Blog archive: August 2019

Autumn courses at ILCA

August 29, 2019 by Inger Weidema

Today there is only one month left to register for the autumn courses at the International Life Cycle Academy.

We are also happy to announce, that the teaching staff for our LCIA courses will be joined by Laure Patouillard this year. Laure is Scientific coordinator at CIRAIG and has been responsible for the implementation of the IMPACT World+ method into the Brightway LCA software. We look very much forward this new edition of the LCIA suite. https://ilca.es/courses/courses/

A historic exercise book

August 20, 2019 by Bo Weidema

References to my ‘ancient’ 1994 exercise book come up from time to time. Therefore we have today decided to share a simple scan of this book, to make it available for discussion within the LCA community. Someone might take inspiration for an updated version with modern LCA techniques?

The book contains two fictional LCA reports on baby diapers, which make use of the same data, interpreting these differently. This causes diverging results. The book was intended to allow students to discover by themselves the implications of certain methodological choices or assumptions.

The book is very outdated in many respects (eg. the impact assessment methodologies and the state of data gathering and interpretation). But the overall teaching methodology seems to be still valid. Nothing like ‘walking the talk’ to improve learning. This is even to this day our concept at International Life Cycle Academy.

Two fictional life cycle assessments 1994 (pdf, 30 MB)

Life Cycle Academy Awards 2019

August 13, 2019 by ILCA

The following papers have been nominated for the 2019 Awards (listed alphabetically; nominated author in bold, some have been nominated for more than one category).

If you are attending LCM 2019, come by the PRé booth at 13:00 on Monday 2nd September where the three Academy Award winners will be celebrated at a little award ceremony. The rest of the conference, you can find the list of the winners at the PRé booth.

Category: Best contribution to policy application of LCA

Arvidsson R, Tillman A, Sandén B A, Janssen M, Nordelöf A, Kushnir D, Molander S.: Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: Recommendations for Prospective LCA. Journal of Industrial Ecology 22:1286-1294.

Chaudhary A, Brooks T M.: Land Use Intensity-Specific Global Characterization Factors to Assess Product Biodiversity Footprints. Environmental Science & Technology 52(9):5094-5104.

Cooper J, Stamford L, Azapagic A.: Sustainability of UK shale gas in comparison with other electricity options: Current situation and future scenarios. Science of the Total Environment 619-620:804–814.

Cucurachi S, Schiess S, Froemelt A, Hellweg S. Noise footprint from personal land‐based mobility. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2019:1-11.

Roibás L, Loiseau E, Hospido A.: On the feasibility and interest of applying territorial Life Cycle Assessment to determine subnational normalisation factors. Science of the Total Environment 626:1086–1099.

Hutner P, Helbig C, Stindt D, Thorenz A, Tuma A.: Transdisciplinary Development of a Life Cycle-Based Approach to Measure and Communicate Waste Prevention Effects in Local Authorities. Journal of Industrial Ecology 22(5):1050-1065.

Larrea‐Gallegos G, Vázquez‐Rowe I, Wiener H, Kahhat R.: Applying the Technology Choice Model in Consequential Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study in the Peruvian Agricultural Sector. Journal of Industrial Ecology 23:601-614.

Lehmann A, Berger M, Finkbeiner M.: Life Cycle Based CO2 Emission Credits: Options for Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Current Tailpipe Emissions Regulation in the Automotive Industry. Journal of Industrial Ecology 22:1066-1079.

Ridoutt B G, Hadjikakou M, Nolan M, Bryan B A.: From water-use to water-scarcity footprinting in environmentally extended input–output analysis. Environmental Science & Technology 52:6761-6770.

Schaubroeck T, Ceuppens S, Luong AD, Benetto E, De Meester S, Lachat C, Uyttendaele M.: A pragmatic framework to score and inform about the environmental sustainability and nutritional profile of canteen meals, a case study on a university canteen. Journal of Cleaner Production 187: 672-686.

Vandepaer L, Cloutier J, Bauer C, Amor B.: Integrating Batteries in the Future Swiss Electricity Supply System. A Consequential Environmental Assessment. Journal of Industrial Ecology 23(3):709-725.

Zheng J, Suh S.: Strategies to reduce the global carbon footprint of plastics. Nature Climate Change 9:374–378.

Category: Best contribution to sustainable consumption

Beretta C, Hellweg S.: Potential environmental benefits from food waste prevention in the food service sector. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 147:169-178.

Blackstone N T, El-Abbadi N H, McCabe M S, Griffin T S, Nelson M E.: Linking sustainability to the healthy eating patterns of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans: a modelling study. The Lancet Planetary Health 2(8):PE344-E352.

Chaudhary A, Krishna V.: Country-Specific Sustainable Diets Using Optimization Algorithm. Environmental Science & Technology 53(13):7694-7703.

Mi Z, Zheng J, Meng J, Zheng H, Li X, Coffman D, Woltjer J, Wang S, Guan D.: Carbon emissions of cities from a consumption-based perspective. Applied Energy 235:509-518.

Poore J, Nemecek T.: Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 01 Jun 2018:987-992.

Ridoutt B G, Hadjikakou M, Nolan M, Bryan B A.: From water-use to water-scarcity footprinting in environmentally extended input–output analysis. Environmental Science & Technology 52:6761-6770.

Saxe H, Jensen J D, Bølling Laugesen S M, Bredie W L P.: Environmental impact of meal service catering for dependent senior citizens in Danish municipalities. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 24(4):654-666.

Stylianou K, Fulgoni V L, Jolliet O: HEalth Nutritional Index (HENI): A Health Burden Based Tool for Food and Diet Nutritional Evaluation. Presentation at LCAFood 2018. Also published as Chapter 3 in Ph.D. Thesis of Katerina Stylianou (Nutritional and Environmental Impacts of Foods on Human Health) at https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/147641

Schaubroeck T, Ceuppens S, Luong AD, Benetto E, De Meester S, Lachat C, Uyttendaele M.: A pragmatic framework to score and inform about the environmental sustainability and nutritional profile of canteen meals, a case study on a university canteen. Journal of Cleaner Production 187: 672-686.

Category: Best contribution to sustainable production

Arvidsson R, Tillman A, Sandén B A, Janssen M, Nordelöf A, Kushnir D, Molander S.: Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: Recommendations for Prospective LCA. Journal of Industrial Ecology 22:1286-1294.

Larrea‐Gallegos G, Vázquez‐Rowe I, Wiener H, Kahhat R.: Applying the Technology Choice Model in Consequential Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study in the Peruvian Agricultural Sector. Journal of Industrial Ecology 23:601-614.

Pomponi F, Lenzen M.: Hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) will likely yield more accurate results than process-based LCA. Journal of Cleaner Production 176:210-215.

Poore J, Nemecek T.: Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 01 Jun 2018:987-992.

Ridoutt B, Motoshita M, Pfister S.: An LCA impact assessment model linking land occupation and malnutrition-related DALYs. International Journal Life Cycle Assessment. First Online 13 Feb 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01590-1

Sevenster M, Luo Z, Eady S, Grant T.: Including long-term soil organic carbon changes in life cycle assessment of agricultural products. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. First Online 17 July 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01660-4

Thonemann N, Pizzol M.: Consequential life cycle assessment of carbon capture and utilization technologies within the chemical industry. Energy & Environmental Science 12:2253-2263.

Vandepaer L, Cloutier J, Bauer C, Amor B.: Integrating Batteries in the Future Swiss Electricity Supply System. A Consequential Environmental Assessment. Journal of Industrial Ecology 23(3):709-725.