Bring on the ‘soft’ sciences: Exploring implications of grounding life cycle methods in three socio-material philosophies

By not separating product flows from management, we target the little studied problem of how different management practices actually influence the environment. We test the socio-material philosophies actor-network theory, object-oriented ontology and agential realism on the life cycle assessment (LCA) cases bread and cement, through three examples. We conclude that socio-materiality point out that managers could benefit from an increased contextual understanding of the material and energy flows that their decisions influence. For LCA analysts, it highlights that including actual practices and action networks of people handling the flows could be useful for reaching effective use of LCA flow model results

A sociomaterial conceptualization of flows in industrial ecology

A major starting point in industrial ecology (IE) is that reaching ecological sustainability requires understanding relations between human actions and material (tangible) flows. IE studies have enabled assessments of different technical and sociotechnical configurations but only to a limited degree provided concepts that support the design of interventions for industrial ecologies. We contribute by proposing a sociomaterial flow approach, here applied to life cycle thinking. After problematizing some common concepts in IE, the key concepts, a procedure, and some applied variants of the proposed sociomaterial approach are presented. The approach is theoretically grounded in related sociomaterial research. This body of theories underpins our conceptualization of how flows in, for example, a product life cycle can be related to nets of human actions within one rather than several analytical frames. The sociomaterial interaction point (SMIP) is a key concept in our approach for the sociomaterial connection between material flows and actor networks. A SMIP can be described as the interactions where humans come closest to the flows. The conceptualization of the methodology provides a framework for exploring actor and action networks shaping material flows and a basis for a relational analysis of governance, organization, and management of the flows in industrial ecologies. A sociomaterial approach to flow studies can therefore help in designing more concrete sustainability interventions in industrial ecologies

The environmental significance of management practices: Exploring the eco-efficiency of 6 cases

The starting point for this paper is the importance of understanding how humans interact with material and energy flows. Technical systems are vital to model for improving eco-efficiency, but they are always managed by humans. Daily maintenance of machinery and the process of planning a new warehouse are examples of these ordinary human actions, and such actions are seldom simple cause-effect chains. The purpose of this study is to continue investigating these human actions, through our research on Environmental Assessment of Organising (EAO). A qualitative screening of environmental impacts through life cycles assessments (LCA) and the human practices influencing these impacts is carried out for six products and services: activities offered at bowling halls, bread production, bus travel services, cement production, properties management and road maintenance. Within each of these studies, at least three product or service chains are compared. LCA is combined with observation studies and interviews. For each of the six cases, descriptions are presented of situations, where management practices are indicated to be significant for the environmental impacts. The environmental impacts are qualitatively assessed, and further studies are needed for fully describing the cause-effect chains and the size of the differences in environmental significance. For road maintenance, difficulties of determining a useful functional unit, makes comparison of different operators less feasible. Concluding, many studies of technology, not least innovations, would benefit from including ordinary human actions. Such detailed and realistic socio-material understandings can be used for fruitful theorising and subsequent environmental improvements. As an example, innovation studies might become more efficient by including thorough investigations of the ‗ordinary‘ periods in between innovations

Reviewing life cycle assessments of carbon capture and utilisation - unclear goals lead to unclear results

