Towards Prospective Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail R. Clarke-Sather ◽  
Saleh Mamun ◽  
Daniel Nolan ◽  
Patrick Schoff ◽  
Matthew Aro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Cultural Perspective

Abstract Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-established tool for measuring environmental effects of existing technology. While the most recent LCA research has focused on environmental impacts, in particular on the effects of climate change, there is growing interest in how LCA can be used prospectively. A 2019 workshop in Duluth, Minnesota sought to define the needs and priorities of prospective life cycle assessment from a perspective that considers diverse viewpoints. In that workshop, participants outlined frameworks for how sustainability impacts might figure into a prospective LCA tool focused on assessing technologies currently under development. Those frameworks included social and economic impacts, which were characterized alongside environmental impacts, with the goal of predicting potential impacts and developing recommendations for improving technologies. Cultural perspective, in particular the roots of the German circular economy, was explored and held up as a reminder that different communities are influenced by different sustainability concerns, leading to diverse policy and cultural prerogatives. The purpose of this paper is to catalyze conversation about how to frame methodologies of existing LCA tools that could be used in a prospective sustainability context.

scholarly journals Environmental Consequences of Closing the Textile Loop—Life Cycle Assessment of a Circular Polyester Jacket

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2964
Author(s):  
Gregor Braun ◽  
Claudia Som ◽  
Mélanie Schmutz ◽  
Roland Hischier
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Energy And Material Flows

The textile industry is recognized as being one of the most polluting industries. Thus, the European Union aims to transform the textile industry with its “European Green Deal” and “Circular Economy Action Plan”. Awareness regarding the environmental impact of textiles is increasing and initiatives are appearing to make more sustainable products with a strong wish to move towards a circular economy. One of these initiatives is wear2wearTM, a collaboration consisting of multiple companies aiming to close the loop for polyester textiles. However, designing a circular product system does not lead automatically to lower environmental impacts. Therefore, a Life Cycle Assessment study has been conducted in order to compare the environmental impacts of a circular with a linear workwear jacket. The results show that a thoughtful “circular economy system” design approach can result in significantly lower environmental impacts than linear product systems. The study illustrates at the same time the necessity for Life Cycle Assessment practitioners to go beyond a simple comparison of one product to another when it comes to circular economy. Such products require a wider system analysis approach that takes into account multiple loops, having interconnected energy and material flows through reuse, remanufacture, and various recycling practices.

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 The Role of Environmental Evaluation within Circular Economy: An Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Method in the Detergents Sector

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-257
Author(s):  
Maria G. Lucchetti ◽  
Luisa Paolotti ◽  
Lucia Rocchi ◽  
Antonio Boggia
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production Process ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Vegetable Oils ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Coconut Oil ◽  
Environmental Evaluation

Abstract The present work aims to analyse the environmental advantages of a production process that applies circular economy. The study examines a product that is generated through the use of a certain percentage of recovered secondary materials, thus helping to avoid impacts related to the disposal of these materials and preserving the ecosystems from indiscriminate excessive natural resources extraction. The product analysed is an ecological detergent (“Ri-Detersivo” – Re-Detergent), produced by the company Tea Natura, mainly composed of regenerated vegetable oils coming from food industry. The methodology used in this paper is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). A partial LCA will be carried out here, arriving at the saponification phase, and comparing the environmental impacts deriving from the Re-Detergent production process with those of a traditional soap, comparable to that studied in terms of function. The analysis of the case study found that the use of regenerated vegetable oils for the production of soap allows to significantly reduce the environmental impacts compared to the use of coconut oil imported from third countries.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Heaven Mushroom Product

2021 ◽  
Vol 228 ◽  
pp. 02003
Author(s):  
Phatcharapron Sukkanta ◽  
Krittaphas Mongkolkoldhumrongkul
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Cradle To Gate ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Climate change affects all regions around the world, so efforts to minimize the environmental impacts of climate change have high importance. The aim of this study is to evaluate the environmental impacts on the production of heaven mushroom product at the Ban Tai Khod community in Rayong, Thailand. In this study, cradle to gate was selected as the system boundary and functional unit from the life cycle assessment method. The results found that the process of building a mushroom house has the highest greenhouse gas emissions of 1, 496.609 kgCO2eq. The mushroom cubes mixing process has the highest energy consumption throughout the production process, requiring an energy consumption of 5.595 kWh. The greenhouse gas is released amount 3, 588.362 kgCO2eq. throughout this process. Additionally, the payback period of the heaven mushroom product is 0.92 years.

scholarly journals ANALISIS POTENSI DAMPAK LINGKUNGAN DARI BUDIDAYA TEBU MENGGUNAKAN PENDEKATAN LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Arieyanti Dwi Astuti
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Photochemical Oxidation ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Human Toxicity

