Alignment of the life cycle initiative’s “principles for the application of life cycle sustainability assessment” with the LCSA practice: A case study review

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Noémie Leroy-Parmentier
  • Sonia Valdivia
  • Philippe Loubet
  • Guido Sonnemann

Purpose: This paper aims at assessing the alignment of eight of the Life Cycle Initiative’s ten principles for life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) and the LCSA practice as well as the challenges to reaching the full implementation of the principles as a basis for a harmonized framework. Materials and methods: To understand the extent of alignment of existing LCSA studies with the principles, 193 case studies published before the Life Cycle Initiative’s ten principles’ publication were identified. Their levels of alignment were assessed against the criteria designed per principle: full, medium, or no alignment. The principles of “materiality of the system boundaries” and “consistency” could not be assessed as most studies lacked related background information; hence, no objective nor systematic criteria could be designed. Results: The alignment of practice with the principles is variable: The vast majority of studies cover the 3 pillars (principle 3 on completeness). Principle 9 (communication of trade-offs) is well addressed in the case studies. Principles 2 (alignment with the phases of ISO 14040: 2006 standard), 4 (taking into account perspectives of key stakeholders), and 8 (transparency) were not properly addressed in a majority of case studies. Principles 1 (understanding the areas of protection and impact pathways), 5 (taking into account product utility beyond functional unit (co-benefits)), and 10 (caution when compensating negative and positive impacts) remain to be implemented as some methodological challenges have to be overcome. Principles 6 and 7 were not assessed. Conclusions: LCSA is gaining momentum due to the communication and dissemination of LCSA among practitioners, potential users, and decision-makers in the public and private sectors. However, some key challenges remain for reaching the implementation of the principles: understanding of the inter-relationships between the three dimensions of sustainability to build impact pathways and select relevant impact categories for LCSA, guidance for communicating trade-offs and decision-making based on LCSA, and generalizing the (open) access to publications and related supplementary information.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Volume28
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)704-740
Number of pages37
ISSN0948-3349
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.06.2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Carsten Hobohm

Publications

  1. Evaluation of a temporal causal model for predicting the mood of clients in an online therapy
  2. Consequence evaluations and moral concerns about climate change
  3. Systemprogrammierung I
  4. Effect of cascading of higher-lying states on a delayed 1 s-2 p transition after beam-foil excitation of 56 MeV hydrogen-like oxygen and fluorine
  5. Gemachter oder gelebter Tourismus?
  6. Social and dimensional comparison effects on math and reading self-concepts of elementary school children
  7. Studienprogramm Nachhaltigkeit
  8. Analyzing Pragmatic Variation in English
  9. Practical critique: Bridging the gap between critical and practice oriented REDD+ research communities’
  10. Ecosystem Services as a Contested Concept
  11. Modeling of 3D fluid-structure-interaction during in-situ hybridization of double-curved fiber-metal-laminates
  12. Selecting methods for ecosystem service assessment
  13. De-Anonymizing Anonymous
  14. Making REDD+ pay
  15. Relational Transdisciplinarity: Five Reflexive Steps for Embodying Relational Ontologies in Transdisciplinary Learning Contexts
  16. Resilience or vulnerability? Vegetation patterns of a Central Tibetan pastoral ecotone
  17. Evaluating Introductory Lectures in Entrepreneurship
  18. 11. Methoden-Muster
  19. Study of digital morphing tools in the architectural design process
  20. The effects of an Internet based self-help course for reducing panic symptoms-Don't Panic Online
  21. An academia beyond quantity
  22. Computergestütztes Repetitorium der Elementarmathematik
  23. Fines for Absuse of Dominance in "High tech" Markets
  24. Competition in fragmented markets
  25. Modulation After Control
  26. Wege in eine bessere Zukunft der Hochschulen
  27. Red List of marine macroalgae of the Wadden Sea
  28. Organizational Wrongdoing, Boundary Work, and Systems of Exclusion