Carbon dioxide capture and utilisation (CCU) is the process of capturing carbon dioxide and using it to produce a product. It is a potential strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and replacing fossil feedstock in chemical production. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is important to assess the carbon reduction capability and is often used to evaluate the environmental impacts of CCU processes. This study aims to analyse the methodological choices made in life cycle assessments of carbon capture and utilisation systems, and identify and evaluate the logics of the modelling in the studies.LCA studies of CCU processes were found through a systematic search and reviewed regarding LCA methods. The collected articles were coded on different aspects (e.g. goal, system boundaries, impact assessment) and a framework was developed to describe the different scopes the CCU systems are modelled from in the assessments.106 articles were reviewed, published between the years 2002 and 2021. 88 of them evaluate products produced through a CCU route and make a comparison to the existing conventional way.\ua0Thus many aim to do the same kind of assessment, but results from the review show that the scope differs, and the majority do not clearly state their goal with the LCA. There is likely an aim of the study which could include a reason for using LCA, but the goal of the LCA (as in goal and scope definition) is often not found in the article.It was also found that the system boundaries stated in the body of literature are often "cradle-to-gate". The cradle can however be set to different points in the system, and the scope of the studies varies a lot depending on where the cradle starts and what is included in the assessment. In the case of CCU, it is found that the cradle can be at the process the flue gases are captured from (38 cases), the capture process (44) or at the CO2 conversion process (24).\ua0\ua0The justification for not including the whole life cycle of the product (only 19 are to the "grave") can be that the product has the same use and end of life as the product it is compared to, often the conventional alternative. However, only including part of the system in the analysis can give misleading results when the emissions can be presented as negative in the shorter perspective due to the temporary storage of carbon in the product. A longer time perspective and different system boundaries are needed to see if the carbon in the product is emitted or not shortly after leaving the factory gate.Given that CCU processes are often emerging technologies, the purpose and context of the study matter for how the results can be used, but the goal of existing life cycle assessments seldom handles these aspects. The LCA results are often used for comparison with conventional technologies or for comparing the CCU product to an existing product, although not always reflected in the goal. With underdefined goals, different system boundaries and varying methods for accounting, understanding assessments of CCU becomes confusing. This highlights the need for methodological guidelines and clearer goal definitions in life cycle assessments of CCU to ensure meaningful and consistent evaluation of the environmental impacts and potential of these emerging technologies

Complementing LCA with qualitative organisational study for improving waste management governance – illustrated by a comparative case on metal packaging

We here present a novel method that combines the life cycle approach with qualitative organisational study for environmentally effective waste management. While LCA is useful for producing a systems overview of the environmental performance, it does not provide further guidance on systems management since the actors and activities that uphold them are not systematically studied. The human dimension is particularly manifest in waste management where many types of actors (private, public, consumers, legislators, sector organisations) interact in complex ways. Our method, with which we study Product Chain Organisation (PCO), is designed to complement LCA. Descriptions and accounts of actors interacting and communicating in the product chain provide a basis for understanding how actions influence overall environmental performance. The method is thoroughly grounded in a socio-material approach well established in the social sciences and the humanities. The socio-material approach considers human organisation to be intimately entangled with material flows, machines, buildings, the environment, etc, and that they all influence each other. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

About adapting O-LCA to decision makers

Goal:We aim to reason about how environmentally more effective understanding of management could be reached by extending the organizational LCA developed by the Life Cycle Initiative (here called standard O-LCA) to include studying human actions.Method:We compare standard O-LCA to a well-tested socio-material flow methodology. The socio-material methodology has been used in product life cycle based case studies that our comparison builds on. The cases cover bread and metal packaging product life cycles.Results:Both standard O-LCA and the socio-material flow methodology aim to enable better environmental management of product life cycles. An ISO/TS defines standard O-LCA as “a compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of the activities associated with the organization adopting a life cycle perspective”. The socio-material flow methodology complements this approach with a focus on how nets of actual interactions between humans, within and between organizations, determine the environmental performance.In the metal packaging case, the management of and technical processes along metal packaging flows determined the life cycle environmental impacts of different organizations: packaging producers, fillers, and waste management organizations. We applied the socio-material flow methodology to metal packaging flows in Sweden and the Netherlands. The study, among other, led to a finding about complementing recycling via source collection with recovery from ashes. Such recovery can be performed on the waste that has passed through municipal waste incineration. The ashes were not considered, however, because an earlier government agency policy had dis-encouraged incinerating non-combustible materials. The policy was abandoned, but this had not been communicated to the waste management procurers. A standard O-LCA would cover the product life cycles passing one organization. For example, if that study covered the waste management procurement organization, the study would cover four packaging types in addition to metal packaging. This O-LCA would produce both more coarse results and less knowledge on important organizational links between different organizations.Communication was also found to be of relevance for the product life cycle of bread. We studied three Swedish bakeries and their product flows. We found, among other, in the flows related to one of the bakeries, high levels of bread discarding at retailers. The discarding at the retailers had increased over time because of a growing bakery that had extended the number of retailers from one to six without assigning more time for coordination of production and sales. A standard O-LCA would both be coarser because it would include the bakery’s many different patisserie products and have less focus on the organizational processes.The bread and packaging case findings put emphasis on interactions between humans and the material flows. Flows are considered thoroughly in standard O-LCA. How the hotspots can be changed in practice could be pointed out by using our socio-material flow methodology. The methodology captures the organization of flows both within and across different organizational entities, which extends the one-company focus in O-LCA. This points to different meanings of the term ’organization’

