Can Forest Management Practices Counteract Species Loss Arising from Increasing European Demand for Forest Biomass under Climate Mitigation Scenarios?

Forests are home to many species and provide biomass for material and energy. Here, we modeled the potential global species extinction risk from future scenarios of climate mitigation and EU28 forest management. We considered the continuation of current practices, the adoption of closer-to-nature management (low-intensity practices), and set-asides (conversion to unharvested forestland) on portions of EU28 forestland under two climate mitigation pathways as well as the consequences for the wood trade. Expanding set-aside to more than 25% of EU28 currently managed forestland by 2100 increased the global extinction risk compared to the continuation of current practices. This outcome stems from a projected increase in EU forest biomass imports, partially from biodiversity-vulnerable regions to compensate for a decrease in domestic harvest. Conversely, closer-to-nature management on up to 37.5% of EU28 forestland lowered extinction risks. Increasing the internal production and partially sourcing imported biomass from low-intensity managed areas lowered the species extinction footprint even further. However, low-intensity practices could not entirely compensate for the increased extinction risk under a high climate mitigation scenario with greater demand for lignocellulosic crops and energywood. When developing climate mitigation strategies, it is crucial to assess forest biomass supply chains for the early detection of extinction risks in non-EU regions and for developing strategies to prevent increase of global impacts.

Drinking water management strategies for distribution networks: An integrated performance assessment framework.

Due to rapid population growth, urbanization, water contamination, and climate change, global water resources are under increasing pressure. Water utilities apply drinking water management strategies (DWMS) to ensure that water is safe for drinking. However, in recent years, due to increased inclination towards climate change, environmental emissions, and sustainable development goals; the environmental and economic performance of DWMSs is getting attention. An integrated framework combining life cycle thinking and water quality assessment techniques was developed in this study to evaluate the DWMSs' performance in terms of water quality, environment, and economics. Six DWMSs were assessed using the integrated framework as a case study. The environmental impacts in terms of human health, ecosystem, and resource use ranged from 1.46E-06 to 4.01E-06 DALY, 9.35E-10 to 3.80E-09 species.yr, and 0.0025-0.0071 USD-$, respectively. Pollution water index (PWI) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) were used as decision-making techniques to assess the overall performance and suitability of DWMSs under given settings. The DWMSs with surface water as a source or ones providing relatively more degree of treatment have a relatively high PWI score (i.e., ≈0.31), reflective of high environmental impacts and water pollution compared to other alternatives. The CBA scores of selected alternatives ranged between 0.22 and 1.0. Furthermore, it was identified that DWMSs applied on relatively bigger water distribution systems can outweigh their costs (i.e., environmental and economic impacts). The proposed framework and approaches are flexible as they can incorporate different criteria in evaluating the performance and applicability of DWMSs.

Assessing the diverse environmental effects of biochar systems: An evaluation framework.

Biochar has been recognised as a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology. Unlike other CDR technologies, biochar is expected to deliver various valuable effects in e.g. agriculture, animal husbandry, industrial processes, remediation activities and waste management. The diversity of biochar side effects to CDR makes the systematic environmental assessment of biochar projects challenging, and to date, there is no common framework for evaluating them. Our aim is to bridge the methodology gap for evaluating biochar systems from a life-cycle perspective. Using life cycle theory, actual biochar projects, and reviews of biochar research, we propose a general description of biochar systems, an overview of biochar effects, and an evaluation framework for biochar effects. The evaluation framework was applied to a case study, the Stockholm Biochar Project. In the framework, biochar effects are classified according to life cycle stage and life cycle effect type; and the biochar's end-of-life and the reference situations are made explicit. Three types of effects are easily included in life cycle theory: changes in biosphere exchanges, technosphere inputs, and technosphere outputs. For other effects, analysing the cause-effect chain may be helpful. Several biochar effects in agroecosystems can be modelled as future productivity increases against a reference situation. In practice, the complexity of agroecosystems can be bypassed by using empirical models. Existing biochar life cycle studies are often limited to carbon footprint calculations and quantify a limited amount of biochar effects, mainly carbon sequestration, energy displacements and fertiliser-related emissions. The methodological development in this study can be of benefit to the biochar and CDR research communities, as well as decision-makers in biochar practice and policy.

