Education in 'life cycle sustainability assessment': caring for all 3 P's in one

Starting from the observation that externalities, reflecting societal concerns, emerge from costs and benefits which are not reflected in the market price, the authors of the paper emphasize the importance in education of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) as a triple-bottom line tool to assess the three dimensions of sustainable development (environment, social and economy) – often referred to as the inclusive 3 P’s-approach (planet, people and profit) – of products, from cradle to grave. Especially the social LCA, as part of the overarching LCSA, has been developed to identify and to assess the social conditions throughout the life cycle of a product in order to improve human well-being. The concept of ‘social justice’ and its operationalization form the background for the development of different stakeholder categories, subcategories and indicators to undertake the social and socio-economic assessment. Two international publications (Benoît and Mazijn, 2009; Valdivia et al., 2011) are used during teaching and training session to give an overview of the social LCA and the LCSA. These guidance for the assessment of products resulted from inter- and multidisciplinary work. It was developed with the support of the authors, who have all an engineering background, but who worked for ten years now together, inter alia, with experts from social sciences. Different training sessions have been set up and LCSA (incl. social LCA) has been part of courses at universities, all with multiple objectives of a learning curve for engineering education within the context of sustainable development. Based on that experience in different countries, the authors are formulating recommendations for future educational material. Looking back at the Declaration of Barcelona (EESD 2004) and comparing with the objectives of the formal and non-formal education on LCSA, the authors claim that LCSA (and the on-going research) provides an excellent opportunity to fulfil the requirements of Engineering Education for Sustainable Development. Answering the question ‘What is a sustainable product?’ by using LCSA is learning to deal with complexity and uncertainty across the boundaries of a diversity of disciplines

Integrating life cycle assessment tools and information with product life cycle management : Product data management

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.): Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 210–212.Integrating Product Data Management (PDM) solutions with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software offers the opportunity to obtain LCA results fast, based on high-quality, product-specific information and integrated into the design workflow, enabling thereby, inter alia, efficient Design for Environment (DfE). In a recent project, Dassault Systèmes and GreenDelta have investigated different options for combining LCA tools and information with the ENOVIA platform, a broadly used PDM and Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) platform by Dassault Systèmes. In the course of the project, solutions have been developed for main LCA software systems, including SimaPro, GaBi, EIME, and openLCA. A demonstration implementation has been performed for the openLCA software. A specific connector interface, called ‘eLCA’, was developed in the project; it provides an interface which makes it easy for LCA software to “dock” to eLCA that in turn links to the ENOVIA platform. The paper will describe the technical solution that has been developed and show its benefit and further potential

Can S-LCA methodology support responsible sourcing of raw materials in EU policy context?

Purpose: Access, affordability and sustainability of raw material supply chains are crucial to the sustainable development of the European Union (EU) for both society and economy. The study investigates whether and how the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology can support responsible sourcing of raw materials in Europe. The potential of social indicators already available in an S-LCA database is tested for the development of new metrics to monitor social risks in raw material industries at EU policy level. Methods: The Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment (PSILCA) database was identified as a data and indicators source to assess social risks in raw material industries in EU-28 and extra-EU countries. Six raw material country sectors in the scope of the European policy on raw materials were identified and aggregated among those available in PSILCA. The selection of indicators for the assessment was based on the RACER (Relevance, Acceptance, Credibility, Ease, Robustness) analysis, leading to the proposal of 9 social impact categories. An S-LCA of the selected raw material industries was, thus, performed for the EU-28 region, followed by a contribution analysis to detect direct and indirect impacts and investigate related supply chains. Finally, the social performance of raw material sectors in EU-28 was compared with that of six extra-EU countries. Results and discussion: Considering the overall social risks in raw material industries, “Corruption”, “Fair salary”, “Health and safety” and “Freedom of association and collective bargaining” emerged as the most significant categories both in EU and extra-EU. EU-28 shows an above-average performance where the only exception is represented by the mining and quarrying sector. An investigation of the most contributing processes to social impact categories for EU-28 led to the identification of important risks originating in the supply chain and in extra-EU areas. Therefore, the S-LCA methodology confirmed the potential of a life cycle perspective to detect burdens shifting and trade-offs. However, only a limited view on the sectoral social performance could be obtained from the research due to a lack of social data. Conclusions: The S-LCA methodology and indicators appear appropriate to perform an initial social sustainability screening, thus enabling the identification of hotspots in raw material supply chains and the prioritization of areas of action in EU policies. Further methodological developments in the S-LCA field are necessary to make the approach proposed in the paper fully adequate to support EU policies on raw materials

