Extending the Life Cycle Methodology to Cover Impacts of Land Use Systems on the Water Balance (7 pp)

Goal, Scope and Background Whilst initially designed for industrial production systems, environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) has recently been increasingly applied to agriculture and forestry projects. Several authors suggested that the standard LCA methodology needs to be refined to cover the particularities of agri- and silvicultural production systems. Until now, water quantity received little attention in these methodological revisions, notwithstanding the well-known impact of agriculture and forestry on issues like water availability, drought and flood risk. This paper proposes an add-on to existing LCA methods in the form of an indicator set that integrates water quantity impacts of agri- and silvicultural production. Method First, system boundaries are discussed in order to identify the water flows between the production system and the environment. These flows are attributed to impact categories, linked to environmental burdens and to the areas of protection. Appropriate indicators are selected for each potential burden. Results and Discussion At the present, two input related impact categories deal with water quantity: Abiotic resource depletion and land use. The list of output related impact categories presented by Udo de Haes et al. (1999) does not include water quantity impacts like flood and drought risk. A new impact category “regional water balance” is introduced to cover these risks. Exceedance probabilities are used as indicators for these temporal variations in streamflow. Conclusion and Outlook The method presented in this paper can bring a life cycle assessment closer to real world concerns. The main drawback, however, is the increasing data requirement that might hinder the feasibility of the method. Future research should focus on this problem, for instance by applying a relatively simple numerical model that can calculate the indicator scores from more easily accessible data.     

Implant overdentures for edentulous elders: study of patient preference

Background: Studies show that elders wearing implant overdentures have improved nutrition and quality of life. However, upfront costs of this therapy are high, and the income of elderly edentulous populations is low. Objectives: This study was designed (i) to measure the preferences of edentulous patients for mandibular two‐implant overdentures using Willingness‐To‐Pay (WTP) and Willingness‐To‐Accept (WTA), (ii) to assess the effect of long‐term financing on WTP and (iii) to assess the desired role of health care plans in financing dental prostheses. Methods: Edentulous elders (68–79 years; n = 36) wearing maxillary dentures and either a mandibular conventional denture (CD, n = 13) or a two‐implant overdenture with ball attachments (IOD, n = 23) participated in this study. All had received their prostheses 2 years previously, as part of a randomised clinical trial. A three‐part questionnaire was completed during a 20‐min interview with a trained researcher. Results: Forty‐six per cent (6/13) of the CD wearers and 70% (16/23) of the IOD wearers were willing to pay three times more than the current cost of conventional dentures for implant prostheses. These percentages were increased to 77% (CD) and 96% (IOD) if participants could pay for implant overdentures in monthly instalments. Eighty‐six per cent (31/36) of all participants in both groups (21/23 IOD; 10/13 CD) thought that the government should cover at least some of the cost of implant overdentures. Conclusions: This study shows that, the majority of elderly edentate individuals who have not experienced mandibular two‐implant overdenture therapy are willing to pay the cost, particularly when payment can be made in monthly instalments.     

A greenhouse gas indicator for bioenergy: some theoretical issues with practical implications