Teaching life cycle assessment in higher education.

Purpose: Scientific Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) literature provides some examples of LCA teaching in higher education, but not a structured overview of LCA teaching contents and related competencies. Hence this paper aims at assessing and highlighting trends in LCA learning outcomes, teaching approaches and developed content used to equip graduates for their future professional practices in sustainability. Methods: Based on a literature review on teaching LCA in higher education and a collaborative consensus building approach through expert group panel discussions, an overview of LCA learning and competency levels with related teaching contents and corresponding workload is developed. The levels are built on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and Bloom's taxonomy of learning. Results and discussion: The paper frames five LCA learning and competency levels that differ in terms of study program integration, workload, cognitive domain categories, learning outcomes, and envisioned professional skills. It furthermore provides insights into teaching approaches and content, including software use, related to these levels. Conclusions and recommendations: This paper encourages and supports higher educational bodies to implement a minimum of 'life cycle literacy' into students' curriculum across various domains by increasing the availability, visibility and quality of their teaching on life cycle thinking and LCA.

Mitigating environmental impacts using Life Cycle Assessment in Brazilian companies: A stakeholders' perspective.

The increase in environmental problems in recent decades has required the evolution of the tools used to mitigate environmental impacts, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the use of LCA in Brazilian companies. Data collection involved a questionnaire administrated to companies addressing attitudes related to environmental management, enabling the following three classifications: (1) Does not use Life Cycle Thinking (LCT), (2) Uses LCT and (3) Uses LCA. The results were categorized and submitted to both descriptive and multivariate analyses. Most companies investigated do not yet use LCA. The main obstacles were difficulties involved in implementing LCA, the lack of an external demand, a lack of available background data and difficulty applying the results to the environmental improvement of products. In contrast, the main reasons that led companies to use LCA were the possibility of reducing environmental impact, achieving improvements in the production process, the creation of a differentiated product for the market and the improvement of environmental management. The findings underscore the need for greater governmental support with regard to environmental labeling (mainly type III) and greater dissemination of information on LCA within industries, since the lack of knowledge of the tool is perceived as one of the greatest obstacles. This research is pioneering in Brazil. Further studies should identify the evolution in LCA use in Brazilian companies, which should reflect an improvement in environmental management on the national level.

Circular economy indicators: What do they measure?

Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic, especially in the European Union, that promotes the responsible and cyclical use of resources possibly contributing to sustainable development. CE is an umbrella concept incorporating different meanings. Despite the unclear concept, CE is turned into defined action plans supported by specific indicators. To understand what indicators used in CE measure specifically, we propose a classification framework to categorise indicators according to reasoning on what (CE strategies) and how (measurement scope). Despite different types, CE strategies can be grouped according to their attempt to preserve functions, products, components, materials, or embodied energy; additionally, indicators can measure the linear economy as a reference scenario. The measurement scope shows how indicators account for technological cycles with or without a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach; or their effects on environmental, social, or economic dimensions. To illustrate the classification framework, we selected quantitative micro scale indicators from literature and macro scale indicators from the European Union 'CE monitoring framework'. The framework illustration shows that most of the indicators focus on the preservation of materials, with strategies such as recycling. However, micro scale indicators can also focus on other CE strategies considering LCT approach, while the European indicators mostly account for materials often without taking LCT into account. Furthermore, none of the available indicators can assess the preservation of functions instead of products, with strategies such as sharing platforms, schemes for product redundancy, or multifunctionality. Finally, the framework illustration suggests that a set of indicators should be used to assess CE instead of a single indicator.

Structured evaluation of food loss and waste prevention and avoidable impacts: A simplified method.

