Implementation Of Life Cycle Assessment Research Articles

Challenges in life cycle assessment implementation for construction environmental product declaration development: A mixed approach and global perspective

Environmental product declaration (EPD) is a valuable data source for building sustainability assessment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a critical element of EPD development, and it strongly impacts the reliability of the overall EPD environmental data. The increasing number of published EPDs necessitates a thorough examination of the challenges associated with LCA for EPD development to improve the quality assurance of EPDs. This study applied a mixed research approach, including a systematic literature review, focus group discussion and questionnaire survey to evaluate the challenges in LCA implementation for EPD development. The questionnaire administered to experts from 43 countries globally was analysed using qualitative and quantitative analytical techniques. The analysis showed that 73 % of the respondents are highly concerned about the data quality of LCA in EPD development. The study further revealed twenty-seven (27) significant challenges classified using exploratory factor analysis into seven groups ([1] Data Paucity, [2] Resource-intensive, [3] Data and Research, [4] Knowledge, [5] Methodological Limitations and People, [6] Technology, and [7] Data Integrity). The highly ranked challenges based on mean ranking include “Problems with data availability and quality for LCA”, “Lack of transparency in some of the existing LCA database and tools”, “Lack of country-specific inventory for LCA”, “The complexity and lack of knowledge about the uncertainty of data used in LCA” and “Lack of in-depth understanding and awareness of LCA”. The study also proposed strategies to resolve the challenges and holds vital implications for stakeholders within EPD development. In conclusion, it is observed that LCA for EPD development still faces significant challenges that require a tailored approach to improve the quality of LCA in EPD development.

Implementation of LCA in the Circular Economy context: methodological issues for application in PET packaging

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is nowadays one of the most applied methodologies for evaluating the potential environmental impacts of products and systems related to the plastic packaging sector. Nevertheless, the recent increasing interest on Circular Economy principles introduces challenges in its application, addressing towards adjustments to system boundaries and functional units. This research paper underscores the need for LCA models that are both dynamic, adaptable and capable of capturing both (i) the environmental performances of end-of-life processes and (ii) the quality of the materials obtained from them. To this aim, the main literature is taken as reference to compare chemical and mechanical recycling applied to PET. From the outcomes, the need of considering potential quality degradation resulting from increased recycling and reuse operations applied to the input material is well recognized. The study highlights the potential role of LCA to provide comprehensive information, thereby facilitating comparative assertions and offering valuable insights for informed decision-making and the development of sustainable policies within the plastic packaging industry.

Information-based Integration of Life Cycle Assessment into IT Landscapes of Manufacturing Companies

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the fundamental methods to facilitate effective decisions in sustainability transformation. However, the current implementation of LCA is inefficient due to detached software applications and manual data imports. Utilizing data from existing information systems offers the potential for a significant increase in efficiency. Existing approaches focus on prototypical implementations with a high level of detail but low transferability, or approaches only consider integration at the system level, whereby practical applicability is reduced. Therefore, this paper presents an information-based framework for integrating LCA software into the existing IT landscape of manufacturing companies with focusing on generic functions and a detailed information flow. The generic approach enables transferability, while the detailed information flows allow practical applicability.

Life cycle assessment modelling in Octave/Matlab: Hydrated lime manufacturing case study

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modelling of several scenarios are time consuming if performed manually and the results are typically calculated as a single time point estimate. Furthermore, uncertainty in the input variables is high, making comparisons between different solutions challenging. This work introduces an LCA-algorithm tool that improves upon existing commercial software by offering flexibility in considering various factors, such as probability density functions, parameter study, regression and optimisation requiring multiple scenarios. It enables the resolution of inventory problems and impact assessment calculations, following ISO 14040/44 standards, while allowing for easy simulation of different scenarios and boundary conditions.In this paper, LCA implementation strategy in Octave (freeware) and Matlab (proprietary) programming language is presented, following the Mathematical structure of the LCA algorithm. Special focus is on the implementation of the Inventory data manipulation and LCA impact analysis. In order to demonstrate the benefits and potentiality of this methodology, a theoretical case study for hydrated lime manufacturing industry in Europe is presented, developed under the European SUBLime network.A comparison with open source software OpenLCA is carried out to validate the presented Octave/Matlab development. Both methods delivered results with negligible relative errors in all evaluated impact categories. After the validation, a parametrized study on the fuel and electricity composition and consumption of the theoretical plant and influence of transport distances was carried out. Results demonstrate benefits of the Octave/Matlab implementation approach, especially when looking for strategies to improve sustainability indicators.

