Approach to qualify decision support maturity of new versus established impact assessment methods—demonstrated for the categories acidification and eutrophication

Purpose Initiatives like the EU Product Environmental Footprint have been pushing the discussion about the choice of life cycle impact assessment methods. Practitioners often prefer to use established methods for performance tracking, result stability, and consistency reasons. Method developers rather support newly developed methods. As case studies must provide consistent results in order to ensure reliable decision-making support, a systematic approach to qualify decision support maturity of newly developed impact assessment methods is needed. Methods A three step approach referring to key aspects for decision maturity was developed which takes the established life cycle impact assessment methods as a benchmark. In the first step, the underlying models of the methods and their respective differences are analyzed to capture the scope and detail of the characterization models. Second, the considered and available elementary flows covered by the methods are identified and compared to reveal consistent coverage, respectively, gaps between alternatives. In the third step, neglected elementary flows are evaluated with regard to their potential impact to the particular impact category. Furthermore, the characterization factors of concurring elementary flows are analyzed for significant differences in their shares. The developed approach was tested for LCIA methods for eutrophication and acidification in Europe. Results and discussion A systematic and practical qualification of decision support maturity can be achieved by a three-step approach benchmarking model scope, quantitative and qualitative coverage of elementary flows for new methods with established ones. For the application example, the established CML-IA method was compared with the ReCiPe method and the method of accumulated exceedance. These models vary regarding subdivision of environmental compartments, consideration of fate, as well as regionalization of characterization factors. The amount of covered elementary flows varies significantly as CML-IA covers about 28 more flows within the category acidification and about 35 more flows within the category eutrophication compared to ReCiPe and accumulated exceedance. The significance of all neglected elementary flows for the categories eutrophication and acidification is significant and represents a gap of up to 80 %. Furthermore, it was shown that the shares of some concurring elementary flows differ significantly. Conclusions The introduced approach allows the benchmarking of newly developed against established methods based on application-oriented criteria. It was demonstrated that significant differences between the methods exist. To guarantee reliable decision-making support, newly developed methods should not replace established ones until a minimum level of decision support maturity is reached

Assessing the Ability of the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Products Program to Reliably Determine the Environmental Performance of Products

Concepts and tools supporting the design of environmentally friendly products (including materials, goods or services) have increased over the last years. The Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Products Program (C2CP) is one of these approaches. In this work, the ability of C2CP to reliably determine the environmental performance of products was analyzed through the application of a criteria-based assessment scheme. Additionally, to compare C2CP with three other already established tools (life cycle assessment, product environmental footprint and material flow analysis), the same criteria-based scheme was applied. Results show that C2CP is not scientifically reliable enough to assure that certified products actually have a good environmental performance. The most relevant shortcoming of C2CP relates to its limited assessment scope, due to the fact that neither the entire life cycle of the product nor all relevant environmental impacts are covered. Based on already established tools and their practical implementation recommendations for increasing the reliability of C2CP are provided

Characterization of the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Products Program in the context of eco-labels and environmental declarations

(1) Background: The Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Products Program (C2C Certified for short) is a scheme for the certification of products that meet the criteria and principles of the Cradle to Cradle® design approach. The objective of this paper is to characterize C2C Certified as an instrument for external communication in the context of environmental labeling and declarations. (2) Method: An eco-label characterization scheme consisting of 22 attributes was used to analyze C2C Certified. In addition, it was compared with the established standardization labeling typologies, namely Type I and Type III. This was further illustrated in an example within the building and construction sector. (3) Results: C2C Certified can be classified neither as a Type I, nor a Type III label. The main weaknesses of C2C Certified from a labeling perspective are: the generic, but not product-specific focus of the awarding criteria, the lack of a life cycle perspective, and the incompletely transparent stakeholder involvement procedure. Nevertheless, for certain attributes (e.g., the awarding format), C2C Certified provides practical solutions and goes beyond a Type I eco-label. Substantial similarities between Type III declarations and C2C Certified cannot be identified. (4) Conclusions: The main advantages and shortcomings of C2C Certified from a labeling perspective are pointed out. The approach shows similarities to a Type I eco-label, and efforts toward conformance with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) labelling standards would result in improving its comparability, recognition, and robustness.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli

Product environmental footprint in policy and market decisions: Applicability and impact assessment

