Environmental impacts of European trade: interpreting results of process-based LCA and environmentally extended input–output analysis towards hotspot identification

Purpose

Trade is increasingly considered a significant contributor to environmental impacts. The assessment of the impacts of trade is usually performed via environmentally extended input–output analysis (EEIOA). However, process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to traded goods allows increasing the granularity of the analysis and may be essential to unveil specific impacts due to traded products.

Methods

This study assesses the environmental impacts of the European trade, considering two modelling approaches: respectively EEIOA, using EXIOBASE 3 as supporting database, and process-based LCA. The interpretation of the results is pivotal to improve the robustness of the assessment and the identification of hotspots. The hotspot identification focuses on temporal trends and on the contribution of products and substances to the overall impacts. The inventories of elementary flows associated with EU trade, for the period 2000–2010, have been characterized considering 14 impact categories according to the Environmental Footprint (EF2017) Life Cycle Impact Assessment method.

Results and discussion

The two modelling approaches converge in highlighting that in the period 2000–2010: (i) EU was a net importer of environmental impacts; (ii) impacts of EU trade and EU trade balance (impacts of imports minus impacts of exports) were increasing over time, regarding most impact categories under study; and (iii) similar manufactured products were the main contributors to the impacts of exports from EU, regarding most impact categories. However, some results are discrepant: (i) larger impacts are obtained from IO analysis than from process-based LCA, regarding most impact categories, (ii) a different set of most contributing products is identified by the two approaches in the case of imports, and (iii) large differences in the contributions of substances are observed regarding resource use, toxicity, and ecotoxicity indicators.

Conclusions

The interpretation step is crucial to unveil the main hotspots, encompassing a comparison of the differences between the two methodologies, the assumptions, the data coverage and sources, the completeness of inventory as basis for impact assessment. The main driver for the observed divergences is identified to be the differences in the impact intensities of goods, both induced by inherent properties of the IO and life cycle inventory databases and by some of this study’s modelling choices. The combination of IO analysis and process-based LCA in a hybrid framework, as performed in other studies but generally not at the macro-scale of the full trade of a country or region, appears a potential important perspective to refine such an assessment in the future.

     

Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance: The ICI Environmental Burden System

The Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) group has developed a method, called the “environmental burden system” to rank the potential environmental impacts of its emissions and wastes. The method uses potency factors to characterize the potential environmental impacts of wastes and emissions in ten major impact categories. When compared to the more traditional approach of reporting the total mass of emissions and wastes, the environmental burden approach provides a more meaningful picture of the potential impact of emissions: it helps identi?. the most harmful wastes and emissions; it provides the public with a better understanding ofthe potential impact of company operations: and it helps communicate the effectiveness of waste and emission reduction programs     

Development of a Consumer Environmental Index and Results for Washington State Consumers

Consumer choices affect sustainability of societal systems, and state governments increasingly are interested in environmental impacts of consumption. This article describes a Consumer Environmental Index (CEI) to track the impacts of product purchase, use, and disposal and applies this initial CEI to Washington State in the United States. CEI has modules for product and service use, upstream resource extraction and manufacturing, and downstream disposal. CEI uses hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) methods, combined with purchasing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Survey. For Washington State, when human health and ecosystem toxicity impact was assessed with the TRACI/CalTOX methods, weighted aggregate and per consumer impacts in all categories increased during the 6 years from 2000 to 2005. For impacts per real dollar spent, only the CEI's climate change component declined, falling nearly 7% between 2000 and 2005. Purchasing details in the BLS expenditure surveys enable the CEI to track environmental impact details on 700 individual categories of products and services. For example, sugar, motor oil, and wood heat appear to have serious environmental impacts, whereas recycling of paper, cardboard, and food and beverage container discards can be as effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions as cutting vehicle fuel usage nearly in half. Such results may serve to increase understanding of environmentally effective actions to reduce climate, human health, and ecosystem impacts of consumption.     