Life Cycle Assessment of construction materials: Methodologies, applications and future directions for sustainable decision-making

This review paper presents a comprehensive analysis of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies applied to construction materials. It begins with an introduction highlighting the significance of LCA in the construction industry, followed by an overview of LCA principles, phases and key parameters specific to construction materials. The methodological approaches utilised in LCA, including inventory analysis, impact assessment, normalisation, allocation methods and uncertainty analysis, are discussed in detail. The paper then provides a thorough review of LCA studies on various construction materials, such as cement, concrete, steel and wood, examining their life cycle stages and environmental considerations. The review also explores recent advances in LCA for construction materials, including circular economy principles, renewable alternatives, technological innovations and policy implications. The challenges and future directions in LCA implementation for construction materials are discussed, emphasising the need for data quality, standardisation, social aspects integration and industry-research collaboration. The provides valuable insights for researchers, policymakers and industry professionals to enhance sustainability in the construction sector through informed decision-making based on LCA.

Implementation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the Procurement Process of Buildings: A Systematic Literature Review

The construction industry adds a high share to global CO2 emissions and, thus, to the global climate crisis. Future buildings need to be planned, constructed, operated, and deconstructed in a lifecycle-oriented manner so that the building stock represents a capital asset for future generations. The greatest leverages for reducing a building’s CO2 emissions lie in the early project phase and subsequently in the tendering and awarding process, which makes early Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) indispensable. In this study, we set a sociological research framework consisting of (i) choosing a research topic, (ii) conducting a literature review, (iii) measuring variables and gathering data, (iv) analyzing data, and (v) drawing a conclusion. Since there are countless studies that apply LCA in the construction sector for environmental assessment, emission reduction, or decision support, we posed the question of whether LCA was also applied in the public building tendering and awarding process. Furthermore, we focused on identifying obstacles to LCA implementation in this early project phase. Therefore, we applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The results show that numerous articles focused on sustainable tendering or green public procurement in the construction industry; however, the LCA method is scarcely used in the procurement processes (19 articles in the final sample). Based on our findings, the main obstacles to LCA implementation in the procurement process are highlighted in the study. In the future, the mandatory integration of LCA into the procurement process will be crucial to reduce the CO2 emissions generated by the construction industry and thus contribute to the EU climate target plan to ensure carbon neutrality by 2050.

Research Progress in Life Cycle Assessment for Sustainable Manufacturing Industries: A Bibliometric Analysis

Many tools for analysing the sustainability of manufacturing industries, such as life cycle assessment (LCA), have been created as the debate over sustainable manufacturing has grown. A bibliometric analysis is conducted for a scientific paper in Scopus databases on the subject of LCA, focusing on studies related to manufacturing industries from a sustainable point of view. This study compiled a portfolio of papers on LCA-based sustainable manufacturing industries. In the present study, a total of 133 publications are found from the Scopus database between the periods when LCA was added in the ISO series (1997) to 2020. The study was carried out using R studio and the Bibliometrix R package. The primary data for the present study is collected from the database of Scopus in BibTex format, after which is analysed in R studio for exploration using the command. The annual scientific production of Life cycle Sustainability Assessment papers is discovered, with a 13.39 % increase in article publication. According to the findings, developed countries produced the most publications compared to developing nations. When comparing a number of publications, India ranks fourth. According to the thematic analysis, the bulk of papers tried to examine manufacturing industries' environmental implications. However, other publications have combined LCA with additional methodologies to provide a more comprehensive analysis that considers the social and economic pillars of sustainable manufacturing. The study also emphasises the importance of LCA in manufacturing process decision-making. There are numerous novel contributions, such as categorising published data using scientific indexes and bibliometrics, describing the main research approaches, and highlighting future research opportunities to provide academics and practitioners with an overview of LCA implementation in the field of sustainable Manufacturing industries.

