Principles for the application of life cycle sustainability assessment

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Sonia Valdivia
  • Jana Gerta Backes
  • Marzia Traverso
  • Guido Sonnemann
  • Stefano Cucurachi
  • Jeroen B. Guinée
  • Thomas Schaubroeck
  • Matthias Finkbeiner
  • Noemie Leroy-Parmentier
  • Cássia Ugaya
  • Claudia Peña
  • Alessandra Zamagni
  • Atsushi Inaba
  • Milena Amaral
  • Markus Berger
  • Jolanta Dvarioniene
  • Tatiana Vakhitova
  • Catherine Benoit-Norris
  • Martina Prox
  • Rajendra Foolmaun
  • Und 1 mehr
  • Mark Goedkoop

Purpose and context: This paper aims to establish principles for the increased application and use of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). Sustainable development (SD) encompassing resilient economies and social stability of the global system is growingly important for decision-makers from business and governments. The “17 SDGs” emerge as a high-level shared blueprint for peace, abundance, and prosperity for people and the planet, and “sustainability” for supporting improvements of products and organizations. A “sustainability” interpretation—successful in aligning stakeholders’ understanding—subdivides the impacts according to a triple bottom line or three pillars: economic, social, and environmental impacts. These context and urgent needs inspired the LCSA framework. This entails a sustainability assessment of products and organizations in accordance with the three pillars, while adopting a life cycle perspective. Methods: The Life Cycle Initiative promotes since 2011 a pragmatic LCSA framework based on the three techniques: LCSA = environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) + life cycle costing (LCC) + social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). This is the focus of the paper, while acknowledging previous developments. Identified and reviewed literature shows challenges of addressing the three pillars in the LCSA framework implementation like considering only two pillars; not being fully aligned with ISO 14040; lacking interconnectedness among the three pillars; not having clear criteria for results’ weighting nor clear results’ interpretation; and not following cause-effect chains and mechanisms leading to an endpoint. Agreement building among LCSA experts and reviewing processes strengthened the consensus on this paper. Broad support and outreach are ensured by publishing this as position paper. Results: For harmonizing practical LCSA applications, easing interpretation, and increasing usefulness, consensed ten LCSA principles (10P) are established: understanding the areas of protection, alignment with ISO 14040, completeness, stakeholders’ and product utility considerations, materiality of system boundaries, transparency, consistency, explicit trade-offs’ communication, and caution when compensating impacts. Examples were provided based on a fictional plastic water bottle Conclusions: In spite of increasing needs for and interest in SD and sustainability supporting tools, LCSA is at an early application stage of application. The 10P aim to promote more and better LCSA applications by ensuring alignment with ISO 14040, completeness and clear interpretation of integrated results, among others. For consolidating its use, however, more consensus-building is needed (e.g., on value-laden ethical aspects of LCSA, interdependencies and interconnectedness among the three dimensions, and harmonization and integration of the three techniques) and technical and policy recommendations for application.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftInternational Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Jahrgang26
Ausgabenummer9
Seiten (von - bis)1900-1905
Anzahl der Seiten6
ISSN0948-3349
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 09.2021

Bibliographische Notiz

Funding Information:
The Life Cycle Initiative acknowledges the reviewers who were part of the internal review process of this paper: Members of the Steering Committee of the Life Cycle Initiative and the leaders of the Life Cycle Initiative Project on ?Linking the SDG to LCA,? who are not co-authors.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Deutscher Corporate Governance Kodex 2022 mit Fokus auf Nachhaltigkeit
  2. Für_Sorge – Vor_Sorge. Feministische Perspektiven auf ‚Natur/en‘ und Menschen
  3. Die Steuerberaterprüfung: Unternehmenssteuerrecht und Steuerbilanzrecht
  4. Communications about uncertainty in scientific climate-related findings
  5. Permeability and fabric compaction in forming of fiber metal laminates
  6. Erste Erfahrungen mit der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung und -prüfung
  7. Understanding the properties of isospectral points and pairs in graphs
  8. Von der Leidenschaft, Bilder zu zeigen, die man so noch nicht gesehen hat
  9. Jurisdiction and applicable law in cases of damage from space in Europe
  10. Aktualität im Vergangen: Eine Lektüre von The Fate of Art nach 25 Jahren
  11. Product-Service Systems as Enabler for Sustainability-Oriented Innovation
  12. Development of a magnesium recycling alloy based on the AM alloy system
  13. Industrial applications using wavelet packets for gross error detection
  14. Es gibt so viel zu, warum gegen evidenzbasiertes Management polemisieren?
  15. Differentiated Instruction Around the World - A Global Inclusive Insight
  16. Theorien-Praxen-Verknüpfungen in sozialpädagogischen Berufsbildungsgängen.
  17. Identifying governance gaps among interlinked sustainability challenges
  18. „Tag der deutschen Patrioten“ – polizeilicher Notstand im Versammlungsrecht
  19. Intermediaries Driving Eco-Innovation in SMEs: A Qualitative Investigation
  20. Nile Red as a Fluorescence Marker and Antioxidant for Regenerative Fuels
  21. Contexts and pragmatic strategies of COVID-19 related cartoons in Nigeria
  22. Berufliche Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung in der Kommunalverwaltung
  23. Das ästhetische Potential nationaler Stereotypen in literarischen Texten
  24. Erweiterung des Emissionshandels löst aktuelles Klimaschutzproblem nicht
  25. Comparing temperature data sources for use in species distribution models
  26. Die Operationalisierung von objektiver und subjektiver Statusinkonsistenz.
  27. Ensuring tests of conservation interventions build on existing literature