A new approach for environmental risk assessment

Environmental problems, such as global warming, the limited supply of sustainable energy, the depletion of natural resources, hazardous emissions released into the atmosphere and waste, are increasing global concerns. Therefore, individuals, communities, and businesses need to address environmental protection and sustainability. Environmental impact assessments are needed to identify, mitigate, and control aspects that affect the environment or a company's products, services, or activities. In this study, a general environmental aspect and impact assessment approach, which can be applied to any company that is involved in the production or service sector, is created. An environmental impact pattern that consists of 10 main and 32 sub-categories was formed based on the ISO 14001, environmental studies and field applications. The developed approach was applied to the dyeing units of a manufacturing firm. Sixteen environmental aspects were identified and assessed using the environmental impact template via the environmental failure mode and effect analysis (E-FMEA) method. The developed-approach can be applied to each sector, which will enable us to perform a detailed analysis of the environmental aspects in the environmental impact category. This approach provides a checklist for the environmental impact studies of businesses and has been pioneered as an effective method for company resources to improve their environmental performance.     

Eco-efficiency

Goal, Scope and Background The eco-efficiency analysis and portfolio is a powerful decision support tool for various strategic and marketing issues. Since its original academic development, the approach has been refined during the last decade and applied to a multitude of projects. BASF, as possibly the most prominent company using and developing this tool, has applied the eco-efficiency approach to more than 300 projects in the last 7 years. One of the greatest difficulties is to cover both dimensions of eco-efficiency (costs or value added and environmental impact) in a comparable manner. This is particularly a challenge for the eco-efficiency analyses of products. Methods In this publication, an important approach and field of application dealing with product decisions based on the combination of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is described in detail. Special emphasis is put on the quantitative assessment of the relation of costs and environmental impacts. In conventional LCA an assessment of environmental impact categories is often made by normalization with inhabitant equivalents. This is necessary to be able to compare the different environmental impact categories, because of each different unit. For the proposed eco-efficiency analysis, the costs of products or processes are also normalized with adapted gross domestic product figures. Results and Discussion The ratio between normalized environmental impact categories and normalized costs (R_E,C) is used for the graphical presentation of the results in an eco-efficiency portfolio. For the interpretation of the results of an eco-efficiency analysis, it is important to distinguish ratios R_E,C which are higher than one from ratios lower than one. In the first case, the environmental impact is higher than the cost impact, while the inverse is true in the second case. This is very important for defining which kind of improvement is needed and defining strategic management decisions. The paper shows a statistical evaluation of the R_E,C factor based on the results of different eco-efficiency analyses made by BASF. For industries based on large material flows (e.g. chemicals, steel, metals, agriculture), the R_E,C factor is typically higher than one. Conclusions and Recommendations This contribution shows that LCC and LCA may be combined in a way that they mirror the concept of eco-efficiency. LCAs that do not consider LCC may be of very limited use for company management. For that very reason, corporations should install a data management system that ensures equal information on both sides of the eco-efficiency coin.     

The implementation of organizational LCA to internally manage the environmental impacts of a broad product portfolio: an example for a cosmetics,fragrances, and toiletry provider

Purpose

This paper presents the implementation of O-LCA by a Brazilian cosmetics manufacturer. The case study was developed within the framework of the road testing of the “Guidance on organizational LCA” of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. The aim is to illustrate methodological choices and implementation challenges encountered by the company, i.e., related to the broad product portfolio. The study demonstrates that O-LCA allows quantifying and managing environmental impacts throughout global supply chains and for every individual product.

Methods

O-LCA provides the methodological framework for applying LCA to organizations, and a set of application options based on the structure and experience of organizations. The reporting organization is NATURA Brazil in 2013. The 2600 products in the portfolio are modeled in this first exercise of the company through the bestsellers at each of its ten product category groups. A hybrid approach is considered for data collection: top-down approach for modeling corporate activities and bottom-up approach for upstream and downstream life cycle phases. The data sources are NATURA’s recordings, data gathered from suppliers, estimates from mass and energy balances, and life cycle inventory databases. The approach to acquire direct data or use life cycle databases depends on the representativeness of each raw material or packaging.

