Status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Africa

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.

The Influence of Database Selection on Environmental Impact Results. Life Cycle Assessment of Packaging Using GaBi, Ecoinvent 3.6, and the Environmental Footprint Database

This research analyses the differences in impact assessment results depending on the choice of a certain software-database combination. Six packaging systems were modelled in three software-database combinations (GaBi database in GaBi software, ecoinvent 3.6 database in openLCA, Environmental Footprint database in openLCA). The chosen Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method is EF 2.0. Differences and errors in the implementation of the LCIA method are a possible source of deviations. We compared the published characterisation factors with the factors implemented in the software-database combinations. While results for the climate change category are similar between the different databases, this is not the case for the other impact categories. In most cases, the use of the ecoinvent 3.6 database leads to higher results compared to GaBi. This is partly due to the fact, that ecoinvent datasets often include more background processes than the corresponding GaBi datasets. We found striking discrepancies in LCIA implementation, including the lack of regionalisation for water use in ecoinvent. A meaningful communication of LCIA results requires an excellent knowledge of the analysed product system, as well as of database quality issues and LCIA methodology. We fully acknowledge the constant efforts of database providers to improve their databases.

Measuring Product Material Footprint as New Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method: Indicators and Abiotic Characterization Factors

The global economy is using growing amounts of natural resources such as raw materials, water, and land by making and using goods, services, and infrastructure. Aspirations on international, regional, and national levels e.g., the Sustainable Development Goals, the EU flagship initiative Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe or the German Program for Resource Efficiency are showing an urgent need to bring the global raw material use down to sustainable levels. An essential prerequisite to identify resource efficient options and to implement resource efficiency measures and solutions is the ability to compare different products or services regarding their raw material use. Until today, there is no internationally standardized approach defined and no software supported calculation method including the necessary data basis available to measure the raw material intensity of products. A new life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method Product Material Footprint PMF is described. Two indicators are used to quantify the PMF: the Raw Material Input RMI and the Total Material Requirement TMR. The calculation of global median values for the characterization factors CFRMI and CFTMR of abiotic materials was done based on different databases. This article presents the methodological approach of the PMF, the calculation results for CFRMI of 42 abiotic materials and CFTMR of 36 abiotic materials, and the implementation of the LCIA method into the software openLCA for use with the ecoinvent database.

Basic Study on Introduction of the Global-scale LCIA Method “LIME-3” into Environmental Accounting of Local Governments

Environmental accounting should be performed by both private companies and local governments. However, it may be difficult for government agencies to objectively measure their current environmental impact, and there is currently no internationally standardized methodology of environmental accounting for local governments. This study therefore attempts to incorporate life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) into the calculation of environmental loads for administrative divisions. In LCIA, environmental loads for several impact categories, such as “Climate change” and “Land use,” are integrated into a simple indicator expressed in terms of monetary units. This study leverages the LIME-3 assessment theory, one of the endpoint-type and global-scale LCIA methods. Annual environmental loads for administrative divisions in 42 countries were measured in a tentative assessment. Results showed that the annual damages for the 42 countries to be USD 10.5 trillion. Assessment results are shown on the world map to highlight the regionality of the damages in the 42 countries’ administrative divisions. This study seeks to provide new knowledge that local governments around the world can use in environmental accounting.