Global Warming Potential Indicator Research Articles

Environmental performance of bamboo-based office paper production: A comparative study with eucalyptus

Bamboo has being used as alternative raw material for construction, reinforcing fibers, paper production, among other applications. Although its recognized potentials as raw material, there are doubts about its environmental performance compared to traditional wood-based products, including paper production, which hinders bamboo-based paper plants in large scales. This study aims to assess the environmental performance of producing office paper from bamboo. Emergy synthesis (with ‘m’) and global warming potential indicators are calculated and compared with the traditional eucalyptus paper-based production. Results highlights the importance in including the renewability fractions of each input resources into emergy calculations for production systems with high human-labor intensity such as the bamboo agricultural production. Office paper produced from bamboo has similar renewability (28%), moderate environmental load (3.23 vs. 2.49), and emergy unsustainability (0.34 vs. 0.60) compared to paper produced from eucalyptus, but bamboo showed lower performance for global efficiency (568 vs. 442 sej/tonpaper), emergy yield (1.09 vs. 1.49), and emergy investment (10.79 vs. 2.05). Focusing on global warming potential, office paper produced from bamboo releases 98 kgCO2 eq./tonpaper compared to 56–267 kgCO2 eq./tonpaper for eucalyptus. Notwithstanding, bamboo-based office paper demands four times more land area of agricultural production than eucalyptus, but it has a positive social aspect by requiring higher amount of direct human labor. This work shows the advantages of using eucalyptus rather than bamboo in producing office paper from an emergy and land demand perspectives, while global warming can still be considered inconclusive. Future efforts should consider a quantitative and qualitative analysis of human labor availability in both systems, as well an economic analysis to support discussions towards more sustainable office paper production from different raw materials.

Life cycle assessment of agave bagasse management strategies: PLA biocomposites versus conventional waste disposal practices

Tequila production is one of Mexico's largest agro-industries, generating significant amounts of agave bagasse (AB) as its primary solid waste. Current AB management practices encompass composting, open dumps, and incineration. Life cycle analysis was developed to compare the environmental impact of these management scenarios with developing value-added agave fiber (AF) reinforced plastic biocomposites and generating biogas through anaerobic digestion. The assessment compares three molding methods for the PLA-AF biocomposite, with the environmental impact evaluated against pure PLA and low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Extrusion-injection molding was the most environmentally friendly molding method across all indicators, primarily due to the reduced inputs required for pretreating the fibers. Among the current management scenarios, composting was the least environmentally impactful for the global warming potential indicator. Nonetheless, composting requires substantial time and land use, posing challenges for some producers. Incineration displayed a significant trade-off on the fossil resource scarcity indicator by replacing natural gas. Anaerobic digestion displayed high impacts in all indicators as AB does not yield high methane potential. While the production of PLA-AF displays a significantly higher environmental impact, it remains a preferable option when compared to pure PLA and may further improve its sustainability through green chemistry principles. Notably, LDPE was less environmentally impactful than both bioplastic options assessed, due to the environmental impacts of PLA production and the widespread standardization of LDPE production processes. Context-specificity is critical to assess the environmental impact of circular bioeconomy pathways, which are not always inherently beneficial, while addressing SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

Evaluation of the acoustic and environmental performance of different wall structures with particular emphasis on straw

The building material straw as a renewable and almost endlessly available by-product could contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy consumption in the building construction sector. Straw as building material, is used as insulation material in metal stud walls and timber frame constructions. Additionally, whole straw bales can be used as insulation and bearing structure in combination with a timber frame. The state of the art provides an inconsistent data conglomerate on the acoustical and environmental performance of different wall structures, test setups and assessment methods. The presented research shows results of a parallel evaluation of the acoustic and environmental performance of wall structures with a consistent approach in measurement and calculation methods. The results of building acoustic measurements are used to quantify the acoustic potential for of straw in those wall constructions. The results show that the building acoustic performance of wall constructions with straw is comparable to the performance of already on the market established wall constructions. The influence of parameters like density, dynamic stiffness, air flow resistivity and longitudinal wave speed of used materials on the measured sound reduction index is discussed. Especially the density and the dynamic stiffness are important material parameters to achieve a high sound reduction index of the wall constructions. Since straw is a renewable material, the environmental impacts of the different acoustically analyzed wall constructions were investigated additionally. Standardized assessment methodologies were applied on the different components and a comparison with different insulation materials was carried out. It could be shown that the use of straw leads to lower environmental impacts (demonstrated in the Global Warming Potential indicator), though, the insulation material is not the most relevant parameter of the structures. Significantly higher environmental impacts are caused by the bearing structure (metal and timber frame studs) and the planking materials. Finally, an overall comparison together with standard concrete and brick wall structures underlines the beneficial environmental properties of walls made of renewable materials with straw.