Ex-ante life cycle assessment and scale up: A protein production case study

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-known tool that has been able to provide insights into the environmental impact and hotspots of systems and technologies that are established in the market. Nevertheless, both for emerging processes that are only available at laboratory or pilot scale and when more future oriented in its perspective, the application of LCA becomes more complex and difficult. There is as of yet no consensus in the literature on how to conduct ex-ante LCA and many challenges discussed in the literature have yet to be cleared. This paper aims to highlight the implementation of ex-ante LCA with a specific focus on upscaling processes from laboratory to industrial scale. A new production process of proteins obtained from rapeseed cake serves as a case study to illustrate both the challenges encountered as well as the value and necessity of future oriented LCA, LCC and scaleup. The challenges found in this work include data availability, unknown final uses and functions, complexity of upscaling, and uncertainty. The results show a strong difference between laboratory scale and industrial scale costs and impacts, which are when upscaled lower compared to the impact of other protein sources, thus uncovering the environmental benefits of protein obtained from rapeseed cake.

An overview of LCA applied to various membrane technologies: Progress, challenges, and harmonization

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been developed to assess the possible environmental impact of a system over its life cycle. As LCA provides information on how to create a more sustainable infrastructure while also recognizing environmental hotspots, there is a growing interest in the sustainability of membrane treatment systems, especially for wastewater treatment (WWT). As a result, it is critical to revisit previous research to identify the challenges and accomplishments in implementing LCA for membrane systems. This paper provides a thorough review of 57 previous studies on the LCA of membrane systems for WWT. The collection of previous LCA studies was based on articles published between 2000 and 2020, where the progress, trends, challenges, and potential harmonization were explored using content analysis. Membrane bioreactor (MBR) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are the frequently studied systems concerning environmental impact. The review of articles was bound by the main frameworks of ISO norms and revealed differences in defining the functional unit, system boundaries, impact evaluation categories, and method of testing LCA, making comparisons difficult. The inconsistencies in defining the impact evaluation and methods used for certain papers, in addition to the lack of LCA studies in some geographical areas, are some of the difficulties addressed and illustrated in this paper. To ensure reliability and reproducibility, a more standardized implementation of LCA should be considered, allowing its adoption on new and existing membrane systems. • A total of 57 LCA studies on the LCA of membrane systems for WWT were reviewed. • Various aspects of LCA studies on membrane systems for WWT were evaluated. • Content analysis was used to explore the LCA studies of membrane systems for WWT. • The progress, trends, challenges and potential harmonization were discussed.

Enablers for facilitating life cycle assessment: key stakeholder perspectives of Sri Lankan construction industry

PurposeDespite the desire to improve the sustainability of the construction industry, Sri Lanka is still plagued by the low-level adoption of essential methods such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in building and infrastructure delivery. It is indispensable to investigate enablers for facilitating LCA because identification of enablers is a crucial step in the implementation of LCA. This study aims to analyze internal and external enablers for facilitating LCA for the Sri Lankan construction industry from the perspective of five stakeholder categories (academia, government, construction industry, society and environmentalists) and also aims to develop strategies to strengthen the enablers.Design/methodology/approachAn explanatory research design was used. The five stakeholder categories identified above, whose contribution is essential for implementing LCA in Sri Lanka, were selected for data collection. A total of 20 semi-structured interviews were held representing each stakeholder category. The Repertory Grid Interview (RGI) technique was utilized and data analysis was performed using content analysis.FindingsThe results revealed that “ability to identify opportunities for environmental improvements as an extremely important internal enabler for all stakeholder categories” and “the positive growth in the country to achieve environmental sustainability”, “the availability of standardized LCA guides and handbooks” as extremely important external enablers for all stakeholder categories for facilitating LCA in the Sri Lankan construction industry. Further, strategies including making people aware of the LCA concept and development of the LCA database, etc. were proposed to strengthen the enablers.Practical implicationsKnowledge generated through this study would enable the abovementioned stakeholders to make informed decisions to promote the implementation of LCA in the Sri Lankan construction industry. Further, the results of this study have raised awareness of the issues that Sri Lanka will need to solve to expand the LCA applications.Originality/valueSo far, research on LCA has not looked into enablers that can facilitate the implementation of LCA in the Sri Lankan construction industry. This research provides a comprehensive view of the internal and external enablers for facilitating LCA from the perspective of five stakeholder categories and identifies enablers that led the abovementioned stakeholders to pursue the implementation of LCA in the Sri Lankan construction industry. The study also proposes strategies for strengthening the enablers.