Results and discussion

The results show that major impacts could be detected during use phase that demands water and energy to use rinse-off products (the use phase of NATURA’s products contributed over 41% to most impact categories), and in the supply chain, and generated during the obtaining of plant origin ingredients and materials for packaging. Overall, the whole NATURA had in 2013 a potential impact on climate change of 1.4 million tonnes of CO₂ eq, a natural land transformation of 1.3 million m², and a fossil depletion of 0.23 million tonnes of oil eq, among other impacts. Apart from the results at the organizational level, individual results for product bestsellers were calculated and are presented here.

Conclusions

The study confirmed the applicability of the O-LCA model at NATURA, addressed operational issues related to broad product portfolios, considering several dimensions such as data quality and availability, LCA software, and data management. Despite NATURA’s existing practices and previous knowledge in modeling environmental impacts of products and corporate activities, managing the large amount of data involved prove being a complex task. The company identified gaps and opportunities able to guide future method implementation and LCA-based management.

     

Environmental Impacts of Products: A Detailed Review of Studies

Environmental effects of economic activities are ultimately driven by consumption, via impacts of the production, use, and waste management phases of products and services ultimately consumed. Integrated product policy (IPP) addressing the life‐cycle impacts of products forms an innovative new generation of environmental policy. Yet this policy requires insight into the final consumption expenditures and related products that have the greatest life‐cycle environmental impacts. This review article brings together the conclusions of 11 studies that analyze the life‐cycle impacts of total societal consumption and the relative importance of different final consumption categories. This review addresses in general studies that were included in the project Environmental Impacts of Products (EIPRO) of the European Union (EU), which form the basis of this special issue. Unlike most studies done in the past 25 years on similar topics, the studies reviewed here covered a broad set of environmental impacts beyond just energy use or carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The studies differed greatly in basic approach (extrapolating LCA data to impacts of consumption categories versus approaches based on environmentally extended input‐output (EEIO) tables), geographical region, disaggregation of final demand, data inventory used, and method of impact assessment. Nevertheless, across all studies a limited number of priorities emerged. The three main priorities, housing, transport, and food, are responsible for 70% of the environmental impacts in most categories, although covering only 55% of the final expenditure in the 25 countries that currently make up the EU. At a more detailed level, priorities are car and most probably air travel within transport, meat and dairy within food, and building structures, heating, and (electrical) energy‐using products within housing. Expenditures on clothing, communication, health care, and education are considerably less important. Given the very different approaches followed in each of the sources reviewed, this result hence must be regarded as extremely robust. Recommendations are given to harmonize and improve the methodological approaches of such analyses, for instance, with regard to modeling of imports, inclusion of capital goods, and making an explicit distinction between household and government expenditure.     

Wind Power Compensation is not for the Birds: An Opinion from an Environmental Economist

This article advocates for better implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework as applied to wind power development, with a particular focus on improving compensatory restoration scaling. If properly enforced, the environmental impacts hierarchy “avoid‐minimize‐compensate” provides the regulated community with incentives to prevent wildlife and habitat impacts in sensitive areas and, if necessary, compensate for residual impacts through restoration or conservation projects. Given the increase in legislation requiring resource‐based environmental compensation, methods for scaling an appropriate quantity and quality of resources are of increasing relevance. I argue that Equivalency Analysis (EA) represents a transparent and quantitative approach for scaling compensation in the case of wind power development. Herein, I identify the economic underpinnings of environmental compensation legislation and identify weaknesses in current scaling approaches within wind power development. I demonstrate how the recently completed REMEDE toolkit, which provides guidance on EA, can inform an improved scaling approach and summarize a case study involving raptor collisions with turbines that illustrates the EA approach. Finally, I stress the need for further contributions from the field of restoration ecology. The success of ex ante compensation in internalizing the environmental costs of wind development depends on the effective implementation of the environmental impacts hierarchy, which must effectively encourage avoidance and minimization over environmental restoration and repair.     

The sustainability of a single activity,production process or product

When is a specific activity, production process or final product sustainable? Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Footprint Assessment are two different methods to analyse natural resources use and emissions along product supply chains. It is argued that the two methods fundamentally differ in the way they address the question of product sustainability. Whereas the former method takes a comparative approach, comparing potential environmental impacts of alternative products, thus avoiding the question of sustainability at systems level, the latter method takes a holistic systems approach but has difficulty to attribute overall unsustainability to single processes or products. Both methods are useful, for different purposes, and complementary. It remains a challenge to develop a consistent and coherent theoretical framework providing an umbrella for the two different methods.     

