| 1. |
- Ekener, Elisabeth, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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Developing Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment methodology by applying values-based sustainability weighting - Tested on biomass based and fossil transportation fuels
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 181, s. 337-351
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The production and use of transportation fuels can lead to sustainability impacts. Assessing them simultaneously in a holistic way is a challenge. This paper examines methodology for assessing the sustainability performance of products in a more integrated way, including a broad range of social impacts. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) methodology is applied for this assessment. LSCA often constitutes of the integration of results from social LCA (S-LCA), environmental life cycle assessment (E-LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). In this study, an S-LCA from an earlier project is extended with a positive social aspect, as well as refined and detailed. E-LCA and LCC results are built from LCA database and literature. Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology is applied to integrate the results from the three different assessments into an LCSA. The weighting of key sustainability dimensions in the MCDA is performed in different ways, where the sustainability dimensions are prioritized differently priority based on the assumed values of different stakeholder profiles (Egalitarian, Hierarchist, and Individualist). The developed methodology is tested on selected biomass based and fossil transportation fuels - ethanol produced from Brazilian sugarcane and US corn/maize, and petrol produced from Russian and Nigerian crude oils, where it delineates differences in sustainability performance between products assessed. The outcome in terms of relative ranking of the transportation fuel chains based on sustain ability performance differs when applying different decision-maker profiles. This result highlights and supports views that there is no one single answer regarding which of the alternatives that is most sustainable. Rather, it depends strongly upon the worldview and values held by the decision maker. A key conclusion is that sustainability assessments should pay more attention to potential differences in underlying values held by key stakeholders in relevant societal contexts. The LCSA methodology still faces challenges regarding results integration but MCDA in combination with stakeholder profiles appears to be a useful approach to build on further.
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| 2. |
- Dulio, Valeria, et al.
(författare)
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The NORMAN Association and the European Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) : let’s cooperate!
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environmental Sciences Europe. - : Springer. - 2190-4707 .- 2190-4715. ; 32:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Partnership for Chemicals Risk Assessment (PARC) is currently under development as a joint research and innovation programme to strengthen the scientific basis for chemical risk assessment in the EU. The plan is to bring chemical risk assessors and managers together with scientists to accelerate method development and the production of necessary data and knowledge, and to facilitate the transition to next-generation evidence-based risk assessment, a non-toxic environment and the European Green Deal. The NORMAN Network is an independent, well-established and competent network of more than 80 organisations in the field of emerging substances and has enormous potential to contribute to the implementation of the PARC partnership. NORMAN stands ready to provide expert advice to PARC, drawing on its long experience in the development, harmonisation and testing of advanced tools in relation to chemicals of emerging concern and in support of a European Early Warning System to unravel the risks of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and close the gap between research and innovation and regulatory processes. In this commentary we highlight the tools developed by NORMAN that we consider most relevant to supporting the PARC initiative: (i) joint data space and cutting-edge research tools for risk assessment of contaminants of emerging concern; (ii) collaborative European framework to improve data quality and comparability; (iii) advanced data analysis tools for a European early warning system and (iv) support to national and European chemical risk assessment thanks to harnessing, combining and sharing evidence and expertise on CECs. By combining the extensive knowledge and experience of the NORMAN network with the financial and policy-related strengths of the PARC initiative, a large step towards the goal of a non-toxic environment can be taken.
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| 3. |
- Warneryd, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Microgrid communities: disclosing the path to future system-active communities
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainable Futures. - Göterborg : IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB. - 2666-1888. ; 4, s. 100079-100079
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To increase sustainability in future energy systems, both technical and social measures must be taken. Microgrid communities offer local balancing of supply and demand, while also integrating the community as an active part of the energy system. This study investigates two cases of microgrid communities; how they were realized and what wider effects they offered its communities and other stakeholders. The study shows that the microgrid collaboration between community and utility offers a new organizational division that can overcome the traditional locked-in position of the utility. This brings forward communities as system-active participants and a sustainably beneficial energy system for the future.