Understanding Current Challenges in Evaluating Environmental Impacts for Aggregate Producers through a Case Study in Western Sweden

To improve environmental performance of a product or activity, an understanding of the environmental impacts associated with it is needed. Quantification of environmental impacts can be achieved through the standardized measurement-based tool of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, challenges occur when trying to apply a standardized tool to a nonstandardized industry such as the aggregate industry. This study aims to provide greater understanding of the challenges facing the aggregate industry, particularly producers, in applying LCA. This was conducted through a literature review, to establish the current understanding of challenges, accompanied by a case study where a site-specific LCA was conducted with a large enterprise at a crushed-rock-production facility in western Sweden, to gain new industry-specific insight. A total of 13 challenges were identified: seven methodological and six systemic. Out of these 13 challenges, 3 were deemed a high risk to the implementation of LCA by aggregate producers, and 3 to the integrity of results. A best-practice framework is suggested to incorporate LCA into current environmental management techniques utilized at quarry sites in Sweden to overcome some challenges. However, LCA used for environmental management should not lead to double work if LCA is being utilized for Environmental Product Declarations, and further research is encouraged to find appropriate solutions with the most efficient allocation of the resources needed in conducting LCA studies.

The ICCEE Toolbox. A Holistic Instrument Supporting Energy Efficiency of Cold Food and Beverage Supply Chains

Abstract Cold supply chains of food and beverage sectors represent one of the main drivers of the EU total final energy consumption. Within this context, food quality losses, changes in temperature regimes, energy use, environmental burdens, and the economic viability of energy efficiency measures are essential aspects to consider for improving cold supply chains’ overall sustainability. This paper presents a dedicated toolbox, developed within the Horizon 2020 project ICCEE, for supporting decision-making and actors to assess energy efficiency path within a specific type of food cold-supply (i.e., meat, fish, milk and cheese products, fruits, and vegetables). More in specific the toolbox offers support for decision-makers to understand and minimize the specific energy consumption, to decrease the overall environmental impact even including non-energy benefit evaluation many times underestimated. The six separated tools merged within a unique toolbox consider different methodological approaches such as: assessment of the whole energy requirements in stock and flows considering the storage impact, the logistics and quality losses over time, implementation of Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle costs within the environmental and financial assessment of energy efficiency measures, based on a benchmarking approach. Finally, a specific approach implementing Multi Criteria Analysis was developed on selected key performance indicators such as specific and cumulated energy consumptions, quality losses and environmental burdens (i.e., global warming potential and water scarcity). The latest version of the ICCEE toolbox is available as free downloadable package on the ICCEE website.

