Transportation Life Cycle Assessment Synthesis: Life Cycle Assessment Learning Module Series

The Life Cycle Assessment Learning Module Series is a set of narrated, self-advancing slideshows on various topics related to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). This research project produced the first 27 of such modules, which are freely available for download on the CESTiCC website http://cem.uaf.edu/cesticc/publications/lca.aspx. Each module is roughly 15- 20 minutes in length and is intended for various uses such as course components, as the main lecture material in a dedicated LCA course, or for independent learning in support of research projects. The series is organized into four overall topical areas, each of which contain a group of overview modules and a group of detailed modules. The A and α groups cover the international standards that define LCA. The B and β groups focus on environmental impact categories. The G and γ groups identify software tools for LCA and provide some tutorials for their use. The T and τ groups introduce topics of interest in the field of transportation LCA. This includes overviews of how LCA is frequently applied in that sector, literature reviews, specific considerations, and software tutorials. Future modules in this category will feature methodological developments and case studies specific to the transportation sector

Life cycle assessment of completely recyclable concrete

Since the construction sector uses 50% of the Earth. s raw materials and produces 50% of its waste, the development of more durable and sustainable building materials is crucial. Today, Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) is mainly used in low level applications, namely as unbound material for foundations, e.g., in road construction. Mineral demolition waste can be recycled as crushed aggregates for concrete, but these reduce the compressive strength and affect the workability due to higher values of water absorption. To advance the use of concrete rubble, Completely Recyclable Concrete (CRC) is designed for reincarnation within the cement production, following the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) principle. By the design, CRC becomes a resource for cement production because the chemical composition of CRC will be similar to that of cement raw materials. If CRC is used on a regular basis, a closed concrete-cement-concrete material cycle will arise, which is completely different from the current life cycle of traditional concrete. Within the research towards this CRC it is important to quantify the benefit for the environment and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) needs to be performed, of which the results are presented in a this paper. It was observed that CRC could significantly reduce the global warming potential of concrete

Valuing Biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Erratum published on 13 March 2020, see Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2270. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205628In this article, the authors propose an impact assessment method for life cycle assessment (LCA) that adheres to established LCA principles for land use-related impact assessment, bridges current research gaps and addresses the requirements of different stakeholders for a methodological framework. The conservation of biodiversity is a priority for humanity, as expressed in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing biodiversity across value chains is a key challenge for enabling sustainable production pathways. Life cycle assessment is a standardised approach to assess and compare environmental impacts of products along their value chains. The impact assessment method presented in this article allows the quantification of the impact of land-using production processes on biodiversity for several broad land use classes. It provides a calculation framework with degrees of customisation (e.g., to take into account regional conservation priorities), but also offers a default valuation of biodiversity based on naturalness. The applicability of the method is demonstrated through an example of a consumer product. The main strength of the approach is that it yields highly aggregated information on the biodiversity impacts of products, enabling biodiversity-conscious decisions about raw materials, production routes and end user products

Life-cycle assessment of buildings: a Review

Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of various management tools for evaluating environmental concerns. This paper reviews LCA from a buildings perspective. It highlights the need for its use within the building sector, and the importance of LCA as a decision making support tool. It discusses LCA methodologies and applications within the building sector, reviewing some of the life-cycle studies applied to buildings or building materials and component combinations within the last fifteen years in Europe and the United States. It highlights the problems of a lack of an internationally comparable and agreed data inventory and assessment methodology which hinder the application of LCA within the building industry. It identifies key areas for future research as (i) the whole process of construction, (ii) the relative weighting of different environmental impacts and (iii) applications in developing countries