Interest in life-cycle assessment (LCA) for foodstuffs has increased over recent years. In the same period, there could also be noticed an increased focus on food losses and waste (FLW); hence the need for guidance or a method that assesses the environmental impacts of FLW when analyzing agrifood systems with the use of LCA. This study introduces a method of assessing FLW in the context of supply chain LCA through: i) calculating the impacts of the food supply chain with the associated FLW, in order to account for the overall environmental impacts; and ii) assessing the benefits of FLW prevention strategies. After the method is presented, a practical application follows. The results of this study show that this method is able to aid LCA practitioners to include FLW on their LCA for food studies so as not to underestimate the impacts. Furthermore, the method is able to aid decision makers to assess the benefits of implementing a FLW prevention action in comparison to a baseline scenario. This method has some limitations: the attributional approach, lack of guidelines on how to estimate prevention potentials, as well as lack of guidelines to estimate additional impacts due to prevention actions.

Environmental and economic analysis of end of life management options for an HDPE product using a life cycle thinking approach.

Manufacturers have been increasingly considering the implication of materials used in commercial products and the management of such products at the end of their useful lives (as waste or as post-consumer secondary materials). The present work describes the application of the life cycle thinking approach to a plastic product, specifically an anti-glare lamellae (used for road safety applications) made with high-density polyethylene (HDPE). This study shows that optimal environmental and economic outcomes associated with this product can be realized by recovering the material at the end of its useful life (end of life, EoL) and by using the recycled HDPE as a raw material in the production of new similar products. The study confirmed the applicability of the life cycle thinking approach by industry in sustainable products development, supporting the development of robust environmental and economic guidelines.

Application of life cycle assessment to high quality-soil conditioner production from biowaste.

The recent large-scale urbanization and industrialization resulted in an impressive growth of solid waste generation worldwide. Organic fraction generally constitutes a large fraction of municipal solid waste and its peculiar chemical properties open to various valorization strategies. On this purpose, life cycle assessment is applied to an innovative industrial system that processes 18 kt/y of agricultural and livestock waste into a high-quality soil conditioner. The high-quality soil conditioner production system consists of a series of processes, including anaerobic digestion and vermicomposting, allowing the generation of a peat-like material with high carbon content, porosity, and water-holding capacity. The presence of a photovoltaic plant and a cogeneration plant, fed with the biogas produced in the anaerobic digestion, makes the system entirely self-sufficient from the national grid and generating a surplus of electricity of 1177MWh/y. The high-quality soil conditioner showed better environmental performances in 15 out of 18 impact categories when compared to alternative scenarios. In particular, the high-quality soil conditioner and the related biowaste management resulted in a carbon saving of around 397 kg CO2 eq/ton compared with a scenario involving the employment of peat in place of the high-quality soil conditioner and a traditional biowaste management, and 165 kg CO2 eq/ton compared with a scenario where cogeneration is replaced by biomethane upgrading. This study demonstrates the possibility of using organic waste as an environmentally sustainable and renewable source for energy and carbon to soil conditioning.

Measuring the Economic Impacts of a Circular Economy: an Evaluation of Indicators.

A circular economy (CE) is often seen as a promising way to address pressing environmental challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion. However, the CE concept remains contested, and the implementation of circular strategies (CS) does not automatically improve all dimensions of sustainability. However, assessing the economic impacts of CS implementation is crucial to making the transition from linear to circular value chains. Despite the broad literature on CE indicators, a critical evaluation of economic CE indicators (eCEis) that conduct assessments on a value-chain level is still missing. This study addresses this gap by critically evaluating how capable eCEis are of measuring the economic impacts of implementing CS at the value-chain level. We first identify existing meso eCEis through a literature review, deriving a sample of 13 meso eCEis. We then qualitatively evaluate the eCEis based on criteria synthesised from requirements for CE indicators proposed in the literature. We find that existing meso eCEis only partly fulfil these criteria and consequently have limited capabilities for measuring the economic impacts of the implementation of CS at a value-chain level. The indicators largely satisfy the specific criteria diagnostic and useful, moderately satisfy the criterion practical, and barely satisfy the criteria systemic and transparent. We therefore recommend that future studies on eCEis place a stronger focus on adopting a systemic perspective, discuss their limitations and uncertainties in more detail, and consider combining meso eCEis with the indicators of other dimensions (environmental, social) and levels (micro, macro). Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43615-022-00190-w.

A sustainability scoring system to assess food initiatives in city regions.

