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An electrochemical–thermal tandem reaction system was designed in this work and enabled the highly efficient synthesis of propylene oxide (PO) at 1 atm without the use of H2O2. The electrochemical part produced OOH− through a 2e− oxygen reduction reaction, which migrated and distributed in the full space of a chamber filled with a mixture of solid electrolyte particles and modified TS-1 (m-TS-1) catalysts. Mediated by the relay of OOH− and protic solvent methanol, full space tandem reactions were achieved with a high PO selectivity of 95.2% and a productivity of 319.75 mmol gecat−1 h−1. A mechanistic study revealed that the m-TS-1 catalysts accepted the migrated OOH− and formed a Ti-OOH intermediate, which played a key role in relaying the tandem reactions for an efficient propylene epoxidation reaction. Techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment revealed favorable figures for the proposed process compared to the conventional process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the potential of using electrochemical (EC) methods for valorizing lignin, a lignocellulosic biomass cell wall component, into biofuels and high-value compounds. Traditional direct electroreduction as well as oxidation of lignin have faced challenges in efficiency and selectivity due to the requirement of high oxidation potentials and expensive, toxic electrodes, leading to uncontrolled degradation. We propose using a hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) mediator to achieve benzylic oxidation, enhancing efficiency and selectivity under milder conditions. The research employs the NREL model for producing ethanol to evaluate the commercial viability of EC lignin conversion. We carried out a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and a life cycle assessment (LCA) using BioSTEAM and GREET® 2022, respectively, to evaluate the process's economic and environmental impacts over 20 years. Sensitivity analysis has been conducted to examine base case values extracted from the catalytic performance of phthalimide-N-oxyl type HAT mediators. Our findings suggest that a 2000 metric tonnes per day biorefinery using this method could produce approximately 49.56 tpd of chemicals, with the EC unit consuming 3.5% of the input energy. The TEA operating cost for chemical production was estimated at $16.86 per kg, with a total capital expenditure of $403 769 MM. The LCA revealed that producing by-products in ethanol production can lead to around 10 to 46% reduction in total CO2 emissions, depending on the employed allocation methods. The study indicates that integrating an EC unit using a HAT mediator into second-generation biorefineries for lignin oxidation followed by a reduction in chemicals could offer additional revenue streams and lower environmental impacts compared to conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information communication and technology (ICT) services and solutions can improve resource efficiency in a variety of sector, but also result in direct environmental impacts. This study assesses the direct environmental impacts of an ICT service that improves vehicle fuel efficiency using a cradle‐to‐grave life cycle assessment (LCA). This is one of the first studies to examine the entire life cycle of an ICT service from development to use and maintenance, with a focus on software—an aspect that is typically neglected in previous studies. The results suggest that software development and maintenance and the use of in‐vehicle communicators for data transmission have the largest environmental impacts across multiple categories. Deployed across a fleet of 150,000 vehicles over 5 years, we estimate that the ICT service is responsible for 174 tCO2e. However, this is negligible compared with the total emissions of the fleet and the potential savings from the service, given a single diesel vehicle in this fleet emits around 130 tCO2e over the same period. We explore several scenarios to reduce the footprint of the ICT service. The largest potential reduction of around one‐third is achieved by replacing in‐house servers with cloud computing in a data center located in a region with low‐carbon electricity. The study demonstrates how LCA can be used to assess the environmental impacts of ICT services and the importance of considering software in these assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation abstract Rebinding CO2 in calcium silicate units through recarbonationCalcium silicate units (CSU) are manufactured using burnt lime. When installed in contact with air, CSU absorb more than 3 % of their own weight in CO2 from the air and store it permanently in the structure. An equal amount of CO2 was previously released during the production of burnt lime. This reabsorption is known as recarbonation. This article is based on the examination of around 2 t of masonry and documents this CO2 absorption. The data presented allows the conclusion that CSU usually recarbonate in contact with air within 50–60 years. As the service life of solid buildings generally exceeds 60 years by far, the simplified assumption of 95 % recarbonation at the end of the utilisation phase seems appropriate. The exact amount of CO2 reabsorption depends on the raw materials and the quantities used. It can therefore be taken into account directly in life cycle assessments. In EPD the amount of CO2 rebound for the use phase B1 is specified. Plasters, panels, coatings, etc. influence the recarbonation of wall‐building