Editorial for int J LCA on the launch of the UNEP-SETAC life cycle initiative

Töpfer, Klaus

doi:10.1007/bf02978871

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The joint UNEP/SETAC Life-Cycle Initiative in Prague started in the same year of the Johannesburg conference (Töpfer 2002). This initiative aims at promoting global distribution and use of LCA and LCM and can be seen as an outcome-and partly also as incentive-of the high-level endeavours by the United Nations.…”

Section: Sustainability and The United Nations Environmental Programmementioning

confidence: 99%

Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment of Products

Klöpffer

Renner²

2008

Environmental Management Accounting for Cleaner Production

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Sustainability was adopted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Rio de Janiero as the main political goal for the future development of humankind. It should also be the ultimate aim of product development. According to the well-known interpretation of the original definition given in the Brundtland Report, sustainability comprises three components: environment, economy, and social aspects. These components or 'pillars' of sustainability have to be properly assessed and balanced if a new product is to be designed or an existing one be improved.Depending on the systems to be improved, in the sense of better sustainability, and to the audience(s), i.e. actors or stakeholders, different scientific and practical approaches are being developed. There are notably two directions which can be distinguished: one based on accounting (Environmental Accounting and Environmental Management Accounting-EMA) and another one based on the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products. In this article, the latter approach is described in the hope of improving the mutual understanding of the two communities and their assessment/accounting tools. The responsibility of the researchers involved in the assessment of sustainability is to provide appropriate, reliable, and up-to-date instruments. For the environmental part, there is already an internationally standardised tool: Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) is the logical counterpart of LCA for the economic assessment. LCC surpasses the purely economic accounting and cost calculation by taking into account the use-and end-of-life phases and hidden costs. For this component, a guideline is being developed by The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). It is a very important point that different life-cycle based methods (including Social Life-Cycle Assessment 'SLCA') for sustainability assessment use consistent system boundaries.SLCA has been neglected in the past, mainly due to great methodological difficulties, but is now beginning to be developed.

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Section: Sustainability and The United Nations Environmental Programmementioning

confidence: 99%

Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment of Products

Klöpffer

Renner²

2008

Environmental Management Accounting for Cleaner Production

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“…Launched in 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative has been working towards building an expert community of practitioners and reaching the worldwide dissemination of the LCA methodology and life cycle thinking among businesses, governments, and consumers through its different working groups (Bjørn, Owsianiak, Molin, & Hauschild, 2018;Sonnemann et al, 2018;Töpfer, 2002 (EC, 2003), the directive on the eco-design of energy using products in the EU region (EC, 2009), the eco-labeling scheme (EC, 2010), the EU better regulation toolbox (EC, 2015), and the PEF and OEF guidance documents (EC, 2016(EC, , 2018a. Type III environmental information on products, in the form of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD; Ibanez-Fores, Pacheco-Blanco, Capuz-Rizo, & Bovea, 2016), are directly associated with conducting an LCA following a set of product categories rules.…”

Section: Lca In Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The LCA methodology was formalized at the beginning of the 1990s by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC, ) and standardized with the ISO 14040‐44 series (ISO, ) in the late 1990s, which pushed its promotion at a global level (Töpfer, ). From an original focus on assessing product or service systems, recent developments have broadened the scope of LCA applications and opened it to assess organizational systems, lifestyles, and countries (Hellweg & Milà i Canals, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life cycle assessment in corporate sustainability reporting: Global, regional, sectoral, and company‐level trends

et al. 2018

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Large companies now commonly release corporate sustainability (CS) reports in which they describe their approach to handle sustainability challenges. To guide environmental sustainability efforts in the industry, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology has been recognized as an important tool by researchers and policy makers. But to what extent has the LCA methodology been present in companies' narratives through their CS reports up to now? To answer this question, we map references to the LCA methodology in CS reports over the past two decades at geographical, sectoral, and company levels through keyword searching within an extensive database (~45,000 CS reports), analyze trends, and highlight challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to strengthen the presence of LCA in CS reports. The results show that LCA generally remains weakly present in CS reporting, with some geographical and sectoral variations. Recommendations to strengthen LCA presence in CS reports are derived for method developers, policy makers, and companies.

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“…LCA is currently being used globally as a tool to support decision making in a policy context ( Sonnemann et al, 2018 ). As it has moved from the academic realm, it has been adopted by for example, companies and governmental institutions, such as the European Commission's Joint Research Center, motivating various project like the LCA Initiative ( Töpfer, 2002 ). More recently, developments that incorporate life cycle thinking in the policy sector include the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, including goal 12 for sustainable consumption and production patterns ( UNEP et al, 2012 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impacts of plastic products on air pollution - A simulation study for advanced life cycle inventories of plastics covering secondary microplastic production

Vega

Gross

Birkved

2021

Sustainable Production and Consumption

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A framework, SecμPlast, to include secondary microplastic (MP) formation due to photooxidation into current Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) from cradle-to-grave of products. The framework details how to incorporate secondary MP formation into the plastic's life cycle as related to the plastic's use phase, and location specific waste treatment and how to connect the impacts with current life cycle impact assessment methodologies (LCIA). Plastics, now ubiquitous in the environment are a potential source of emerging pollution and have been shown to have negative effects of various species. Thus, the framework consist of 1) a degradation module, which accounts for micro-and nano-plastic formation with dynamic degradation of microparticles, 2) an emissions module accounts for the potential of the plastic particles to be emitted to air, and 3) an impacts module which connects the various emissions to existing LCIA methods. The framework allows for quantification of secondary microplastic in an LCA context and for further characterization of the impacts at endpoints in terms of human health, and allows for a high level of regionalization, both in terms of input data and characterization of impact damages. Secμ-Plast was tested on a case study of mulch film which showed that the per kg contribution to particulate matter (PM) and other impacts is low. The impacts vary largely depending on the degradation rate and ranged from 9.24 ×10 −6 to 0.0 0 043 kg PM equivalents per kg of mulch film, depending on either a slow or fast degradation rate, respectively. The impact came mostly from the littered fraction, which was estimated to be 10% of the products weight after the use phase, in Europe. The degradation rates due to UV degradation were low, 0.034 μg/year for a slow degradation rate, compared to values derived from the literature, 0.345 μg/year for a fast degradation rate during littering, that included other sources of degradation, such as abrasion. However, when these impacts are scaled up to the European consumption of plastics and monetized, it is evident that even small increases of PM are costly for society and could potentially amount to millions of dollars per year in human health damages. Further research efforts should focus on filling data gaps, such as microplastic losses during production, recycling and potentially incineration, as well as degradation kinetics including other degradation factors such as freeze/thawing, wet/drying in combination with UV degradation.

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Editorial for int J LCA on the launch of the UNEP-SETAC life cycle initiative

Cited by 21 publications

References 0 publications

Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment of Products

Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment of Products

Life cycle assessment in corporate sustainability reporting: Global, regional, sectoral, and company‐level trends

The impacts of plastic products on air pollution - A simulation study for advanced life cycle inventories of plastics covering secondary microplastic production

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