Purpose
The growing phase of emerging economy countries requires the implementation of environmental assessment tools in the building sector. The use of environmental product declarations (EPDs) has risen in developed countries as one of the main tools for environmental assessment. However, at what point should developing countries follow the EPD implementation strategies used by developed countries? What are the strengths and weaknesses of EPD in the emerging economy context, and what threats and opportunities does it face within the building sector? This work aims to answer these questions by taking Mexico as a case study.Methods
A bibliographical review was conducted to determine the key elements for EPD development in the building sector in other countries, especially those in Europe, where EPDs originated. The review also examined the experience and perspective of other countries that are starting to contemplate this type of ecolabel as an option for environmental assessment within their own building sectors, as well as industry perspectives on EPDs, especially those of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Then, Mexico’s situation in regard to these key elements was examined, with a special focus on the main stakeholders detected: government and industry. Finally, after a contrast analysis was conducted between the developed countries and Mexico, the strengths and weaknesses of EPDs in the emerging economy context and the threats and opportunities within the building sector were determined.Results and discussion
The use of EPDs in Europe has largely followed a normative and legislative pattern. Moreover, it has been the main data source for building environmental assessment schemes, and there is a strong life cycle assessment (LCA) platform that contributes to EPD development. Furthermore, there is a European tendency toward making the use of EPDs mandatory. However, there is a very different reality in emergent economy countries. In these countries, social housing represents a major part of the vision of the building sector, so it is taken as an initial approach to EPD development. In Mexico, there is a solid legislative framework in which EPDs could be implemented, and there is a variety of environmental assessment housing programs into which EPDs could be integrated. Nevertheless, there is an institutional void that has prevented the incorporation of the life cycle approach into the national strategy of sustainability in the building sector. Moreover, SMEs might not have the technical and financial capacity to develop EPD.Conclusions
This analysis has proved that EPD implementation in emerging countries mainly depends on two aspects: Firstly, it must be a shared vision of sustainability between government and industry, in which there is a correspondence between the sustainability objectives of the two parties and SMEs have the ability to contribute toward their achievement. Secondly, a solid platform of knowledge that supports LCA in the building sector is necessary, and it must involve a strong relationship between government, academia, and stakeholders.This article proposes an approach describing relative potential toxicological performances of products and allows for comparisons with other products with identical functions. The scores derived at the substance level may be aggregated to the product level for each of the life cycle stages of the product. This approach is intended to become a tool for performance assessment of products. It provides complementary information in addition to results from LCA for environmental product declarations (EPD). This article focuses on describing the impact on human health from exposure to construction products and to their ingredients, compatible with “life cycle thinking”. Ingredient substances can be part of the intended composition or can be relevant residues like monomers in plastics or defined contaminants. The proposed approach can also describe the toxicological impact for other than construction products.
MethodsThe method describes a dimensionless score suitable for ranking with three characteristics: (1) By a hazard score, it describes chemical products for different applications, e.g. for construction, with regard to the inherent toxicity for humans of their ingredients. (2) It considers exposure potentials to the product’s ingredients by a generic adjustment factor, which may modify potential health impacts. (3) It addresses not only the use stage of a product and its ingredients (e.g. as construction material in a building), but it also includes other life cycle stages of the product’s ingredients.
Results and discussionThe specific method is described which is still under testing. Therefore, no results of any application can be published so far. Since the method provides a scalable, dimensionless score of potential toxicological impacts, independent of time and location, these scores can in principle be aggregated to the building level, comparable to the life cycle assessment (LCA)-based information in an EPD. The different factors make use of the extensive toxicological and exposure data generated under REACH regulation but are not limited to these. Interpretation of such data differs from REACH.
ConclusionsThe method can be further developed into a tool for product and building assessment and be provided as (voluntary) additional information in an EPD. It is recommended that the basic concept be adapted to the needs of the users of the information generated with this method (e.g. architects, building assessment) and the providers of information (manufacturers). An intense consultation process with other stakeholders should be organised to establish a final method into a guidance document for unambiguous application.
相似文献Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a data-intensive methodology; therefore, experts usually focus collection efforts on a few activities, while generic data on remaining activities are taken from databases. Even though increased availability of databases has facilitated LCA takeoff, assuring data quality is fundamental to ensure meaningful results and reliable interpretation.
MethodsEcoinvent has become a global reference for inventory data. Its current version released three impact partition modeling options—the recycled content, “allocation at the point of substitution” (APOS), and consequential models—whose adequate choice is crucial for yielding meaningful assessments. Tutorials and manuals describe the distribution algorithm that backs each system model, to ground decision-making regarding the best fit to a study’s goals. We performed a systematic literature review to investigate—within the papers published on the International Journal of LCA (IJLCA)—how transparently authors addressed the system model choices.