Assessing product environmental performance with PEF methodology: reliability,comparability, and cost concerns

Purpose

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method was launched by the European Commission to harmonize the measurement of the product’s environmental performance. The PEF aims to increase the supply of green products in EU markets by lowering the cost of measuring the product’s environmental performance, enabling reliable environmental claims, and conducting proper product comparison. This study assesses whether the methodological choices of PEF enable reliable and comparable PEF studies to be conducted in a cost-efficient way.

Methods

The PEF was compared with ISO 14044, ISO/TS 14067, and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard to identify the differences in the methodological choices. From a practical perspective, the possible challenges for PEF that could not be identified by a method comparison were obtained via interviews. The interviewees were company representatives participating in a 3-year PEF pilot phase to create Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR). To discover the possible advantages and disadvantages of the PEF, the methodological choices for PEF itself were assessed from the standpoints of reliability, comparability, and cost. In conclusion, some proposals for improvements have been suggested.

Results and discussion

The impact assessment phase, i.e., some of the predefined impact assessment methods, together with a selected normalization method include disadvantages as regards reliability and comparability. They are not sufficiently mature to properly reflect both the product studied and its potential environmental impact. From a cost perspective, the inventory analysis phase increases the workload due to the cutoff ban, the numerous predefined impact assessment categories, and the data quality assessment of all data. However, the predefined issues, e.g., requirements for data quality to be determined in PEFCRs, could also increase the comparability and lower the costs of the PEF study, since these need not be determined separately for each study. Additionally, the reliability maybe increased due to the data quality assessment of all data.

Conclusions

Currently, in the PEFs 3-year pilot phase, both advantages and disadvantages exist as regards reliability, costs, and comparability. Since PEF aims are important, the Commission and PEFCR developers should devote time to finding the most appropriate methodological choices and continue developing the method further. It is important to find a balance between comparability, reliability, and costs. Additionally, the current issues and characteristics of EU green products market should be taken into account when implementing PEF.

     

生态效率方法研究进展与应用

生态效率同时考虑经济效益和环境效益,是将可持续发展的宏观目标融入中观（区域）和微观（企业）的发展规划与管理中的有效工具。回顾了生态效率的概念和发展过程,分析了其内涵和指标体系,探讨了几种典型计算方法与模型,并介绍了国内外在企业、行业和区域3个层次上的应用实践,讨论和提出了进一步开展生态效率研究的焦点问题和未来方向。     

A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of wood fibre-reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) and polylactic acid/thermoplastic starch (PLA/TPS) biocomposites

Purpose

Biopolymers are considered to be environmentally friendlier than petroleum-based polymers, but little is known about their environmental performance against petroleum-based products. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of two prototype biocomposite formulations produced by extrusion of wood fibre with either polylactic acid (PLA) or a blend of PLA and locally produced thermoplastic starch (TPS).

Methods

The study followed the LCA methodology outlined in the two standards set out by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO): ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 of 2006. A life cycle inventory (LCI) for the biocomposite formulations was developed, and a contribution analysis was performed to identify the significant inputs. Environmental performances of the two formulations were then compared with each other and polypropylene (PP), a petroleum-based polymer. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s impact assessment method, “TRACI: The Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts”, was combined with Cumulative Energy Demand (a European method) in order to characterize the inventory flows. Environmental impact categories chosen for the analysis were the following: global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, acidification of land and water, eutrophication, smog, human health (respiratory, carcinogenic, and non-carcinogenic) effects and ecotoxicity.

Results and discussion

We found that PLA is the significant input which contributes mostly to fossil fuel consumption, acidification and respiratory and smog effects. Impacts from PLA transport from the faraway source significantly added more burden to its contributions. TPS causes less environmental burden compared to PLA; the environmental performance of the biocomposite improved when a blend of PLA and TPS is used in formulating the biocomposite. The two formulations performed better than PP in all the environmental impact categories except eutrophication effects, which is important on a regional basis.

