Life Cycle Design, Planning, and Assessment

Energy and environmental concerns are intricately linked to the supply chains of various goods. Increased public awareness of such issues is reflected in the contemporary business environment as well as government legislation. Companies must not only comply with environmental regulations, but also contend with the need for increasingly green corporate practices in order to stay competitive in global markets. Thus, it is necessary to apply systematic techniques to quantify the environmental impacts of supply chains, and to identify opportunities for making improvements. This chapter discusses life cycle assessment principles and its application in the design and planning of industrial supply chains. A specific case study on the production of biofuels from agricultural crops is used to illustrate the key concepts.

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Eco-efficiency improvement by using integrative design and life cycle assessment. The case study of alternative bread supply chains in France

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.002 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 112 ◽

pp. 2452-2461 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Michal Kulak ◽

Thomas Nemecek ◽

Emmanuel Frossard ◽

Gérard Gaillard

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Supply Chains ◽

Efficiency Improvement ◽

Integrative Design

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Social Life Cycle Assessment: Specific Approach and Case Study for Switzerland

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10124382 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 4382 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Evelyn Lobsiger-Kägi ◽

Luis López ◽

Tobias Kuehn ◽

Raoul Roth ◽

Vicente Carabias ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Supply Chain ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Supply Chains ◽

Social Life ◽

Social Conditions ◽

Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽

The Social ◽

Relevance Analysis

This article proposes a specific social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) approach, to be applied in a case study on energy production in Switzerland. The aim of the present study is to describe the social conditions along the global supply chains and to compare them with the social situation in Switzerland. Therefore, a specific S-LCA methodology was developed that combines a relevance analysis with a performance reference point (PRP) assessment. The relevance analysis is carried out to identify the most relevant unit processes and S-LCA indicators and the Swiss PRPs (SPRPs) are designed to compare the social issues along the value chain to the situation in Switzerland. The methodology was applied to two life cycle stages of the copper supply chain (resource extraction and wire production), relevant for the production of renewable energy technologies, where it was found that the most critical step is mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) due to the artisanal way of mining. The proposed methodology offers a comprehensive overview for the analysis of supply chains and the comparison of different life cycle phases. Nevertheless, the methodology can result in a very coarse resolution with low validity. However, if the data and the results are treated transparently, they provide meaningful information about the social conditions along the supply chain.

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