scholarly journals Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa

Environments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Selim Karkour ◽  
Safa Rachid ◽  
Mariem Maaoui ◽  
Chia-Chun Lin ◽  
Norihiro Itsubo
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Scopus Database ◽  
Two Sectors ◽  
Lcia Method

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has received attention as a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and services. In the last 20 years, research on the topic has increased, and now more than 25,000 articles are related to LCA in scientific journals databases such as the Scopus database; however, the concept is relatively new in Africa, where the number of networks has been highlighted to be very low when compared to the other regions. This paper focuses on a review of life cycle assessments conducted in Africa over the last 20 years. It aims at highlighting the current research gap for African LCA. A total of 199 papers were found for the whole continent; this number is lower than that for both Japan and Germany (more than 400 articles each) and nearly equal to developing countries such as Thailand. Agriculture is the sector which received the most attention, representing 53 articles, followed by electricity and energy (60 articles for the two sectors). South Africa (43), Egypt (23), and Tunisia (19) were the countries where most of the research was conducted. Even if the number of articles related to LCA have increased in recent years, many steps still remain. For example, establishing a specific life cycle inventory (LCI) database for African countries or a targeted ideal life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. Several African key sectors could also be assessed further.

Life Cycle Assessment

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph E Horne ◽  
Tim Grant ◽  
Karli Verghese
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Mitigation Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation Policy ◽  
Service Sectors ◽  
Critical Insight ◽  
And Performance

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has developed in Australia over the last 20 years into a technique for systematically identifying the resource flows and environmental impacts associated with the provision of products and services. Interest in LCA has accelerated alongside growing demand to assess and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across different manufacturing and service sectors. Life Cycle Assessment focuses on the reflective practice of LCA, and provides critical insight into the technique and how it can be used as a problem-solving tool. It describes the distinctive strengths and limitations of LCA, with an emphasis on practice in Australia, as well as the application of LCA in waste management, the built environment, water and agriculture. Supported by examples and case studies, each chapter investigates contemporary challenges for environmental assessment and performance improvement in these key sectors. LCA methodologies are compared to the emerging climate change mitigation policy and practice techniques, and the uptake of ‘quick’ LCA and management tools are considered in the light of current and changing environmental agendas. The authors also debate the future prospects for LCA technique and applications.

scholarly journals Comparing Three Building Life Cycle Assessment Tools for the Canadian Construction Industry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Cormick
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Bill Of Materials ◽  
Building Life Cycle

This research aims to contribute to quantifying whole building life cycle assessment using various software tools to determine how they can aid the construction industry in reducing carbon emissions, and in particular embodied emissions, through analysis and reporting. The conducted research seeks to examine and compare three whole building life cycle assessment tools; Athena Impact Estimator, Tally and One-Click LCA to relate the input variability to the outputs of the three programs. The three whole building life-cycle assessments were conducted using a case study building with an identical bill of materials and compared to determine the applicability and strengths of one program over another. The research confirmed that the three programs output significantly different results given the variability in scope, allowable program inputs and generated “black-box” back-end calculations, where the outputted whole building life cycle carbon equivalents of One-Click LCA is less than half than of Tally meaning the programs outputs cannot be simply compared side-by-side.

scholarly journals Embodied GHG Emissions of Wooden Buildings—Challenges of Biogenic Carbon Accounting in Current LCA Methods

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. E. Andersen ◽  
F. N. Rasmussen ◽  
G. Habert ◽  
H. Birgisdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Accounting ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
Biogenic Carbon ◽  
Building Life Cycle

Buildings play a vital role in reaching the targets stated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Increasing the use of wood in construction is a proposed upcoming strategy to reduce the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of buildings. This study examines existing life cycle assessments of wooden buildings. The aim is to investigate embodied greenhouse gas emission results reported, as well as methodological approaches applied in existing literature. The study applies the protocol for Systematic Literature Reviews and finds 79 relevant papers. From the final sample, the study analyses 226 different scenarios in-depth in terms of embodied emissions, life cycle assessment method, life cycle inventory modelling and biogenic carbon approach. The analysis shows that the average reported values of embodied greenhouse gas emissions of wooden buildings are one-third to half of the embodied emissions reported from buildings in general. Additionally, from the analysis of the final sample we find that the majority of wooden building life cycle assessments apply similar methods and often leave out biogenic carbon from the assessment or simply do not declare it. This implies that the focus on variability in the different methods applied in wooden building life cycle assessments needs to be increased to establish the relationship between methodological choices and embodied emissions of wooden buildings. Further, transparency and conformity in biogenic carbon accounting in life cycle assessments is essential to enhance comparability between life cycle assessment studies and to avoid distortions in embodied GHG emission results.