Conclusions

The following conclusions were drawn from this study:

• PLA is the environmentally significant input among the three raw materials.
• TPS causes less environmental burden than PLA. Environmental performance of the biocomposite improves in the life cycle energy consumption, fossil energy use, ozone depletion and non-carcinogenic impact categories when a blend of PLA and TPS is used.
• The biocomposite can outperform PP in all the impact categories except eutrophication effects if manufactured using hydroelectricity.

The biopolymer could be a potential alternative to PP as it could cause less of a burden to the environment on a cradle-to-gate basis. Environmental impacts at the complete life cycle levels should be looked into in order to fully understand its potential.     

Comparative life-cycle assessments for biomass-to-ethanol production from different regional feedstocks

This study compares life-cycle (cradle-to-gate) energy consumption and environmental impacts for producing ethanol via fermentation-based processes starting with two lignocellulosic feedstocks: virgin timber resources or recycled newsprint from an urban area. The life-cycle assessment in this study employed a novel combination of computer-aided tools. These tools include fermentation process simulation coupled with an impact assessment software tool for the manufacturing process life-cycle stage impacts. The process simulation file was provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and was modified slightly to accommodate these different feedstocks. For the premanufacturing process life-cycle stage impacts, such as the fuels and process chemicals used, transportation, and some preparatory steps (wood chipping, etc.), a life-cycle inventory database (the Boustead Model) coupled with an impact assessment software tool were used (the Environmental Fate and Risk Assessment Tool). The Newsprint process has a slightly lower overall composite environmental index (created from eight impact categories) compared to the Timber process. However, the Timber process consumes less electricity, produces fewer emissions in total, and has less of a human health impact. The amount of life-cycle fossil energy required to produce ethanol is 14% of the energy content of the product, making the overall efficiency 86%. Process improvement strategies were evaluated for both feedstock processes, including recycle of reactor vent air and heat integration. Heat integration has the greatest potential to reduce fossil-derived energy consumption, to an extent that fossil-derived energy over the life cycle is actually saved per unit of ethanol produced. These energy efficiency values are superior to those observed in conventional fossil-based transportation fuels.     

Environmental impacts of the rental business model compared to the conventional business model: a Korean case of water purifier for home use

Purpose

This paper compares environmental impacts of the rental business model with the conventional model of manufacturing and selling. The case study examines a home use-water purifier by defining scenarios for operation and maintenance of the conventional and rental business models. Another purpose is to explore the potential improvement for the environmental performance of the rental business model in terms of the resource consumption and climate change.

Methods

The functional unit was supplying hot/cold drinking water for 15 years between 1998 and 2013. Primary data were from a Korean company that manufactures and servicizes water purifier; secondary data were from the Korean national LCI database, literatures, and interviews. Scenarios associated with all life cycle stages of a water purifier including operation and maintenance were based on current sales and rental market. Impact assessments were conducted according to the International Organization for Standardization’s 14044, and impact categories considered were global warming and abiotic resource depletion. The key issues and improvement potential of the rental business model were determined with the impact categories of global warming and abiotic resource depletion.

Results and discussion

This study indicates that the rental business model is more environmentally friendly than the conventional model in the impact on global warming while the conventional model shows lower abiotic resource depletion. Product operation was the most significant contributor to the selected environmental impacts for both conventional and rental models. Product maintenance was the second major contributor for the rental business model in terms of abiotic resource depletion. For the conventional model, however, production was a more significant contributor to the selected environmental impacts. The rental model showed approximately 32~37% improvements in the selected environmental impacts by focusing on the environmental education or information to consumers.

Conclusions

This quantitative life cycle assessment can be a tool for service business providers to understand the life cycle environmental impacts of Korean water purifier and explore potential improvement opportunities for sustainability. The lower life cycle impacts of the water purifier-rental business model can be attributed to the following: the preparation of instruction or environmental education regarding the consumer’s turning off behavior when the product is not in use, thus lower energy consumption during the use stage and shorter distance traveled for maintenance.

     

Material and Energy Flows and Environmental Impacts of the Internet in Switzerland

The Internet leads to material and energy consumption as well as various environmental impacts on both the regional and global scale. Yet, assessments of the Internet's energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions are still rare, and assessments of material flows and further environmental impacts are virtually non‐existent. This article investigates material flows, the direct energy consumption during the use phase, as well as environmental impacts linked to the service, “Internet in Switzerland.” In our model, the service, Internet in Switzerland, is divided into various Internet participant categories. All devices used to access or provide Internet services are merged in a limited number of equipment families and, as such, included in an inventory of the existing infrastructure (stock). Based on this inventory, a material flow analysis (MFA) is performed, which includes the current stock as well as flows resulting from growth and disposal. The direct energy consumption for the operation of the infrastructure is quantified. Environmental impacts are calculated with a life cycle assessment approach, using the ecoinvent database and the software, SimaPro, applying four different methods. The MFA results in a 2009 stock of 98,100 tonnes. Approximately 4,130 gigawatt hours per year, or 7% of the total Swiss electricity consumption, were used in 2009 to operate the Swiss infrastructure. The environmental impacts caused during the production and use phases vary significantly depending on the assessment method chosen. The disposal phase had mainly positive impacts as a result of material recovery.     

The influence of farming technique on cropland: A new approach for the Ecological Footprint

The relationship between farming management and the overexploitation of natural resources is often a theme of discussion in the environmental sciences. Moreover, farmers’ choices – driven by consumer demand – have a significant effect on the agricultural production system.The Ecological Footprint methodology as it currently implemented assumes that all cropland activities are sustained by the capacity of the ecosystem, basing both demand and capacity calculations on the exact same flow accounting. This causes some confusion in the evaluation of the ecological performance of farming because it appears that this activity has no consequences on the planet.This paper proposes a solution to this duality caused by the current methodological assumption about croplands, and investigates the influence of different farming techniques on Ecological Footprint results. Starting from the concept of an embodied footprint in production, we propose a new approach for the evaluation of farming performance. This approach permits an estimation of the impact of farming activity, linked to the farmers’ technique, and a calculation of the crop Footprint in reference to the production capacity of the natural system.Building on the central methodology of the Ecological Footprint, we provide a different evaluation system and show case study results for comparison.     

A region‐specific environmental analysis of technology implementation of hydrogen energy in Japan based on life cycle assessment

Energy systems using renewables with adequate energy carriers are needed for sustainability. Before accelerating technology implementation for the transition to the new energy system, region‐specific implementation effects should be carefully examined as a system. In this study, we aim to analyze an energy system using hydrogen as an energy carrier with the approach of combining life cycle assessment and a regional energy simulation model. The model calculates the emissions, such as CO₂, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and volatile organic compounds, and their impacts on human health, social assets, primary production, and an integrated index. The analysis quantitatively presented various environmental impacts by region, life cycle stage, and impact category. Climate change was dominant on the integrated index while the other impact categories were also important. Fuel cell vehicles were effective in mitigating local air pollution, especially in high‐population regions where many people are adversely affected. Although technology implementation contributes to mitigating environmental impacts at locations of energy users, it also has possibilities to have negative impacts at locations of device manufacturing and raw material processing. The definition of the regional division was also an important factor in energy system design because the final results of life cycle assessments are highly sensitive to region‐specific characteristics. The proposed region‐specific analysis is expected to support local governments and technology developers in designing appropriate energy systems for regions and building marketing plans for specific targets.     

Basic quantitative risk assessment of light sources: Comparison of light exposure assessment and endpoint life cycle impact assessment

Human Health Area of Protection (HHAoP) has been receiving greater emphasis in recent years in the scope of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of products or services with more impact categories specifically dedicated to include different dimensions of HHAoP. Human health impacts of light sources, however, have received less attention despite their prevalent use for backlighting, general lighting and architectural purposes. Currently, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of lighting devices and electronic devices with backlit screens do not address endpoint impacts nor do they specify technical properties of the light that can enable such an assessment. This study investigates endpoint impacts of eleven lighting devices (1) due to light exposure during the use phase and (2) due to emissions throughout their life cycle. Impacts are quantified as disease burden in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALY). The burden of exposure was calculated using attributable fraction (AF) method. The burden due to life cycle emissions was quantified using GaBi software and built-in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method ReCiPe. Endpoint impact categories included were climate change human health, human toxicity, ionizing radiation, ozone depletion, particulate matter formation, and photochemical oxidant formation. The disease burden due to light exposure of all light sources is of two orders of magnitude greater than the disease burden due to life cycle emissions pointing to the need for its treatment.     