Environmental life cycle assessment of emerging solid-state batteries: A review

Energy storage systems are main drivers in various fields, especially in the context of energy and mobility transition. Battery technologies are one of those options offering good technical performance in multiple stationary and mobile applications. New batteries having potentially high energy density and higher safety with lower cost are in particular ideal candidates for mobility applications. At present especially, lithium-ion batteries are used, but they are facing challenges regarding sustainability and safety issues, which can be quantitatively analyzed with Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). New developments regarding various solid-state batteries (SSBs) are very promising to tackle these challenges, but only very few studies are available on the environmental assessment of SSBs. Prospective LCA methodology is used here to analyze the environmental hotspots over the different life cycle phases for emerging SSBs. This also helps in decisions making at an early stage of development. This review critically analyzes available LCA studies on SSBs focusing on the inventory data, scope of the assessment as well as the life cycle impact assessment results. An effort has been made to compare the different LCA studies considering global warming potential indicator. As a results, the analysis highlights difficulties in comparability due to inconsistencies associated with the data sources, goal and scope, system boundaries and the method of impact assessment etc. To facilitate a consistent comparison, a unification methodology has been proposed to compare different LCAs of SSBs. Overall, the proposed methodology will help to fill the knowledge gap between different existing LCA studies on emerging solid-state battery technologies and provides recommendations for future assessments.

Mechanical Performance of Flax Fiber Composites with Waste Glass Fibers as a Core Structure.

This work sheds light on the first steps towards using glass fiber waste for semi-structural applications. This work aims to improve the properties of random flax fiber composites by incorporating waste glass fibers (WGF) obtained from the fiber production line. The waste glass fibers were incorporated as a core structure between the flax layers to form a hybrid composite. Two routes of manufacturing viz. vacuum infusion and autoclave were used to identify the optimum route to incorporate the WGF in flax fiber composites. The quality of composites was investigated in terms of residual void content and thickness uniformity. Residual void content was identified to be directly proportional to the WGF content in the composites. With the increase in WGF content, the flexural and impact properties were increased by 47% and 117%, respectively, indicating a positive hybridization effect. Furthermore, a global warming potential indicator was identified to be small, indicating the eco-friendliness of these composites.

Life cycle assessment of tunnel structures: Assessment of the New Austrian Tunnelling Method using a case study

One important measure to combat progressing climate change is compliance with and under no circumstances to exceed the decreasing greenhouse gas budget. Every economic sector must strive to make its ecological contribution to achieve this objective. The construction sector is largely responsible for these negative environmental burdens. Although tunnels are considered to have extensive energy and material consumptions the literature has failed to present their environmental impacts. Aimed at this knowledge gap, the objective of this study is to present the life cycle assessment (LCA) of a tunnel construction project situated in Bulgaria. The study analyzes the impacts of the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) using the case study “Modernization of Railway Section Elin Pelin-Kostenets – Lot 3”. Moreover, by applying dominance and sensitivity analyses, the environmental drivers and optimization potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are identified. The results show that steel, shotcrete, and concrete, contribute the most to the global warming potential indicator and are responsible for 85% of this. Furthermore, the life cycle stages for the production of materials and components have a share close to 85 % of the total global warming potential. These findings may help future tunnelling construction projects to improve the environmental performance and thus to combat the alarming development of climate change.