Life Cycle Assessments and Their Applications to Aquaculture Production Systems life cycle assessment (LCA) aquaculture production systems

2013 ◽  
pp. 1050-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik J. G. Henriksson ◽  
Nathan L. Pelletier ◽  
Max Troell ◽  
Peter H. Tyedmers
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Aquaculture Production

Life-cycle assessment as an environmental management tool in the production of potable water

2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Ozone Depletion ◽  
Membrane Filtration ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Environmental Burdens ◽  
By Products

The environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used in this study to calculate and compare the environmental burdens resulting from two different methods employed in the production of potable water in South Africa. One method employs conventional processes for the treatment of water and the other one is based on membrane filtration. All inputs (raw materials and energy) and outputs (products, by-products and emissions to air, water and soil) from the two methods were listed and quantified. These inputs and outputs cause different environmental impacts (global warming, ozone depletion, smog formation, acidification, nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity and human toxicity) and the contribution of each method to each of these impact categories has been quantified, resulting in a score. The ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) methodological framework for life cycle assessments guided this study. By using these methodologies and by tracing all the processes involved in the production of potable water to the interface with the environment, it was found that the main contributor to the overall environmental burden is the generation of electricity. This conclusion is valid for both methods investigated and in order to increase the environmental performance in the production of potable water the energy efficiency of waterworks should be increased.

scholarly journals Estimating injurious impact in construction life cycle assessments: A prospective study

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
James McDevitt ◽  
◽  
Dave Moore ◽  
Felicity Lamm ◽  
Nadine McDonnell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Suggested Approach ◽  
Accident Compensation ◽  
Social Metrics ◽  
High Level ◽  
A Prospective Study

This paper is the result of a desire to include social factors alongside environmental and economic considerations in Life Cycle Assessment studies for the construction sector. We describe a specific search for a method to include injurious impact for construction Life Cycle Assessment studies, by evaluating a range of methods and data sources. A simple case study using selected Accident Compensation Corporation information illustrates that data relating to injury could provide a compelling evidence to cause changes in construction supply chains, and could provide an economic motive to pursue further research in this area. The paper concludes that limitations notwithstanding, the suggested approach could be useful as a fast and cheap high level tool that can accelerate the discussions and research agenda that will bring about the inclusion of social metrics in construction sector supply chain management and declarations.

scholarly journals Comparing Three Building Life Cycle Assessment Tools for the Canadian Construction Industry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Cormick
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Bill Of Materials ◽  
Building Life Cycle

This research aims to contribute to quantifying whole building life cycle assessment using various software tools to determine how they can aid the construction industry in reducing carbon emissions, and in particular embodied emissions, through analysis and reporting. The conducted research seeks to examine and compare three whole building life cycle assessment tools; Athena Impact Estimator, Tally and One-Click LCA to relate the input variability to the outputs of the three programs. The three whole building life-cycle assessments were conducted using a case study building with an identical bill of materials and compared to determine the applicability and strengths of one program over another. The research confirmed that the three programs output significantly different results given the variability in scope, allowable program inputs and generated “black-box” back-end calculations, where the outputted whole building life cycle carbon equivalents of One-Click LCA is less than half than of Tally meaning the programs outputs cannot be simply compared side-by-side.

scholarly journals Selection of low impact concrete mixtures based on life-cycle assessment mixtures

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1354-1380
Author(s):  
M. G. SILVA ◽  
V. GOMES ◽  
M. R. M. SAADE
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Performance Requirements ◽  
Concrete Mixtures ◽  
Concrete Production ◽  
Cradle To Gate ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Over the past decades, extensive research has been carried out to reduce the environmental impacts associated with the cement and concrete production. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) enables the quantification of the environmental loads and offers a useful perspective to scientifically support such studies. In this paper, we demonstrate LCA’s contribution to the selection of low environmental impact concretes, using breakwater coreloc components as a case study. A detailed experimental study was designed for the selection of an alkali activator for blast furnace slag (bfs) to produce concrete suitable for breakwater structures; for the evaluation of concrete properties and for the performance assessment of full scale elements in the field, as well as in the laboratory. Sodium silicate-activated bfs concrete mixtures achieved the best results in terms of performance requirements. Our cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessments showed that, though this chemical activator indeed produces lower global warming potential mixtures than the reference portland CP V-ARI concrete, it induces relevant impacts in several environmental categories. Such information is critical when selecting and optimizing low-impact concrete mixture design, and would not be detected in typical experimental studies that are exclusively guided by compliance with performance requirements.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Beverage Packaging

Detritus ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Alice Brock ◽  
Ian D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Fruit Juice ◽  
Joint Research ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Pet Bottles ◽  
Global Concern ◽  
Tetra Pak ◽  
Beverage Packaging

Global plastic production has been increasing annually since World War II and is currently 380 million tonnes. Global concern about pollution from plastics in the seas and the environmental costs of plastics manufacture is rising. This study aimed to: i) review the costs, benefits, advantages / disadvantages of plastics as packaging materials and ii) use life cycle assessment to determine if there is less environmentally impactful beverage packaging than plastic bottles. As different beverages have different packaging needs, three categories were used: commonly used containers for milk, fruit juice and pressurised ‘fizzy’ drinks. The packaging types included in the assessment were glass bottles, aluminium cans, milk cartons, Tetra Pak, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and high-density polythene (HDPE) bottles. The ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 standards for life cycle assessment formed the basis of the methodology. The open source software openLCA was used to conduct the assessments. Data was assembled from LCA databases such as the European reference Life Cycle Database of the Joint Research Center (ELCD), existing life cycle assessments, scientific reports and peer reviewed literature. The functional unit was set at a container that held one litre of fluid. The results found that in each category there was a less impactful beverage packaging than plastic bottles. In the Pressurised Beverage Category, 100% recycled aluminium cans would be the least impactful option, in the Fruit Juice Beverage Category Tetra Pak would be the least impactful option and in the Milk Beverage Category milk cartons would be the least impactful option.

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