Implications of the building system boundary definition to conduct an LCA. A case study comparison of two frameworks for assessing building sustainability: DGNB and Level(s)

The embodied impacts calculation is increasing attention in research, and the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the most widely recognised method for that purpose. To support architects and engineers in the use of LCA and to overcome the complexity of calculations in design stage practice, different frameworks for assessing building sustainability propose to conduct simplified LCA methods. Nevertheless, LCA implementation in these frameworks is not completely harmonised, causing problems of inaccuracy and incomplete assessments that generate incomparability among case studies and even possible deviations to achieve carbonneutral scenarios. There, the system boundary definition is a key step. The present paper aimed to illustrate its implications, analysing the implementation of the LCA in a building envelope of a certified passive house located in Italy. Two building sustainability frameworks, DGNB and Level(s), are used to identify how the system boundary definition influences the impact assessment results. The study keeps LCA methodological assumptions (data sources, impact categories, characterisation methods, and indicators) constant to allow a comparison focused on the system boundary implications (such as the modularity principle of LCA). The results show the margins and reduction percentages that can be achieved by the two different assessment frameworks. Finally, limitations and challenges related to methodological aspects in the use of simplified LCA to calculate the impacts of a Passive House building are addressed.

Stakeholders’ perspectives on BIM and LCA for green buildings

There is growing concern about the environmental impacts of buildings on climate change. In this regard, the concept of integrating building technologies and environmental assessment methods, namely Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), has arisen as an innovative approach to improve building environmental assessment at the design phase. Recent studies made attempts to develop theoretical frameworks for BIM and LCA integration focusing on the technical aspects and the challenges of this integration. However, the stakeholders' perspectives on this integration of BIM and LCA for building environmental assessment have been overlooked. Therefore, there is a pressing need to understand the stakeholders' perspectives on BIM and LCA and their value for improving green building design and assessment. This study contributes to the existing knowledge on the potential implementation of an integrated BIM-LCA framework for building environmental assessment. To this end, this study investigates (1) the current applications of BIM and LCA in green buildings from the stakeholders' perspectives and (2) the stakeholders' level of awareness and agreement on the significance of BIM and LCA for green building design and assessment. In order to achieve this goal, a national survey was conducted among multiple stakeholders in the New Zealand building industry. The results indicate that BIM and LCA applications for green buildings are still immature. A statistically significant correlation is observed between the importance of BIM and LCA applications for green buildings. The stakeholders perceive BIM and LCA potentials and their integration positively. However, the current practices and applications of BIM and LCA do not align with the stakeholders’ perceptions. Massive efforts are still required for a wide implementation of BIM and LCA and their potential integration for green buildings.

Implementation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost Life (LCC) on Particle Board Wood Furniture Industry in Yogyakarta

CV. Limase Laras is a wood furniture industry in Yogyakarta that has increased production. The company uses electrical energy which contributes to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and produces solid waste of sawdust in the production process. On the other hand, with the large assets and high sales of the company, it is important to conduct financial analysis thus the company does not make wrong decisions. Based on these problems, the methods used in this study are Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate environmental impacts and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) to analyze life cycle costs. From the LCA analysis, sawdust waste is the highest impact by producing four environmental impacts, namely, global warming (936 x 10-2 kg CO2-eq), aquatic eutrophication (2.12 x 10-3 kg NO3-eq), photochemical ozone formation that affects humans (9.04 x 10-3 person*ppm*hours), and photochemical ozone formation that affects plants (113 m2 UES). From the LCC analysis, the NPV value is Rp8,278,512,276.00, which means that the bookshelf production process provides benefits for the company. The B/C net value is 37.9, which means that the bookshelf is beneficial. However, the bookshelf production process will be not feasible to continue if the company experiences a 40% decrease in annual revenue.

전과정평가 전문가 양성을 위한 교육과정에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to develop a systematic training program for nurturing experts in response to the increasing demand for life cycle assessment (LCA). In this study, in order to design a training model for nurturing life cycle evaluation experts, a current status survey was conducted on domestic and overseas LCA and LCI DB training courses, and problems and improvement measures were derived in the domestic curriculum. So the training curriculum was presented by dividing it into a beginner's education for future LCA implementation and an expert course for building LCI DB.