Life cycle assessment of printing and writing paper produced in Portugal

Goal, Scope and Background The environmental sustainability is one of the current priorities of the Portuguese pulp and paper industry. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was the methodology chosen to evaluate the sustainability of the printing and writing paper production activity. This paper grade represents about 60% of the total production of paper in Portugal and its production is expected to increase in the near future. The main goal of this study was to assess the potential environmental impacts associated with the entire life cycle of the printing and writing paper produced in Portugal from Eucalyptus globulus pulp and consumed in Germany, in order to identify the processes with the largest environmental impacts. Another goal of this study was to evaluate the effect on the potential environmental impacts of changing the market where the Portuguese printing and writing paper is consumed: German market vs. Portuguese market. Methods The main stages considered in this study were: forestry, pulp production, paper production, paper distribution, and paper final disposal. Transports and production of chemicals, fuels and energy in the grid were also included in these stages. Whenever possible and feasible, average or typical data from industry were collected. The remaining data were obtained from the literature and specialised databases. A quantitative impact assessment was performed for five impact categories: global warming over 100 years, acidification, eutrophication, non-renewable resource depletion and photochemical oxidant formation. Results In the German market scenario, the paper production stage was a remarkable hot spot for air emissions (non-renewable CO₂, NO_x and SO₂) and for non-renewable energy consumption, and, consequently, for the impact categories that consider these parameters: global warming, acidification and non-renewable resource depletion. These important environmental impacts are due to the energy requirements in the printing and writing paper production process, which are fulfilled by on-site fuel oil burning and consumption of electricity from the national grid, which is mostly based on the use of fossil fuels. The pulp production stage was identified as the largest contributor to water emissions (COD and AOX) and to eutrophication. Considering that energy consumed by the pulp production processes comes from renewable fuels, this stage was also the most contributing to renewable energy consumption. Discussion The paper distribution stage showed an important contribution to NO_x emissions, which, however, did not result in a major contribution to acidification or eutrophication. The final disposal stage was the main contributor to the photochemical oxidant formation potential due to CH₄ emissions from wastepaper landfilling. On the other hand, paper consumption in Portugal was environmentally more favourable than in Germany for the parameters/impact categories where the paper distribution stage has a significant contribution (non-renewable CO₂, NO_x, non-renewable energy consumption, acidification, eutrophication and non-renewable resource depletion) due to shorter distances needed to deliver paper to the consumers. For the remaining parameters/impact categories, the increase observed in the final disposal stage in the Portuguese market was preponderant, and resulted from the existence of significant differences in the final disposal alternatives in the analysed markets (recycling dominates in Germany, whereas landfilling dominates in Portugal). Conclusions The pulp and paper production stages were found to be of significance for almost all of the inventory parameters as well as for the impact assessment categories. The paper distribution and the final disposal stages were only of importance for some of the inventory parameters and some of the impact categories. The forestry stage played a minor role in the environmental impacts generated during the paper life cycle. The consumption of paper in Portugal led to a decrease in the environmental burdens of the paper distribution stage, but to an increase in the environmental burdens of the final disposal stage, when compared with the consumption of paper in Germany. Recommendations and Perspectives This study provides useful information that can assist the pulp and paper industry in the planning of future investments leading to an increase in its sustainability. The results of inventory analysis and impact assessment show the processes that play an important role in each impact category, which allow the industry to improve its environmental performance, making changes not only in the production process itself, but also in the treatment of flue gases and liquid effluents. Besides that concern regarding pollution prevention, other issues with relevance to the context of sustainability, such as the energy consumption, can also be dealt with.