| 1. |
- André, Hampus, et al.
(författare)
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A framework to open the black box of the use phase in circular economy life cycle assessments : The case of shell jacket reuse
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1088-1980 .- 1530-9290.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life cycle assessments of circular economy measures (CE LCA) of consumer products have been criticized for oversimplifying important aspects of the use phase such as user behavior and rebound effects, limiting our understanding of the environmental performance of circular economy measures. This study tests the usefulness of a framework designed to facilitate accounting for such aspects, by applying the framework to a case study of reuse of shell jackets enabled by “premium secondhand” outdoor stores. Methods for collecting use phase data were user surveys and interviews with store managers. Using the framework on this case study generated several novel insights which are interesting in themselves and as inputs to CE LCA. For instance, secondhand shell jackets have a significantly lower frequency of use during their first use span compared to the second and to shell jackets in the linear reference scenario. This implies that reuse in this case does not function as a mere use extension of otherwise similar use phases as is commonly assumed. The generation of such insights, which hitherto have been lacking in CE LCAs, points to the usefulness of the framework as a tool for opening the “black box” of the use phase in CE LCAs to improve understanding of the environmental performance of circular economy measures.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Molin, Elvira
(författare)
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Toward a more sustainable food system using public procurement
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Around 30 % of today's anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions originate from the food sector. Food production is the lead cause of deforestation, biodiversity loss, depletion of fish stocks, and scarcity of fresh water. The planetary resources rapidly decrease with a continually growing population demanding resourceintense food, such as dairy and animal protein. The global production of calories satisfies human needs, but while some suffer from hunger, even more, suffer from overweight or obesity.For a food system to be sustainable, it must not negatively impact the three pillars of sustainability, i.e., economic, environmental, and social. One of the main challenges for the food system is to reduce the environmental impact to operate and stay within the planetary boundaries.Three million public meals are served daily in Sweden. Public procurement has been recognized as a powerful tool with potential to promote quality and educate change. Previous research has shown that implementing sustainability criteria in the procurement document leads to an increase in certified products in procurements. The National Agency for Public Procurement (NAPP) in Sweden provides a library with sustainability criteria on different levels and for almost all commonly bought products. Active work with sustainability and applying sustainability criteria in procurement can contribute to pupils education health and a further sustainable food system.In this thesis, I frame sustainable procurement through a systematic review of academic literature and interviews with Swedish practitioners who buy or sell food products through public procurements. Furthermore, I elaborate on the Swedish actors' experienced ability to influence the procurements, the use of sustainability criteria, and barriers and opportunities toward a further sustainable food system using public procurement. The goal is to examine possible ways toward a more sustainable food system through public procurement.The results show that both the reviewed literature and the Swedish actors have a comprehensive take on sustainability and work with all three dimensions. Above all, the favoured sustainability aspects are predominantly procuring organically labelled and locally sourced foods. Working with food waste is recognised as important, but few initiatives are taken within the procurement process to reduce food waste. Despite a large amount of academic literature on efficiently reducing environmental impacts from the food system (mainly by dietary changes and waste reduction). The results show little interest among actors in promoting these specific public sector actions. The Swedish actors are overall satisfied with the services and the criteria library provided by the NAPP. A majority of the respondents contributed to writing and reviewing the criteria, adding to the criteria’s acceptance and usage within the sector.There are several initiatives already taken by policymakers, procuring authorities, and not the least, the market to improve sustainability in the food system. iv Stockholm, Sverige 2023 Nevertheless, actions must be taken at multiple levels simultaneously to address the scale of our sustainability challenges. This thesis contributes knowledge that can guide future research toward sustainable food systems, bridge the stakeholder’s priorities with research where they differ today, and fully use the potential in public procurements.
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| 4. |
- André, Hampus, et al.
(författare)
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Towards a Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Circular Product-User Life Cycles : Learnings from the Sport and Outdoor Sector
- 2022
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Ingår i: Procedia CIRP. - : Elsevier BV. - 2212-8271. ; , s. 225-230
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life cycle assessment (LCA) research on the performance of circular economy (CE) measures such as reuse, repair and remanufacturing has been criticized for inadequate consideration of functional equivalency of circular compared to new products, allocation between use phases, displacement rates, rebound effects, product use and user behavior. For such reasons, it has been argued that our understanding of the environmental performance of CE is poor and over-optimistic. Motivated by these criticisms, this paper presents an outline of a conceptual framework developed to improve CE LCA research. The framework was developed through literature review, workshops and ongoing CE LCAs in the sport and outdoor sector. The paper overviews challenges related to mentioned criticisms and possible approaches to addressing them, presents a model for how aspects influential to CE LCA results interrelate, and, proposes a structure for describing product-user life cycles more accurately. The outlined conceptual framework could be an important step towards improving CE LCAs and, ultimately, our understanding of environmental outcomes of CE.