The City Region Food Systems approach has been proposed to achieve food system resilience and nutrition security while promoting the urgent ecological transition within urban and peri-urban areas, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the great diversity of the initiatives composing City Region Food Systems in Europe poses barriers to the assessment of their integrated sustainability. Hence, the present work is developed within the EU-H2020 project Food System in European Cities (FoodE), to build a consistent sustainability scoring system that allows comparative evaluation of City Region Food System Initiatives. Adopting a Life Cycle Thinking approach, it advances on existing knowledge and past projects, taking advantage of a participatory process, with stakeholders from multidisciplinary expertise. As a result, the research designs, and tests on 100 case studies a simplified and ready-to-use scoring mechanism based on a quali-quantitative appraisal survey tool, delivering a final sustainability score on a 1-5 points scale, to get insights on the social, economic, and environmental impacts. As in line with the needs of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the outcome represents a step forward for the sustainable development and social innovation of food communities in cities and regions, providing a practical and empirical lens for improved planning and governance.

Comparison of Brazilian Social Interest Housing Projects Considering Sustainability.

Considering the importance of the development of new housing projects, the purpose of this research is to provide a model oriented to the identification of the most sustainable alternative in single-family housing projects of social interest from the perspective of life cycle thinking (LCT) and the analytical hierarchical process (AHP). A ceramic masonry project and a concrete masonry project were evaluated. In the environmental dimension, the results showed that the ceramic masonry project had more significant environmental impacts and greater damage to human health and the availability of resources and ecosystems. In the social dimension, it was found that there are discrepancies between the salaries in the construction supply chain and that the concrete masonry project had better social characteristics than the ceramic masonry project. The economic dimension revealed that the concrete masonry project was more attractive. Relating the environmental, social, and economic dimensions' results, through the combination of LCT and AHP, it was found that the concrete masonry project presented a combination of more sustainable characteristics than the ceramic masonry project in the majority of the results. Among the implications of the study carried out here is the advancement of sustainability applied to the construction sector.

Life cycle cost analysis of agri-food products: A systematic review.

Because of the increasing challenges the global food system is facing on a social, economic and environmental level, and the need to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, agri-food systems are increasingly required to become more sustainable. Life cycle tools, such as a life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCC) to evaluate the environmental and economic performance respectively, play an important role in sustainability research. Contrary to LCA, the LCC methodology is not standardized for agri-food products. This study aims to obtain insights into the use of LCC in the agri-food sector using a systematic review approach. Data related to the methodology and findings of life cycle cost analyses of agri-food products were extracted from 92 articles, covering a wide range of products (crops: 59, food/drinks: 22, other: 11) and purposes. Currently, there is no consensus about LCC type definitions and the definition of different types of system boundaries amongst researchers. Furthermore, these and other methodological choices are often not reported in the analyzed studies. The data collection itself can also differ across studies, especially with regards to the inclusion of different cost categories. It is important to include each cost category since all categories have been identified as a costs hotspot in our list of studies (inputs: 84 %, labor: 62 %, machinery: 27 %, other: 39 %). Standardizing the LCC methodology is recommended to ensure comparability and enhance the scientific impact of studies. Integrating LCC results with findings from other life cycle tools, as done in 29 studies, can further support decision-making. The most common methods for integrating results are eco-efficiency analysis and multi-criteria decision analysis methods. In conclusion, it is clear that LCC is a very valuable tool, as a method on its own or complemented by other life cycle tools.

Different alternative retrofit to improving the sustainability of building in tropical climate: multi-criteria decision-making.

With the growth of the number of old buildings in urban cities, there is an imperative demand for retrofitting those buildings to minimize their energy consumption and maximize their sustainability. This article seeks to provide a multi-criteria assessment of different retrofitting scenarios in the Malaysian context, focusing replacement of windows. Four different criteria assessed operation energy usage, global warming potential (GWP) emission, embodied energy, and the cost of each alternative. Life cycle analysis is used for each scenario using the Energy Plus software program to estimate the energy demand. The preliminary result showed that a louvered window is unsuitable for operational energy usage compared to other options. In embodied energy and GWP, double-glazing shows an optimal choice by 532 MJ kg/m2 and 101 kg/M2 CO2 between the other two alternatives for retrofitting. However, in the operational energy category, triple glazing has the best performance by 1.06 kW/a day. Finally, comparing the cost of each other options, plenum windows have the lowest rate by 825 kg/M2 MYR. Thus, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is used to select the most sustainable window for buildings. The result shows that the best option is a double-glazing window, followed by a plenum window. This study revealed the requirement for utilization of MCDM handles to guarantee the correct choice of design strategies for the best decision.