In April 2013, the European Commission published the Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint (PEF/OEF) methodology—a life cycle‐based multicriteria measure of the environmental performance of products, services, and organizations. With its approach of “comparability over flexibility,” the PEF/OEF methodology aims at harmonizing existing methods, while decreasing the flexibility provided by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards regarding methodological choices. Currently, a 3‐y pilot phase is running, aiming at testing the methodology and developing product category and organization sector rules (PEFCR/OEFSR). Although a harmonized method is in theory a good idea, the PEF/OEF methodology presents challenges, including a risk of confusion and limitations in applicability to practice. The paper discusses the main differences between the PEF and ISO methodologies and highlights challenges regarding PEF applicability, with a focus on impact assessment. Some methodological aspects of the PEF and PEFCR Guides are found to contradict the ISO 14044 (2006) and ISO 14025 (2006). Others, such as prohibition of inventory cutoffs, are impractical. The evaluation of the impact assessment methods proposed in the PEF/OEF Guide showed that the predefined methods for water consumption, land use, and abiotic resources are not adequate because of modeling artefacts, missing inventory data, or incomplete characterization factors. However, the methods for global warming and ozone depletion perform very well. The results of this study are relevant for the PEF (and OEF) pilot phase, which aims at testing the PEF (OEF) methodology (and potentially adapting it) as well as addressing challenges and coping with them. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2015;11:417–424

Assessing the availability of terrestrial biotic materials in product systems (BIRD)

Availability of abiotic resources has been a topic of concern in recent years, resulting in several approaches being published to determine their availability on country and product level. However, the availability of biotic materials has not been analyzed to this extent yet. Therefore, an approach to determine possible limitations to availability of terrestrial biotic materials over the entire supply chain is introduced. The approach considers 24 categories overall as well as associated category indicators for the five dimensions: physical, socio-economic, abiotic, social and environmental constraints. This ensures a comprehensive availability assessment of bio-based product systems. The approach is applied to a case study comparing biodiesel produced from rapeseed and soy beans. The study shows that the determination of indicator values is feasible for most categories and their interpretation leads to meaningful conclusions. Thus, the approach leads to a more comprehensive assessment of availability aspects and supports better informed decision making in industry and policy.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli

Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Pilot Phase—Comparability over Flexibility?

The main goal of the European product environmental footprint (PEF) method is to increase comparability of environmental impacts of products within certain product categories by decreasing flexibility and therefore achieving reproducibility of results. Comparability is supposed to be further increased by developing product category specific rules (PEFCRs). The aim of this paper is to evaluate if the main goal of the PEF method has been achieved. This is done by a comprehensive analysis of the PEF guide, the current PEFCR guide, the developed PEFCRs, as well as the insights gained from participating in the pilot phase. The analysis reveals that the PEF method as well as its implementation in PEFCRs are not able to guarantee fair comparability due to shortcomings related to the (1) definition of product performance; (2) definition of the product category; (3) definition and determination of the representative product; (4) modeling of electricity; (5) requirements for the use of secondary data; (6) circular footprint formula; (7) life cycle impact assessment methods; and (8) approach to prioritize impact categories. For some of these shortcomings, recommendations for improvement are provided. This paper demonstrates that the PEF method has to be further improved to guarantee fair comparability.UBA, 3712 95 337, Environmental Footprint of Products and Service

Comprehensive approach for evaluating different resource types – Case study of abiotic and biotic resource use assessment methodologies

Due to steadily increasing resource demand and accompanying raising public awareness, a variety of assessment methodologies evaluating resource use and its consequences were published in the last years. Existing methodologies are typically developed considering the specific characteristics of one particular resource type and as consequence are not suitable for cross-cutting assessment of different resource types. This paper proposes an 3-step approach for combining different resource use assessment methodologies allowing for a consistent assessment of product systems using different resource types. The first steps evaluate if the considered dimensions, categories, indicators, indicator models and underlying data are consistent. When this is the case, they can be included in the combined methodology without further adjustments. Differences are identified simultaneously and addressed in the subsequent steps. Within the steps guidance is provided on how the dimensions, categories and indicators of the methodologies can be adjusted to fit in the combined methodology. In a case study the proposed approach is applied to two methodologies developed by the authors assessing abiotic (ESSENZ method) and biotic resources and raw materials (BIRD method). The ESSENZ method consists of four dimensions, which are quantified by overall 21 categories and indicators. The BIRD method takes into account five dimensions and 24 corresponding categories and indicators. As none of the considered dimension of the two methodologies match, comparison of the considered resource types as well as application in a case study is not possible. By applying the proposed approach all five dimensions and 25 of the overall 27 categories and indicators can be integrated in the combined approach for a consistent assessment of abiotic and biotic resources and raw materials. The obtained combined methodology is then applied to three shelves made out of metal, wood and plastic. It could be shown that the introduced approach provides meaningful guidance on how to combine different resource use assessment methodologies and increases the findings gained from a combined and consistent assessment.DFG,353450346, Bewertung der Inanspruchnahme biotischer und abiotischer Ressourcen im Mobilitätssektor -Entwicklung von Ökobilanz-kompatiblen Bewertungskriterien, -methoden und -konzepte