materials and must be taken into account in the LCA for constructions with CSU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper presents a detailed analysis of embodied carbon (EC) in various case studies using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Through comprehensive assessments, including modules A, B and C, the study evaluates EC across different stages of building life cycles. This study also considers the EC savings achievable through current end‐of‐life strategies in the UK context. As Module A accounts for the highest EC in the case studies, the majority of reduction strategies should focus on this stage. The most impactful strategy for reducing EC emissions involves incorporating Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) as a replacement for cement. This approach has the potential to achieve a substantial reduction in the EC of concrete within the buildings under investigation, ranging from 60% to 70%. The study reveals that specification strategy can lead to significant Whole Life Embodied Carbon (WLEC) reductions, with the residential building achieving a 30.59% reduction, the college building a 46.86% reduction, and the hotel building a reduction of 23.69%. Effective mitigation strategies, such as utilizing recycled and reclaimed materials, demonstrate promising results, showcasing significant reduction in WLEC emissions in the buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the flowability and strength properties of alkali-activated mortar produced using silicomanganese fume (SiMnF) as the sole binder, combined with alkaline activators and sand, cured at room temperature (23 ± 1 °C). A total of 18 mixes were prepared by varying binder content (370, 470, and 570 kg/m3), alkaline activator content (33, 43, and 53% of binder by weight), and NaOH concentration (8 M and 12 M). The SiMnF-based alkali-activated pastes were characterized using SEM, XRD, and FTIR techniques to study morphology, mineral composition, and functional groups, respectively. Statistical modeling, including analysis of variance (ANOVA) and response surface method (RSM), was performed to optimize the mixes, and a life cycle assessment was conducted to evaluate the environmental impact of the developed SiMnF-based alkali-activated mortars (SiMnF-AAM). The experimental results showed that an optimal mix design with 470 kg/m3 SiMnF, 43% alkaline activator content, and NaOH concentrations of 8 M and 12 M achieved the best balance of flow and strength. XRD and FTIR analyses confirmed that Nchwaningite was the primary reaction product, with secondary phases including magnetite, manganese ferrite, and potassium feldspar, influenced by alkali concentration. The SiMnF-based mixtures had a significantly lower CO₂ footprint (0.08 kg CO₂/kg) compared to the cement-based mix, with alkali activators being the primary contributors to emissions. The developed SiMnF-AAM mixes, cured at room temperature, exhibited improved workability, mechanical properties, and reduced environmental impact, making them adaptive to real-life applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cleaner fuels, such as hydrogen and developing more efficient combustion technologies are crucial in reducing NO x and N 2 O emissions, contributing to environmental concerns like air pollution and global warming. However, studies focusing on gas turbines using H 2 as fuel often overlook the emissions resulting from H 2 combustion. Given that gas turbines play a significant role in electricity generation globally, even minor improvements in their efficiency can lead to substantial cumulative benefits. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive environmental assessment using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. By evaluating the environmental impacts of emissions from the combustion process of a conventional gas turbine and comparing them with potential emissions from H 2 combustion, this research seeks to provide valuable insights into the overall environmental performance of these technologies and contribute to sustainable energy development efforts. There have already been several LCA studies on H 2 production. In this study, we have identified the potential emissions and environmental impacts of H 2 combustion in gas turbines and compared them with the impact values of H 2 production regarding reference studies. The result shows that emissions during combustion should be considered in the identified life cycle impact categories. • Emissions released during hydrogen combustion are analyzed by gate to gate LCA. • AP values were found to be more sensitive to increasing NOx emission than EP and ODP. • GWP values due to N 2 O emission were determined as 0.72–1.11 E−4 kg CO 2 -eq. • Sensitivity analysis indicates that higher turbine efficiency reduces GWP. • This work highlights that emissions released during combustion are considerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetables are important economic crops globally, and their production has approximately doubled over the past 20 years. Globally, vegetables account for 13% of the harvested area but consume 25% of the fertilizer, leading to serious environmental impacts. However, the quantitative evaluation of vegetable production systems in subtropical plateau lake basins and the establishment of optimal management practices to further reduce environmental risks are still lacking. Using the life cycle assessment method, this study quantified the global warming, eutrophication, acidification, and energy depletion