Identification and ranking of environmental threats with ecosystem vulnerability distributions

Responses of ecosystems to human-induced stress vary in space and time, because both stressors and ecosystem vulnerabilities vary in space and time. Presently, ecosystem impact assessments mainly take into account variation in stressors, without considering variation in ecosystem vulnerability. We developed a method to address ecosystem vulnerability variation by quantifying ecosystem vulnerability distributions (EVDs) based on monitoring data of local species compositions and environmental conditions. The method incorporates spatial variation of both abiotic and biotic variables to quantify variation in responses among species and ecosystems. We show that EVDs can be derived based on a selection of locations, existing monitoring data and a selected impact boundary, and can be used in stressor identification and ranking for a region. A case study on Ohio's freshwater ecosystems, with freshwater fish as target species group, showed that physical habitat impairment and nutrient loads ranked highest as current stressors, with species losses higher than 5% for at least 6% of the locations. EVDs complement existing approaches of stressor assessment and management, which typically account only for variability in stressors, by accounting for variation in the vulnerability of the responding ecosystems

Identifying change agent types and its implications for corporate sustainability integration based on worldviews and contextual factors

Change agents for Corporate Sustainability (CS) play an important role for companies when integrating CS into their business activities. While change agents can be differentiated by their worldviews, little is known about the contextual factors influencing their success in supporting CS integration. By proposing and illustrating an analytical model based on contextual factors of CS integration and change agents' worldviews, this paper contributes to the understanding of their influence on CS integration. Through a case study we find that change agents show a worldview profile rather than a specific worldview and that whether a worldview is supportive for CS integration depends on the specific context. We conclude that the analytical model contributes to the understanding of the individual and group level of CS integration. When discussed with company representatives, the outcomes of the application of the model could contribute to improve the identification of key individuals to support CS integration activities

Definition and Applications of a Versatile Chemical Pollution Footprint Methodology

Because of the great variety in behavior and modes of action of chemicals, impact assessment of multiple substances is complex, as is the communication of its results. Given calls for cumulative impact assessments, we developed a methodology that is aimed at expressing the expected cumulative impacts of mixtures of chemicals on aquatic ecosystems for a region and subsequently allows to present these results as a chemical pollution footprint, in short: a chemical footprint. Setting and using a boundary for chemical pollution is part of the methodology. Two case studies were executed to test and illustrate the methodology. The first case illustrates that the production and use of organic substances in Europe, judged with the European water volume, stays within the currently set policy boundaries for chemical pollution. The second case shows that the use of pesticides in Northwestern Europe, judged with the regional water volume, has exceeded the set boundaries, while showing a declining trend over time. The impact of mixtures of substances in the environment could be expressed as a chemical footprint, and the relative contribution of substances to that footprint could be evaluated. These features are a novel type of information to support risk management, by helping prioritization of management among chemicals and environmental compartments

Species sensitivity distributions for use in environmental protection, assessment, and management of aquatic ecosystems for 12 386 chemicals

Contains fulltext : 202556.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Identifying change agent types and its implications for corporate sustainability integration based on worldviews and contextual factors

Change agents for Corporate Sustainability (CS) play an important role for companies when integrating CS into their business activities. While change agents can be differentiated by their worldviews, little is known about the contextual factors influencing their success in supporting CS integration. By proposing and illustrating an analytical model based on contextual factors of CS integration and change agents' worldviews, this paper contributes to the understanding of their influence on CS integration. Through a case study we find that change agents show a worldview profile rather than a specific worldview and that whether a worldview is supportive for CS integration depends on the specific context. We conclude that the analytical model contributes to the understanding of the individual and group level of CS integration. When discussed with company representatives, the outcomes of the application of the model could contribute to improve the identification of key individuals to support CS integration activities

A taste of the new ReCiPe for life cycle assessment: consequences of the updated impact assessment method on food product LCAs

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Can we assess innovative bio-based chemicals in their early development stage?: A comparison between early-stage and life cycle assessments

The chemical industry strives for the development of bio-based alternatives to prepare for the transition towards a sustainable biobasedeconomy. Key in this transition is ‘safe and sustainable by design’. This entails that safety and sustainability must be taken into account at the earliest possible development stages. A remaining challenge is how to assess the sustainability and safety of a new production process while it is not yet established. Assessment methods have been developed for this purpose but they do not seem to be commonly used in Research and Development (R&D) departments. The aim of this paper is to review and evaluate the available early-stage assessment methods (ESM) and ex-ante life cycle assessment (LCA). Using the case of lactic acid in a retrospective study, its different development stages were anticipated. The outcomes of implementing the selected ESMs and ex-ante LCA at the different development stages of lactic acid were compared with those of a full LCA of the real production at commercial scale. Key findings are that 1) many ESMs are often not fully or clearly described and the databases suggested are outdated; 2) since most of the methods are designed to assess chemicals in general, not specifically for bio-based chemicals, the relevant environmental themes to reflect the characteristics of bio-based chemicals are often missing; 3) in terms of toxicity impacts, the reviewed methods are often crude and not accurate in the coverage of toxicity aspects. Ex-ante LCA could play a more important role during the process design R&D phase. However, ex-ante LCA should be complemented with accessible methods to evaluate the potential toxicity impacts at the early development stage to ensure safe by design