Are deposit-refund systems effective in managing glass packaging? State of the art and future directions in Europe.

Glass packaging gives rise to major environmental concerns because it develops more greenhouse gas emissions than plastic packaging and its improper discarding causes the loss of high-quality desired resources. The reuse and recycling of glass packaging reduces greenhouse gas emissions and the use of newly extracted resources sand and soda. To mitigate the environmental impacts of glass packaging, countries have set-up various collection and recycling systems, which are often organized and financed through extended producer responsibility schemes. The most common collection systems are deposit-refund systems (DRS), separate collection in drop-off containers and comingled collection with lightweight packaging waste. By the end of 2035 a minimum of 65 % of glass packaging waste must be prepared for re-use and/or recycled within the EU Member States and thus proper policies and solutions should be adopted to achieve this target. In this sense, the present study aims at verifying if deposit-refund systems and their different configurations affect glass packaging waste reduction and recycling/recovery. To achieve this aim, annual data regarding consumption and recycling/recovery of glass packaging for each European Economic Area/European Free Trade Association (EEA/EFTA) country were extracted over the time period 2010-2019. By using the selected European countries as units of analysis, a hybrid methodology was developed which includes the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and other descriptive statistics. Findings show that the different waste management systems affect neither the amount of glass packaging consumption nor the glass packaging recycling/recovery. In countries which adopt DRS, not more glass packaging per capita was retrieved than in countries which adopt other collection and management systems. In fact, it turns out to be a mechanism that allows for high quality glass packaging collection avoiding its ending up in landfills, but it does not influence consumption choices and the subsequent potential waste production. The adoption of DRS-based collections does not result necessarily in a successful management model for glass packaging. Since setting up additional drop-off collection points and recovering mechanically glass from municipal solid waste (MSW) does not result in glass qualities to be used in glass packaging, DRS represent still the sole progress towards a more circular economy.

Life cycle-based, energy-related analysis for waste management strategies: a case study of two impact indicators in Pyongyang.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is regarded to be an important source of greenhouse gas emissions, which could result in a significant impact on climate change. This study conducted analyses of both cumulative energy demand (CED) and carbon footprint (CF) indicators per reference flow (RF) and identified the relationship between both the indicators, and additionally, it made some recommendations for MSW management strategies in Pyongyang, DPR Korea, based on life cycle thinking. This present study suggested using a hybrid CED indicator and the energy-related CF indicator for the analysis of the existing MSW management system, while applying system expansion for crediting the recycled materials, the energy recovery, and the compost/fertilizer. The result showed that the CED indicator in the MSW management system accounted for - 9,569.8 MJ/RF of primary energy savings in total, corresponding to the avoided emissions of - 1,522.89 kg CO2eq/RF. The recycling and composting of waste presented energy savings due to the recycled materials and the avoided production of mineral fertilizers replaced with the compost, respectively. In addition, the incineration had some potential for energy recovery from waste, and it could result in crediting energy further, while the landfill should be improved in a more sustainable way of making use of the landfill gas and/or replacing the landfill with incineration with energy recovery. The results also indicated that the CED indicator was closely related to the CF indicator, valued as global warming potential, throughout the MSW management options/processes, and both the indicators could serve as an appropriate proxy of the environmental impacts on a life cycle phase.

Environmental assessment of food and beverage under a NEXUS Water-Energy-Climate approach: Application to the spirit drinks.