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| 4. |
- Söderholm, Patrik, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Technological development for sustainability : The role of network management in the innovation policy mix
- 2019
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Ingår i: Technological forecasting & social change. - : Elsevier. - 0040-1625 .- 1873-5509. ; 138, s. 309-323
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the key role of actor networks in progressing new sustainable technologies, there is a shortage of conceptual knowledge on how policy can help strengthen collaborative practices in such networks. The objective of this paper is to analyze the roles of such policies – so-called network management – throughout the entire technological development processes. The analysis draws on the public management and sustainability transitions literatures, and discusses how various network characteristics could affect the development of sustainable technologies, including how different categories of network management strategies could be deployed to influence actor collaborations. The paper's main contribution is an analytical framework that addresses the changing roles of network management at the interface between various phases of the technological development process, illustrated with the empirical case of advanced biorefinery technology development in Sweden. Furthermore, the analysis also addresses some challenges that policy makers are likely to encounter when pursuing network management strategies, and identifies a number of negative consequences of ignoring such instruments in the innovation policy mix. The latter include inefficient actor role-taking, the emergence of small, ineffective and competing actor networks in similar technological fields, and a shortage of interpretative knowledge.
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| 5. |
- Wrange, Anna-Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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Monitoring biofouling as a management tool for reducing toxic antifouling practices in the Baltic Sea
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Management. - : Academic Press. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 264
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Over two million leisure boats use the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea for recreational purposes. The majority of these boats are painted with toxic antifouling paints that release biocides into the coastal ecosystems and negatively impact non-targeted species. Regulations concerning the use of antifouling paints differ dramatically between countries bordering the Baltic Sea and most of them lack the support of biological data. In the present study, we collected data on biofouling in 17 marinas along the Baltic Sea coast during three consecutive boating seasons (May–October 2014, 2015 and 2016). In this context, we compared different monitoring strategies and developed a fouling index (FI) to characterise marinas according to the recorded biofouling abundance and type (defined according to the hardness and strength of attachment to the substrate). Lower FI values, i.e. softer and/or less abundant biofouling, were consistently observed in marinas in the northern Baltic Sea. The decrease in FI from the south-western to the northern Baltic Sea was partially explained by the concomitant decrease in salinity. Nevertheless, most of the observed changes in biofouling seemed to be determined by local factors and inter-annual variability, which emphasizes the necessity for systematic monitoring of biofouling by end-users and/or authorities for the effective implementation of non-toxic antifouling alternatives in marinas. Based on the obtained results, we discuss how monitoring programs and other related measures can be used to support adaptive management strategies towards more sustainable antifouling practices in the Baltic Sea. © 2020 The Authors
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| 6. |
- Fridahl, Mathias, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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Novel carbon dioxide removals techniques must be integrated into the European Union’s climate policies
- 2023
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Ingår i: Communications Earth & Environment. - Stockholm : Springer Nature. - 2662-4435. ; 4:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Emissions reductions are crucial to mitigating climate change. However, in the past decade, the world community’s failure to reduce emissions at a sufficient speed to avoid dangerous climate change has become obvious4. This reality acutely necessitates the development of innovative sets of policies to spur the deployment of novel CO2 removals, an urgency that is further underlined by the long lead time for many novel removal methods. Disregarding the potential of novel removals is incommensurate with the scale of the challenge of achieving EU’s commitment to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.We argue that the current policy framework neither provides Union-wide economic incentives for novel CO2 removals, nor does it encourage EU Member States to develop national policy incentives. Our proposed solutions includes incentivizing removals through a conditional integration into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), expanding the portfolio of removal methods in the Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation, and to manage anticipations regarding which residual emissions that need to be counterbalanced by removals.
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| 7. |
- Hagbert, Pernilla, et al.
(författare)
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Approaching change : Exploring cracks in the eco-modern sustainability paradigm
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environmental Values. - : White Horse Press. - 0963-2719 .- 1752-7015. ; 30:5, s. 613-634
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sustainability discourse offers a plethora of perspectives on the type of change needed to ensure a just development within planetary boundaries, and how that change could come about. Calls for radical transformations nonetheless under-line the need to examine prevalent discursive structures in society, including challenging the ‘ideology of growth’, in order to formulate new and trans-formative policy approaches. Based on empirical insights as to how different actors – including grassroots, planners, officials and politicians – in Sweden perceive the transformations needed to reach sustainability goals, this paper explores how narratives of change reproduce, make use of or show cracks in the eco-modern sustainability paradigm. © 2021, White Horse Press. All rights reserved.
