2015
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5b01192
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Allocation Games: Addressing the Ill-Posed Nature of Allocation in Life-Cycle Inventories

Abstract: Allocation is required when a life cycle contains multi-functional processes. One approach to allocation is to partition the embodied resources in proportion to a criterion, such as product mass or cost. Many practitioners apply multiple partitioning criteria to avoid choosing one arbitrarily. However, life cycle results from different allocation methods frequently contradict each other, making it difficult or impossible for the practitioner to draw any meaningful conclusions from the study. Using the matrix n… Show more

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Cited by 24 publications
(14 citation statements)
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“…Their mathematics are discussed further below. It should be noted that allocations present major issues when TCs are not physically-based, and results of LCA are highly sensitive to practitioners' assumptions (Reap et al, 2008), particularly when system expansion is used to estimate avoided impacts due to processes' secondary products (Hanes et al, 2015). In our cases, avoidable issues around assigning responsibility remain.…”
Section: Compiling Metric Input Datamentioning
confidence: 85%
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“…Their mathematics are discussed further below. It should be noted that allocations present major issues when TCs are not physically-based, and results of LCA are highly sensitive to practitioners' assumptions (Reap et al, 2008), particularly when system expansion is used to estimate avoided impacts due to processes' secondary products (Hanes et al, 2015). In our cases, avoidable issues around assigning responsibility remain.…”
Section: Compiling Metric Input Datamentioning
confidence: 85%
“…Moreover, they may determine where in the lifecycle of products waste reduction interventions are applied and at what actors they are aimed (households, businesses, etc.). Such values may also affect the design of sustainability assessments more broadly via the choices made when selecting methods, metrics, system boundaries, and allocation coefficients for secondary products (Hanes et al, 2015;Sala et al, 2013b). For example, the monetising of environmental and social impacts in ECBA (Kallis et al, 2013;McCauley, 2006;Millward-Hopkins, 2016) is a contentious approach that opponents have argued is fundamentally incompatible with sustainability science (Anderson et al, 2015).…”
Section: Conceptual Backgroundmentioning
confidence: 99%
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“…To provide a solution for the system of linear equations of an LCA (Heijungs and Suh 2002), the use of the least-squares technique has been investigated (Marvuglia et al 2010;Cruze et al 2014). In this sense, particularly Cruze et al (2014) favor avoiding allocation over partitioning regardless of the principle arguing that, Bsince the number of solutions to choose from is infinite, even consensus… would not necessarily lend validity to an LCA study.M ore recently, the study by Hanes et al (2015) developed an analytical approach dealing with the choice of allocation method: the Comprehensive Allocation Investigation Strategy (CAIS). This approach considers all possible combinations of partitioning methods in a comparative LCA; therefore, it systematically explores the allocation space of various systems.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Besides the analytical method of Hanes et al (2015), there is the statistical approach of Andrianandraina et al (2015). They apply local and global sensitivity analyses to determine the influence of uncertainty in unit process data and methodological and modeling parameters to the total uncertainty in LCA results.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%