Are Cradle to Cradle certified products environmentally preferable? Analysis from an LCA approach

Llorach-Massana, Pere; Farreny, Ramon; Oliver-Solà, Jordi

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.01.032

Cited by 46 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The certifications represent a stimulus from the bottom, in a bottom-up logic, in line with the literature (see, for example, [66][67][68][69][70][71]), for more sustainable manufacture of products and in accordance with the circular economy principles.…”

Section: Consumer Behaviormentioning

confidence: 52%

The Stakeholders’ Perspective within the B Corp Certification for a Circular Approach

et al. 2019

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A circular economy has been gaining momentum as the most innovative approach in business. Its proposed model, based on sustainability and new product-driven differentiated strategies of production and organizational exchange, has brought to light the need to better understand the relevance of stakeholders as a critical factor in the creation of new added value in business management. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate how the B-Corp Certification System could contribute to a process of awareness raising in business organizations. It also focuses on the stakeholders’ commitment, within the framework of circular economy principles, and demonstrates that those companies who are adopting the certification concerning “recycling service and waste management” strongly contribute to the development in the direction of the circular economy. The analysis of the case studies shows two possible scenarios describing the circular approach in business and the different roles of stakeholders in the activation of such a virtuous path. “Social recycling” considers the key role of social participation and contribution in circular-economy related activities of primary and secondary stakeholders, and “highly regenerative recycling” aims to involve qualified stakeholders to start inter-organizational symbioses within the circular process of waste recycling. Key factors, such as industrial symbiosis, tax benefits, financial incentives, legislative harmonization, and the consumers’ behavior, represent the tenets of the circular economy model An awareness-raising perspective and the capacity on the part of companies to understand the relevance of stakeholders and the way to transform their role into the most effective lever to reinforce competitiveness is therefore necessary. Accordingly, the whole system of Benefit Corporation certification could boost business towards new business models involving stakeholders in several directions.

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Section: Consumer Behaviormentioning

confidence: 52%

The Stakeholders’ Perspective within the B Corp Certification for a Circular Approach

et al. 2019

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“…in the primary aluminium production, and since the C2C certification levels here included (B, S, G) only considers the manufacturing stage rather than the entire life cycle, C2C misses the fact that NRE is being utilized, by whoever outside the manufacturing stage. The lack of life cycle perspective has already proven to bias the outcomes of the C2C certification for product categories such as office buildings, textiles and TV & lamps categories, with high energy consumption during use stage (Kausch and Klosterhaus, 2015;Llorach-Massana et al, 2015), and is here challenged for aluminium packaging, which has high energy consumption during the raw material manufacturing stage.…”

Section: Methodological Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the outcomes of such analyses is that C2C products will not necessarily perform well in an LCA. Despite this C2C/LCA misalignment LCA remains the preferred tool to quantify the environmental improvements of products before and after the C2C certification (Llorach-Massana et al, 2015;Trucost, 2014). LCA is widely used as a decision support tool in the packaging industry, despite the influence of subjective choices on the outcomes of results, both at methodological (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Closing the loop for aluminum cans: Life Cycle Assessment of progression in Cradle-to-Cradle certification levels

Niero

Negrelli

Hoffmeyer

et al. 2016

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Despite their different scopes, both the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Certified TM Product Standard can support companies in the implementation of circular economy strategies. Considering the case of aluminium cans, the objectives of this paper are twofold: (i) to compare the environmental impact associated with different levels of two C2C certification requirements by using LCA; and (ii) to identify the main challenges and drawbacks in the combined use of LCA and C2C for packaging within the circular economy framework.Twenty different scenarios were developed and compared, according to three C2C certification levels, in terms of % renewable energy and % recycled content. The results show that increasing the recycled content provides more improvements to environmental impacts than increasing renewable energy usage.Furthermore, receiving a higher certification level does not necessarily mean environmental burden reduction in LCA sense.From a methodological point of view, the main challenge for LCA is to address the continuous loop of materials and account for the benefits from recycling in a consistent way. Meanwhile for C2C the challenge is to guarantee a proper translation of the C2C principles into the C2C certification program, avoiding burden shifting and to find a balance between the different certification requirements. Keywords

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“…Moreover, because the overall environmental performances of a product depend not only on the manufacture of the product itself, but also on the whole life cycle (see, e.g., the impact from refrigeration of beverages in certain geographical contexts), the limited focus of the C2C certification on the product can therefore benefit from the inclusion of a broader life cycle perspective. There has recently been a discussion on whether C2C certified products are better from an environmental point of view; see Llorach‐ Llorach‐Massana and colleagues () and the rebuttal by Kausch and Klosterhaus (). The primary aim of the C2C design framework is to provide guidelines for product quality and innovation, and not strictly to communicate the environmental issues associated with a product.…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Renewable Energy and Carbon Management in the Cradle‐to‐Cradle Certification: Limitations and Opportunities

Niero

Olsen

Laurent

2017

J of Industrial Ecology

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Summary 11As part of the Cradle to Cradle ® (C2C) certification program, the C2C certification criterion 12 "Renewable Energy and Carbon Management" (RE&CM) focuses on use of electricity from RE 13 and direct greenhouse gas offsets in the manufacturing stage and to a limited extent on the cradle to 14 gate only at the highest level of certification. The aim of this study is to provide decision-makers 15 with a quantified overview of possible limitations of that C2C certification requirement and 16 potential gains by introducing a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) perspective to the scheme. 17Scenario analysis was used to perform an LCA of an aluminum can system representing different 18 levels of the C2C certification criterion RE&CM, considering different strategies to achieve 100% 19RE in the manufacturing stage. The adoption of a broader life cycle RE perspective was considered 20 through the implementation of electricity from renewable sources from cradle to grave. Our results 21show that compliance with the current RE&CM certification framework offers limited benefits, i.e. 22significant reduction for climate change but negligible reductions for other environmental impacts, 23 e.g. particulate matter and acidification. However, increasing the share of RE in the primary 24 aluminum production from a full life cycle perspective can greatly increase the environmental 25 benefits brought up by the C2C certification, not only for climate change, but for the broader range 26 of impact categories. In our striving towards environmental sustainability, which often cannot be 27 approximated by climate change impacts alone, we therefore recommend decision-makers in 28 industries to combine the C2C certification with LCA when they define strategies for the selection 29 of renewable energy and raw materials suppliers. With the current political and business emphasis on circular economy, defined as a restorative or 35 regenerative industrial system by intention and design (EMF 2013; EC 2015), the Cradle-to-Cradle ® 36(C2C) design framework has gained an increasing visibility in industry (Toxopeus et al. 2015). C2C 37 is a design framework oriented towards product quality and innovation, aiming to maximize the 38 overall benefits of products to ecological and economical systems by designing "eco-effective" 39 solutions. C2C relies on three key principles: "waste equal food", "use current solar income" and 71We build on the results of an existing LCA of aluminum beverage cans (termed "AlC system" in respectively. In the current study, we therefore consider different can systems including either

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Are Cradle to Cradle certified products environmentally preferable? Analysis from an LCA approach

Cited by 46 publications

References 15 publications

The Stakeholders’ Perspective within the B Corp Certification for a Circular Approach

The Stakeholders’ Perspective within the B Corp Certification for a Circular Approach

Closing the loop for aluminum cans: Life Cycle Assessment of progression in Cradle-to-Cradle certification levels

Renewable Energy and Carbon Management in the Cradle‐to‐Cradle Certification: Limitations and Opportunities

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