Appendix: Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

2005 ◽  
pp. 426-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adisa Azapagic
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking

scholarly journals The evolution of life cycle assessment in European policies over three decades

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serenella Sala ◽  
Andrea Martino Amadei ◽  
Antoine Beylot ◽  
Fulvio Ardente
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
General Concept ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Science And Policy ◽  
Policy Domain ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Purpose Life cycle thinking (LCT) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are increasingly considered pivotal concept and method for supporting sustainable transitions. LCA plays a relevant role in decision support, for the ambition of a holistic coverage of environmental dimensions and for the identification of hotspots, possible trade-offs, and burden shifting among life cycle stages or impact categories. These features are also relevant when the decision support is needed in policy domain. With a focus on EU policies, the present study explores the evolution and implementation of life cycle concepts and approaches over three decades. Methods Adopting an historical perspective, a review of current European Union (EU) legal acts and communications explicitly mentioning LCT, LCA, life cycle costing (LCC), and environmental footprint (the European Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint PEF/OEF) is performed, considering the timeframe from 1990 to 2020. The documents are categorised by year and according to their types (e.g. regulations, directives, communications) and based on the covered sectors (e.g. waste, energy, buildings). Documents for which life cycle concepts and approaches had a crucial role are identified, and a shortlist of these legal acts and communications is derived. Results and discussion Over the years, LCT and life cycle approaches have been increasingly mentioned in policy. From the Ecolabel Regulation of 1992, to the Green Deal in 2019, life cycle considerations are of particular interest in the EU. The present work analysed a total of 159 policies and 167 communications. While in some sectors (e.g. products, vehicles, and waste) life cycle concepts and approaches have been adopted with higher levels of prescriptiveness, implementation in other sectors (e.g. food and agriculture) is only at a preliminary stage. Moreover, life cycle (especially LCT) is frequently addressed and cited only as a general concept and in a rather generic manner. Additionally, more stringent and rigorous methods (LCA, PEF/OEF) are commonly cited only in view of future policy developments, even if a more mature interest in lifecycle is evident in recent policies. Conclusion The EU has been a frontrunner in the implementation of LCT/LCA in policies. However, despite a growing trend in this implementation, the development of new stringent and mandatory requirements related to life cycle is still relatively limited. In fact, there are still issues to be solved in the interface between science and policy making (such as verification and market surveillance) to ensure a wider implementation of LCT and LCA.

scholarly journals Promoting Life Cycle Thinking, Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Management Within Business in Brazil

2015 ◽  
pp. 257-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Santa Rosa Rocha ◽  
Luiz Gustavo Ortega ◽  
Yuki Hamilton Onda Kabe ◽  
Maria da Graça C.B. Popi ◽  
Felipe Duarte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Management ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking

The Application of the Life-Cycle Assessment in the Building Sector: An Italian Case Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Maurizio Cellura ◽  
Francesco Guarino ◽  
Sonia Longo
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Building Sector ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

The building sector is one of the most relevant in terms of generation of wealth and occupation, but it is also responsible for significant consumption of natural resources and the generation of environmental impacts, mainly greenhouse gas emissions. In order to improve the eco profile of buildings during their life-cycle, the reduction of the use of resources and the minimization of environmental impacts have become, in the last years, some of the main objectives to achieve in the design of sustainable buildings. The application of the life-cycle thinking approach, looking at the whole life cycle of buildings, is of paramount importance for a real decarbonization and reduction of the environmental impacts of the building sector. This paper presents an application of the life-cycle assessment methodology for assessing the energy and environmental life-cycle impacts of a single-family house located in the Mediterranean area in order to identify the building components and life-cycle steps that are responsible of the higher burdens. The assessment showed that the largest impacts are located in the use stage; energy for heating is significant but not dominant, while the contribution of electricity utilized for households and other equipment resulted very relevant. High environmental impacts are also due to manufacture and transport of building materials and components.

scholarly journals Introduction of life cycle assessment and sustainability concepts in chemical engineering curricula

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Gallego-Schmid ◽  
Ximena C. Schmidt Rivera ◽  
Laurence Stamford
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Transferable Skills ◽  
Carbon Footprinting ◽  
Research Opportunity ◽  
Engineering Schools