Conceptual issue of the dynamic GWP indicator and solution

PurposeDynamic LCIA has been developed in the past 12 years almost exclusively for climate change impact assessment, and especially the Global Warming Potential (GWP) indicator. Recently, discussions have taken place in France on the issue of integrating, a dynamic GWP indicator in the 2020 regulation (noted RE2020) on new buildings. This regulation uses a combination of static and dynamic indicators. Discussions to produce a standard on a dynamic GWP indicator could be soon launched at European level. This close perspective of using dynamic indicator into regulation recalls the importance using scientifically sound indicators. Therefore, this article re-examines the fundamentals concepts of the dynamic GWP indicator on which the future regulation is based.MethodThree basic principles of LCA are recalled: (i) no inventory flow should be omitted from an assessment, (ii) all impacts of all substances contributing to an impact category should have the same Time Horizon of the Impact (THI) in the indicator used for that impact category, and (iii) the time horizon of the impact has no reason to change as a function of time. It is then shown that the current and common version of the dynamic GWP (Levasseur et al. 2010) does not respect these principles. A new expression of dynamic GWP is provided in order to respect the three basic principles.ResultsBoth dynamic GWP indicators are compared according to their meaning and according to the decrease that they quantify compared to static GWP. The initial dynamic GWP indicator (Levasseur et al. 2010) sets a fixed Time of Observation Duration (TOD), chosen subjectively, after which nor flows nor impacts on climate change are assessed. The new dynamic GWP sets a TOD according to the life cycle duration (LCD) and the THI that avoids any flow omission and guarantees the full account of the impact of all flows. THI and LCD have independent values, but both time entities are related chronologically: THI has to be considered to account for the full effect for the very last emission of the product’s life cycle. Thus, the total observation duration (TOD) to consider for any dynamic approach is TOD = LCD + THI. The initial dynamic indicator overestimates the effect of temporary carbon storage of around 25% at the time 50 years. The raised issue is not only an implementation issue due to the choice of TOD, it is a conceptual issue, because even in the case of TOD > LCD, the value of THI would still be variable according to the moment of emissions. Finally, the notation between dynamic and static GWP is not harmonised which can lead to confusion.ConclusionThe initial GWP indicator (Levasseur et al. 2010) represents an assessment of the impact within a subjectively chosen observation period and neither the flows nor the effects of these flows on climate change are taken into account beyond this limit. The new equation provided for the dynamic indicator takes into account the totality of the flows and the entireness of their impact according to the value of THI; it thus represents only and exclusively the effect of delaying emissions compared to the static GWP. This new method is totally applicable for the regulation, as only new FRE2020(t) coefficients, produced in this paper, have to be changed.At a time when the dynamic GWP indicator is being considered as a regulatory tool on a French or even European scale, it seems crucial to consider its scientific relevance, because using the wrong method could lead to an overestimation of the possible beneficial effects of temporary carbon storage in the construction sector as a whole.

Comparison between the mechanical properties and environmental impacts of 3D printed synthetic and bio-based composites

The present work aims at studying both the mechanical properties and environmental impacts of two 3D printable composites materials: glass fiber reinforced polyamide (GlassPA) and bio-based hemp fiber reinforced polylactide (HempPLA). Hence, this study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the two considered materials, supporting the sustainable development of industrial additive manufacturing processes. To this purpose, tensile specimens were produced using a Fused Deposition Modeling process and then tensile tested to evaluate the mechanical properties of the printed materials. The environmental impacts of both GlassPA and HempPLA were investigated using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology; a cradle to gate approach was chosen to evaluate all the relevant input of the tensile specimens production. Mechanical tests showed that synthetic composite is characterized by higher strength and stiffness values than the bio-based composite. However, HempPLA results in noticeably lower environmental impacts than GlassPA in terms of Cumulative Energy Demand and Global Warming Potential indicators, proving to be a feasible alternative to glass fiber reinforced polymers in application with low load conditions.

Energy analysis and life cycle assessment of a thermal energy storage unit involving conventional or recycled storage materials and devoted to industrial waste heat valorisation

Any system intending to improve the environmental performances of a process should be assessed by a Life Cycle Assessment. This work draws up the environmental profile of the heat provided by a storage system recovering industrial waste heat at high temperature (500 °C) through 5 selected indicators: Cumulative Energy Demand, Global Warming Potential, abiotic depletion potential, particle matter and freshwater eutrophication. The calculated indicators were compared to those of the fossil fuel substituted by the recovered heat, that is to say natural gas, and proved to be reduced. Then, the environmental payback times were calculated; and an energetic profitability evaluation by the Energy Returned on Investment expanded on the profile. Besides, the influence of operating conditions variations was investigated through a parametric study. An optimal number of cycles to provide the same amount of energy may be defined, as a compromise between the abiotic resource depletion potential reduction with smaller tanks performing more cycles and the energy returned on investment deteriorated with the operational energy consumption increased due to higher pressure drop with smaller tank diameter. The most rewarding environmental performances concerned the Cumulative Energy Demand, Global Warming Potential indicators of the provided heat, about 1.2 kgCO2-eq and 65 MJ-eq per kWh (payback time lower than 3 months), and the Energy Returned on Investment that doubled compared to natural gas, e.g. reached a value of 55. The positive effect of using recycled storage materials on the resource depletion indicator were enlightened, notably when the operating conditions strayed from the reference case.

