Application of life cycle assessment to footwear

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been applied in the leather footwear industry. Due to the fact that the goal of the study is to point those steps in the footwear cycle which contribute most to the total environmental impact, only a simplified semi-quantitative methodology is used. Background-data of all the inputs and outputs from the system have been inventoried. Impact assessment has been restricted to classification and characterisation. From the results of this LCA it has been concluded that energy consumption is an important impact generator phase, due to the characteristics of the electricity production in the studied area (Catalonia and the rest of Spain). A remarkable impact is generated in the solid waste management phase, also due to its characteristics in the studied area. Another significant impact source is the cattle raising phase where great values of Global Warming, Acidification and Eurrophication Potentials are estimated. At the tannery, a great value of water eutrophication potential is observed and this phase is also important for its non-renewable resource consumption.     

Global guidance on environmental life cycle impact assessment indicators: impacts of climate change,fine particulate matter formation,water consumption and land use

Purpose

Guidance is needed on best-suited indicators to quantify and monitor the man-made impacts on human health, biodiversity and resources. Therefore, the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative initiated a global consensus process to agree on an updated overall life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework and to recommend a non-comprehensive list of environmental indicators and LCIA characterization factors for (1) climate change, (2) fine particulate matter impacts on human health, (3) water consumption impacts (both scarcity and human health) and 4) land use impacts on biodiversity.

Methods

The consensus building process involved more than 100 world-leading scientists in task forces via multiple workshops. Results were consolidated during a 1-week Pellston Workshop? in January 2016 leading to the following recommendations.

Results and discussion

LCIA framework: The updated LCIA framework now distinguishes between intrinsic, instrumental and cultural values, with disability-adjusted life years (DALY) to characterize damages on human health and with measures of vulnerability included to assess biodiversity loss. Climate change impacts: Two complementary climate change impact categories are recommended: (a) The global warming potential 100 years (GWP 100) represents shorter term impacts associated with rate of change and adaptation capacity, and (b) the global temperature change potential 100 years (GTP 100) characterizes the century-scale long term impacts, both including climate-carbon cycle feedbacks for all climate forcers. Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) health impacts: Recommended characterization factors (CFs) for primary and secondary (interim) PM_2.5 are established, distinguishing between indoor, urban and rural archetypes. Water consumption impacts: CFs are recommended, preferably on monthly and watershed levels, for two categories: (a) The water scarcity indicator “AWARE” characterizes the potential to deprive human and ecosystems users and quantifies the relative Available WAter REmaining per area once the demand of humans and aquatic ecosystems has been met, and (b) the impact of water consumption on human health assesses the DALYs from malnutrition caused by lack of water for irrigated food production. Land use impacts: CFs representing global potential species loss from land use are proposed as interim recommendation suitable to assess biodiversity loss due to land use and land use change in LCA hotspot analyses.

Conclusions

The recommended environmental indicators may be used to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals in order to quantify and monitor progress towards sustainable production and consumption. These indicators will be periodically updated, establishing a process for their stewardship.

     

Effects of exogenous <Emphasis Type="Italic">myo</Emphasis>-inositol on leaf water status and oxidative stress of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Capsicum annuum</Emphasis> under drought stress

Drought-stressed plants accumulate cyclitols such as myo-inositol, pinitol, quercitol in the cytosol. These solutes (compatible solutes) protect plants from stress effects. Synthetic myo-inositol was used in the investigation of drought stress tolerance in pepper plants. Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), membrane damage, ascorbate peroxidase (AP), catalase (CAT), proline and calcium increased in plants under drought conditions. Water status, calcium level, glutathione reductase activities increased in myo-inositol treated Capsicum annuum L. (pepper) under drought stress. Exogenous myo-inositol significantly decreased H₂O₂, membrane damage and proline levels and AP (except for 5 µM) and CAT activity, compared with untreated plants. Myo-inositol can play a role as effective as proline in signal transduction and in regulating concentrations of reactive oxygen species within tolerable ranges and in maintaining cell turgor by binding water molecules. Myo-inositol may become a useful instrument to eliminate the negative effects of drought environments.     

