Introduction Flashcards
Product related analytical methods & tools
– Life cycle assessment (LCA), footprints
– Social life cycle assessment (SLCA)
– Life cycle costing (LCC)
– Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), resource efficiency
Organisation related analytical methods & tools
– Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
– Sustainability ratings
Stakeholder analysis and communication
…
What does sustainable development mean?
Environment:
Protection of nature and biodiversity
Reduction of emissions and waste
Saving resources and energy
Economy:
Growth
Equality
Financial Stability
Welfare
Society:
Human rights
Labour force
Well being
SDGs
UN Summit to adopt the post
2015 development agenda (New York, 25 th 27 th Sept 2015)
17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets
specified by indicators)
Sustainability assessment
different levels & goals
Products:
*Products increasing environmental, social and economic benefits
*Products reducing negative impacts
*…along the full life cycle
Companies/Organisations:
*Adopting business strategies and activities that meet the needs of the company and its stakeholders today
*Protecting & sustaining human and natural resources
Communities:
* Meet the diverse needs of existing & future residents
* Contribute to a high quality of life
* Safe and inclusive, well planned, built & run
What is life cycle assessment (LCA)
Analysis of potential environmental impacts of a product or nservice over its entire life cycle (ISO 14040/
– Identifies and measures all energy & material inputs & environmental emissions
– evaluates the potential impacts
– reveals hotspots and improvement potentials
– provides decision support
Carbon footprint
Basically…LCA with focus on one impact category: climate change
*“A Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) is a means for measuring, managing and communicating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to goods and services.”
* Different definitions, concepts, approaches (e.g. ISO/TS 14067:2018) and labelling schemes
What is social life cycle assessment (SLCA)
- Main goal: assessing aspects related to „ Human well being → e.g. quality of life , living standard , freedom , choice health , security
- SLCA guidelines (UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative):
SLCA «aims to assess the social and socio economic
aspects of products and their potential positive
and negative impacts along their life cycle» - Handbook for Product Social Impact Assessment
e.g specifies the SLCA guidelines with regard to
implementation and interpretation in practice
What is life cycle costing LCC?
Assessment of ALL costs directly covered by one or more actors in the product life cycle (no standard, but a code of practice exist)
– evaluates alternative/competing options in purchasing
– improves awareness of total costs
– provides decision support
Three types of LCC
Internal Cost: assessment of internal costs, mostly without EoL-Costs
- Conventional LCC
External Cost: additional assesment of external costs
- Environmental LCC
- Societal LCC
And what’ s the relation to sustainable development?
Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)
* Addresses all three dimensions of sustainability (environment, society and economy) from a life cycle perspective
Allows for a comprehensive sustainability assessment
LCSA= LCA + LCC + SLCA
Challenges regarding sustainable decisions (LCSA)
Potential trade offs and difficulties to communicate/display the results
–> challenge is the evalutation/interpretation and communication of LCSA results –> it depends of the goal of the study (e.g. use for camparisons) and the target audience (scientists, business people, policy makers?)
economic aspects: depends on material, country
environmental aspects: depends on processes
social asprects: depends on behaviour of companies
Water Footprint
Water footprint = “water shoesize “ x weight
- water footprint: Impacts of water use along a product life cycle (ISO 14046)
- water shoesize: Volume of consumed water
- weight: Local water scarcity; Local sensitivity of population & ecosystems; Type of water body groundwater , surface water; Water quality; Time of water use ( dry/wet season)
Analysis and reporting of sustainability
aspects by companies
- Increasing use of environmental management systems , sustainability standards , reporting guidelines (e.g. ISO 14001, 14044, CSR, GRI) & labels
- So far, mostly on a voluntary basis
- But regulatory requirements for reporting sustainability aspects (e.g. environmental impacts , human rights ) are increasing
- Society and media publicly denounce real (or supposed ) grievances pressure for companies