Life cycle assessment of asphalt and cement pavements: Comparative cases in Shanxi Province

In order to understand the energy consumption and environmental pollution level of Shanxi highway construction, the life cycle environmental and energy impact assessment of asphalt mixture and cement concrete were conducted. One representative cement concrete pavement and two asphalt mixtures highways were selected for quantitative evaluation and LCA analysis. The total energy consumption values of Taichang highway are 20 % higher than that of the Dayun highway. The global warming potential indicators of Taichang (asphalt mixture), Dayun (asphalt mixture), and Deda (cement concrete) are 181 kg eq.CO2, 285 kg eq.CO2, and 330 kg eq.CO2, respectively during the materials production stage. The results indicated that the environmental effects of global warming had the biggest impact on the life cycle of the asphalt mixtures and the respective highways. Based on the study results, environmental pollution was highest on the Taichang highway whilst the Deda highway had the highest values of freshwater toxicity. Furthermore, energy consumption during the construction stage and environmental impacts at the end-of-life stage were found to be alarmingly high. Thus, reducing the energy consumption during the material preparation and highway construction stages as well as controlling the environmental pollutants and emissions during service are key to conserving energy, preserving the surrounding environment, and optimizing the life cycle of Shanxi highways.

Influence of technical and electrical equipment in life cycle assessments of buildings: case of a laboratory and research building

PurposeA detailed assessment of the environmental impacts of the building requires a substantial amount of data that is time- and effort-consuming. However, limitation of the system boundary to certain materials and components can provide misleading impact calculation. In order to calculate the error gap between detailed and simplified assessments, the purpose of this article is to present a detailed calculation of the environmental impacts of the building by including in the system boundary, the technical, and electrical equipment.MethodTo that end, the environmental impacts of a laboratory and research building situated in Graz-Austria are assessed following the EN-15978 norm. Within the system boundaries of the study, the material and components of building fabric, technical, and electronic equipment for the building lifecycle stages of production, construction, replacement, operational energy and water, and end-of-life are considered. The input data regarding the quantity of materials is collected from the design and tendering documents, invoices, and from discussion with the head of the building’s construction site. Primary energy and global warming potential indicators are calculated on the basis of a functional unit of 1 m2 of energy reference area (ERA) per year, considering a reference building service life of 50 years.Results and discussionThe primary energy indicator of the building is equal to 1698 MJ/m2ERA/year. The embodied impacts are found to be responsible for 28% of which 6.4% is due to technical and electronic equipment. Furthermore, the embodied impacts for the global warming potential, equal to 28.3 kg CO2e/m2ERA/year, are responsible for 73%. Together, technical and electrical equipment are the largest responsible aspects, accounting for 38% of the total impacts. Simplified and detailed result comparisons show a gap of 29% and 7.7% for global warming and primary energy indicators. These differences were from the embodied impacts and largely from the exclusion of electrical equipment from the study’s system boundary.ConclusionsTechnical and electrical equipment present a significant contribution to the overall environmental impacts of the building. Worthy of inclusion in the system boundary of the study, the environmental impacts of technical and electrical equipment must be calculated in detail or considered with a reliable ratio in the early design phase of the project. Further research is necessary to address the detailed impact calculation of the equipment and notably the minimization of their impacts.

Process simulation coupled with LCA for the evaluation of liquid - liquid extraction processes of phenol from aqueous streams