Results and discussionAbout 70% of LCA practitioners continued to use earlier versions of ecoinvent after version 3 was launched in 2013. The number of papers using versions 3.x only showed an increased growth trend 2 years later. Eighty-three papers actually adopted the newest version of the database. From those, only 29 papers clearly mentioned the adopted system model. Our SLR also suggests a trend regarding authorship profile of LCA-related studies: the number of studies conducted by practitioners aware of the intricacies of sound modeling of background and foreground data might have been surpassed by those conducted by non-LCA specialists who use LCA as a supporting tool for investigations in applied fields, and merely scratch the surface.
ConclusionsOur results point to a need for a caveat: ecoinvent users must take time to understand the general concept behind each system model and practice one of the most important actions when performing an LCA—state methodological choices clearly.
相似文献Organizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) is an emerging method to analyze the inputs, outputs, and environmental impacts of an organization throughout its value chain. To facilitate the method’s application, the Guidance on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment was published within the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative and applied by 12 “road-testing” organizations. In this paper, different aspects of the road testers’ studies are displayed and analyzed according to the feedback of the road testers.
MethodsAn anonymous survey about the method application was conducted among the road testers. The analysis assessed, among others: (i) which goals the organizations initially pursued and their achievement; (ii) how previous experience with environmental tools contributed to the study design; (iii) which methodological options were chosen (like the scope of the study, data collection approaches, impact assessment methods and tools, and data sources); and (iv) which methodological challenges were faced.
Results and discussionThe survey showed that analytical goals were of priority for most road testers and obtained a higher achievement level than managerial and societal goals for which either long-term measures or the inclusion of stakeholders are needed. Previous experience with product- or organization-related tools considering the whole life cycle proves useful due to available data and/or organizational models. The categorization of organizational activities, data collection, data quality assessment, and interpretation proved being the most challenging methodological elements. In addition, three cross-cutting issues of method application were identified: aligning the O-LCA study to previous environmental activities, designing the study, and availability of personnel and software resources.
ConclusionsThe road-testing organizations verified the applicability and usefulness of the O-LCA Guidance and significantly widened the pool of case studies available. On the other hand, additional guidance for methodological challenges particular of the organizational level, the availability of software tools able to support O-LCA application, region-specific LCI databases, and a broadly recognized data quality assessment scheme would facilitate conducting O-LCA case studies.
相似文献In contrast to water consumption, water pollution has gained less attention in water footprinting so far. Unlike water scarcity impact assessment, on which a consensus has recently been achieved, there is no agreement on how to address water quality deterioration in water footprinting. This paper provides an overview of existing water footprint methods to calculate impacts associated with water pollution and discusses their strengths and limitations using an illustrative example.
MethodsThe methods are described and applied to a case study for the wastewater generated in textile processing. The results for two scenarios with different water quality parameters are evaluated against each other and the water scarcity footprint (WSF). Finally, methodological aspects, strengths and limitations of each method are analysed and discussed and recommendations for the methods application are provided.
Results and discussionTwo general impact assessment approaches exist to address water quality in water footprinting: the Water Degradation Footprint (WDF) calculates the impacts associated with the propagation of released pollutants in the environment and their uptake by the population and ecosystem, while the Water Availability Footprint (WAF) quantifies the impacts related to the water deprivation, when polluted water cannot be used. Overall, seven methods to consider water quality in water footprinting were identified, which rely upon one or a combination of WDF, WAF and WSF. Methodological scopes significantly vary regarding the inventory requirements and provided results (a single-score or several impact categories). The case study demonstrated that the methods provide conflicting results concerning which scenario is less harmful with regard to the water pollution.
ConclusionsThis paper provides a review of the water pollution assessment methods in water footprinting and analyses their modelling choices and resulting effects on the WF. With regard to the identified inconsistencies, we reveal the urgent need for a guidance for the methods application to provide robust results and allow a consistent evaluation of the water quality in water footprinting.
相似文献The majority of LCA studies begin with the drawing of a process flow diagram, which then needs to be translated manually into an LCA model. This study presents an initial image processing pipeline, implemented in an open-source software package, called lcopt-cv, which can be used to identify the boxes and links in a photograph of a hand-drawn process flow diagram and automatically create an LCA foreground model.
MethodsThe computer vision pipeline consists of a total of 15 steps, beginning with loading the image file and conversion to greyscale. The background is equalised, then the foreground of the image is extracted from the background using thresholding. The lines are then dilated and closed to account for drawing errors. Contours in the image are detected and simplified, and rectangles (contours with four corners) are identified from the simplified contours as ‘boxes’. Links between these boxes are identified using a flood-filling technique. Heuristic processing, based on knowledge of common practice in drawing of process flow diagrams, is then performed to more accurately identify the typology of the identified boxes and the direction of the links between them.
