Life Cycle Assessment, Life cycle thinking– Hungarian case study

LCA and life cycle thinking are used in a variety of applications to help decision. Both of them enable identification and quantification of environmental impacts of a product, process or human activity. This study gives a summary about Hungarian LCA practice and shows trends of further development, and some practical applications from environmental impact of the municipal waste treatment to evaluate regional sustainability.Оценка жизненного цикла и размышление о жизненном цикле как средстве, которые способсвуют принятию правильного решения. Они оба позволяют идентификацию и определение количества воздействий на окружающую среду продукта, процесса или деятельности человека. Статья описывает исследование венгерской практики LCA и показывает тенденции дальнейшего развития, и описывает некоторые практические примеры от оценки воздействия утилизации коммунальных отходов

Recommendations for Life Cycle based Indicators for Sustainable Consumption and Production in the European Union

Public administrations in Europe need robust Sustainability Indicators to support the conception, development, implementation, and monitoring of policies. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is essential to ensure this, taking into consideration the environmental impacts along the whole life cycle of a product (both goods and services) in a single framework, irrespective of when or where they occur. This report summarises the outcomes of the 3rd International Life Cycle Thinking Workshop on Sustainability and Decoupling Indicators: Life cycle based approaches organised by DG JRC in Cyprus, in January 2007. More than 50 scientific experts and public administrators from 20 countries met to discuss whether, and how, to further integrate life cycle thinking into indicators in the contexts of decoupling and sustainability. Platform presentations, case studies and breakout groups recommendations are reported. The necessity for further developing existing Sustainability Indicators in relation to production, consumption, and waste, by integrating Life Cycle Thinking, was stressed by all participants. It was highlighted that the future developments must focus on providing meaningful, reliable, and consistent indicators that have a clear policy-support role, developed on solid methodological foundations to achieve broad acceptance.JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Sustainability assessment of future-oriented scenarios: a review of data modelling approaches in Life Cycle Assessment

Steering policy-making processes and business long term strategies entails tasks such as e.g. setting up sound environmental long term objectives and targets, assessing implications, and comparing options. To best run these tasks in the context of sustainability assessment, two fundamental ingredients are indispensable: life cycle thinking and analysis of future-oriented scenarios. Considering the whole life cycle of goods and services is necessary to avoid the shifting of problems from one life cycle stage to another, from one geographic area to another and from one environmental medium or protection target to another. Given the proliferation of life cycle thinking-based data modelling approaches, a review was conducted to detect where we stand in defining and framing life cycle thinking-based approaches and related data modelling approaches, what their key features are, and how mature they are. In addition, a scientific workshop was arranged to further discuss data modelling approaches and to screen how Environmental Footprint methodologies can be used to assess future-oriented scenarios. This review represents a stepping stone towards recommendations for sustainability assessment of future-oriented scenarios.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen

Level(s) – A common EU framework of core sustainability indicators for office and residential buildings: Part 3: How to make performance assessments using Level(s) (Beta v1.0)

Developed as a common EU framework of core indicators for the sustainability of office and residential buildings, Level(s) provides a set of indicators and common metrics for measuring the performance of buildings along their life cycle. As well as environmental performance, which is the main focus, it also enables other important related performance aspects to be assessed using indicators and tools for health and comfort, life cycle cost and potential future risks to performance. Level(s) aims to provide a general language of sustainability for buildings. This common language should enable actions to be taken at building level that can make a clear contribution to broader European environmental policy objectives. It is structured as follows: 1. Macro-objectives: An overarching set of six macro-objectives for the Level(s) framework that contribute to EU and Member State policy objectives in areas such as energy, material use and waste, water and indoor air quality. 2. Core Indicators: A set of 9 common indicators for measuring the performance of buildings which contribute to achieving each macro-objective. 3. Life cycle tools: A set of 4 scenario tools and 1 data collection tool, together with a simplified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, that are designed to support a more holistic analysis of the performance of buildings based on whole life cycle thinking. 4. Value and risk rating: A checklist and rating system provides information on the potential positive contribution to a property valuation and the underlying reliability of performance assessments made using the Level(s) framework. In addition, the Level(s) framework aims to promote life cycle thinking. It guides users from an initial focus on individual aspects of building performance towards a more holistic perspective, with the aim of wider European use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA). Part 3 of the Level(s) documentation provides a complete set of technical guidance on how to make performance assessments at each of the three different Levels, and then to report on the results.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Aspirations for later life: a report of research carried out by the National Centre for Social Research on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (Research Report No 737)

This research report presents new survey findings on people’s aspirations for later life (that is, aged 60 onwards) in Great Britain. The survey sought to determine whether people hold aspirations for their later life and, if so, what these might be. In addition, it sought to provide an insight into what are the enablers and barriers to achieving these aspirations. Questions were asked of adults of all ages, not just those in middle and older age groups to explore when people start thinking about later life and how these attitudes change across the life cycle. This survey was carried out as part of the National Centre for Social Research Omnibus Survey. The sample was drawn from the Postcode Address File (PAF), commonly used in general population surveys. Face-to-face interviews were carried out in summer 2010. A total of 1,867 adults aged 16 years and over took part in the survey. However, it was assumed that respondents aged 45 to 65 years (i.e. those closer to retirement) would be most likely to have aspirations for later life, and so the number of respondents in this category was boosted, to allow more detailed analysis of their answers

Using the life-cycle model with value thinking for managing an industrial maintenance network

The objective of this article is to create a general life-cycle model for maintenance decision making in different industries at the item level. The need for network-level tools will increase, as inter organizational collaboration is emphasized more and more. Previous life-cycle models have mostly viewed the matter from the perspective of just one company, but our model takes the different members of maintenance networks into account. We have also integrated value thinking with life-cycle accounting, as it is crucial for companies to perceive which elements increase the value of each member in their network. The value-based life-cycle model introduced in this article has been mainly developed to support the future planning of maintenance operations. In addition, it can be designed how additional value can be reached through future maintenance and how this value can be equitably shared between the network partners

Scientainment for sustainability : the eco-confessional as a new approach for life cycle thinking

For educating a wide audience on the environmental impact of their daily life decisions, the Eco-Confessional has been developed as an interactive exhibit and a serious game. In this, the effectiveness of promoting sustainable lifestyles through life cycle thinking was explored. Based upon life cycle assessments, the eco-confessional reveals the environmental impact of eco-sins and good deeds performed in everyday life in a playful way. As the Eco-Confessional was being exhibited, it was evaluated to measure the impact of the new communication format. The goal of the project was to increase sustainable behavior by influencing both the desire and the ability to make sustainable decisions. The evaluation revealed that these goals were mostly achieved. By combining life cycle data with gamification elements, the Eco-Confessional succeeded in implementing a new scientainment approach to environmental education, which promotes life cycle thinking among the public

Sustainability of Food Products Applying Integrated Life Cycle Tools

The agri-food industry is a significant resource for the European economy. However, the competitiveness of this industry seems to be at risk due to its many structural problems (i.e. extreme fragmentation, energy-related and service issues, low R&D investment levels). In order to boost the sector, European policy-makers have planned a number of actions aimed at promoting a research for a greater sustainability. One of the most significant actions is the use of Life Cycle Thinking tools, which allow for a quantification of the environmental and social impact, and cost of food production. To ensure the adoption of these tools, their application should be simplified, an integrated framework should be created for the measurement of social, economic and environmental impacts, and a vast dissemination of results should be developed. For this purpose, the Ecolabel mark use has also been extended, with the last revision (EC Reg. no. 66/2010), to food products.Food industry, Life Cycle Thinking, SLCA, LCA, integrated framework