LCA and decision making: when and how to use consequential LCA; 62nd LCA forum,Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,Zürich, 9 September 2016

The 62nd life cycle assessment (LCA) forum was held on 9 September 2016 to discuss the state of research and application with regard to consequential life cycle assessment. This conference report presents the highlights of the LCA forum. The state of the art of consequential LCA was presented from different viewpoints. It was pointed out that consequential LCA is more than marginal mixes and avoided burdens and involves causal modelling. It was also said that social responsibility calls for consequential LCA. Currently, different models are used to support decision making. It was suggested to make use of the variety of models to check the conclusiveness of their results and thus the reliability of the LCAs. Current and future implementations of consequential LCI models in background databases and linking algorithms were presented. Several speakers presented consequential LCA case studies covering the sectors energy, transport, housing and mining. Some of the LCA models used in the case studies are complemented with general and partial computable equilibrium models and agent-based models and use environmentally extended input-output data or process-based LCA data. Some of the presentations focused on elements such as constrained production, marginal market mixes and technologies or recycling and system expansion. In three parallel workshops, the needs, contents and methodology, and implementation of consequential LCA approaches were discussed. The participants seemed to generally agree on the basic goal that LCA should be able to reflect the consequences of decisions. The inquiry among the participants showed that the demand for consequential LCA studies is hardly existent. The appropriate implementation of consequential modelling in LCA databases and on the appropriate model to be used in consequential LCA case studies was debated. It revealed a need for further and extensive discussions to be able to reach (minimum) consensus.     

National environmental footprints and planetary boundaries: from methodology to policy implementation 59th LCA forum,Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,Zürich,June 12, 2015

The 59th LCA forum was held on 12 June, 2015 to discuss the situation with regard to national environmental footprints and their relation to planetary boundaries and to the global carrying capacity. This conference report presents the highlights of the LCA forum. Several approaches of how to quantify a safe operating space of the Earth were presented, such as the planetary boundary concept published by Rockström et al. (Nature 462:472–475, 2009) and the ecological footprint (Bastianoni et al. 2013). Several presenters showed how they transformed environmental planetary boundaries to national and per capita allowances. In a research project funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment safe and unsafe areas were determined by combining the level of overshoot, the level of confidence in the information and the trend in the environmental load. The areas of climate change, biodiversity losses and nitrogen losses show a large overshoot on a global level but also from the point of view of Swiss consumption. Other organizations use the planetary boundary concept to identify companies which qualify for environmentally sustainable funds. Finally, life cycle impact assessment methods are being developed using the planetary boundary concept. The weighting step is based on the level of overshoot, which is close to “distance to target” approaches. It was discussed that the nine planetary boundaries face some consistency and operationalisation problems. For instance, land use changes cause biodiversity losses, which is a planetary boundary parameter in its own. Chemical pollution on the other hand is a general topic, for which a quantification approach has to be developed first (load as well as its planetary boundary). The discussion forum showed that individual countries and political entities like the European Union start monitoring their consumption based environmental footprint. Within this context, approaches and concepts are needed to define the environmentally safe operating space. The LCA forum showed that there is still basic research needed to reliably and consistently quantify relevant planetary boundaries (avoiding overlapping indicators) and to transfer these boundaries to per capita allowances.     

Environmental benchmarks for buildings: needs,challenges and solutions—71st LCA forum,Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,Zürich, 18 June 2019

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - The 71st LCA forum was held on 18 June 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland, to discuss the current status and future plans of environmental benchmarking...     

49th Discussion forum on LCA—sustainable consumption patterns—September 18, 2012, Zurich, Switzerland

There are different ways and strategies to reduce the environmental impacts caused today. One starting point for reducing the environmental impacts of today is the private consumption. Finally, all goods and services provided in a country contribute to fulfil the needs and demands of consumers. Several national and international initiatives therefore aim for a considerable reduction of the environmental impacts of consumption patterns. The 49th LCA Discussion Forum analysed the present consumption patterns of households and their consequent environmental impacts. Based on this, potentials for a reduction of the environmental impacts were identified and discussed. In this context, the possible applications, advantages and drawbacks of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology were analysed. National and international speakers provided qualified insights on the topic. The 49th Discussion Forum concentrated on different aspects of sustainable consumption patterns. The focus lay on private households and the environmental impacts caused by their consumption patterns. In the first session, the idea of the “2000-Watt society” was introduced as an example of a concept of a “sustainable lifestyle”. Another way of analysing the total impacts is the consumption perspective introduced in a second presentation. Based on an analysis of environmental impacts due to final demand of Swiss households, different measures for a reduction of environmental impacts were proposed and analysed. The second session examined similar activities in Germany. The short presentations covered the communication of LCA results. The third session focused on web-based eco-calculators. In the last session, two scientific inputs were given on the modelling of household consumption patterns and on the impact of rebound effects on the environmental impact of private consumption. The most important consumption domains are nutrition, mobility and energy use in households. Apart from different modelling approaches and boundary conditions, the majority of the presentations showed that today’s consumption patterns in Switzerland and Germany are far away from a sustainable level. Considerable reduction measures are needed in order to reach this goal. Eco-calculators and similar tools provide an effective way to raise customer awareness. In general, it is very important to communicate LCA results in a simple, clear and transparent way.     