The steel industry is currently a major water pollution source, releasing high quantities of chemicals. One of the pollutants is phenol, known for its toxicity even when it is present in low concentrations. Liquid-liquid extraction employing various aromatics and cycloalkanes (i.e., benzene, toluene, cyclohexane, ethylbenzene) and ketones (i.e., methyl isobutyl ketone, cyclohexanone and mesityl oxide) as solvents, is studied in the present paper. A comparison among the seven solvents is performed based on process modelling simulation tools and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The simulations of the seven cases under study are conducted at the same wastewater flowrate of 100 tons/h, with a phenol content of 0.2 wt.% and compared using various parameters (i.e., quantity of solvent, steam and power used, quantity of solvent present in the output phenol streams). The simulation results show that the lowest quantity of solvent is registered in the phenol removal which uses cyclohexanone as solvent (e.g., 34,212.40 kg/h), followed by the case which uses mesityl oxide for the liquid-liquid extraction (e.g., 34,759.80 kg/h) and by the case involving cyclohexanone (e.g., 37,490.60 kg/h). The lowest steam consumption is registered also in the case of cyclohexanone usage (e.g., 47.56 GJ/h) while the lowest power consumption corresponds to mesityl oxide usage (e.g., 11.20 MJ/h). The simulation results are then used to perform an environmental analysis, quantified in terms of environmental key performance indicators, embedding several solvents production methods as well as various fuels. Our life cycle assessment leads to the conclusions that the most environmentally friendly design is phenol removal using cyclohexanone as a solvent, whose provision comes from cyclohexane, which in turn is produced from benzene in conjunction with steam production from natural gas. For instance, the lowest global warming potential indicator score is about 342 kg CO2 equivalents per kg of phenol, while the same indicator for the worst solvent, i.e., toluene produced using reforming technology and steam being produced using hard coal as fuel, is almost double (e.g., 341.94 kg CO2 equivalents per kg of phenol vs. 575.30 CO2 equivalents per kg of phenol). Lower values for other impact indicators are also obtained in the phenol removal using cyclohexanone as a solvent with steam being generated form natural gas (e.g., acidification potential indicator is 0.42 kg SO2 equivalents per kg of phenol, eutrophication potential is 4.21 × 10−2 kg PO43- equivalents per kg phenol, ozone depletion potential is 1.13 × 10-9 kg R11 equivalents per kg phenol).

A Novel Hybrid Home Energy Management System Considering Electricity Cost and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Minimization

This article proposes a multiobjective hybrid energy management system that minimizes both the electricity expenses and the household greenhouse gas emissions released due to consumption, considering the entire life cycle of the generation assets used to provide energy. The global warming potential indicator is used to decide if it is more sustainable to purchase electricity from the grid or use the household's flexible generation sources like photovoltaic panels and the energy storage system. Results prove that it is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without incurring expensive electricity bill costs thanks to the hybrid-based home energy management system approach. This method gives the end-users a more influential role in the climate change solution, allowing them to give more or less importance to the economic or environmental component, according to their preferences.

Performance evaluation of a high concentrator photovoltaic integrating a Fresnel lens in Saudi Arabia: A case study

SummarySaudi Arabia has plentiful freely accessible solar energy with daily total Direct Normal Irradiance on the higher side. Furthermore, because of its extensive desert land with over 2 million km2 expanse and high clearance index, the country could be a successful contender for accommodating the High Concentrator Photovoltaic (HCPV) technology. This technology, which assimilates Fresnel lens, has drawn more attention particularly after presenting III‐V Multi‐Junction solar cells for terrestrial uses since they keep achieving new conversion efficiency accomplishments. This article evaluates the HCPV performance in Saudi Arabia using direct normal irradiance data gathered in recent times. To undertake this assessment, a validated developed optical simulation using a ray‐tracing technique is employed to evaluate the maximum and average power output that may be gathered using a single HCPV unit in the primary regions and cities in the nation. Results indicate that the highest values for average and maximum annual power yield belong to the Western Inland area with one HCPV unit having a Fresnel lens with a 0.25×0.25 m2 aperture area, and those values are over 36 and 59 kWh, respectively. Concerning cities, Tabuk has HCPV unit producing the highest average annual yield greater than 39 kWh while the maximum annual yield crosses 60 kWh. Hence, the yearly electrical energy yield of 194 such units that use an area less than 12.2 m2 corresponds to approximately 33% of the electricity demanded yearly by a typical home in Saudi Arabia, which includes heavy energy‐consuming devices like air conditioners. Additionally, the estimated pollution potentially displaced by these units as per the global warming potential indicator is around eight tons of CO2 annually.