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| 8. |
- Malmaeus, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Basic Income and Social Sustainability in Post-Growth Economies
- 2020
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Ingår i: Basic Income Studies. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 2194-6094 .- 1932-0183. ; 15:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A central task in efforts to identify pathways to ecologically and socially sustainable economies is to reduce inequality and poverty while reducing material consumption, which has recently inspired future post-growth scenarios. We build a model to explore the potential of a universal basic income (UBI) to serve these objectives. Starting from the observation that post-growth trajectories can take very different forms we analyze UBI in two scenarios advanced in the literature. Comparing UBI in a "local self-sufficiency" economy to a UBI in an "automation" economy, we show that although both scenarios satisfy central sustainability criteria, the impact of a UBI would differ greatly between these contexts. Our analysis shows that a UBI is less compatible with a labor-intensive local self-sufficiency economy than a capital-intensive, high tech economy. We conclude that the feasibility and attractiveness of a UBI in a post-growth scenario depends greatly on the specific characteristics of the economy.
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| 9. |
- McGivney, Eric, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the impact of acid rain and forest harvest intensity with the HD-MINTEQ model - soil chemistry of three Swedish conifer sites from 1880 to 2080
- 2019
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Ingår i: SOIL. - : COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH. - 2199-3971 .- 2199-398X. ; 5:1, s. 63-77
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Forest soils are susceptible to anthropogenic acidification. In the past, acid rain was a major contributor to soil acidification, but, now that atmospheric levels of S have dramatically declined, concern has shifted towards biomass-induced acidification, i.e. decreasing soil solution pH due to tree growth and harvesting events that permanently remove base cations (BCs) from forest stands. We use a novel dynamic model, HD-MINTEQ (Husby Dynamic MINTEQ), to investigate possible long-term impacts of two theoretical future harvesting scenarios in the year 2020, a conventional harvest (CH, which removes stems only), and a whole-tree harvest (WTH, which removes 100 % of the above-ground biomass except for stumps) on soil chemistry and weathering rates at three different Swedish forest sites (Aneboda, Gardsjon, and Kindla). Furthermore, acidification following the harvesting events is compared to the historical acidification that took place during the 20th century due to acid rain. Our results show that historical acidification due to acid rain had a larger impact on pore water chemistry and mineral weathering than tree growth and harvesting, at least if nitrification remained at a low level. However, compared to a no-harvest baseline, WTH and CH significantly impacted soil chemistry. Directly after a harvesting event (CH or WTH), the soil solution pH sharply increased for 5 to 10 years before slowly declining over the remainder of the simulation (until year 2080). WTH acidified soils slightly more than CH, but in certain soil horizons there was practically no difference by the year 2080. Even though the pH in the WTH and CH scenario decreased with time as compared to the no-harvest scenario (NH), they did not drop to the levels observed around the peak of historic acidification (1980-1990), indicating that the pH decrease due to tree growth and harvesting would be less impactful than that of historic atmospheric acidification. Weathering rates differed across locations and horizons in response to historic acidification. In general, the predicted changes in weathering rates were very small, which can be explained by the net effect of decreased pH and increased Al3+, which affected the weathering rate in opposite ways Similarly, weathering rates after the harvesting scenarios in 2020 remained largely unchanged according to the model.
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| 10. |
- Plue, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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Buffering effects of soil seed banks on plant community composition in response to land use and climate
- 2020
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 30:1, s. 128-139
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimClimate and land use are key determinants of biodiversity, with past and ongoing changes posing serious threats to global ecosystems. Unlike most other organism groups, plant species can possess dormant life‐history stages such as soil seed banks, which may help plant communities to resist or at least postpone the detrimental impact of global changes. This study investigates the potential for soil seed banks to achieve this.Location Europe.Time period 1978–2014.Major taxa studied Flowering plantsMethodsUsing a space‐for‐time/warming approach, we study plant species richness and composition in the herb layer and the soil seed bank in 2,796 community plots from 54 datasets in managed grasslands, forests and intermediate, successional habitats across a climate gradient.ResultsSoil seed banks held more species than the herb layer, being compositionally similar across habitats. Species richness was lower in forests and successional habitats compared to grasslands, with annual temperature range more important than mean annual temperature for determining richness. Climate and land‐use effects were generally less pronounced when plant community richness included seed bank species richness, while there was no clear effect of land use and climate on compositional similarity between the seed bank and the herb layer.Main conclusionsHigh seed bank diversity and compositional similarity between the herb layer and seed bank plant communities may provide a potentially important functional buffer against the impact of ongoing environmental changes on plant communities. This capacity could, however, be threatened by climate warming. Dormant life‐history stages can therefore be important sources of diversity in changing environments, potentially underpinning already observed time‐lags in plant community responses to global change. However, as soil seed banks themselves appear, albeit less, vulnerable to the same changes, their potential to buffer change can only be temporary, and major community shifts may still be expected.
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