ENGLISHMinimizing the adverse impact of sugarcane plantation can be carried out through many ways including increasing the efficiency of energy and natural resources consumption as well as improving the management of waste and emissions. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to assess the environmental impact of sugarcane plantation without considering sugarcane usage as a raw material in the sugar industry (gate to gate). CML (baseline) was used as Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method. This study aimed to: 1) examine the natural resources and energy consumption; 2) analyze and identify potential environmental impacts; and 3) recommend alternative improvements to reduce environmental impacts. It used primary data and secondary data. The results showed that: 1) natural resources were used to produce 16,097 ton of sugarcane or 1 ton of sugar, were land requirement (0.233 ha), water consumption (2,223.117 m3), and energy consumption (19,234.254 MJ); 2) there are five most potential environmental impacts which are analyzed by using openLCA including climate change (134,275.23 kg CO2 eq), eutrophication (120.24 kg PO4 eq), acidification (1.54 kg SO2 eq), photochemical oxidation (0.36 kg ethylene eq), and human toxicity (0.15 kg 1.4-dichlorobenzene eq); 3) alternative recommendation could be conducted by reducing the usage of inorganic fertilizer, and utilizing cane trash (dry leaves, green leaves, and tops) as boiler fuel for production process in sugar factory. INDONESIABudidaya tebu menimbulkan dampak negatif terhadap lingkungan sehingga diperlukan upaya untuk meminimalisir dampak negatif tersebut melalui efisiensi konsumsi energi, konsumsi sumber daya alam (SDA), serta pengelolaan limbah dan emisi. LCA merupakan salah satu metode untuk menganalisis dampak lingkungan dari budidaya tebu tanpa mempertimbangkan penggunaan tebu panen sebagai bahan baku industri gula (gate to gate). Metode yang digunakan untuk LCIA adalah CML (baseline). Penelitian ini  bertujuan untuk: 1) menghitung penggunaan SDA dan energy, 2) menganalisis dan mengidentifikasi potensi dampak lingkungan, dan 3) menyajikan rekomendasi perbaikan untuk menurunkan dampak lingkungan. Data penelitian berupa data primer dan data sekunder. Unit fungsional pada penelitian ini adalah produksi 1 ton gula untuk satu tahun. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: 1) konsumsi SDA berupa lahan tebu seluas 0,233 ha, air sebanyak 2.223,117 m3 dan energi sebesar 19.234,254 MJ; 2) potensi dampak lingkungan yang dianalisis menggunakan OpenLCA menghasilkan 5 dampak lingkungan tertinggi, yaitu climate change (134.275,23 kg CO2 eq), eutrophication (120,24 kg PO4 eq), acidification (1,54 kg SO2 eq), photochemical oxidation (0,36 kg ethylene eq), and human toxicity (0,15 kg 1,4-dichlorobenzene eq); 3) alternatif perbaikan yang direkomendasikan berupa penggunaan pupuk anorganik dengan dosis yang tepat dan memanfaatkan limbah pasca pane n (daun kering, serasah) sebagai bahan bakar boiler untuk proses produksi industri gula.

scholarly journals Life-Cycle Assessment of Crude Palm Oil Produced at Mill J, PT XYZ, Sumatera Island using Eco-indicator 99

2018 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 01028
Author(s):  
Pertiwi Andarani ◽  
Winardi Dwi Nugraha ◽  
Desinta Sawitri ◽  
Wiwik Budiawan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Production System ◽  
Crude Palm Oil ◽  
Agricultural Industry ◽  
Palm Oil Mill ◽  
Negative Impacts

The Crude Palm Oil industry has now become the largest agricultural industry in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the growth of CPO industry could also bring negative impacts on the environment if the company does not control their emissions and discharges properly. Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the tools that can assess the environmental impacts due to CPO production activities. This study aims to assess the potential environmental impacts arising from the CPO production system at Mill J, PT XYZ, Sumatera Island by using Eco-indicator 99. Based on this study, in 2015, the process in plantation and mill contributed to climate change category was 0.013 DALY or after normalized 202 Pt. Meanwhile, the land use category has 395 PDF*m2yr or 30.8 Pt. Meanwhile, all of the other categories were less than 30.8 Pt, hence, the highest impact of this CPO production system is climate change at the activities in industrial estate (fertilizers usage) and industry (emitted from waste water of palm oil mill).

scholarly journals A life cycle assessment of reprocessing face masks during the Covid-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bart van Straten ◽  
S. Ligtelijn ◽  
L. Droog ◽  
E. Putman ◽  
J. Dankelman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Medical Products ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
Circular Design