Impact of GHGs temporal dynamics on the GWP assessment of building materials: A case study on bio-based and non-bio-based walls

In a static Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the global warming potential (GWP) is calculated assuming Green House Gas (GHG) impact to be independent of their emission or uptake timing.This study investigates if this approach is adequate to fully capture the global warming impact (GWI) of building materials. Static LCA (sLCA) was compared to dynamic LCA (dLCA) on two case studies, a conventional wall made of concrete and mineral wool, and a bio-based wall made of wood and straw.The main results are:●sLCA do not allow to evaluate the real GWI of building materials. This might mislead the comparison of building materials.●GWP indicator might be estimated at 100- and 500-year-TH to better support mitigation in the building sector;●The relative metric in kgCO2 equivalent misleads conclusions. Absolute global warming indicators calculated with dLCA might be fairer to compare building materials’ GWI;●sLCA with at 100 years GWP indicator and a relative metric in kgCO2e, which is the approach currently used in the French building sector, disadvantages bio-based solutions compared to conventional ones;●dLCA applied to an alternative functional unit — maintaining a housing function during several centuries — demonstrates that temporary carbon storage induced by bio-based materials do not lead to dramatic carbon release for future generations.

Water Footprint Sustainability as a Tool to Address Climate Change in the Wine Sector: A Methodological Approach Applied to a Portuguese Case Study

In the Mediterranean region, climate change is likely to generate an increase in water demand and the deterioration of its quality. The adoption of precision viticulture and the best available techniques aiming at sustainable production, minimizing the impact on natural resources and reducing production costs, has therefore been a goal of winegrowers. In this work, the water footprint (WFP) in the wine sector was evaluated, from the vineyard to the bottle, through the implementation of a methodology based on field experiments and life cycle assessment (LCA) on two Portuguese case studies. Regarding direct water footprint, it ranged from 366 to 899 L/FU (0.75 L bottle), with green water being the most significant component, representing more than 50% of the overall water footprint. The approach used in the current study revealed that although more than 97.5% of the water footprint is associated with vineyard, the winery stage is responsible for more than 75% of the global warming potential indicator. A linear correlation between the carbon footprint and the indirect blue water footprint was also observed for both case studies. Climate change is expected to cause an earlier and prolonged water stress period, resulting in an increase of about 40% to 82% of blue WFP.

Comparative Global Warming Potential as Environment Protection Criteria of Production Systems: A Case Study of Philippine Chicken Meat Sector

Demand for chicken meat has been increasing tremendously over the years globally at an average 2.4% per annum and in the Philippines at an average of 3.4% per annum. In view of the sustainable development goal (SDG) 13: Climate Change, the chicken meat sector needs to embark on more efficient production. It is not just about producing enough food, but doing it in a sustainable way. This study aimed to demonstrate the identification, evaluation and comparison of the environmental impacts of Philippine chicken meat production systems. The analysis was done through the cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and supported with the global livestock environmental assessment model interactive (GLEAM-i) system. The study evaluated 4 production systems in various sites, namely A: intensive broiler operations; B: small-scale broiler operations with own organic feeds; C: backyard free-range operations with own organic feeds; and D: backyard free-range operations using commercial feeds. Based on a functional unit of 1kg carcass weight (CW), the respective equivalent global warming potential (GWP) were established. System A (5.0 kg CO2-eq kg-1 CW) has the lowest GWP, followed by B (5.15 kg CO2-eq kg-1 CW), D (9.79 kg CO2-eq kg-1 CW) and C (13.51 kg CO2-eq kg-1 CW). Through LCA, the identified improvement opportunities include using locally sourced alternative for feed ingredient for A; increasing production yield to maximize the fixed inputs for B and C; and using locally sourced feed alternatives and increasing production yield for D. Well-established GWP indicators can help in shaping production and consumption patterns. It can help producers in improving operations and in establishing transparency and competitive advantage. While for consumers, it can make them well-informed and empowered in making eco-conscious purchases. This can have a long-term effect on awareness and involvement in environmental protection initiatives among producers, consumers and other concerned groups.

Energy-environmental assessment of the UIA-OpenAgri case study as urban regeneration project through agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is strongly promoted by Agenda 2030 and peri-urban agriculture is considered strategic for agri-food sustainability. Although, innovative farming practices are being implemented, the analysis of their impacts often does not reach the required depth. Within the EU project ‘UIA-OpenAgri - New Skills for new Jobs in Peri-urban Agriculture’, a regeneration process of a peri-urban area in Milan (Italy) was started, through the development of an innovative food hub. 28 innovative foodchains are assessed by a Life Cycle Assessment approach based on primary data collected from the involved start-ups. Non-Renewable Cumulative Energy Demand and the Global Warming Potential indicators are assessed and coupled with the productive land indicator. To effectively support involved operators in planning sustainable agriculture practices, the results are presented with GIS maps and insights for improving economic sustainability of involved start-ups are presented.The study shows that the impacts related to the practices implemented (i.e. organic agriculture, including intercropping, agroforestry, ancient grains, etc.) decrease by an average of 55% in energy consumption and 65% on Global Warming Potential if compared to conventional ones. Then, these practices can provide a positive contribution to the Agenda 2030 goal of ensuring sustainable farm production practices.

