus system; (2) the increased number of bikes increases CO2 emission of the bike-share system; (3) the increase of bus ridership may result in similar impact between two systems. Finally, an alternative hybrid transit system is proposed that uses campus buses to connect four campuses and creates a bike-share system to satisfy travel demands within each campus. The hybrid system reaches the most environmentally friendly state when 70% passenger-miles provided by campus bus and 30% by bike-share system. Further research is needed to consider the uncertainty of biking behavior and travel choice in LCA. Applicable recommendations include increasing ridership of campus buses and building a bike-share in campus to support the current campus bus system. Other strategies such as increasing parking fees and improving biking environment can also be implemented to reduce automobile usage and encourage biking behavior.

Download Full-text

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

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13073856 ◽

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.

Download Full-text