Region-Specific Consumption-Based Environmental Impact: Hotspot Identification Using Hybrid MFA-LCA

The environmental impacts caused by rising consumption are pressing problems for society today. Decision makers are tasked with setting and meeting environmental targets to ensure that future generations have access to the same quality of resources (like clean water and air) that we have today. Limiting factors like time and funding exacerbate the challenge of meeting these goals. In this thesis, city- and region-specific consumption data are analyzed to identify consumption-based impact hotspots, i.e. product categories with high environmental impact, and to show how this data is relevant for policy development, prioritization, and assessment. Many studies primarily look at climate change as the sole impact indicator while multiple factors can and do affect the environment. To fill this gap, material flow analysis (MFA), which provides data on the quantities of products consumed in a region, is combined with life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impact of a region’s consumption. Five environmental indicators are evaluated: global warming potential (climate change), eutrophication potential, acidification potential, photochemical ozone formation potential, and resource depletion. Consumption-based environmental impact results are used to identify hotspots and prioritize existing environmental measures. The results indicate that cities and regions have distinct consumption profiles and that local consumption data is relevant for identifying which products should be addressed in order to maximize the environmental benefit. Existing environmental measures for the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, are assessed for effectiveness in reaching environmental targets

Methods for Downscaling National Material Consumption Data to the Regional and Municipal Levels

Decision makers are looking to reach consumption-based environmental impact targets like Sustainable Development Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. These goals require multifaceted action at municipal, regional, and national levels; however, there are limitations to calculating consumption at the regional and municipal levels. Consumption is dependent on the socioeconomic metabolism of the area, with its unique composition of industries, consumers, and public facilities, which may affect the most appropriate measures to meet goals effectively. In this study, we evaluated several methods to extrapolate municipality- and region-specific consumption from national-level data so that consumption estimates can be used to aid decision makers or make further analyses like environmental impact evaluation. We compared four approaches and validated our findings using reported consumption values as well as results from another model in use. We found that using per capita values for consumption is satisfactory for counties, but consumption in municipalities and metropolitan areas with populations smaller than 500,000 inhabitants was better described by one of the suggested methods on average

Informing sustainable consumption in urban districts: A method for transforming household expenditures into physical quantities

Interventions targeted at district-level are a potentially effective way to reduce consumption-based urban impacts; however, a systematic method for accounting these impacts at district scale has not yet been developed. This article outlines a method for transforming household expenditure data into consumption quantified on a physical basis. Data sources are combined to calculate monetary value per unit mass for different products consumed by households. Socio-economic household archetypes are selected, and typical consumption for these archetypes is calculated by combining expenditure data from a household budget survey with the calculated monetary values per unit mass. The resulting physical quantities of different products consumed are envisaged as an essential part of performing district scale material flow analysis and urban metabolism studies, also as an input for assessing consumption-based environmental impacts and for designing sustainable consumption policies. The method was applied to characterise consumption in urban districts. The obtained results were used to assess of districts\u27 consumption-based impacts with life cycle assessment (LCA) and to inform design of sharing economy. The method was found to be an effective way to evaluate the demand for products in different districts; this in turn could inform objective measures to aid more sustainable urban consumption

Method for Quantitative Evaluation of Sustainability Measures: A Systems Approach for Policy Prioritization

Decision makers are tasked with defining and implementing measures that can meet established environmental targets. However, it is not always clear how effective the measure(s) will be in meeting the specified goals and which measures should be prioritized for implementation. To fill this gap, we have developed a method for testing planned actions to estimate potential impact on targets. The method can be performed at any scale, e.g., at the national, regional, or city level. The approach considers several factors, including the total consumption of an area, region-specific consumption-based environmental hotspots, the decision makers, the reduction targets and related measures, as well as multiple impact types. We present the method using the example of the municipality Gothenburg, Sweden. In collaboration with local authorities in Gothenburg, we co-created scenarios that bundle proposed measures intended to make progress towards their climate target of 3.5 tons carbon dioxide equivalents per capita. We then quantified how measures related to two known environmental hotspots, fuel and electronics, may affect climate change impact levels by the target year of 2035. The scenarios indicate that despite targeting known high-impact product types in Gothenburg, the efforts lead to only 14% of the reduction needed to meet the specified goal

