Sustainable consumption in mobility from a life cycle assessment perspective

Abstract

The shift toward the adoption of sustainable lifestyles may be achieved with the support of environmental indicators, such as those obtained from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The aim of this paper was to perform a Consumer LCA of the potential environmental impacts of mobility habits of a generic consumer. This study also proposed a methodology for analyzing life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results called Marginal Variation on Impact Assessment (MVIA). Mobility habits in lifestyles were modeled considering transportation to short and long-distance travels. The mobility alternatives considered were travel on foot, by bicycle, car (private and shared), bus, and airplane. Linear regression was applied to identify the marginal variation in aggregated single score results of transportation habits. Mobility with a private car had the highest environmental impact, whereas the use of a bus, bicycle and walking were the most sustainable alternatives. The results exhibited sensitivity to car-sharing. Taking flights for long-distance travels resulted in higher environmental impacts than other alternatives. Marginal Variation on Impact Assessment indicated that the consumer may find the greatest potential to change behavior and reduce impacts in mobility habits related to short-distance travels as well as by reducing the frequency of long-distance travels. The proposed MVIA methodology fits as a tool to support environmental life cycle impact assessment.