Hybrid approach for the evaluation of organizational indirect impacts (AVOID): combining product-related, process-based, and monetary-based methods

Purpose: Environmental burden caused by an organization occurs both within its boundaries and in its value chain. Organizational life cycle assessment (LCA) was proposed as a method for calculating impacts of an organization throughout its life cycle; nevertheless, companies are still lacking a universal approach to conduct inventory analysis and face challenges in data collection. This paper introduces a hybrid approach for compiling the inventory for the indirect activities on organizational level in an effective manner. Methods: Three existing accounting methods (namely product related, process based, and monetary based) are connected within the hybrid approach. The potential to apply each method for an indirect activity is analyzed with regard to the system boundary requirements and availability of activity data and emission factors. The calculation procedures are introduced for selected activities. The advantages and limitations of the hybridization on organizational level are discussed. The developed approach is applied in a case study to the automotive supplier Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co.KG. Results and discussion: The framework for application of the hybrid approach including the required activity data and emission factors for every indirect activity and each accounting method is provided. The product-related and process-based methods are recommended as more robust; nevertheless, hybridization with the monetary-based method might be essential for compiling a comprehensive inventory by limited data availability. Such limitations as double counting, truncation error, and insufficient data resolution may influence the results and should be considered when applying the hybrid approach. The case study demonstrated that the proposed approach allowed establishing an inventory for all relevant indirect activities. However, due to missing emission factors, only the impact category climate change was calculated for all activities; acidification and water use were quantified for six activities. Conclusions: The introduced hybrid approach enables selecting the most suitable accounting method for the indirect activities depending on data availability. This promotes application of the organizational life cycle assessment in particular for small and medium enterprises and companies that do not have access to the commercial LCA datasets. Availability of the emission factors for all impact categories in public databases is essential to provide robust results using the hybrid approach

Variabilidade dos sólidos totais em suspensão em três regiões costeiras do sul do Brasil, utilizando o sensor MODIS como indicador

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Maurício Almeida NoernbergMonografia (graduação) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências da Terra, Centro de Estudos do Mar, Curso de OceanografiaResumo: Este trabalho analisa a variabilidade dos níveis de refletância de sensoriamento remoto capturados pelo sensor MODIS banda1 (B1), nível L1B, como indicador da distribuição dos sólidos totais em suspensão (TSS). Foram retirados os valores de refletância correspondentes as isóbatas de 10, 20 e 30 m entre o Complexo Estuarino de Paranaguá (PR) e a baía da Babitonga (SC), através da banda 1 do sensor MODIS Aqua e Terra, com resolução espacial de 250m. Foram processadas 306 imagens entre o período de 2000 a 2010. Valores baixos de refletância foram os mais observados, e estão relacionados a condições meteorológicas frequentes; enquanto os valores maiores caracterizam eventos mais intensos e de menor frequência. A maior variabilidade dos valores de refletância é observada próxima à costa, na isóbata de 10 m e está associada à proximidade das fontes, processos de ressuspensão do sedimento de fundo pelas ondas que incidem na costa e influência das correntes de maré, no sentido oceano afora. Conforme aumenta a distância das desembocaduras, a concentração de TSS e os valores de refletância diminuem. Os dados médios de refletância apresentaram variações ao longo dos anos, influenciados principalmente pela variação anual total da precipitação. A variação sazonal dos valores de refletância mostrou-se relacionada tanto à intensidade de ventos quanto à precipitação. Sendo que os altos índices de precipitação e a maior ocorrência dos ventos de quadrante E-SE- S são os principais responsáveis pelos maiores valores de refletância no verão. Considerando as variações espaço-temporais, a baía de Guaratuba apresentou os maiores valores de refletância; porém, quando foi considerada a influência da sazonalidade, a baía de Babitonga foi caracterizada com os maiores valores de refletância durante o verão. Na análise do tempo de resposta, os sólidos totais em suspensão demoraram de 5 a 7 dias para responder aos eventos meteorológicos. De uma maneira geral, as análises forneceram uma orientação para compreender os processos de dispersão dos sólidos totais em suspensão na costa, baseado nos níveis de refletância capturados pelo sensor MODIS. Palavras-chave: MODIS, sensoriamento remoto, sólidos totais em suspensão