Method for identifying industrial symbiosis opportunities

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) can reduce industrial waste and the need for virgin material extraction by utilizing waste generated by one industry as a raw material for another. Input-output matching is a commonly used approach for identifying potential IS partnerships. Usually, to collect necessary data for input-output matching, companies are asked to participate in workshops or surveys. However, such activities can be costly and time consuming. Additionally, companies may be unwilling to participate due to issues around data confidentiality. This article aims to show how these barriers can be overcome by a new method for identification of IS opportunities, which does not require companies to be surveyed. The developed matching approach uses statistical datasets and IS databases. The underlying principle is to use known IS partnerships and databases developed by the authors containing data on typical waste generation and resource use by industries, to expand and link other potential donors and receivers. This allows the expansion of one IS example into multiple potential relationships. The method promotes Circular Economy development by identifying more opportunities to utilize more secondary resources through connecting previously unrelated industry sectors. The method has been tested in Sweden, where the goal was to identify potential partnerships between industries that generate sawdust as a waste product and companies that could utilize sawdust in their industrial processes. Out of 6,726,534 potential symbiotic links identified by the method, 159,630 were shortlisted using prioritization criteria reflecting an increased likelihood of symbiosis

Methods for Downscaling National Material Consumption Data to the Regional and Municipal Levels

Decision makers are looking to reach consumption-based environmental impact targets like Sustainable Development Goal 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. These goals require multifaceted action at municipal, regional, and national levels; however, there are limitations to calculating consumption at the regional and municipal levels. Consumption is dependent on the socioeconomic metabolism of the area, with its unique composition of industries, consumers, and public facilities, which may affect the most appropriate measures to meet goals effectively. In this study, we evaluated several methods to extrapolate municipality- and region-specific consumption from national-level data so that consumption estimates can be used to aid decision makers or make further analyses like environmental impact evaluation. We compared four approaches and validated our findings using reported consumption values as well as results from another model in use. We found that using per capita values for consumption is satisfactory for counties, but consumption in municipalities and metropolitan areas with populations smaller than 500,000 inhabitants was better described by one of the suggested methods on average

Regional Relative Risk Ranking of Diffuse Pollution Sources in an Urban Environment, Gothenburg (Sweden)

Complex urban environments are not easily described in terms of ecological risks. Relative regional risk ranking (developed by W.G. Landis) summarizes the impact of multiple parameters within a region considering their source and distribution. As part of the EU Interreg project (DiPol; homepage http://www.tu-harburg.de/iue/dipol.html), the regional relative risk ranking analysis in Gothenburg evaluates several diffuse pollution sources including agriculture, industry, forestry, recreation, surface water runoff, waste water treatment plants, and maritime shipping in the area in regards to geographical distribution and perceived risk and impact. The model combines sources, stressors, habitats, and indicators and allows the user to rank the relationships between these. The model output can help determine the highest at-risk regions within an area as well as the significant sources of diffuse pollution in order to prioritize remediation or mitigation measures. Our analysis focuses on the rivers and streams in Gothenburg, specifically looking at the G\uf6ta \ue4lv River, and the tributary streams S\ue4ve \ue5n, M\uf6lndals \ue5n, Kvilleb\ue4cken, as well as the estuary at the mouth of G\uf6ta \ue4lv River. The highest risk to the indicators (bathing water quality, environmental water quality, and sediment quality) is suggested to be largely dependent on which region one looked at, but the highest relative risk is associated with surface water runoff, industry, and agriculture. However, the estuary is more highly affected by discharges from the city waste water treatment plant. As a decision-making tool, these results need to be evaluated with cost benefit and stakeholder concerns. In this project, a system analysis (“Sensitivity model”) was carried out to make these connections and to highlight the possible mitigation alternatives. In addition, GIS models for contaminant fluxes and site-specific loading along the urban waterways are used to complement the conclusions from relative risk ranking to balance, for instance, the use of local infiltration, treatment and direct discharge of surface runoff, one of the main sources of diffuse pollution. These models and quantitative assessments illustrate an integration of scientific and end-user perspectives, especially important for complex urban systems

Selecting representative products for quantifying environmental impacts of consumption in urban areas

Populations are becoming more urban than rural, creating concentrated areas with high consumption of products. Understanding and influencing the environmental impact of consumption within cities becomes therefore increasingly important. Although there have been several studies evaluating the environmental impact of consumption at the global, national, and regional scale, there are few methods currently available to estimate impact at the urban level. There is therefore a need for a systematic approach to select appropriate, region-specific representative products. This study combines material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to select representative products that can be used as proxies to assess the environmental impact of urban areas using life cycle impact factors. The selection was based on the following criteria: the top consumed products within a product category, consistent products with respect to time and geography, and product types with known high environmental impact. The representative products were identified for three Swedish cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, using sixteen years of annual urban-level material flow analysis data (1996-2011). A total of 71 products across 44 categories, were identified as representative of the 10,000 product types consumed in the urban areas analyzed. The method described in this study can be used by practitioners to identify representative products in any urban area with material flow data and allows for a more comprehensive and tailored analysis that what has been previously available. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved