Life Cycle Sustainability Research Articles

Sectorial Investigation of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Context of Case Studies

The emergence of the concept of sustainability has brought with it the challenge of measuring this concept. Over the years, methods have been developed to assess the environmental impacts of sustainability using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), evaluate its economic impacts through Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and analyze its social impacts with Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) aims to obtain more holistic and comprehensive results by considering these three dimensions of sustainability together. This study examines the place of the LCSA approach in the literature and its application in different sectors. Case studies from various sectors and the other methods used in these processes were analyzed. The findings indicate that the construction and energy sectors have the most case studies using the LCSA method, while product design lags behind. Evaluating the sustainability of products before mass production is crucial for sustainable product design. Therefore, increasing the use of LCSA in product design is considered a significant step toward achieving sustainability goals.

Life cycle sustainability assessment of kerbside glass recycling: Separate vs. mixed bin collection and its reuse in asphalt and glass container production

This paper pilots a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) to scrutinize the sustainability performance of kerbside waste glass recycling alternatives in a local municipality, where three major innovations are underlined. First, the study utilizes the LCSA method to evaluate the sustainability impact of street collection methods on waste glass recycling, which examines both open-loop and closed-loop recycling processes. Second, the study overcomes a common difficulty in sustainability assessment, where environmental and economic impacts are more accessible to quantify, but social impact often lacks a clear functional unit for assessment. This research addressed this gap, ensuring a holistic evaluation. Third, the study introduces an innovative way to visualize the findings from the LCSA. This visualization technique makes the results easily understandable to all stakeholders, enhancing the comprehensibility of multifaceted data. Two street collection methods (separate and mixed bin collection) are combined with two production methods (asphalt and glass container) to form four kerbside waste glass recycling scenarios. It also employs two functional units, weights of annually collected glass waste and 1 ton of produced asphalt or glass container, to demonstrate the LCSA-generated results under different perspectives. Evaluating the annual waste glass collection in the mixed bins implies better environmental, economic, and social outcomes than separate bins. In 1 ton of products, asphalt production is more sustainable environmentally and economically than glass container production. Separate bins enhance glass container production's environmental and economic sustainability by greater than 80%, but they have a minimal 5–6% improvement on asphalt production. A similar trend in social sustainability is indicated for asphalt and glass container production. However, a significant decline in social sustainability is observed when transitioning to separate bins from mixed bins methods. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses show that a 50% increase in transportation distance results in minor impacts: CO2 emissions increase by 7% for separate bin-asphalt and 4% for mixed bin-asphalt, and by 0.8% for separate bin-glass container and 0.7% for mixed bin-glass container. Equipment costs also increase slightly: 3.6% for separate bin-asphalt, 4.7% for mixed bin-asphalt, 3.4% for separate bin-glass containers, and 1% for mixed bin-glass containers. These results underscore the robustness of the LCSA findings.

Systematic Review of Construction Waste Management Scenarios: Informing Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis

Abstract Purpose Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is increasing due to rapid urbanization. An estimated 35% of CDW is disposed of in landfills worldwide. Thus all available strategies for minimizing the environmental and economic impacts of CDW are explored. This study reviews the use of recycled construction and demolition waste as substitutes for primary materials as well as strategies for the reuse of materials that lead to the circular economy. The aim of this study is to analyse previous literature on CDW that use life cycle analysis and contribute to the circular economy. Methodology A bibliometric analysis and systematic critical review is presented to investigate the contribution of construction materials to life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). The Scopus database was the main source of data reviewed. The geographical distribution, main research sources, and keywords co-occurrence were analyzed for 69 peer-reviewed articles and conference papers. Findings Most studies compared the life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) of alternative concrete recycling methods or using waste instead of aggregates in concrete. Recycling or reuse of concrete, bricks, wood, gypsum, and steel are the most common materials studied in previous research. A knowledge gap is proposed for future research. Originality The knowledge gaps identified focus on wood waste and concrete. Currently it is not clear which of the options proposed is the most sustainable.

Sustainability Assessment Methods for the Transport Sector Considering the Life Cycle Concept—A Review

This paper presents a summary and review of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methods for the transport sector. The paper provides a comprehensive overview of articles that employ a variety of methods for assessing sustainable development in the transport sector, taking into account the economic, social, and environmental dimensions. In the sustainability assessment of transport, three methods were evaluated: life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost analysis (LCC), and social life cycle assessment (SLCA). An overview of sustainability assessment methods in transport and a review of the indicators used in the life cycle sustainability assessment was conducted. It was found that the selection of indicators within the LCSA for assessing various aspects of sustainable development is dependent on various geographic and policy contexts. An overview of the application of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods to assess LCSA in the transport sector was performed. MCDA methods are used to support decision-making regarding the selection of the most sustainable transport options and allow for the simultaneous consideration of multiple criteria, enabling a more sustainable assessment of different transport options. MCDA methods help to rank alternative transportation fuels and help decision-makers consider indicators encompassing economic, environmental and social aspects.

Estimating the market share of electric motorcycles: A system dynamics approach with the policy mix and sustainable life cycle costs

Introducing electric vehicles is critical to maintaining air quality and reducing carbon emissions. The Indonesian government has issued several regulations to stimulate the diffusion of electric vehicles. This research attempts to forecast the electric vehicle market share, especially electric motorcycles, by involving the policy mix and sustainable life cycle costs. We propose a system dynamics approach that takes into account a policy mix including 0% down payment without credit interest subsidies, tax abolition, expansion of charging station network, and sustainable life cycle costs, i.e., total cost of ownership, social, and environment. The system dynamics model has four modules: the electric motorcycle cost, the conventional motorcycle cost, the economy module, and the consumer market. The simulation results show that the electric motorcycle market share will increase positively in 2021–2030, reaching 5.7% in 2030. Based on the scenario simulation results, providing more charging stations and vehicle tax abolition can significantly boost the market share of electric motorcycles in Indonesia. The study provides valuable insights for policymakers in formulating more appropriate policy instruments to promote electric vehicle diffusion in Indonesia.

Performance investigation of a solar-driven cascaded phase change heat storage cross-seasonal heating system for plateau applications

The mismatch between solar radiation resources and building heating demand on a seasonal scale makes cross-seasonal heat storage a crucial technology, especially for plateau areas. Utilizing phase change materials with high energy density and stable heat output effectively improves energy storage efficiency. This study integrates cascaded phase change with a cross-seasonal heat storage system aimed at achieving low-carbon heating. The simulation analyzes heat distribution and temperature changes from the heat storage system to the heating terminal. The results indicate that although the solar collectors operate for 26.3% of the total heat storage and heating period, the cumulative heat stored is 45.4% higher than the total heating load. Heat transferred by the cross-seasonal heat storage system accounts for up to 61.2% of the total heating load. Therefore, the system reduces fuel consumption by 77.6% compared to conventional fossil fuel heating systems. Moreover, radiant floor heating terminals, with a wide range of operating temperatures, match well with cascaded phase change heat storage and can reduce operation time by 19.5% and heat demand by 5.2% compared to conventional radiators. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of applying cascaded phase change technology in cross-seasonal heat storage heating, this study reveals the lifecycle sustainability due to the shortened heat storage period. The configuration, parameters, and simulation results provide a reference basis for system application and design.

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: An Index System for Building Energy Retrofit Projects

As a major contributor to global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, the building sector is crucial in shaping energy and climate change policies. Understanding building energy consumption is essential for developing effective policies, and comprehensive datasets and analyses are increasingly important. This paper outlines a structured methodology for developing a sustainability assessment index for building energy efficiency retrofits throughout a building’s life cycle, covering the design, construction, use, and out-of-use phases. It highlights the interdependencies among these phases, with the design plan influencing energy efficiency and material selection, the construction plan ensuring these goals are met, and the plans for energy management, demolition, and resource recovery focusing on sustainable practices. The keys to energy-efficient retrofits are sustainable materials, energy-efficient equipment, and green technologies, which help reduce energy consumption, emissions, and operating costs. Oversight and regulation are necessary to maintain standards. This research combines a literature review, surveys, interviews, the Delphi method, and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to develop a comprehensive evaluation system, categorizing 20 factors across a building’s life cycle and assigning weights based on environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The system provides a scientific basis for assessing the sustainability of energy efficiency programs, validated through consistency testing.

Does the electric vehicle promotion policy drive Thailand's passenger transport towards environmental sustainability?

Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered an alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) for promoting sustainable transport, with environmental benefits depending on many local factors. This study performed a comprehensive life cycle assessment of passenger transport in major urban areas of Thailand, encompassing on-road, metro trains, and inland water transport, to determine the benefits of EV deployment. The findings showed that the vehicle life cycle (manufacture, maintenance, and disposal) was a significant contributor to human health and ecosystem quality impacts when comparing across transport life cycle phases in both ICEVs and EVs. Among private vehicles, with the current electricity mix, EVs had impacts on human health and ecosystem quality comparable to small-size ICEVs. At the projected 2037 electricity mix, the EVs will have lower impacts on human health, ecosystem quality and resource scarcity in comparison with the ICEVs. In scenario analysis, when considering only on-site emissions, it was found that private EV promotion had an environmental cost by about 16–43 % lower than the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, depending on the rate of EV adoption, while shifting to public electric buses or metro trains had a lower environmental cost by 21 % and 23 % compared to BAU, respectively. If assessing the full transport life cycle, shifting to public electric buses or metro trains had a lower environmental cost (22–23 %) than the promotion of EVs with current electricity mix (14 %). The effectiveness of environmental impact mitigation through deployment of private EVs might increase to a comparable level with public electric bus or metro train shifts when Thailand achieves the electricity mix target with 34 % of renewable energy in 2037.

AI-DRIVEN CIRCULARITY INDEX: A COMPREHENSIVE METRIC FOR EVALUATING PRODUCT LIFECYCLE SUSTAINABILITY

Sophisticated instruments are required for the analysis of sustainability in a product in all its complexity during a transition towards a circular economy. In this respect, the new metric presented in this article is the AI-driven Circularity Index, which assesses product circularity according to four dimensions: material selection, modular design, recyclability, and resource efficiency. This index-powered by machine learning - provides predictive insights and actionable recommendations toward product lifecycle sustainability, hence adding a more solid solution to the more pressing issues of traditional linear economic models.

Mapping and Assessing Urban Agriculture in São Paulo: Tackling Socio-Economic and Environmental Issues through Nature-Based Solutions

Inefficient urban transformations pose multifaceted challenges. In this context, urban agriculture (UA) can address environmental and socio-economic issues. Despite recent UA policies in São Paulo, the lack of data hampers comprehensive evaluations, highlighting the need for robust indicators to enhance environmental sustainability. This article assesses São Paulo’s UA potential using an Ecosystem Services (ES)-based approach, combining ES spatial mapping and a producer survey at 49 UA sites. Results show natural habitats and anthropic areas within urbanised land, especially in the south, with high habitat quality scores. Nine ES were identified: food supply, commercialisation, income generation, waste mediation, lifecycle maintenance, soil formation, leisure/social, well-being, and education. Utilising mixed methods, this study provides innovative insights into ES related to UA in São Paulo, offering valuable input for urban policies and planning.

Advances in Sustainable Battery Technologies: Enhancing Longevity, Recycling, and Alternative Components-- A Review

The field of sustainable battery technologies is rapidly evolving, with significant progress in enhancing battery longevity, recycling efficiency, and the adoption of alternative components. This review highlights recent advancements in electrode materials, focusing on silicon anodes and sulfur cathodes. Silicon anodes improve capacity through lithiation and delithiation processes, while sulfur cathodes offer high energy density, despite inherent challenges. Recycling technologies are also advancing, with mechanical methods achieving 60% efficiency, hydrometallurgical processes reaching 75%, and pyrometallurgical methods achieving 85% efficiency. These improvements in recycling contribute to a more sustainable lifecycle for batteries. Moreover, the shift towards alternative components, such as organic batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and solid-state batteries, is gaining momentum, representing 10%, 20%, and 15% of the market, respectively. These alternatives address environmental concerns and enhance battery performance and reliability. These developments underscore the importance of ongoing innovation in electrode materials and recycling technologies to overcome current challenges. As the industry continues to evolve, these advancements pave the way for more efficient and environmentally friendly energy storage solutions, promising a sustainable future for battery technologies.

Batteries for electric vehicles: Technical advancements, environmental challenges, and market perspectives

AbstractThe rapid evolution of electric vehicles (EVs) highlights the critical role of battery technology in promoting sustainable transportation. This review offers a comprehensive introduction to the diverse landscape of batteries for EVs. In particular, it examines the impressive array of available battery technologies, focusing on the predominance of lithium‐based batteries, such as lithium‐ion and lithium‐metal variants. Additionally, it explores battery technologies beyond lithium (“post‐lithium”), including aluminum, sodium, and magnesium batteries. The potential of solid‐state batteries is also discussed, along with the current status of various battery types in EV applications. The review further addresses end‐of‐life treatment strategies for EV batteries, including reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling, which are essential for mitigating the environmental impact of batteries and ensuring sustainable lifecycle management. Finally, market perspectives and potential future research directions for battery technologies in EVs are also discussed.

Looking beyond energy efficiency targets: Life cycle sustainability of mechanical and water heating equipment in Canadian homes

The building sector's impacts on climate are widely acknowledged, leading to policies and standards promoting energy-efficient buildings. In order to achieve sustainability in a holistic sense, the environmental, social, and economic impacts of equipment used in buildings need to be evaluated. In this regard, a novel decision support framework is introduced to evaluate the heating and cooling equipment in single-family detached homes. Energy simulation, life cycle environmental, social, and economic analyses, and a multi-criteria decision-making method are used to identify the most sustainable set of equipment. This framework is demonstrated through its application on mechanical and water heating equipment in three existing residential buildings of varying energy efficiencies (low, medium, and high, the latter being net-zero home) over a 50-year study period.The results indicate that the carbon footprint of a natural gas furnace is six times higher than that of other equipment. In contrast, the drain water heat recovery unit showed the lowest impacts attributed to lower material and energy usage. For most equipment, the product stage accounted for more than 50% of the total impacts. When grouped, the equipment in the low-efficiency home showed the highest environmental impacts, while the equipment in the medium-efficiency home had higher social and economic impacts. Overall, the equipment set in a net-zero home is the best choice under equal, pro-social, and pro-economic scenarios and only lags behind the equipment set in a medium-efficiency home for pro-environmental scenario. The work will help improve sustainable building policies beyond immediate energy and operational cost savings.

Challenges and opportunities to advance manufacturing research for sustainable battery life cycles