Results and discussionThe performance of the image processing pipeline was tested on four flow diagrams of increasing difficulty: one simple computer drawn diagram and three photographs of hand-drawn diagrams (a simple diagram, a complex diagram and a diagram with merged lines). A set of default values for the variables which define the pipeline was developed through trial and error. For the two simple flow charts, all boxes and links were identified using the default settings. The complex diagram required minor tweaks to the default values to detect all boxes and links. An ‘unstacking’ heuristic allowed the diagram with merged lines to be correctly processed. After some manual reclassification of link directions and process types, the diagrams were turned into LCA models and exported to open-source LCA software packages (lcopt and Brightway) to be verified and analysed.
ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that it is possible to generate a fully functional LCA model from a picture of a flow chart. This has potentially important implications not only for LCA practitioners as a whole, but in particular for the teaching of LCA. Skipping the steep learning curve required by most LCA software packages allows teachers to focus on important LCA concepts, while participants maintain the benefits of experiential learning by doing a ‘real’ LCA.
相似文献Plastic pervades now almost every aspect of our daily lives, but this prosperity has led to an increasing amount of plastic debris, which is now widespread in the oceans and represents a serious threat to biota. However, there is a general lack of consideration regarding marine plastic impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA). This paper presents a preliminary approach to facilitate the characterization of chemical impacts related to marine plastic within the LCA framework.
MethodsA literature review was carried out first to summarize the current state of research on the impact assessment of marine plastic. In recent years, efforts have been made to develop LCA-compliant indicators and models that address the impact of marine littering, entanglement, and ingestion. The toxicity of plastic additives to marine biota is currently a less understood impact pathway and also the focus of this study. Relevant ecotoxicity data were collected from scientific literature for a subsequent additive-specific effect factor (EF) development, which was conducted based on the USEtox approach. Extrapolation factors used for the data conversion were also extracted from reliable sources.
Results and discussionEFs were calculated for six commonly used additives to quantify their toxicity impacts on aquatic species. Triclosan shows an extremely high level of toxicity, while bisphenol A and bisphenol F are considered less toxic according to the results. Apart from additive-specific EFs, a generic EF was also generated, along with the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) illustrating the gathered data used to calculate this EF. Further ecotoxicity data are expected to expand the coverage of additives and species for deriving more robust EFs. In addition, a better understanding of the interactive effect between polymers and additives needs to be developed.
ConclusionsThis preliminary work provides a first step towards including the impact of plastic-associated chemicals in LCA. Although the toxicity of different additives to aquatic biota may vary significantly, it is recommended to consider additives within the impact assessment of marine plastic. The generic EF can be used, together with a future EF for adsorbed environmental pollutants, to fill a gap in the characterization of plastic-related impacts in LCA.
相似文献Land use can cause significant impacts on ecosystems and natural resources. To assess these impacts using life cycle assessment (LCA) and ensure adequate decision-making, comprehensive national inventories of land occupation and transformation flows are required. Here, we aim at developing globally differentiated inventories of land use flows that can be used for primary use in life cycle impact assessment or national land planning.
MethodsUsing publicly available data and inventory techniques, national inventories for several land use classes were developed. All land use classes were covered with the highest retrievable level of disaggregation within urban, forestry, agriculture and other land use classes, thus differentiating 21 land use classes. For illustrating the application of this newly developed inventory, two different application settings relevant to life cycle impact assessment were considered: the calculation of global normalisation references for 11 land use impact indicators related to soil quality assessment (adopting the methods recommended by the EU Commission) and the determination of generic globally applicable characterisation factors (CFs) resulting from aggregation of country-level CFs for situations for use when land use location is unknown.
Results and discussionWe built national inventories of 21 land occupation and 17 land transformation flows for 225 countries in the world for the reference year 2010. Cross-comparisons with existing inventories of narrower scopes attested its consistency. Detailed analyses of the calculated global normalisation references for the 11 land use impact categories showed different patterns across the land use impact indicators for each country, thus raising attention on key land use impacts specific to each country. Furthermore, the upscaling of country-level CFs to global generic CFs using the land use inventory revealed discrepancies with other alternative approaches using land use data at different resolutions.
ConclusionsIn this study, we made a first attempt at developing national inventories of land use flows with sufficient disaggregation level to enable the calculation of normalisation references and differentiated impacts. However, the findings also demonstrated the need to refine the consistency of the inventory, particularly in the combination of land cover and land use data, which should be harmonised in future studies, and to expand it with differentiated coverage of more land use flows relevant to impact assessment.
相似文献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.
MethodsO-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 discussionThe 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.
ConclusionsThe 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.
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