An application of hybrid life cycle assessment as a decision support framework for green supply chains

In an effort to achieve sustainable operations, green supply chain management has become an important area for firms to concentrate on due to its inherent involvement with all the processes that provide foundations to successful business. Modelling methodologies of product supply chain environmental assessment are usually guided by the principles of life cycle assessment (LCA). However, a review of the extant literature suggests that LCA techniques suffer from a wide range of limitations that prevent a wider application in real-world contexts; hence, they need to be incorporated within decision support frameworks to aid environmental sustainability strategies. Thus, this paper contributes in understanding and overcoming the dichotomy between LCA model development and the emerging practical implementation to inform carbon emissions mitigation strategies within supply chains. Therefore, the paper provides both theoretical insights and a practical application to inform the process of adopting a decision support framework based on a LCA methodology in a real-world scenario. The supply chain of a product from the steel industry is considered to evaluate its environmental impact and carbon ‘hotspots’. The study helps understanding how operational strategies geared towards environmental sustainability can be informed using knowledge and information generated from supply chain environmental assessments, and for highlighting inherent challenges in this process

Sustainable design of biorefinery processes: existing practices and new methodology

Nowadays, eco-designing products is increasingly practiced. The next challenge for sustain- ability is to optimize production processes. Biorefi neries are particularly concerned with this improve- ment, because they use renewable resources. To identify the contribution of transformation processes to the overall environmental impacts, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) appears as the adequate method. A literature review highlights that LCA is mainly performed on biorefi neries to compare biomass feed- stocks between them and to a fossil reference. Another part of environmental LCA compares the impacts of different processing routes. Nevertheless, these evaluations concern already designed pro- cesses. Generally, processes are considered as a unique operation in assessments. However, some criteria like operating can notably modify environmental burdens. The eco-design of biorefi nery pro- cesses can be guided by coupling process simulation to LCA. This method has been emerging in the chemical sector in recent years. Consequently, this paper proposes a new methodological approach to assessing the complete sustainability of biorefi nery processes, since its fi rst design stages. In addi- tion to coupling process simulation and environmental LCA, the other pillars of sustainability will be assessed. Indeed, Life Cycle Costing and Social Life Cycle Assessment can be performed to obtain an integrated methodological framework. The simultaneous optimization of the environmental, economic, and social performances of the process can lead to antagonist ways of improving. Consequently, compromises should be realized. Thereby, the multi-objective optimization can be accomplished by a metaheuristic method supported by a decision-making tool. Finally, the main limits of this method and some perspectives and ways for improving are discussed

Life cycle sustainability assessment: An ongoing journey

As the call for sustainable solutions at operational, industrial, and policy level increases, the need for a comprehensive assessment tool has been addressed by literature and practitioners. In particular, for the definition of a complete framework, the application of a life cycle thinking lens is required to explore the longitudinal dimension of the impacts and possible indirect effects triggered on environmental, social, and economic levels. The definition of an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment framework is currently an ongoing journey, which is summarized in the present chapters. The narrative follows a set of milestones, namely the definition of the concept and the preliminary scheme in the early years, the pathway towards the implementation of a standardized set of tools, an anthology of significant case studies in different sectors, and an overview of the challenges identified by literature and yet remaining open for future researches