The energy-water nexus is a concept widely established but rarely applied to product and, in particular, to food and beverage products, which have a great influence on greenhouse gases emissions. The proposed method considers the main nexus aspects in addition to other relevant aspects such as climate change, which is deeply linked with energy and water systems, and assessing process as well as product. In this framework, this study develops an integrated index (IWECN) that combines life cycle assessment (LCA) and linear programming (LP) to assess energetic, water and climate systems, enabling the identification of those products with minors energetic and water intensity and climate change effects and helping to the decision-making process and to the development of eco-innovation measures. In this case, the product assessed was one bottle (70 cl) of gin and two main hotspots were identified: the production of the glass bottle and the energy requirements of the distillation stage. Based on that, several eco-innovation strategies were proposed: the use of photovoltaic solar energy as energy source and the substitution of the glass bottle by a plastic one and by a tetra brick. The nexus results indicated that the use of solar photovoltaic energy and plastic as bottle material was the best alternative decreasing 58% the IWECN value of the production of one bottle of gin. The sensitivity analysis presented a strong preference for photovoltaic solar energy in comparison with electric power and for the reduction of the glass bottle weight or its substitution by a plastic bottle. The use of the IWECN index is extendable to any product with the aim of facilitating the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable products to introduce them in new green markets.

Improving the efficacy of municipal solid waste collection with a communicative approach based on easily understandable indicators.

The main aim of the study was to propose a useful methodological approach to define easily understandable indicators to use in communication campaigns organized to improve the efficacy of municipal solid waste collection. For this purpose, six economic-environmental indicators were defined, combining life cycle thinking and environmental communication. The indicators make it possible to obtain several combinations that can follow a variety of communication channels. Three indicators (quantity of recyclable materials recoverable from unsorted residual waste; total potential economic saving; number of jobs for young people as communicators) are expressed in absolute value and therefore refer to the whole community even if they are also good for single-targeted messages. The other three indicators (potential economic saving for each citizen; per capita saving of carbon dioxide equivalent; per capita saving of Disability Adjusted Life Years) are normalized with respect to the number of inhabitants and therefore refer to the individual citizen, but can also be used for global messages. As a case example, the methodology was applied to the collection of paper and cardboard in twelve Southern Italy cities obtaining very promising results. For example, the maximum quantity of paper and cardboard recoverable from unsorted waste would allow Naples and Palermo to recover more than €15 million. The maximum potential economic saving for each citizen was 25 €/capita. The economic saving obtained for Naples and Palermo could be translated in more than one thousand positions as young environmental communicators. Catania was the city with both the highest per capita potential saving of carbon dioxide (>60 kg CO2eq./capita) and maximum hypothetical per capita 'life-time recovery' (almost an hour). The innovative communication method used ('Greenopoli') assumed that school is the starting point to obtain a change of mindset because speaking with students (all potential communicators) means indirectly communicating with all other targets.

Sustainable production of marine equipment in a circular economy: deepening in material and energy flows, best available techniques and toxicological impacts.

Nowadays a radical revolution in the production field is possible thanks to policies to fight against the environmental crisis and the technological progress, like Circular Economy. Leisure activities at sea are anthropogenic activities that have a potential impact, not only on the marine environment in the use stage (e.g. microplastics) and the end-use stage (e.g. ocean plastic wastes), but also on the manufacturing stage of its life cycle. This last stage is also the most important to prevent and/or reduce the impacts by means, for example of eco-design. This work aims to analyse the marine equipment manufacturing sector using fibre reinforced polymers (that potentially emits VOC with the consequently toxicological impact) from the circular economy prospective to identify sustainable solutions for the manufacturing process stage. The selected case study is a marine equipment job-shop using a Fibre Reinforced Polymers. A methodology to identify sustainable industrial systems previously validated is modified, adapted and applied to this case. The methodology applies 3 tools: Material and Energy Flow Analysis to identify the Improvable Flows of the process, Best Available Techniques analysis, to propose the most appropriate techniques to improve those improvable flows, and the Impact Analysis to evaluate and compare the effects on humans and ecosystems, on both the case study scenario and the improved ones. Ten Improvable Flows have been identified for the process; consequently, fifteen candidates to Best Available Techniques have been proposed aiming to act upon these flows. The application of these techniques in an improved system, allows reducing the amount of material and emissions reducing the impact. The combination of those tools has confirmed to be a very good option for process evaluation considering sustainability criteria. The Impact Assessment has permitted to compare the base case scenario showing a reduction of the impacts by the selected Best Available Techniques.