Spatially-Explicit Life Cycle Assessment of Sun-to-Wheels Transportation Pathways in the U.S.

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 1170-1176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Geyer ◽  
David Stoms ◽  
James Kallaos
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
The U.S

Improving Life Cycle Assessment by Including Spatial, Dynamic and Place-Based Modeling

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Reap ◽  
Bert Bras ◽  
Patrick J. Newcomb ◽  
Carol Carmichael
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Spatial Dynamic ◽  
Ecosystem Models ◽  
Lumped Parameter ◽  
Additional Improvement ◽  
Explicit Dynamic ◽  
The Impact

Drawing from the substantial body of literature on life cycle assessment / analysis (LCA), the article summarizes the methodology’s limitations and failings, discusses some proposed improvements and suggests an additional improvement. After describing the LCA methodology within the context of ISO guidelines, the article summaries the limitations and failings inherent in the method’s life cycle inventory and impact assessment phases. The article then discusses improvements meant to overcome problems related to lumped parameter, static, site-independent modeling. Finally, the article suggests a remedy for some of the problems with LCA. Linking industrial models with spatially explicit, dynamic and site-specific ecosystem models is suggested as a means of improving the impact assessment phase of LCA.

scholarly journals Standardized Recipes and Their Influence on the Environmental Impact Assessment of Mixed Dishes: A Case Study on Pizza

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9466
Author(s):  
Katerina S. Stylianou ◽  
Emily McDonald ◽  
Victor L. Fulgoni III ◽  
Olivier Jolliet
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Decomposition Methods ◽  
Carbon Footprints ◽  
Improvement Potential ◽  
The U.S

Food and diet life cycle assessment (LCA) studies offer insights on the environmental performance and improvement potential of food systems and dietary patterns. However, the influence of ingredient resolution in food-LCAs is often overlooked. To address this, four distinct decomposition methods were used to determine ingredients for mixed dishes and characterize their environmental impacts, using the carbon footprint of the U.S. daily pizza intake as a case study. Pizza-specific and daily pizza intake carbon footprints varied substantially between decomposition methods. The carbon footprint for vegetarian pizza was 0.18–0.45 kg CO2eq/serving, for meat pizza was 0.56–0.73 kg CO2eq/serving, and for currently consumed pizzas in the U.S. (26.3 g/person/day; 75 pizzas types) was 0.072–0.098 kg CO2eq/person/day. These ranges could be explained by differences in pizza coverage, ingredient resolution, availability of ingredient environmental information, and ingredient adjustability for losses between decomposition methods. From the approaches considered, the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, which reports standardized food recipes in relative weights, appears to offer the most appropriate and useful food decompositions for food-LCAs. The influence and limitations of sources of reference flows should be better evaluated and acknowledged in food and diet LCAs.

scholarly journals A review: life cycle assessment of cotton textiles

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (01) ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
FANGLI CHEN ◽  
XIANG JI ◽  
JIANG CHU ◽  
PINGHUA XU ◽  
LAILI WANG
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Cotton Textiles

A significant amount of research has been published on the environmental impact assessment of cotton textiles using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. This review summarized and analysed the findings of these publications, and presented valuable insights for identifying the hotspots that have considerable potential for reducing the environmental burden of cotton textiles. The relevant papers were selected according to two criteria: life cycle assessment of cotton textiles or footprint of cotton textiles. Subsequently, key features were screened and critically analysed: functional unit, system boundary, data sources and geographic location, and impact assessment methods and impact categories. We found that there is an emerging market demand to transform conventional cotton to organic cotton. From the global perspective, a spatially explicit LCA of cotton textiles should be conducted. In addition, a comprehensive and holistic life cycle impact assessment containing more impact categories that are appropriate to cotton textiles is required. LCA is a well-justified approach among practitioners and researchers and has been widely applied to the topic of cotton textiles. This methodology should be studied and developed further to more precisely evaluate the environmental impacts of cotton textiles.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document