AbstractThe Covid-19 pandemic led to threatening shortages in healthcare of medical products such as face masks. Due to this major impact on our healthcare society an initiative was conducted between March and July 2020 for reprocessing of face masks from 19 different hospitals. This exceptional opportunity was used to study the costs impact and the carbon footprint of reprocessed face masks relative to new disposable face masks. The aim of this study is to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to assess and compare the climate change impact of disposed versus reprocessed face masks. In total 18.166 high quality medical FFP2 face masks were reprocessed through steam sterilization between March and July 2020. Greenhouse gas emissions during production, transport, sterilization and end-of-life processes were assessed. The background life cycle inventory data were retrieved from the ecoinvent database. The life cycle impact assessment method ReCiPe was used to translate emissions into climate change impact. The cost analysis is based on actual sterilization as well as associated costs compared to the prices of new disposable face masks. A Monte Carlo sampling was used to propagate the uncertainty of different inputs to the LCA results. The carbon footprint appears to be 58% lower for face masks which were reused for five times compared to new face masks which were used for one time only. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the loading capacity of the autoclave and rejection rate of face masks has a large influence on the carbon footprint. The estimated cost price of a reprocessed mask was €1.40 against €1.55. The Life Cycle Assessment demonstrates that reprocessed FFP2 face masks from a circular economy perspective have a lower climate change impact on the carbon footprint than new face masks. For policymakers it is important to realize that the carbon footprint of medical products such as face masks may be reduced by means of circular economy strategies. This study demonstrated a lower climate change impact and lower costs when reprocessing and reusing disposable face masks for five times. Therefore, this study may serve as an inspiration for investigating reprocessing of other medical products that may become scarce. Finally, this study advocates that circular design engineering principles should be taken into account when designing medical devices. This will lead to more sustainable products that have a lower carbon footprint and may be manufactured at lower costs.

Renewable Energy for Environmental Protection: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of different Palm Oil Mills in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelechi E Anyaoha ◽  
Lulu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Palm Kernel ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Oil Palm Industry

Oil palm is expected to continue its dominance of global oil production, trade, and consumption. Nigeria will continue to play a dominate role in oil palm industry particularly on production and consumption. One of the biggest challenges to agricultural productivities is the need to reduce the environmental impacts and improves circularity in the operations. This study investigated the environmental impacts of different palm oil processors in Nigeria using life cycle assessment approach. The study covers the reception and processing of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) to palm oil. The inputs include generated empty fruit bunch, mesocarp fibre, palm kernel shell, palm oil mill effluent, diesel, and water and all outputs to the environment for a functional unit of 1 tonne of FFB. The large-scale processor performs worse than the semi-mechanised and smallholder processors in terms of climate change with 468 kg CO2-eq per tonne of FFB and better in the other impact categories. In large-scale mill, the contribution to climate change was reduced by 75% when the raw POME was used in composting EFB. Similarly, the contribution to climate change was decreased by 44% when biogas from POME substituted diesel in the semi-mechanised and smallholder mills. Concerted efforts by regulators are needed to ensure that stakeholders take steps towards improving management practices in the industry. Particularly on the generation and reuse of biomass and POME. This study will be very useful particularly on the contributions to climate change by Nigeria’s oil palm industry and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Ramie Fiber Used for FRPs

Aerospace ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoce Dong ◽  
Guijun Xian ◽  
Xiao-Su Yi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Ozone Depletion ◽  
Natural Fiber ◽  
Ramie Fiber ◽  
Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Spinning Process

With the depletion of natural resources and the deterioration of environment, natural fiber based biomaterials are attracting more and more attentions. Natural fibers are considered to be renewable, biodegradable, and ecofriendly, and have been applied to be used as alternative reinforcements to traditional glass fibers for polymer based composites (GFRP). Natural fiber reinforced polymer (NFRP) composites have been found to be manufactured as secondary structures or interior parts of aircrafts or automobiles. In this paper, a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) study was performed to demonstrate the possible advantages of ramie fiber on environmental impacts and to provide fundamental data for the further assessment of ramie fiber reinforced polymers (RFRP) and its structures. By collecting the material inventories of the production process of ramie fiber, the environmental impacts of ramie fiber (characterized by eight main impact categories, which are climate change, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, human toxicity potential, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, freshwater ecotoxicity, and fossil depletion) were calculated and compared with that of glass fiber. Found if spinning process is ignored within the production of the ramie fiber, ramie fiber exhibits better ozone depletion and they have almost the same values of climate change and terrestrial acidification in terms of glass fiber. However, if the spinning process is included, ramie fiber only performs better in terms of ozone depletion. And degumming and carding and spinning processes are the processes that cause more pollution.

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