Mean-variance performance optimization of response time in a tandem router network with batch arrivals

The end-to-end performance of a simple wireless router network with batch arrivals is optimized in an M/G/1 queue-based, analytical model. The optimization minimizes both the mean and variance of the transmission delay (or ‘response time’), subject to an upper limit on the rate of losses and finite capacity queueing and recovery buffers. Losses may be due to either full buffers or corrupted data. The queueing model is also extended to higher order moments beyond the mean and variance of the response time. The trade-off between mean and variance of response time is assessed and the optimal ratio of arrival-buffer size to recovery-buffer size is determined, which is a critical quantity, affecting both loss rate and transmission time. Graphs illustrate performance in the near-optimal region of the critical parameters. Losses at a full buffer are inferred by a time-out whereas corrupted data is detected immediately on receipt of a packet at a router, causing a N-ACK to be sent upstream. Recovery buffers hold successfully transmitted packets so that on receiving a N-ACK, the packet, if present, can be retransmitted, avoiding an expensive resend from source. The impact of the retransmission probability is investigated similarly: too high a value leads to congestion and so higher response times, too low and packets are lost forever.

Conference and workshop on modelling global land use implications in the environmental assessment of biofuels

Background, Aims and Scope  On 4–5 June 2007, an international conference was held in Copenhagen. It provided an interdisciplinary forum where economists and geographers met with LCA experts to discuss the challenges of modelling the ultimate land use changes caused by an increased demand for biofuels. Main Features  The main feature of the conference was the cross-breeding of experience from the different approaches to land use modelling: The field of LCA could especially benefit from economic modelling in the identification of marginal crop production and the resulting expansion of the global agricultural area. Furthermore, the field of geography offers insights in the complexity behind new land cultivation and practical examples of where this is seen to occur on a regional scale. Results  Results presented at the conference showed that the magnitude and location of land use changes caused by biofuels demand depend on where the demand arises. For instance, mandatory blending in the EU will increase land use both within and outside of Europe, especially in South America. A key learning for the LCA society was that the response to a change in demand for a given crop is not presented by a single crop supplier or a single country, but rather by responses from a variety of suppliers of several different crops in several countries. Discussion  The intensification potential of current and future crop and biomass production was widely discussed. It was generally agreed that some parts of the third world hold large potentials for intensification, which are not realised due to a number of barriers resulting in so-called yield gaps. Conclusions  Modelling the global land use implications of biofuels requires an interdisciplinary approach optimally integrating economic, geographical, biophysical, social and possibly other aspects in the modelling. This interdisciplinary approach is necessary but also difficult due to different perspectives and mindsets in the different disciplines. Recommendations and Perspectives  The concept of a location dependent marginal land use composite should be introduced in LCA of biofuels and it should be acknowledged that the typical LCA assumption of linear substitution is not necessarily valid. Moreover, fertiliser restrictions/accessibility should be included in land use modelling and the relation between crop demand and intensification should be further explored. In addition, environmental impacts of land use intensification should be included in LCA, the powerful concept of land use curves should be further improved, and so should the modelling of diminishing returns in crop production.     

Life cycle assessment of the average Spanish diet including human excretion

Background, aim and scope  

The aim of this work is to find out to what extent human excretion is relevant in the context of a Spaniard’s overall food intake. A case study dealing with the average Spanish diet is carried out, including the whole life cycle of food: agricultural and animal production, industrial processing, distribution and retail, home storage and cooking, solid waste management and human excretion.     

Estimating the greenhouse gas footprint of Knorr

Purpose  

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been identified as one of Unilever’s priority environmental impact themes: this assessment was therefore conducted to help the Knorr brand measure and understand the GHG emissions related to its product portfolio, identify opportunities to manage GHG emissions in the Unilever-owned operations (manufacture) and influence managed reductions elsewhere in the Knorr product lifecycles, and assess the impact of the brand’s innovation and portfolio strategies on its GHG footprint.     

Does ear C sink strength contribute to overcoming photosynthetic acclimation of wheat plants exposed to elevated CO2?