Tidal energy machines: A comparative life cycle assessment

Marine energy in the UK is currently undergoing a period of exponential growth in terms of development and implementation. The current installed tidal energy capacity of around 4MW is expected to rise to provide up to 20% of the UK’s electricity demand by 2050 [5]. With this in mind, there is a huge range of energy devices, all seemingly promoted by their developers as the best method of extracting power from the ocean. Embodied energy is an important aspect of any power producing device or process, and is used to describe the amount of energy required to begin and maintain the process of energy generation. Until a device or process has generated this amount of energy it cannot be said to be a net contributor of energy. This work used Life Cycle Assessment to study four tidal energy devices, representing a cross section of the existing designs, and compares their embodied energy and carbon dioxide emissions. In order to ensure a fair comparison, a hypothetical installation site is used, with conditions typical of those found at potential array installation sites in the UK. The designs studied include a multi-blade turbine, two three blade horizontal axis turbine machines, and an Archimedes’ screw device. These machines were chosen to represent a cross section of device, foundation, installation and operation designs. They have all been developed to prototype stage, meaning that actual manufacturing data is available. Embodied energy is considered over the entire lifetime of each device, beginning with extraction of raw materials. Energy use from fabrication, transport, installation, lifetime maintenance, end-of-life decommissioning and recycling are all calculated, and compared to the energy generation from each device at the test site. Finally, the embodied energy; CO2 intensity; and energy payback periods are compared to those of conventional power generating systems as well as other renewable energy sources. A range of data sources are used. Embodied energy of steel has been provided by the World Steel Association. Of the four devices studied, all were found to achieve CO2 and energy payback within the first 12 years of their lifetime, and exhibited CO2 intensity of between 18 and 35 gCO2/kWh. This compares favourably to many current energy sources, and is likely to fall as technology improves, array size increases and industry experience progresses

A Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Road Salt Used in Winter Maintenance Operations

It is important to assess from a holistic perspective the sustainability of road salt widely used in winter road maintenance (WRM) operations. The importance becomes increasingly apparent in light of competing priorities faced by roadway agencies, the need for collaborative decision-making, and growing concerns over the risks that road salt poses for motor vehicles, transportation infrastructure, and the natural environment. This project introduces the concept of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), which combines Life Cycle Costing, Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, and Social Life Cycle Assessment. The combination captures the features of three pillars in sustainability: economic development, environmental preservation, and social progress. With this framework, it is possible to enable more informed and balanced decisions by considering the entire life cycle of road salt and accounting for the indirect impacts of applying road salt for snow and ice control. This project proposes a LCSA framework of road salt, which examines the three branches of LCSA, their relationships in the integrated framework, and the complexities and caveats in the LCSA. While this framework is a first step in the right direction, we envision that it will be improved and enriched by continued research and may serve as a template for the LCSA of other WRM products, technologies, and practices

Social life cycle assessment: Looking for consensual indicators

This paper aims to identify relevant social life cycle assessment (SLCA) indicators, based on the study and comparison of well-known and commonly used sustainability standards in the food sector (FLO, ESR, IMO, ETI, UTZ, Rainforest Alliance and Globalgap). The choice of relevant SLCA indicators is based on: (i) their realism and applicability (they must be easily verified by a third party); and (ii) existing consensus among the standards on "minimal requirements" to certify sustainable practices in the food sector. Our main contribution to the debate on the choice of significant and relevant SLCA indicators is to identify areas of consensus between the different standards studied and to question the definition of a socially sustainable product. (Résumé d'auteur

Life Cycle Assessment across the Food Supply Chain

The environmental impact is one of the major pillars of concerns when addressing the sustainability of food production and sustainable food consumption strategies. To assess to what extent food production affects the environment, one needs to choose a proper environmental assessment tool. Different types of assessment tools have been developed to establish environmental indicators, which can be used to determine the environmental impact of livestock production systems or agricultural products. The environmen¬tal assessment tools can be divided into the area based or product based (Halberg et al., 2005). Area-based indicators are, for example, nitrate leached per hectare from a pig farm, and product-based indicators are, for example, global warming potential per kg pork (Dalgaard, 2007). The area-based indicators are useful for evaluating farm emissions of nutrients such as nitrate that has an effect on the local environment. On the other hand, when considering the greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural production, the product-based indicators are useful for evaluating the impact of food productions on the global environment (e. g., climate change) and have the advantage that in addition to emis-sions from the farms, emissions related to the production of input s (e.g., soybean and artificial fertilizer) and outputs (e.g., slurry exported to other farms) are also included. In that way it is easier to avoid pollution swapping, which means that the solving of one pollution problem creates a new (Dalgaard, 2007)

Life cycle assessment of Swiss organic farming systems

The impacts of organic and integrated farming systems in Switzerland on the environment have been assessed in a comprehensive study by the life cycle assessment method. This paper reports a comparison of the treatments of the DOC experiment. Organic farming showed clear ecological advantages particularly for eco- and human toxicity, resource use and biodiversity. These ecological advantages only partly apply to nutrient losses and are not always found for single products. Per kg of organic product, higher impacts were often found for global warming potential, ozone formation, eutrophication and acidification compared to integrated production. In the same crop rotation with the same amount of organic fertilisers there were no systematic differences in soil quality of organic compared with integrated production. Further improvement of the environmental performance of organic farming should focus on achieving higher yields of good quality – especially in potatoes and cereals - by using inputs more efficiently and minimising nitrogen losses