45th Discussion forum on LCA—environmentally extended input–output analysis and LCA, September 15, 2011, Berne, Switzerland

The discussion forum on life cycle assessment (LCA) on September 15, 2011, aimed at summarizing recent environmentally extended input?Coutput analysis (EE-IOA) and the combination with LCA for the computation of environmental impact of imports. Input?Coutput tables (IOT) represent the financial flows in a country or economic regions. Extending IOT with information on emissions and resource uses allows for the analysis of environmental impacts due to production and consumption activities in a country. This instrument is called EE-IOA. It enables the analysis of total environmental impacts of countries or economic regions. The combination with trade statistics and LCA was presented as an alternative to multiregional input?Coutput models for determining environmental impacts of imports over the whole life cycle. The 45th LCA forum gathered several international speakers who provided a broad and qualified view on the topic. The theoretical background, results for different countries and regions, uncertainties, and possible improvement options for EE-IOA were discussed. The following main conclusions were drawn at the end of the discussion forum: EE-IOA is a useful instrument for analyzing the total environmental impacts of countries and the main drivers of environmental impacts. As a next important step, the participants would like to see an increase in user friendliness of EE-IOA combined with LCA, e.g., by harmonizing data, data formats, and classifications.     

Ecological scarcity 2013—new features and its application in industry and administration—54th LCA forum,Ittigen/Berne,Switzerland, December 5, 2013

The 54th LCA forum was held on December 5, 2013 to launch the fourth generation ecological scarcity method, applied to Switzerland. This conference report presents the highlights of the LCA forum. The ecological scarcity method belongs to the family of distance-to-target methods and is based on politically and legally defined environmental goals. The application of the method in industry and politics as well as its benefits, the main elements of the method and new elements such as the assessment of abiotic resources, global land use, noise and nuclear waste are presented. The losses (and not the extraction) of abiotic resources are characterised with the abiotic depletion potential. Land use impacts on flora and fauna biodiversity are quantified per land use type and for 14 different biomes. Transport noise is assessed based on the number of highly annoyed persons. Finally, nuclear waste is characterised using the radio toxicity index, a parameter commonly used in the nuclear industry. In three policy-making areas, LCA in general and the ecological scarcity method in particular are being applied: waste policy, biofuels tax exemption and Green Economy. Practical applications in administration and industry show that the eco-factors are considered useful in decision making because they cover a broad range of environmental impacts aggregated to a single score. The results of first applications and comparisons showed that the switch from third to fourth generation eco-factors hardly affects the results and conclusions although there are some significant changes in the eco-factor of individual pollutants. It was concluded that the fourth generation is a moderate evolution from the third generation published in 2008. It is considered crucial to allow for single-score methods as they allow to assess environmental impacts comprehensively and to identify environmental hot spots. The method presented thus is suited for a “true and fair” reporting on environmental information.     

Chemical Evolution: Physics of the Origins and Evolution of Life,Proceedings of the 4th Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution,Trieste, Italy, 4—8 September 1995. Edited by Julian Chela-Flores and François Raulin.

Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres -     

Nutrition, aspects of land use and environment in medieval times in southern Germany: plant macro-remain analysis from latrines (late 11th–13th century a.d.) at the town of Überlingen, Lake Constance

From high medieval courtyards at überlingen, Lake Constance (Bodensee), 17 archaeobotanical samples from seven latrines (11th–13th century) were analysed for plant macrofossils. They contained small amounts of cultivated plants and many well preserved seeds and fruits of wild plants. The most numerous cereal finds were of Triticum spelta followed by Secale cereale. Recorded oil plants were Papaver somniferum and Linum usitatissimum. Cultivated and gathered fruits such as various Prunus species, Pyrus communis and Malus domestica, Rubus sp. and Fragaria vesca were eaten by the people of überlingen. Only one seed of Ficus carica was found which may have been imported; no other imported plants could be recognised. Agrostemma githago and Vaccaria hispanica were prevalent weeds. The presence of the latter probably indicates the cultivation of cereals on the steeper slopes above überlingen. It is shown that in central Europe, V. hispanica became a troublesome weed only around the 12th/13th century A.D. Grassland species—mainly from more or less wet locations—and ruderal plants of nitrogen-rich soils were well represented in the samples and characterize the surrounding area. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at