Environmental assessment of Smart City Solutions using a coupled urban metabolism—life cycle impact assessment approach

The purpose of the study is to quantify the environmental performance of Smart City Solutions at urban system level and thus evaluate their contribution to develop environmentally sustainable urban systems. Further, the study illustrates how this quantification is conducted. The case city chosen in our modeling is Copenhagen, where seven Smart City Solutions are introduced: Green Roofs, Smart Windows, Pneumatic Waste Collection, Sensorized Waste Collection, Smart Water Meters, Greywater Recycling, and Smart Energy Grid. The assessment is conducted using a fused urban metabolism (UM)-life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, referred to as UM-LCA. The UM-LCA uses metabolic flows across an urban system as inputs and outputs in an LCA. All life cycle stages of the metabolic flows can be accounted for by using this approach and burden shifting from one stage to another is made quantifiable and hence transparent. The impact assessment is conducted using the ReCiPe method. The results obtained for the midpoint indicator, global warming potential (GWP), show reduced environmental performance effect at 75% relative to a business as usual reference scenario by introducing Smart Windows. Furthermore, the GWP indicator shows an environmental improvement of 10% for a Smart Energy Grid solution. Introduction of Pneumatic Waste Collection or Greywater Recycling reveals a minor negative performance effect of 0.76 and 0.70%, respectively, for GWP. The performance changes in terms of GWP for the remaining solutions are so small that these are expected to be within the uncertainty of the calculations. To obtain endpoint indicators (damages), the entire palette of ReCiPe indicators is included. The results of the endpoint indicator assessment yield a tendency similar to the one observed for climate change. It is found that the implementation of Smart City Solutions generally has a negative influence on the environmental sustainability performance of an urban system. The limited positive influence from the Smart City Solutions is due to burden shifting from the direct impacts of the urban system to embedded impacts which are out of sight for most policy makers. The influence of the Solutions on Copenhagen is generally small, due to a focus on reducing in areas that are not a large environmental burden in Copenhagen. The results are not sufficient to discard the idea of using Smart City Solutions to reduce environmental impacts, but highlight the importance of choosing solutions with the right focus and optimizing the design to best fit the intensions.

Precision of a Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment Approach Used in Eco-Rating of Mobile Phones

There is a lack of prescribed databases and approaches in place for performing comparable Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of smartphones and other electronic devices in a coherent manner. Hence there is a need within certain eco-rating initiatives for simplified, yet still precise enough, approaches that are expert independent. Here, five independently published Full LCAs (FLCA) of smartphones—and a metal content declaration of a tablet—are analyzed and compared with the simplified LCA method (Open Eco Rating LCA, OLCA) used by the open eco rating (OER) sustainability assessment. OLCA is described in detail. The comparisons use the same characterization factors that are used for climate change and abiotic resource depletion (ARD) midpoint impact categories. The tablet is only analyzed for the ARD indicator (ARDI). The results show that the difference between the FLCAs and the OLCA is up to 20% for the Global Warming Potential indicator (GWPI). The difference is explained by significantly different emission intensities used in FLCAs and OLCA, especially for integrated circuit and screen production. The life cycle use of metals relevant for ARDI is identified in one of the FLCAs of mobile phones, and used in OLCA and compared with the corresponding FLCA ARDI score. The total FLCA ARDI score is 67% (2.0 vs. 1.2 grams Sb—eq.) and 32% (4.98 vs. 3.76 grams Sb—eq.) higher than OLCA ARDI for the mobile phone and the tablet, respectively. The reason is that OLCA only captures a few of the most relevant metals (gold, silver, tin, indium, and tantalum) for the ARDI. However, cobalt—and to some degree copper and lithium—are significant gaps in the OLCA. The conclusion is that OLCA is an efficient and fair approach for LCAs that are focused on the GWPI of smartphones as the divergence to FLCA can easily be explained. However, the circular footprint formulae, renewable electricity options, and ARD characterization indices for cobalt, copper and lithium should be added to OLCA for further precision. The next step is to compare the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) FLCA method with OLCA for GWPI and ARDI evaluations of new smartphones. Moreover, the effect of adding more midpoint or single score indicators could be tested in OLCA.