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| 5. |
- Finnveden, Göran, et al.
(författare)
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Six areas of methodological debate on attributional life cycle assessment
- 2022
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Ingår i: E3S Web of Conferences. - : EDP Sciences. - 2267-1242 .- 2555-0403. ; 349, s. 03007-03007
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a general agreement in the LCA community that there are two types of LCAs: attributional and consequential. There have been numerous discussions about the pros and cons of the two approaches and on differences in methodology, in particular about methods that can be used in consequential LCA.There are, however, methodological aspects of attributional LCA and how it can be used that need further attention. This article discusses six areas of debate and potential misunderstandings concerning attributional LCA. These are:1) LCA results of all the products in the world should add up to the total environmental impact of the world, sometimes referred to as the 100 % rule.2) Attributional LCA is less relevant than consequential LCA.3) System expansion, and/or substitution, cannot be used in attributional LCA.4) Attributional LCA leads to more truncation errors than consequential LCA does.5) There is a clear connection between the goal and questions of an LCA and the choice of attributional or consequential LCA.6) There is a clear boundary between attributional and consequential LCA. In the article, these statements are discussed, and it is argued that they are either misunderstandings or sometimes incorrect.
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| 6. |
- Henrysson, Maryna, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Monitoring progress towards a circular economy in urban areas: An application of the European Union circular economy monitoring framework in Umeå municipality
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainable cities and society. - : Elsevier. - 2210-6707. ; 87, s. 104245-104245
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As cities worldwide implement strategies to accelerate the transition toward a circular economy (CE), there is an increasing need for tools to monitor progress. However, a standardised metric for CE monitoring in urban areas is lacking. This study examines the potential of the EU Circular Economy Monitoring Framework (CEMF), an established indicator-based framework for measuring national- and EU-level circularity performance, as a monitoring tool for urban areas. For this purpose, available data sources that can support the framework's application at the urban level are mapped, and data quality is assessed following the pedigree matrix approach. Next, the CEMF indicators are computed for the urban area of Umeå, Sweden. The mapping showed limited availability of urban-level data, necessitating the downscaling of national-level data using proxy factors. Most available urban-level data are of high quality, while the quality of national-level data is reduced when used to compute indicators at the urban level. The application of the CEMF in Umeå indicates that there are areas where the municipality performs well, though further improvements are needed. We conclude that the CEMF has potential as a monitoring tool for urban areas. However, improvements in CEMF...s scope and data availability are recommended.
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| 7. |
- Joyce, Peter James, et al.
(författare)
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Futura : A new tool for transparent and shareable scenario analysis in prospective life cycle assessment
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Industrial Ecology. - : Wiley. - 1088-1980 .- 1530-9290. ; 26:1, s. 134-144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While it may be impossible to accurately predict what the world will look like in the future, we can be certain that it will be different from the world of today. By extension, we know that using today's data in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies claiming to represent future scenarios is problematic. For the future impact of products to be estimated in a consistent and meaningful manner in LCA, the background system, most commonly the ecoinvent database, needs to be projected into the future alongside the foreground system modeled in a given study. Futura is a new piece of open-source software which allows LCA practitioners to create and share novel background databases representing arbitrary scenarios. It allows users to import a base database and then start making targeted changes. These changes take three main forms—adding new technologies, regionalizing new or existing technologies, and altering market compositions. All changes made are automatically added to a "recipe." This recipe file can be shared publicly. This recipe can be imported by other users and used to exactly recreate the modified database. The additive and transparent nature of this system means that initially simple scenarios can be built upon by others to progress toward more comprehensive scenarios in a stepwise manner. The inability to build on the work of others is a serious barrier to the progress of the LCA field. Futura goes some way to reduce this barrier in the field of prospective LCA.
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| 8. |
- Lai, Yat Yin, et al.