Background, aim, and scope  The expectations with respect to biomass as a resource for sustainable energy are sky-high. Many industrialized countries have adopted ambitious policy targets and have introduced financial measures to stimulate the production or use of bioenergy. Meanwhile, the side-effects and associated risks have been pointed out as well. To be able to make a well-informed decision, the Dutch government has expressed the intention to include sustainability criteria into relevant policy instruments. Main features  Among other criteria, it has been proposed to calculate a so-called life-cycle-based greenhouse gas (GHG) indicator, which expresses the reduction of GHG emissions of a bio-based fuel chain in comparison with a fossil-based fuel chain. Life-cycle-based biofuel studies persistently have problems with the handling of biogenic carbon balances and with the treatment of coproducts and recycling. In life-cycle assessments (LCAs) of agricultural products, a distinction between “negative” and “positive” emissions may be relevant. In particular, carbon dioxide, as a naturally occurring compound or an anthropogenic emission, takes part in the so-called geochemical carbon cycle. The most appropriate way to treat carbon cycles is to view them as genuine cycles and, thus, at the systems level, subtract the fixation of CO₂ during tree growth from the CO₂ emitted during waste treatment of discarded wood and to quantify the CH₄ emitted. In solving the multifunctionality problem, two steps may be distinguished. The first concerns the modeling of the product system studied in the inventory analysis. In this step, system boundaries are set, processes are described, and process flows are quantified. Multifunctionality problems can be identified and the model of the product system is drafted. The second step concerns solving the remaining multifunctionality problems. For this step, various ways of solving the multifunctionality problem have been proposed and applied, on the basis of mass, energy, economic value, avoided burdens, etc. As the GHG indicator may constitute the basis for granting subsidies to stimulate the use of bioenergy, for example, and as the method for the GHG indicator provides no guidelines on the handling of biogenic CO₂ and guidelines for solving multifunctionality problems such as with coproducts and recycling that leave room for various choices, this study analyzed whether the current GHG indicator provides results that are a robust basis for granting such subsidies. Results  For the robustness check, a hypothetical case study on wood residue-based electricity was set up in order to illustrate what the effects of different solutions and choices for the two steps mentioned may be. The case dealt with the production of wood pellets (residues of the wood industry) that are cofired in a coal-fired power plant. The functional unit is 1 kWh of electricity. Three possibilities for the places of the multifunctional process, two possibilities for whether or not to include biogenic CO₂, and four possibilities for the allocation method were distinguished and calculated. Varying the options for these three choices in this way appears to have a huge effect on the GHG indicator, while no clear pattern seems to emerge. Discussion  The results found for this hypothetical case indicate that there are several methodological choices that have not sufficiently been fixed by the presently available standards and guidelines for LCA and GHG assessment of bioenergy systems. In particular, we have focused on issues related to biogenic CO₂ and allocation, two issues that play a prominent role in the assessment of bioenergy systems. Moreover, we have demonstrated with a small hypothetical case study that these are not only issues that might theoretically show up, but that they play a decisive role in practice. Conclusions  The present (Dutch) GHG indicator lacks robustness, which will raise problems for providing a sound basis for granting subsidies. This situation can, however, be improved by reducing the freedom of choices for the handling of biogenic CO₂ and allocation to an absolute minimum. Recommendations and perspectives  Even then, however, differences could appear due to different definitions, data sources, and method interpretations. It thus appears that two kinds of guidance are needed: (1) the LCA methodology itself should be expanded with guidelines for those issues that follow from science, logic, or consensus; (2) in the policy regulation that demands LCA to be the basis of the decision, additional guidelines should be specified that perhaps do not (yet) have the status of being scientifically proven or generally agreed upon, but that serve as a set of temporary extra guidelines.

Relevance and feasibility of social life cycle assessment from a company perspective

Background, aim, and scope

Methodology development should reflect demands from the intended users: what are the needs of the user group and what is feasible in terms of requirements involving data and work? Mapping these questions of relevance and feasibility is thus a way to facilitate a higher degree of relevance of the developed methodology. For the emerging area of social life cycle assessment (SLCA), several different potential user groups may be identified. This article addresses the issues of relevance and feasibility of SLCA from a company perspective through a series of interviews among potential company users.

Methods and materials

The empirical basis for the survey is a series of eight semi-structured interviews with larger Danish companies, all of which potentially have the capacity and will to use comprehensive social assessment methodologies. SLCA is not yet a well-defined methodology, but still it is possible to outline several potential applications of SLCA and the tasks a company must be able to perform in order to make use of these applications. The interviews focus on the companies’ interest in these potential applications and their ability and willingness to undertake the required work.

Results

Based on these interviews, three hypotheses are developed relating to these companies’ potential use of SLCA, viz.: (1) needs which may be supported by SLCA relate to three different applications, being comparative assertions, use stage assessments, and weighting of social impacts; (2) assessing the full life cycle of a product or service is rarely possible for the companies; and (3) companies see their social responsibility in the product chain as broader than dictated by the product perspective of SLCA. Trends for these three hypotheses developed on the basis of the opinions of the interviewees. Also, factors influencing the generalization of the results to cover other industries are analyzed.

Discussion

Full comparative assertions as known from environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) may be difficult in a company context due to several difficulties in assessing the full life cycle. Furthermore, the comparative assertion may potentially be hampered by differences in how companies typically allocate responsibility along the product chain and how it is done in SLCA, creating a boundary setting issue. These problems do, only in a limited degree, apply for both the use stage assessment and the tool for weighting social issues.

Conclusion

Despite these difficulties, it is concluded that all three applications of SLCA may be possible for the interviewed companies, but it seems the tendency is to demand assessment tools with very limited life cycle perspective, which to some extent deviate from the original thought behind the LCA tools as being holistic decision aid tools.

Perspectives

It is advocated that there is a need to focus more on questions regarding the relevance and feasibility of SLCA from several different perspectives to direct the future methodology development.     

