Normalization and weighting: the open challenge in LCA

Roesch, Andreas; Sala, Serenella; Jungbluth, Niels

doi:10.1007/s11367-020-01790-0

Cited by 41 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In these cases, provisional targets were derived in the most plausible way possible from suitable references, such as EU regulations or directives or governmental strategy reports. However, this clearly limits the democratic legitimacy, which is one of the most important arguments in favor of ESM in general [32]. This study suggests nevertheless that the ESM's mathematical simplicity makes it a particularly transparent approach that allows for a critical reflection and, if necessary, case-specific adaptation of weights for environmental impacts.…”

Section: Missing Targets-limitations and Transparencymentioning

confidence: 89%

Ecological Scarcity Based Impact Assessment for a Decentralised Renewable Energy System

et al. 2020

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Increasing the share of renewable energies in electricity and heat generation is the cornerstone of a climate-friendly energy transition. However, as renewable technologies rely on diverse natural resources, the design of decarbonized energy systems inevitably leads to environmental trade-offs. This paper presents the case study of a comprehensive impact assessment for different future development scenarios of a decentralized renewable energy system in Germany. It applies an adapted ecological scarcity method (ESM) that improves decision-support by ranking the investigated scenarios and revealing their main environmental shortcomings: increased mineral resource use and pollutant emissions due to required technical infrastructure and a substantial increase in land use due to biomass combustion. Concerning the case study, the paper suggests extending the set of considered options, e.g., towards including imported wind energy. More generally, the findings underline the need for a comprehensive environmental assessment of renewable energy systems that integrate electricity supply with heating, cooling, and mobility. On a methodical level, the ESM turns out to be a transparent and well adaptable method to analyze environmental trade-offs from renewable energy supply. It currently suffers from missing quantitative targets that are democratically sufficiently legitimized. At the same time, it can provide a sound basis for an informed discussion on such targets.

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Section: Missing Targets-limitations and Transparencymentioning

confidence: 89%

Ecological Scarcity Based Impact Assessment for a Decentralised Renewable Energy System

et al. 2020

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“…Even more important and controversial in LCSA than in LCA are the optional steps of normalization, weighting, and aggregation of impact categories, due to increased complexity of results and how to communicate them to different stakeholders (Wulf et al 2017;Andreas et al 2020). At this early stage of overall method development, in future case studies, we will present plain results as well as normalized, weighted, and aggregated results (Valdivia et al 2012;Wulf et al 2017).…”

Section: Life Cycle Impact Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to compare different indicators and impact categories with different units with each other, various forms of normalization in LCIA can be performed at midpoint and endpoint levels (Andreas et al 2020). This is a prerequisite for aggregation as well (Wulf et al 2017).…”

Section: Normalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for implementing holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of regional bioeconomy

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2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Currently, social, environmental, and economic risks and chances of bioeconomy are becoming increasingly a subject of applied sustainability assessments. Based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) aims to combine or integrate social, environmental, and economic assessments. In order to contribute to the current early stage of LCSA development, this study seeks to identify a practical framework for integrated LCSA implementation. Methods We select possible indicators from existing suitable LCA and LCSA approaches as well as from the literature, and allocate them to a sustainability concept for holistic and integrated LCSA (HILCSA), based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to conduct a practical implementation of HILCSA, we choose openLCA, because it offers the best current state and most future potential for application of LCSA. Therefore, not only the capabilities of the software and databases, but also the supported methods of life cycle impact assessments (LCIA) are evaluated regarding the requirements of the indicator set and goal and scope of future case studies. Results and discussion This study presents an overview of available indicators and LCIAs for bioeconomy sustainability assessments as well as their link to the SDGs. We provide a practical framework for HILCSA of regional bioeconomy, which includes an indicator set for regional (product and territorial) bioeconomy assessment, applicable with current software and databases, LCIA methods and methods of normalization, weighting, and aggregation. The implementation of HILCSA in openLCA allows an integrative LCSA by conducting all steps in a single framework with harmonized, aggregated, and coherent results. HILCSA is capable of a sustainability assessment in terms of planetary boundaries, provisioning system and societal needs, as well as communication of results to different stakeholders. Conclusions Our framework is capable of compensating some deficits of S-LCA, E-LCA, and economic assessments by integration, and shows main advantages compared to additive LCSA. HILCSA is capable of addressing 15 out of 17 SDGs. It addresses open questions and significant problems of LCSAs in terms of goal and scope, LCI, LCIA, and interpretation. Furthermore, HILCSA is the first of its kind actually applicable in an existing software environment. Regional bioeconomy sustainability assessment is bridging scales of global and regional effects and can inform stakeholders comprehensively on various impacts, hotspots, trade-offs, and synergies of regional bioeconomy. However, significant research needs in LCIAs, software, and indicator development remain.

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“…Finally, all 18 weighted dimensionless impact values were aggregated into a single score for a product or a service. [20,21] The following equation was used in calculating the single score (point, Pt) of a system boundary: where V i was the total value of the environmental impact category i contributed by all activities in a system boundary, F i was the normalization factor for the impact category i, and W i was the weighting factor associated with the impact category i.…”

Section: Impact Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of examination gloves made of natural rubber and nitrile rubber, identified by life‐cycle assessment

et al. 2021

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Medical examination gloves made of natural rubber (NR; powdered and nonpowdered) and synthetic nitrile rubber (NBR) were compared in terms of their environmental impact using life cycle assessments spanning material extraction, transportation to the glove production factory, the production process, and disposal by total incineration. ReCiPe Midpoint (H) V1.13/World Recipe H life cycle assessment method implemented using the SimaPro 9.0.0.48, was used.Single scores of each glove type and stage were determined by using weighting factors specifically obtained from a 2014 survey in Thailand. With current technologies, the overall environmental impact, or the total single score, of NR gloves was higher than of NBR gloves, because the glove production stage of NR gloves required more energy and sulfur use. In addition, the overall environmental impact of both types of gloves was found to be lower if powder coating was used rather than chlorination to reduce stickiness, and if glove production relied on natural gas for energy rather than coal. The single score approach revealed the hotspots for potential improvements for each glove type.

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Normalization and weighting: the open challenge in LCA

Cited by 41 publications

References 18 publications

Ecological Scarcity Based Impact Assessment for a Decentralised Renewable Energy System

Ecological Scarcity Based Impact Assessment for a Decentralised Renewable Energy System

A framework for implementing holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of regional bioeconomy

Environmental impacts of examination gloves made of natural rubber and nitrile rubber, identified by life‐cycle assessment

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