(författare)
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Analysing the opportunities and challenges for mitigating the climate impact of aviation: A narrative review
- 2022
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Ingår i: Renewable & sustainable energy reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 1364-0321 .- 1879-0690. ; 156, s. 111972-111972
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aviation accounts for approximately five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions through the combustion of fossil fuels. This paper analyses the opportunities and challenges of mitigation measures in limiting travel volume, energy and emission intensity to reduce the climate impact of aviation in Sweden. Several measures are in place that aim to reduce the climate impact of the aviation industry, ranging from regulations to technology alternatives to fossil-based jet fuel. These measures face several crosscutting challenges, many of which are of a socio-economic and political nature, and these aspects are often neglected in favour of focusing on technological solutions. The market creation for alternatives to fossil-based jet fuel is a major challenge, as most consumers today have a limited awareness of and willingness to pay for these innovations. Policy measures in place are proven ineffective in incentivising change. An understanding of the industry as a socio-technical system is required. The value of this review is its broader consideration of the pathways to reduce aviation's climate impact, offering new perspectives and pointing to areas for further research considering all components, their interactions and interdependence.
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| 9. |
- Lai, Yat Yin, et al.
(författare)
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Employing a Socio-Technical System Approach in Prospective Life Cycle Assessment : A Case of Large-Scale Swedish Sustainable Aviation Fuels
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Sustainability. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2673-4524. ; 3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ambitious fossil-free targets imposed on the aviation industry worldwide demand a large volumetric supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to meet. Sweden's commitment to a 30% volume SAF blending target by 2030 attracts interest in local production. However, the sustainability of local production is largely unknown. Addressing this gap, we aim to explore potential SAF technology pathways and assess their environmental performances in Sweden. To do so, we utilize a socio-technical system (STS) approach for pathways selection and prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) for environmental impact assessment. As a result, we identify two lignocellulosic-based and two electrofuel-based pathways and evaluate their global warming potential, mineral depletion potential, ionizing radiation, land use, freshwater ecotoxicity and human toxicity impact in comparison to jet fuel. Our findings show that the well-to-wake global warming potential (100 years) of 30% SAF is on average 20% lower than that of jet fuel, with non-carbon dioxide species emitted in flight being the major contributors, prompting the need for urgent research efforts to mitigate their potential impacts. Under the assumption that no burdens are allocated to waste material used as feedstock, lignocellulosic-based 100% SAF has a well-to-pump climate impact (100 years) ranging from 0.6 to 1.5 g CO2−eq/MJ compared to jet fuel's 10.5 g CO2−eq/MJ. In contrast, the well-to-pump climate impact (100 years) of electrofuel-based 100% SAF (ranging from 7.8 to 8.2 g CO2−eq/MJ) is only marginally lower than that of jet fuel, mainly attributed to emissions from steel and concrete produced for wind turbine manufacturing. In general, the use of electricity generated by wind power could shift the potential environmental burden associated with jet fuel from global warming to mineral depletion, land use, freshwater ecotoxicity and human toxicity. The STS approach underscores the need to prioritize changes in systems underpinning SAF production, in turn supporting policy and investment decision making.
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| 10. |
- Liljenström, Carolina, et al.
(författare)
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Including maintenance in life cycle assessment of road and rail infrastructure—a literature review
- 2022
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Ingår i: The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. - : Springer Nature. - 0948-3349 .- 1614-7502. ; 27:2, s. 316-341
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- PurposeLCA is increasingly used in infrastructure policy and planning. This study maps approaches used in comparativeLCA of road and rail infrastructure to (1) determine the length of the analysis period, (2) estimate the maintenance frequency,and (3) include the efects of climate change on infrastructure performance. A LCA may need to fulfl diferent requirementsin diferent decision-contexts. The relevance of the approaches for decision-making in policy and procurement is thereforediscussed.MethodsNinety-two comparative LCAs of road and rail infrastructure published in peer-reviewed journals January 2016–July 2020 were reviewed. Papers were found through a systematic process of searching electronic databases, applying inclusion criteria, and conducting backward and forward snowballing.Results and discussionThe analysis period was commonly determined based on infrastructure service life. The maintenancefrequency was estimated based on current practice, laboratory tests, modelling, or scenarios. The efects of climate changewere considered in two papers by comparing results in a control case and in a changed climate. In policy and procurement,current practice approaches are not adapted to innovative solutions or to climate change. Modelling and laboratory tests couldimprove calculations of the maintenance phase but might have some limitations related to innovative solutions. Scenarioscould be readily applied in a policy context; however, in procurement, consistent and generic scenarios should be used.ConclusionsResults suggest what approaches could be used to account for maintenance in infrastructure LCA dependingon the decision-context. The LCA community is suggested to research other approaches than current practice to account forlong analysis periods, climate change, and innovative solutions. Additionally, literature not covered here could be reviewedfor additional approaches and perspectives. Examples include stand-alone LCAs, method development papers, papers onthe individual approaches and decision-contexts, certifcation systems, standards, and guidelines.
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