Wheat plants (Triticum durum Desf., cv. Regallo) were grown in the field to study the effects of contrasting [CO(2)] conditions (700 versus 370 μmol mol(-1)) on growth, photosynthetic performance, and C management during the post-anthesis period. The aim was to test whether a restricted capacity of sink organs to utilize photosynthates drives a loss of photosynthetic capacity in elevated CO(2). The ambient (13)C/(12)C isotopic composition (δ(13)C) of air CO(2) was changed from -10.2‰ in ambient [CO(2)] to -23.6‰ under elevated [CO(2)] between the 7th and the 14th days after anthesis in order to study C assimilation and partitioning between leaves and ears. Elevated [CO(2)] had no significant effect on biomass production and grain filling, and caused an accumulation of C compounds in leaves. This was accompanied by up-regulation of phosphoglycerate mutase and ATP synthase protein content, together with down-regulation of adenosine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphatase protein. Growth in elevated [CO(2)] negatively affected Rubisco and Rubisco activase protein content and induced photosynthetic down-regulation. CO(2) enrichment caused a specific decrease in Rubisco content, together with decreases in the amino acid and total N content of leaves. The C labelling revealed that in flag leaves, part of the C fixed during grain filling was stored as starch and structural C compounds whereas the rest of the labelled C (mainly in the form of soluble sugars) was completely respired 48 h after the end of labelling. Although labelled C was not detected in the δ(13)C of ear total organic matter and respired CO(2), soluble sugar δ(13)C revealed that a small amount of labelled C reached the ear. The (12)CO(2) labelling suggests that during the beginning of post-anthesis the ear did not contribute towards overcoming flag leaf carbohydrate accumulation, and this had a consequent effect on protein expression and photosynthetic acclimation.     

Which cropland greenhouse gas mitigation options give the greatest benefits in different world regions? Climate and soil‐specific predictions from integrated empirical models

Major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural crop production are nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions resulting from the application of mineral and organic fertilizer, and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from soil carbon losses. Consequently, choice of fertilizer type, optimizing fertilizer application rates and timing, reducing microbial denitrification and improving soil carbon management are focus areas for mitigation. We have integrated separate models derived from global data on fertilizer‐induced soil N₂O emissions, soil nitrification inhibitors, and the effects of tillage and soil inputs of soil C stocks into a single model to determine optimal mitigation options as a function of soil type, climate, and fertilization rates. After Monte Carlo sampling of input variables, we aggregated the outputs according to climate, soil and fertilizer factors to consider the benefits of several possible emissions mitigation strategies, and identified the most beneficial option for each factor class on a per‐hectare basis. The optimal mitigation for each soil‐climate‐region was then mapped to propose geographically specific optimal GHG mitigation strategies for crops with varying N requirements. The use of empirical models reduces the requirements for validation (as they are calibrated on globally or continentally observed phenomena). However, as they are relatively simple in structure, they may not be applicable for accurate site‐specific prediction of GHG emissions. The value of this modelling approach is for initial screening and ranking of potential agricultural mitigation options and to explore the potential impact of regional agricultural GHG abatement policies. Given the clear association between management practice and crop productivity, it is essential to incorporate characterization of the yield effect on a given crop before recommending any mitigation practice.     

Quantifying global greenhouse gas emissions from land‐use change for crop production

Many assessments of product carbon footprint (PCF) for agricultural products omit emissions arising from land‐use change (LUC). In this study, we developed a framework based on IPCC national greenhouse gas inventory methodologies to assess the impacts of LUC from crop production using oil palm, soybean and oilseed rape as examples. Using ecological zone, climate and soil types from the top 20 producing countries, calculated emissions for transitions from natural vegetation to cropland on mineral soils under typical management ranged from ?4.5 to 29.4 t CO₂‐eq ha^?1 yr^?1 over 20 years for oil palm and 1.2–47.5 t CO₂‐eq ha^?1 yr^?1 over 20 years for soybeans. Oilseed rape showed similar results to soybeans, but with lower maximum values because it is mainly grown in areas with lower C stocks. GHG emissions from other land‐use transitions were between 62% and 95% lower than those from natural vegetation for the arable crops, while conversions to oil palm were a sink for C. LUC emissions were considered on a national basis and also expressed per‐tonne‐of‐oil‐produced. Weighted global averages indicate that, depending on the land‐use transition, oil crop production on newly converted land contributes between ?3.1 and 7.0 t CO₂‐eq t oil production^?1 yr^?1 for palm oil, 11.9–50.6 t CO₂‐eq t oil production^?1 yr^?1 for soybean oil, and 7.7–31.4 t CO₂‐eq t oil production^?1 yr^?1 for rapeseed oil. Assumptions made about crop and LUC distribution within countries contributed up to 66% error around the global averages for natural vegetation conversions. Uncertainty around biomass and soil C stocks were also examined. Finer resolution data and information (particularly on land management and yield) could improve reliability of the estimates but the framework can be used in all global regions and represents an important step forward for including LUC emissions in PCFs.