potential of vegetable production in a subtropical plateau lake basin in China based on data from 183 farmer surveys. Our results indicated that vegetable production in the study area, the Erhai Lake Basin, was high but came at a high environmental cost, mainly due to low fertilizer efficiency and high nutrient loss. Root vegetables have relatively high environmental costs due to the significant environmental impacts of fertilizer production, transportation, and application. A comprehensive analysis showed that the vegetable production in this region exhibited low economic and net ecosystem economic benefits, with ranges of 7.88–8.91 × 103 and 7.35–8.69 × 103 $ ha−1, respectively. Scenario analysis showed that adopting strategies that comprehensively consider soil, crop, and nutrient conditions for vegetable production can reduce environmental costs (with reductions in global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), acidification potential (AP), and energy depletion potential (EDP) by 10.6–28.2%, 65.1–73.5%, 64.5–71.9%, 47.8–70.4%, respectively) compared with the current practices of farmers. This study highlighted the importance of optimizing nutrient management in vegetable production based on farmers' practices, which can achieve more yield with less environmental impacts and thereby avoid the "trade-off" effect between productivity and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine how traditional life-cycle assessment (LCA) for bio-based and compostable plastics overlooks issues surrounding carbon sequestration and microplastic persistence. To outline biased comparisons drawn from these omitted environmental impacts, we provide, as an example, a comparative LCA for compostable biobased vs. non-compostable fossil-based materials. In doing so we (1) demonstrate the proper way to capture carbon footprints to make fair comparisons and (2) identify the overlooked issues of microplastics and the need for non-persistent alternatives. By ensuring accurate biogenic carbon capture, key contributors to CO2 evolution are properly identified, allowing well-informed changes to formulations that can reduce the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions. In a complimentary manner, we summarize the growing research surrounding microplastic persistence and toxicity. We highlight the fundamental ability and the growing number of studies that show that industrial composting can completely mineralize certified compostable materials. This mineralization exists as a viable solution to combat microplastic persistence, currently an absent impact category in LCA. In summary, we propose a new paradigm in which the value proposition of biobased materials can be accurately captured while highlighting compostables as a solution for the increasing microplastic accumulation in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing maritime greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is challenging. As efforts to address climate change are gaining momentum, reducing the environmental impact becomes crucial for maritime short-to-medium-term sustainability. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has adopted Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) guidelines for estimating GHG emissions associated with alternative fuels. This paper proposes an examination of the latest IMO-adopted LCA guidelines, comparing them with existing methodologies used for the transport sector. By scrutinising these guidelines, the paper aims to provide a better understanding of the evolving landscape for GHG emission estimation within the maritime sector. The paper presents a case study that applies the newly established LCA guidelines to a promising alternative fuel pathway, i.e., waste-wood-derived pyrolysis oil. Pyrolysis oil offers an attractive option, leveraging waste materials to generate a sustainable energy source. The environmental impact of pyrolysis oils is quantified according to the IMO LCA guidelines, offering insights into its viability as a cleaner alternative as marine fuel. The results show the large potential for GHG savings offered by this pathway: upgraded pyrolysis oil can deliver significant GHG savings, and this contribution is linearly dependent of its energy share when blended with standard Heavy Fuel Oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematically predicting carbon emissions in the building sector is crucial for formulating effective policies and plans. However, the timing and potential peak emissions from urban buildings remain unclear. This research integrates socio-economic, urban planning, building technology, and energy consumption factors to develop a LEAP-SD model using Shenzhen as a case study. The model considers the interrelationship between socio-economic development and energy consumption, providing more realistic scenario simulations to predict changes in carbon emissions within the urban building sector. The study investigates potential emission peaks and peak times of buildings under different population and building area development scenarios. The results indicate that achieving carbon peaking by 2030 is challenging under a business as usual (BAU) scenario. However, a 10% greater reduction in energy intensity compared to BAU could result in peaking around 2030. The simulation analysis highlights the significant impact of factors such as population growth rate, per capita residential building area, and energy consumption per unit building area and the need for a comprehensive analysis. It provides