Abstract
This review examines how life cycle methodologies are presently used by regional authorities in their sustainable development programmes. The review incorporates formal methods of life cycle assessment (LCA) as well as non-standardised approaches like life cycle management (LCM). The review describes the sustainability agenda facing regions, and a ‘life cycle toolbox’ that can be used at territorial level. Several parallel literature research methods were used to collect representative examples from around the world of regional life cycle approaches, identifying a variety of common and still-evolving methodologies used to address sustainability issues and applications. Results show that regional use of various life cycle methodologies from the toolbox is growing although scope is often constrained to short life chains, and with limited consideration of secondary (“spillover”) impacts. The conclusions confirm earlier findings that current life cycle tools are not always ideally structured for public sector organisations, with some not yet mature for addressing regional sustainability issues, such as biodiversity, land use and social impacts. Regional data aggregation is currently insufficient for certain methods. Further research is needed to adapt certain life cycle methodologies for regional application, but many available tools could already be further applied than is currently the case.
Highlights
While firmly embedded within defined nation states, regions have become major actors in sustainable development, with increasing responsibilities and budgets for local programmes, and a heightened embrace of sustainability objectives that are in tune with public demand
From the bibliometric analysis the authors found a rapid growth in scientific publications on region-related life cycle assessment (LCA) activity over recent years
The analysis revealed a strong concentration of academic LCA research in a rather restricted number of countries, institutions and journals
Summary
While firmly embedded within defined nation states, regions have become major actors in sustainable development, with increasing responsibilities and budgets for local programmes, and a heightened embrace of sustainability objectives that are in tune with public demand. 4.0, with industrial ecology, with circular and bioeconomies, with smart technology, and with resource efficiency in various forms. Many of these system concepts are based on information and management techniques with which regions are not always familiar. They imply an awareness of life cycle dynamics, an understanding of the way sustainability issues are linked, and a use of a more holistic approach to resource efficiency [1,2,3].
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