The Usefulness of an Actor’s Perspective in LCA

This paper is an argumentation for adding an actor’s perspective to lifecycle assessment (LCA). The need for this perspective stems from a criticism about the usefulness of LCA interpretation methods comparing the relative contribution of life-cycle phases of a product. Our argumentation is based on four previously published studies providing practical examples of how value chain actors’ influence may be considered in an LCA and the benefit of doing so. Manufacturing sector examples show how one company's influence can be illustrated in results and how it may relate all relevant emissions to its own processes. The food sector study shows how to assess several value chain actors’ individual improvement potential. The final example, taken from building sector, explore how to consider the fact that actors in one part of the value chain can influence other actors to improve

Widespread and major losses in multiple ecosystem services as a result of agricultural expansion in the Argentine Chaco

1.Where agriculture expands into tropical and subtropical forests, social–ecological impacts are typically strong. However, where and how frontier development impacts on ecosystem functioning and services is often unclear, including which services trade‐off against agricultural production. This constitutes a major barrier towards planning for more sustainable outcomes in deforestation frontiers. 2. Here we assessed spatiotemporal change in multiple ecosystem services in the Argentine Chaco, a global deforestation hotspot. We modelled and mapped five ecosystem functions (i.e. carbon storage in biomass, carbon storage in soil, erosion control, excess rainfall retention by vegetation and soil fertility) which together provide three ecosystem services (i.e. agricultural suitability, climate regulation and flood regulation) for 1985, 2000 and 2013. We then employed this information to identify and map: (a) main trade‐offs between ecosystem services and agricultural production, and (b) bundles of changes in ecosystem services through the use of Self‐Organizing Maps. 3. Our results highlight that land‐use changes since 1985 have led to widespread and drastic declines in ecosystem functions and services across the Argentine Chaco. Mean losses of ecosystem services ranged between 6% and 10% for flood regulation, climate regulation and agricultural suitability. The largest losses occurred in the Dry Chaco subregion between 2000 and 2013. 4. We find two main types of trade‐offs between regulating ecosystem services and agricultural production. Increases in crop and pasture production occurred along with large and moderate losses, respectively, in flood regulation and climate regulation over 20% of the region. 5. Our mapping of bundles identified five common patterns of change in ecosystem services, delineating areas of stable or degrading ecosystem service supply. This provides a powerful template for adaptive spatial planning. 6. Synthesis and applications. Using the Argentinean Chaco as an example, we demonstrate how combining fine‐scale land‐use maps with biophysical models provides deep insights into the spatiotemporal patterns of changes in ecosystem services, and their trade‐offs with agricultural production. The periodic updating of maps of trade‐offs and bundles of change in ecosystem services provides key inputs for the adaptive management of highly dynamic and threatened landscapes, such as those in tropical and subtropical deforestation frontiers.EEA BalcarceFil: Barral, María Paula. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentina.Fil: Villarino, Sebastián Horacio. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina.Fil: Levers, Christian. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Geography Department; AlemaniaFil: Baumann, Mathias. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Geography Department; AlemaniaFil: Kuemmerle, Tobias. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Geography Department; AlemaniaFil: Mastrangelo, Matías Enrique. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Reduced Recombination Losses in Evaporated Perovskite Solar Cells by Postfabrication Treatment

The photovoltaic perovskite research community has now developed a large set of tools and techniques to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE). One such arcane trick is to allow the finished devices to dwell in time, and the PCE often improves. Herein, a mild postannealing procedure is implemented on coevaporated perovskite solar cells confirming a substantial PCE improvement, mainly attributed to an increased open-circuit voltage (V OC). From a V OC of around 1.11 V directly after preparation, the voltage improves to more than 1.18 V by temporal and thermal annealing. To clarify the origin of this annealing effect, an in-depth device experimental and simulation characterization is conducted. A simultaneous reduction of the dark saturation current, the ideality factor (n id), and the leakage current is revealed, signifying a substantial impact of the postannealing procedure on recombination losses. To investigate the carrier dynamics in more detail, a set of transient optoelectrical methods is first evaluated, ascertaining that the bulk carrier lifetime is increased with device annealing. Second, a drift-diffusion simulation is used, confirming that the beneficial effect of the annealing has its origin in effective bulk trap passivation that accordingly leads to a reduction of Shockley-Read-Hall recombination rates