more realistic scenario simulations that not only enhance theories and models for predicting carbon emissions but also offer valuable insights for policymakers in establishing effective reduction targets and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic burden of diseases and reproductive inefficiency in dairy cattle is evident and has been quantified. Dairy diseases and reproductive inefficiency are however associated with other issues as well, including animal welfare, environmental pressure, and public health risks. Quantifying these other issues is becoming important to help farmers make decisions. Quantification of the noneconomic burdens of diseases and reproductive inefficiency is rare and lacks an overview of approaches and metrics. The first aim of this paper is to provide trends for associating diseases and reproductive inefficiency with economic and noneconomic burdens of disease. The second aim is to provide a review of approaches and metrics used to quantify the noneconomic burdens of disease and reproductive inefficiency. For the economic burden of diseases and reproductive performance, only an overview of the approaches used to quantify the burden is provided. The final aim is to propose approaches and metrics for future quantification of noneconomic burdens caused by individual diseases. A literature search was conducted in Web of Science to identify scientific articles on mastitis, lameness, metabolic disorders, and reproductive inefficiency in dairy cows. The search was restricted to articles published between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2022 and resulted in 7,565 articles. The total number of articles that mentioned the economic, animal welfare, public health, and environmental burden was 1,253, 428, 291, and 77, respectively. An increase in the percentage of articles mentioning the economic, animal welfare, and public health burden was observed between 2010 and 2022. Despite the 2,049 articles that mentioned one of the burdens, the results showed that approximately 10% of the articles quantified one or more of these burdens. The economic burden of diseases and reproductive inefficiency has been quantified in 154 articles and very few articles quantified the noneconomic burdens (9 articles for environment, 29 articles for public health, and 2 articles for animal welfare). Eleven articles were identified that quantified multiple burdens, and in all these studies the economic burden was combined with a noneconomic burden through a modeling approach (mainly simulation). We propose to link the noneconomic burdens to biological simulation models, and thus develop bioburden simulation models. Well-established approaches and metrics can be used to quantify economic, environmental, and public health burdens. For the economic impact, costs per cow per year can be assessed. A life cycle assessment can be performed for environmental impact and the public health impact can be assessed by a defined daily dose for antimicrobial use and disability-adjusted life years for zoonotic diseases. Regarding animal welfare, approaches and metrics to quantify the welfare impact of a diseased animal are not well established. For animal welfare, we propose a welfare-adjusted life years approach. The mentioned approaches and metrics are a proposal, and it is up to the scientific community to use them or, based on empirics and research experience, propose changes so that we will end up with robust approaches and metrics that enable us to compare research results and provide more evidence for animal health decision makers. The list of standard abbreviations for JDS is available at adsa.org/jds-abbreviations-24. Nonstandard abbreviations are available in the Notes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential of CO2 utilization through its injection into blast furnace (BF) tuyeres is studied using the 1D steady‐state zonal model. Scenarios with the injection of CO2, hydrogen, and their co‐injection at various H2/CO2 mass ratios are analyzed. The impacts on factors affecting vertical temperature patterns and the position of the cohesive zone in the BF are identified. A life cycle assessment for several scenarios with various carbon emissions intensities of hydrogen production, carbon capture, and grid electricity generation is performed. Injection of CO2 without the addition of hydrogen increases the coke rate, reduces productivity, and increases direct CO2 emissions; however, thanks to producing top gas with higher calorific value, injection of CO2 may reduce the global warming potential (GWP) if the electric grid carbon intensity is above 654 kg‐CO2 kWh−1, while carbon capture is powered by green electricity. Although the injection of hydrogen alone would result in a more substantial reduction of GWP from the baseline than the injection of H2/CO2 mix at any mass ratio, considering the identified impacts on heat exchange and the position of the cohesive zone in the BF, co‐injection might be an enabling solution for the adoption of hydrogen injection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies consistently label the Materials and Resources (MR) credit category of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) as the least attainable, despite its critical role in transitioning to a circular economy (CE). To this end, a long-standing gap exists in understanding the MR credit achievement, especially in LEED v4, which has been in use for nearly over a decade. This paper evaluates the level of CE integration in LEED v4 across 