Social assessment of raw materials supply chains: A life-cycle-based analysis

The value chains of raw materials and semi-finished products can create both positive and negative impacts in society, local communities, consumers, and workers. Raw materials have also a strategic importance for enhancing the competitiveness of the European industry, and creating employment (EC - European Commission, 2017a). At European level, the secure and sustainable supply of raw materials from domestic sources and international markets are key objectives of the Raw Materials Initiative (EC - European Commission, 2008a). The relationship between low security of supply and poor governance in supplier countries is acknowledged and captured in the list of Critical Raw Materials for the EU (EC - European Commission, 2017b). Internationally, many of the Sustainable Development Goals launched by the United Nations in 2015 (UN General Assembly, 2015) address, directly or indirectly, the social dimension of sustainable development and, hence, are linked to the supply of raw materials, under several aspects. In the context of sustainability assessment, Life Cycle Thinking is a well-known concept. Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) evaluates social and socio-economic impacts along the life cycle of products (from the raw materials extraction, processing, manufacture, use, end of life) using a mix of generic and site specific data. Studies can be focused on a specific supply chain, or they can look at different sectors in an entire economy. In this study, we used a SLCA database for assessing and comparing the social risks associated with the supply chain of raw materials sectors at the macro scale in EU, and in a set of extra-EU countries. Negative social impacts are expressed in terms of potential risk to be exposed to negative social conditions while potential positive contributions are expressed using an opportunity evaluation. The economic sectors under investigation are those producing primary raw materials and semi-finished products, both from abiotic and biotic resources. According to the Eurostat NACE classification they are defined as: mining and quarrying; manufacture of basic metals; manufacture of non-metallic mineral products; forestry and logging; manufacture of paper and paper products; manufacture of wood and of products of wood. A set of social aspects (called subcategories, or areas of concern) was selected from those available in the database, according to criteria of relevance, data quality, etc. These include health and safety; freedom of association and collective bargaining; child labour; fair salary; working time (for the stakeholders category “workers”); respect of indigenous rights and migration (for the stakeholders category “local community”); corruption (for the stakeholders category “actors in the value chain”) and contribution to economic development (for the stakeholders category “society”). While the latter is a positive impact, the others are negative impacts occurring in the value chain. The initial results of the analysis compare social risk in the European raw materials supply chain with those of six extra-EU countries, for the set of selected social aspects. The contribution analysis shows social hotspots within a supply chain, highlighting sectors and locations that are mostly contributing to social risk in a certain subcategory. Data quality and sources of uncertainty are also discussed. As a general remark from the results of the preliminary international comparison, the social performance appears to be linked to socio-economic conditions of the country where the production activity occurs. Social risk seems to reflect also the development of a country and, to some extent, its governance. Given the granularity of the data used to assess social aspects (mostly at country, or macro-sector level), specific features of raw materials sectors are likely not captured in this analysis. This macro-scale assessment provides a first-screening assessment of supply chains, which can be used for prioritizing areas for more detailed investigation and for supporting due diligence operations at macro/sectorial scales. However, it should be complemented with bottom-up analyses in order to get a better understanding of the social consequences of more specific economic activities.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

Environmental performance of miscanthus-lime lightweight concrete using life cycle assessment:Application in external wall assemblies

This is the final version. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. In the UK context, miscanthus is a potential alternative perennial crop for the development of bio-based building materials. This paper presents the environmental benefits of using miscanthus shives in lightweight blocks and their potential application in wall assemblies. A systemic life cycle assessment (LCA) is carried out for miscanthus-lime blocks, and the effects of binder type and binder content are discussed. The environmental performance-based analysis reveals that miscanthus blocks can capture 135 kg CO eq/m for an assumed 100-years life period. The impact analysis using the University of Leiden, institute of environmental science (CML) baseline (v4.4) method shows that 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the production of mineral binders. A reduction of binder to aggregate ratio from 2.0 to 1.5 reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 32.9%. The use of 10 wt% mineral additions can potentially stabilise blocks while having little effect on their overall environmental impacts. The environmental profiles of wall systems incorporating miscanthus-lime blocks have been evaluated in this this study. Combining miscanthus blocks with fired clay bricks enables a potential low carbon retrofitting technique for the current stock of residential buildings in the UK. Timber-framed system filled with miscanthus blocks enables a carbon storage of ~97.3 kg CO eq/m , which presents a potential carbon offsetting strategy in new-build dwellings. Consideration should be given to the potential negative impacts related to agricultural activities for the production of miscanthus shives. The largest negative environmental impact was ozone layer depletion, where a relative difference of 12.8% was recorded between miscanthus timber-framed wall and a typical solid wall insulated with mineral wool. It appears that miscanthus-lime composites can substantially improve the environmental profile of wall assemblies and sustainability be applied in existing uninsulated masonry walls or incorporated in timber- framed new-build houses.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership studentshi