Purpose The implementation of life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting represents an important professional and research opportunity for chemical engineers, but this is not broadly reflected in chemical engineering curricula worldwide. This paper aims to present the implementation of a coursework that is easy to apply, free of cost, valid worldwide and flexible enough to cover such holistic topics. Design/methodology/approach An analysis of chemical engineering curricula worldwide, a literature review and the implementation of a coursework case study are detailed. The latter combines practical exercises using free LCA software, oral presentations and debates. Findings The coursework goes beyond the calculation of results, giving the students key transferable skills to increase their employability, such as the capacity to negotiate/discuss in groups, software learning and development of critical thinking. The course is affordable and flexible, enabling adaptation to different sectors and engineering schools. One limitation is the challenge of ensuring robustness and consistency in marking, but this has been already improved with a more explicit rubric. The feedback of the students confirms these findings, including the learning of transferable skills as the major advantage. Originality/value This paper addresses, for the first time, the current state of “life cycle thinking” teaching in the curricula of the top 25 chemical engineering schools worldwide, a literature review of previous experience and a description of a novel coursework taking a theoretical and practical approach to LCA, carbon footprinting and socio-economic sustainability via a free software and a comprehensive range of didactic activities.

Life cycle assessment applied to waste management in Italy: A mini-review of characteristics and methodological perspectives for local assessment

2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2110179
Author(s):  
Daniela Camana ◽  
Sara Toniolo ◽  
Alessandro Manzardo ◽  
Mirco Piron ◽  
Antonio Scipioni
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Waste Treatment ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Minimum Requirements

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and related tools are commonly used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of waste treatment scenarios. This manuscript presents a mini-review of studies published over the last 10 years in Italy and aims to investigate how life cycle thinking tools are applied to assess the environmental sustainability of local-level waste policies. Results reveal that different waste flows, technologies and policies have been investigated independently and in varying detail. Review suggests that boundary selection significantly affects LCA results; integration of different waste systems is therefore crucial to avoid spatial or temporal shifts of environmental impacts. Moreover, the description of methodological characteristics, limitations and transversal aspects of Italian waste management studies allows various stakeholders to assess the reliability of past and future research for waste policy planning and rebound effects prevention. This review also highlights the need to define minimum requirements of transparency and ease of reporting of the studies to private and public stakeholders. Finally, the paper investigates whether using both the organisational LCA and the life cycle sustainability approach for the overall waste management process may be useful to develop a standard method to address multi-functionalities and multiple sites.

scholarly journals Teaching life cycle assessment in higher education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Viere ◽  
Ben Amor ◽  
Nicolas Berger ◽  
Ruba Dolfing Fanous ◽  
Rachel Horta Arduin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Teaching Life ◽  
Teaching In Higher Education

Abstract Purpose Scientific Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) literature provides some examples of LCA teaching in higher education, but not a structured overview of LCA teaching contents and related competencies. Hence this paper aims at assessing and highlighting trends in LCA learning outcomes, teaching approaches and developed content used to equip graduates for their future professional practices in sustainability. Methods Based on a literature review on teaching LCA in higher education and a collaborative consensus building approach through expert group panel discussions, an overview of LCA learning and competency levels with related teaching contents and corresponding workload is developed. The levels are built on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and Bloom’s taxonomy of learning. Results and discussion The paper frames five LCA learning and competency levels that differ in terms of study program integration, workload, cognitive domain categories, learning outcomes, and envisioned professional skills. It furthermore provides insights into teaching approaches and content, including software use, related to these levels. Conclusions and recommendations This paper encourages and supports higher educational bodies to implement a minimum of ‘life cycle literacy’ into students’ curriculum across various domains by increasing the availability, visibility and quality of their teaching on life cycle thinking and LCA.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Business. An overview on drivers, applications, issues and future perspectives.

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-194
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Considerable Research ◽  
Business Departments ◽  
A Company

In recent years, a considerable research effort has been devoted to Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, most of the work has been focusing on improving the methodology as such and providing guidelines for carrying out LCA studies. Much less effort has been dedicated to the exploration and analysis of the applications of LCA within the actual context of business. Which are the drivers for starting LCA activities in a company? Which are the main applications? Which business departments are involved? This is the kind of questions addressed by the present paper. The paper reports the results of a survey about the use of LCA in business in four selected European Countries, namely Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. 1600 questionnaires have been sent out to selected companies in the four countries. As expected, there are considerable differences between countries because of a different level of environmental awareness. However, there are some main common results. The first one is that the cultural approach of Life-Cycle-Thinking is spreading out, but not yet the tool. LCA is not yet used as a routine tool for assessing environmental aspects of product innovation and it is still rather employed in a retrospective way than in a prospective one. Benefits of LCA are considered to be rather long-term ones. On the other hand, the large majority of firms is optimistic about the future use of LCA, most likely linked together with other instruments.

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