Advanced manufacturing research for sustainable battery life cycles is of utmost importance to reach net zero carbon emissions (European Commission, 2023a) as well as several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), for example: 30% reduction of CO2 emission, 10 million job opportunities and access to electricity for 600 million people (World Economic Forum, 2019). This editorial paper highlights international motivations for pursuing more sustainable manufacturing practices and discusses key research topics in battery manufacturing. Batteries will be central to our sustainable future as generation and storage become key components to on-demand energy supply. Four underlying themes are identified to address industrial needs in this field: 1. Digitalizing and automating production capabilities: data-driven solutions for production quality, smart maintenance, automation, and human factors, 2. Human-centric production: extended reality for operator support and skills development, 3. Circular battery life cycles: circular battery systems supported by service-based and other novel business models, 4. Future topics for battery value chains: increased industrial resilience and transparency with digital product passports, and next-generation battery chemistries. Challenges and opportunities along these themes are highlighted for transforming battery value chains through circularity and more sustainable production, with a particular emphasis on lithium-ion batteries (LIB). The paper concludes with directions for further research to advance a circular and sustainable battery value chain through utilizing the full potential of digitalization realising a cleaner, more energy-efficient society.

Improving the Decision-Making for Sustainable Demolition Waste Management by Combining a Building Information Modelling-Based Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Framework and Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Aiding Approach

Increasing efforts have been devoted to promoting sustainable demolition waste management (DWM) from a life cycle thinking perspective. To this end, facilitating sustainability-oriented decision-making for DWM planning requires a sustainability assessment framework for assessing the trade-offs among multifaceted criteria. This study develops a BIM-based DWM sustainability assessment approach to facilitate the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) and decision-making by integrating LCSA-related properties and hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Aiding (MCDA) methods into a BIM environment using Dynamo visual scripting. A dynamic linkage is developed in the streamlined BIM-based LCSA process, where the enriched Industry Foundation Class (IFC) models are coupled with custom LCSA data templates to achieve seamless data exchange between the BIM platform and external LCA tools. Subsequently, hybrid MCDA methods convert the assessment results into DWM scenario ranking. A pilot study verifies the applicability of the BIM-based framework. The results unveil that the sustainability score ascended with the recycling rate. The optimal DWM alternative with the highest recycling rate yields the highest sustainability score at 91.63. Conversely, a DWM alternative reflecting the ‘status quo’ in China’s recycling industry has the lowest score at 8.37, significantly lower than the baseline scenario with a 50% recycling rate. It is worth noting that the ‘growth curve’ of the sustainability score continuously flattens as the target recycling rate escalates. The increment in recycling rate from the “Australian standard” scenario to the optimal scenario is 18.4%, whereas the sustainability score merely increases by 2.3%, implying that the former scenario arrived at an optimum point for maximising the cost-efficiency of DWM under the predefined settings.

Assessing the circularity and sustainability of circular carpets — a demonstration of circular life cycle sustainability assessment

Abstract Purpose Robust assessments are needed to identify the best circular economy (CE) approaches related to their contribution to achieving a CE by simultaneously considering the complexity of the three pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic, social). In this regard, the circular life cycle sustainability assessment (C-LCSA) framework was recently developed. This study aimed to demonstrate its applicability and capability of identifying trade-offs and interlinkages between the different dimensions using a case study of different CE approaches to carpet tiles. Methods C-LCSA integrates circularity and life cycle sustainability assessments (LCSA). Thus, this study applied the material circularity indicator (MCI) in parallel to life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). The last technique was applied as social hotspot assessment. Five CE approaches of carpet tiles produced in the US, including strategies like reducing the consumption of primary materials through recycled and bio-based feedstock or replacing carpet tiles for a longer overall service life, as well as recycling, were assessed and compared to their mainly linear counterpart. Results and discussion The study revealed that recycling carpet tiles containing recycled and bio-based materials at the end-of-life (EoL) resulted in the lowest global warming potential (8.47 kg CO2 eq.) and the highest circularity (MCI value of 0.76, with 1 indicating the maximum level of circularity) compared to the other scenarios. However, this scenario had a trade-off with a higher acidification potential (0.039 kg SO2 eq.) and higher costs (US$19.98) compared to the disposal scenario. On the other hand, the scenario using primary, non-bio-based materials in production and disposing of the carpet tiles at their EoL performed the worst in circularity (MCI value of 0.11) and implied high environmental impacts while being more cost-effective (US$10.27). Conclusions C-LCSA transparently revealed interlinkages in terms of circularity and the overall sustainability performance of different CE approaches. While no significant differences in terms of social hotspots were identified, approaches associated with a higher circularity and improved environmental performance in most impact categories tended to result in higher costs. This emphasized the need for individual and holistic assessments of the new CE approach to identify and address trade-offs. To enhance and foster C-LCSA in academia and industry, further studies applying the framework to different sectors are encouraged.