Life cycle design and efficiency strategy for sustainable membrane technology

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an assessment tool to evaluate the potential environmental impact of a system or product throughout its life cycle. Results from LCA provides an insight on developing a more sustainable system while identifying its environmental hotspots. With recent advancements in membrane treatment systems especially for wastewater treatment (WWT), there is a rising interest in its sustainability aspect. Thus, it is crucial to review on previous published studies to highlight the challenges and achievements in implementing LCA for the membrane system. Hence, this paper presents a review of 33 recent papers published from year 2017-2020 conducting LCA on membrane systems for WWT. Bounded by the key frameworks of ISO standards, the analysis of papers showed variance in defining its functional unit, system boundaries, impact assessment categories and method to evaluate LCA, which makes it a challenge to do comparison. Some of the challenges discussed and highlighted in this paper include the inconsistencies in specifying the impact assessment and methodology used for some journals and the lack of LCA study in certain regional areas. A more uniform implementation of LCA should be considered to ensure the reliability and reproducibility of results to allow adoptions on novel or existing membrane systems.

Life Cycle Assessment on Construction and Demolition Waste: A Systematic Literature Review

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered an innovative tool to analyze environmental impacts to make decisions aimed at improving the environmental performance of building materials and construction processes throughout different life cycle stages, including design, construction, use, operation, and end-of-life (EOL). Therefore, during the last two decades, interest in applying this tool in the construction field has increased, and the number of articles and studies has risen exponentially. However, there is a lack of consolidated studies that provide insights into the implementation of LCA on construction and demolition waste (C&DW). To fill this research gap, this study presents a literature review analysis to consolidate the most relevant topics and issues in the research field of C&DW materials and how LCA has been implemented during the last two decades. A systematic literature search was performed following the PRISMA method: analysis of selected works is based on bibliometric and content-based approaches. As a result, the study characterized 150 selected works in terms of the evolution of articles per year, geographical distribution, most relevant research centers, and featured sources. In addition, this study highlights research gaps in terms of methodological and design tools to improve LCA analysis, indicators, and connection to new trending concepts, such as circular economy and industry 4.0.

Environmental assessment of construction and demolition waste recycling in Bolivia: Focus on transportation distances and selective collection rates.

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) management in developing countries is a global concern. The analysis of scenarios and the implementation of life cycle assessment (LCA) support decision-makers in introducing integrated CDW management systems. This paper introduces the application of an LCA in La Paz (Bolivia), where CDW is mainly dumped in open areas. The aim of the research is to evaluate the benefits of inert CDW recycling in function of the selective collection rate, defined as the amount of waste (%wt.) sorted at the source in relation to the total waste amount produced, and the distances from the CDW generation to the material recycling facility. The outcomes of the research suggest that increasing the selective collection rates (5% to 99%) spread the importance of transportation distances planning since it affects the magnitude of the environmental impacts (1.05 tCO2-eq to 20.7 tCO2-eq per km traveled). Transportation limits have been found to be lower than about 40 km in order to make recycling beneficial for all environmental impacts and for all selective collection rate, with the eutrophication potential as the limiting indicator. The theoretical analysis suggests implementing LCA with primary data and involving statistics related to the transportation of virgin materials avoided thanks to recycling. The outcomes of the research support the implementation of CDW recycling in developing countries since it has been found that material recovery is always beneficial.

Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of multistorey building: Attributional and consequential perspectives

Buildings are accountable for much of the resource consumption and CO2 emissions generated from human activities. Nonetheless, the focus of building life cycle assessment (LCA) studies to evaluate the environmental footprint are more commonly adopted in an attributional approach. Nevertheless, understanding a direct and indirect consequences in larger system using consequential approach is also needed for policy-making. Rather small body of existing literature has been found on the implementation of consequential LCA and life cycle costing (LCC) in the building sector. In this study, attributional and consequential approach are performed for hybrid wood multistorey building. The results showed that with attributional approach, the phase that contributed the environmental impacts the most in climate change category is the production phase yet it became the use phase if consequential approach is used. By performing consequential LCA-LCC the possible hidden impacts can be uncovered and sufficient insights into the indirect impacts can be seen, thereby offering stakeholders the opportunity to avoid such future consequences.