The contribution of PAS 2050 to the evolution of international greenhouse gas emission standards

Background, aim, and scope  The assessment of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arising from products (goods and services) is emerging as a high profile application of life cycle assessment (LCA), with an increasing desire from retailers and other supply chain organizations to better understand, and in some cases communicate, the carbon footprint of products. Publicly Available Specification 2050:2008, Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services, addresses the single-impact category of global warming to provide a standardized and simplified implementation of process LCA methods for assessing GHG emissions from products. This paper briefly reviews the development process followed for PAS 2050, before examining the treatment of GHG-specific contribution of PAS 2050 to product carbon footprinting. Materials and methods  PAS 2050 was jointly sponsored by the Carbon Trust and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and was published by the British Standards Institution on 29 October 2008. An independent steering group oversaw the development of the specification, including the establishment of an expert workgroup program, comprehensive international consultation, and expert input on the requirements of the specification. Results  The development process for PAS 2050 resulted in a specification that includes specific requirements that limit the interpretation of the underlying LCA approach to product carbon footprinting. These requirements, including goal setting and life cycle inventory assessment, aspects of system boundary identification and temporal aspects of GHG emissions, clarify the approach to be taken by organizations implementing product carbon footprinting, and simplify the application of LCA procedures in relation to product carbon footprinting. Discussion  Assessment of the emissions arising from the life cycle of products has a clear international component, and delivering consistent results across the supply chain requires the application of consistent methods. There is an emerging recognition that further standardization of methods for product carbon footprinting is needed, and the specific requirements resulting from the PAS 2050 development process make a valuable contribution across a range of GHG assessment issues. Conclusions  The widespread interest in PAS 2050 from individuals and organizations, together with the development of similar guidance by other organizations, confirmed that there is a need for clarification, certainty, and requirements in the field of product carbon footprint analysis. The use of PAS 2050 to refine, clarify, and simplify existing LCA methods and standards has resulted in specific approaches to key GHG assessment issues being developed; it is important that future standards development work considers the impact of these approaches and their further refinement. Recommendations and perspectives  It is the consumption of goods and services by individuals around the world that drives global GHG emission, and PAS 2050 is a first attempt to provide integrated, consistent approaches that directly address the role of consumption at the product level in contributing to GHG emissions. Climate science and GHG assessment techniques are both evolving areas and it will be necessary to review the approach taken by PAS 2050 in the future: a formal review process for PAS 2050 will commence towards the end of 2009 and practitioners are encouraged to participate in this review process.

Mastery of Mothering Skills and Satisfaction with Associated Health Services: An Ethnocultural Comparison

In this paper, I examine the mastery of mothering skills and satisfaction with associated health services in women who had recently given birth in Montreal (n = 33). I compare experience between women of two distinct ethnocultural groups: Anglophone Euro-Canadian and Anglophone Afro-Caribbean. The overall aim is to discern differentials in the mastery of mothering skills and associated satisfaction with maternal and child health services. The study is framed by neo-Weberian social theory suggesting that modernization and bureaucratization increasingly eviscerate everyday skills and knowledge. These processes also lead to changes regarding what is considered credible ‘authoritative knowledge.’ I found that older Anglophone Euro-Canadians expressed the greatest skill deficits. They attempted to redress these deficits through consultation of professionally authored books, medical Web sites and health professionals. Older Anglophone Euro-Canadians saw these resources as sources of ‘authoritative knowledge.’ They also expressed dissatisfaction with related health services. In contrast, Anglophone Afro-Caribbeans and younger lower-income Anglophone Euro-Canadians expressed satisfaction with their skills. This derived from widespread previous experience with children and more extensive and readily available kith and kin networks. These were considered sources of ‘authoritative knowledge’ in this group. This group expressed less dissatisfaction with health services, as they did not need, or expect, these services to redress skill deficits.

Measurement error in racial and ethnic statistics

In the United States, the racial and ethnic statistics published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) assume that each member of the U.S. population has a race and ethnicity and that if a member is black or white with respect to his risk of one disease, he is the same race with respect to his risk of another. Such an assumption is mistaken. Race and ethnicity are taken by the NCHS to be an intrinsic property of members of a population, when they should be taken to depend on interest. The actual or underlying race or ethnicity of members of a population depends on the risk whose variation within the population we wish to describe or explain.

Indigenous Medicine and Primary Health Care: The Importance of Lay Knowledge and Use of Medicinal Plants in Rural South Africa

Indigenous medicine is important to rural livelihoods, but lay knowledge and use of medicinal plants has not been extensively studied. Research in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, showed that medicinal plants were frequently used by villagers and contributed to their ability to cope with health problems. Knowledge of plants and household remedies was extensive and varied in that households often held different knowledge. Villagers mainly relied on common species, and were generally aware of alternative species for a certain ailment. People were flexible in their use of indigenous and western health care, which were both perceived as beneficial. Improved cooperation between health care systems could improve health standards. Extraction of medicinal plants has been described as unsustainable in the region—a situation not found in the study area. It is argued that conservation policies aimed to restrict access should be differential and potentially not include local consumption, since this may be ecologically unnecessary and entail local hardships.