Sustainable One-Pot Production and Scale-Up of the New Platform Chemical Diformylxylose (DFX) from Agricultural Biomass.

The large-scale production of platform chemicals from biomass requires efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable methods. Here, we present three one-pot synthesis routes for producing diformylxylose (DFX), a sugar-based solvent and platform chemical, using d-xylose or corncobs as feedstocks. With yields of approximately 80%, these routes were seamlessly scaled from lab to kilogram-scale in a 15 L batch reactor. Techno-economic assessment demonstrates the competitiveness of the proposed methods against fossil- and biobased analogues. Life-cycle analysis shows the potential of these processes to reduce environmental and societal impacts from cradle to gate. At the "end of life", DFX is demonstrated to be inherently biodegradable. Overall, we present a compelling case study of scaling a novel platform chemical guided by techno-economic and environmental concerns leading to balanced cost-competitiveness and life-cycle sustainability.

Uncovering the role of sustainable value chain and life cycle management toward sustainable operations in electricity production technologies

Uncovering the role of sustainable value chain and life cycle management toward sustainable operations in electricity production technologies

Methodological Framework for Integrating Cultural Impact in Sustainability Assessments of Cultural Events

Based on the three dimensions model of sustainability, different studies that address the integration of the culture and sustainability concepts from a theoretical field propose that culture should be included as another sustainability dimension to a greater degree. This approach has not been put into practice to date. In fact, when sustainability application is examined in cultural activities such as museums and exhibitions, in most cases it is associated with only one dimension and evaluation methodologies based on a holistic approach; the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is used in very few cases. In this work, a methodological framework is proposed to add the cultural dimension to the study of the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability. A sequence of phases in line with the LCSA methodology is used to achieve the simultaneous evaluation of impacts associated with a sustainability approach based on four dimensions. A thorough literature review revealed cultural indicators, which were classified and organized in order to facilitate the cultural impact assessment and complement the indicators already used to evaluate other dimensions. Additionally, the approaches and methods proposed are put into practice in a case study, which consists of an experimental exhibition room. The different phases of the methodology have been successively developed, and indicators for all sustainability dimensions have been obtained. Thus, the theoretical contribution of this work is embellished with the development of a practical case, which demonstrate that cultural dimensions can be evaluated together with the rest of the dimensions in order to obtain a multidimensional assessment of sustainability.

Sustainable Battery Lifecycle: Non-Destructive Separation of Batteries and Potential Second Life Applications

Large quantities of battery systems will be discarded from electric vehicles in the future. Non-destructive separation of used electric vehicle (EV) traction batteries enables a second life of battery components, extraction of high value secondary materials, and reduces the environmental footprint of recycling and separation processes. In this study, the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the second life application of spent EV batteries are identified. Three battery packs are analyzed in terms of the joining techniques used—and possible separation techniques—considering only direct recycling methods. The components that can be recovered from these batteries are evaluated against the KPIs. This study shows that all the batteries analyzed allow a second life in stationary and semi-stationary electrical storage systems and marine applications when used at the pack and module levels. Two packs can be reused in electric vehicles such as forklifts. However, the feasibility of re-use in micro-mobility and consumer electronics is very limited. This study shows that technically feasible separation methods are dictated and constrained by the joining techniques used. As welding and adhesive bonding pose challenges to separation processes, future efforts should prioritize ‘design for disassembly’ to ensure sustainable battery life cycle management.