971 US-based certified projects. The study comprehensively analyzed the projects achievement patterns of the five MR credits: Building Life Cycle Impact Reduction (C1), Environmental Product Declarations (C2), Sourcing of Raw Materials (C3), Sourcing of Material Ingredients (C4), and Construction and Demolition Waste Management (C5). Results revealed that the most prevalent point achievement pattern was 0-1-0-1-2 out of a maximum of 5-2-2-2-2 for C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5. C1 and C3 posed significant challenges, with 588 and 601 projects receiving zero points, respectively. Additionally, the study statistically investigated differences in achievement across project groups of different certification levels, space use, and floorspace categories. Findings are further validated through interviews with LEED experts, who emphasized challenges such as additional costs, inadequate project specifications, and delays in engaging LEED professionals. Results align the status of LEED projects with the lower impact end of the reduce, reuse, recycle framework of CE, which is limited to waste management approaches. Research implications stress the need for collaborative efforts across the industry, owners, and policymakers to enhance CE practices within LEED projects. Ultimately, this study advocates for incentivizing building reuse, the integration of optimized life cycle assessments, as well as enhancing material data availability and transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was set out to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) to explore the environmental and economic impacts of pavement design alternatives using reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and recycled plastic. 25 design alternative pavement designs were considered for a four-lane 8 km-long highway section. Design mix percentages varied between 0 and 40% of RAP with 10% increments and 0–20% of recycled plastic with 5% increments. The impact was assessed based on estimating utilized energy and water resources, climate change impact in terms of CO 2 equivalent, and air pollution in terms of air acidification, human health particulate (HHP), and photochemical smog. Results show that recycled plastic is superior to RAP in reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions. Both RAP and recycled plastic reduced water consumption. Recycled plastic reduced air acidification, HHP, and smog. RAP also increased HHP substantially, mainly during materials production. It was found that the RAP replacement ratio of 10% yielded the highest value of energy consumption, harmful gases emissions, air acidification, HHP, and Smog. RAP and plastic both reduced costs substantially as recycled material reduced the use of virgin materials and bitumen. In addition, using RAP eliminates the cost of moving RAP to landfills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, the high-volume replacement of river sand (20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 80%, and 100%) by pond ash in cement mortar was considered using a 1∶3 volumetric mix proportion to evaluate the engineering properties, sustainability aspects, and cost of mortar mixes. The compressive strength, tensile bond strength, and adhesive strength increased by 30%, 21%, and 24%, respectively, at 30% replacement and were in line up to 60% replacement as compared with the reference mix. However, the drying shrinkage was observed to increase with volume replacement of river sand. The life-cycle assessment of mixes containing pond ash showed reductions in the environmental impacts. Four different scenarios were considered on the basis of the preference advantage of the indicators. Considering the engineering properties, sustainability aspects, and cost as the primary indicators, the gray clustering analysis showed that the mix with 60% volume replacement exhibited the best performance among the mixes under Scenario S-1, while TOPSIS and VIKOR showed that the mix with 50% volume replacement exhibited best performance under Scenario S-1. Overall, the comparison of all scenarios showed that the mix of 60% pond ash had the best performance followed by the mix with 50% pond ash, irrespective of the multicriteria decision-making techniques and preference advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The textile industry is under pressure to adopt sustainable production methods because its contribution to global warming is expected to rise by 50% by 2030. One solution is to increase the use of recycled raw material. The use of recycled raw material must be considered holistically, including its environmental and economic impacts. This study examined eight scenarios for sustainable denim fabric made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber, conventional PET fiber, and cotton fiber. The evaluation based on the distance from average solution (EDAS) multicriteria decision‐making method was used to rank scenarios according to their environmental and economic impacts, which are assessed using life cycle assessment and life cycle costing. Allocation, a crucial part of evaluating the environmental impact of recycled products, was done using cut‐off and waste value. Life cycle assessments reveal that recycled PET fiber has lower freshwater ecotoxicity and fewer eutrophication and acidification impacts. Cotton outperformed PET fibers in human toxicity. Only the cut‐off method reduces potential global warming with recycled PET. These findings indicated that recycled raw‐material life cycle assessment requires allocation. Life cycle cost analysis revealed that conventional PET is less economically damaging than cotton and recycled PET. The scenarios were ranked by environmental and economic impacts using EDAS. This ranking demonstrated that sustainable denim fabric production must consider both economic and environmental impacts. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:2347–2365. © 2024 The Author(s). Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: This study investigated denim fabrics produced using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber instead of virgin cotton and conventional PET fiber in eight scenarios.The life cycle cost (LCC), life cycle assessment (LCA), and evaluation based on distance from average solution methodologies were used to analyze, and a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess LCA uncertainty.Using recycled PET with the cut‐off method instead of cotton resulted in positive environmental outcomes across most categories, indicating a significant reduction in impacts such as global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, and ionizing radiation.Using recycled PET with the waste valuation method often leads to more negative outcomes than the cut‐off method, suggesting that the allocation method plays a crucial role in determining the environmental benefits of recycled materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Environmental footprinting in health care: a primer" published in the Medical Journal of Australia discusses the environmental impacts of health care systems, which contribute to 4-5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The article introduces environmental footprinting techniques to uncover these impacts, focusing on GHG emissions and supply chains. It explains the distinction between direct and indirect impacts, scopes of emissions accounting, and environmental footprinting methods such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmentally extended input-output analysis (EE-IOA). The article emphasizes the importance of considering environmental sustainability in health care decision-making and advocates for improving environmental footprinting literacy, incorporating it into existing frameworks, investing in infrastructure, increasing transparency, and learning from other successful initiatives. [Extracted from the article]

Wind energy production is rapidly growing in the United States and is expected to continue increasing as more and larger wind turbines are installed. To support these taller and heavier onshore turbines, new foundations must be designed and manufactured. One proposed method of reducing the total amount of concrete and steel in spread foundations is to utilize additive manufacturing to enable more material‐efficient designs. To compare these additively manufacturing‐enabled designs to conventional foundation designs, this study performs a life cycle impact assessment of four ultra‐tall wind turbine foundations: two foundations using 78‐MPa 3D printed stay‐in‐place concrete formwork cast with 35‐MPa ready‐mix concrete with reinforcements, and two conventional foundations cast entirely out of 35‐MPa concrete with reinforcements. The life cycle assessment investigates the environmental impacts of four different stages, including materials production, transportation, construction, and end‐of‐life. The materials production stage is found to dominate the life cycle results, contributing over 97% of the total CO2 emissions and over 88% of the fossil fuel depletion for each foundation. Compared to the conventional designs, the Short Flat Ribbed Beam foundation with 3D printed formwork has 22.4% lower CO2 emissions and 28.3% lower fossil fuel depletion than the Circular foundation, and 2.0% higher CO2 and 5.9% lower fossil fuel depletion compared to the Tapered foundation. Parametric studies indicate that reducing cement content and increasing recycled content in printed concrete can significantly reduce the overall life cycle impacts of the foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consensus does not currently exists on how to offset the residual environmental footprint generated by agricultural and forestry practices. This paper develops an environmental sustainability management framework to support the achievement of environmental impact neutrality in the primary sector of agriculture and forestry. The proposed framework, named TREEIN, "a TREe model for Environmental Impact Neutrality", can guide companies toward effective use of existing environmental management and certification schemes that account for both the negative impact of the production system's life cycle and the positive impact offered by adequate ecosystem service supply. First, we did an overview of international standard certifications, protocols, and sustainability programs based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecosystem services assessment (ESA) methodologies. Subsequently, we analyzed the sustainability programs in the European‐specific economic sectors of wine and extra‐virgin olive oil, focusing on the combined approach of LCA and ESA methodologies. As a result, TREEIN, a tree model framework, was developed and applied to the case study of a typical farming system in Tuscany (Italy) in order to achievie impact neutrality. Quantitative outcomes, qualitative assertions, and the methodological challenges associated with such a pilot application are investigated and discussed. The TREEIN's benefits and drawbacks are explored in light of the findings of this case study, and a roadmap for its further advancement and adoption in the market is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastics are a versatile material group with many applications in the healthcare sector. Clinicians, particularly in the operating rooms, have become increasingly dependent on single-use instruments and consumables typically packaged in Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) resulting in significant amounts of PET waste. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology based on ISO 14040/44 is conducted to assess the environmental impacts of existing and potential future end-of-life options for PET anaesthesia and surgical instrument packaging waste in an Australian hospital context. The results show the reduction potential of environmental impacts by recycling of PET waste via direct collection or in Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand. When replacing end-of-life options such as landfill or incineration with recycling, a reduction of 88% of total Climate Change (CC) impact can be seen. Furthermore, there is a reduction in environmental impacts across other impact categories through this change. Even if the recyclate quality (up to 30%) was reduced, there is a significant reduction in the environmental impacts. The transition of end-of-life options to recycling offers the potential for reduction of emissions and enables a circular economy for plastics. Furthermore, based on the results of LCA, opportunities and challenges of circular economy pathways in health industry are identified and discussed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production is known to have significant environmental impacts, with the main contributors residing in the farming and transportation life cycle phases. Of the various food products transported around the world, avocados have increasingly gained attention as a high-commodity superfood. Avocados require specific climatic and agricultural conditions for farming, with the most fertile land and conditions located outside Europe. Consequently, most avocados consumed in Europe are imported over vast geographical distances, with little information available to quantify the environmental impacts of this imported superfood. This paper aims to present the most detailed life cycle assessment results of an avocado cultivated, grown and harvested in the Limpopo Province of South Africa and exported to the European market for sale and consumption. A life cycle assessment was developed for the farming, harvesting, handling, packaging, ripening, transportation, and carbon sequestration potential of the avocado, and it was used to conduct a holistic life cycle assessment. Input data was obtained through an 18-month data collection campaign across the relevant stakeholders. A baseline 'business-as-usual' scenario is focused on throughout this study, and scope for optimisation is identified for each life cycle phase where applicable, accompanied by uncertainty analyses. Results show a total carbon input of 904.85 kg CO2e/tonne. Mitigating this, 521.88 kg CO2e/tonne is offset, resulting in a net carbon footprint of 382.97 kg CO2e/tonne with uncertainty ranges of −23.22 to +58.69 kg CO2e/tonne, normalised to 57.45 g CO2e/avocado grown in South Africa and sold in Europe. The environmental impacts of the avocado industry under consideration are largely mitigated by the "nature first" philosophy of the farming and logistics enterprises, which have made significant investments in reducing emissions. Sensitivity analyses indicate that implementing large-scale renewable energy, using alternative packaging instead of cardboard, and selling avocados unripened could further enable the farming enterprise to achieve Net Zero objectives. These measures could reduce baseline emissions from 382.97 kg CO2e/tonne to a theoretical −68.54 kg CO2e/tonne, representing a 117.9% decrease. Although this study does not quantify climate change impacts, qualitative analyses suggest that climate change will have a net negative effect on the avocado industry in South Africa. These regions, typically located in micro-climates, are projected to become wetter and warmer, adversely affecting crop phenology, pest control, road conditions, management complexity, farmer livelihoods, and food security. The study recommends large-scale implementation of the optimisation strategies identified to achieve Net Zero objectives and the development of proactive climate change mitigation strategies to enhance the resilience of avocado supply chains to future stressors. These insights are crucial for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and consumers aiming to promote sustainability in the avocado market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The choice of characterization model has the potential to profoundly influence LCA results and conclusions. It is therefore a requirement of ISO 14044:2006 that the selection of characterization model shall be both justified and consistent with goal and scope. The purpose of this article was to examine current practices regarding the characterization of GHG emissions and reporting as CO2 equivalent emissions. Methods: A survey of practice was conducted across articles recently published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Each article was examined using seven predetermined questions covering reporting of CO2 equivalent emissions and justification of climate metric used, interpretation of results in relation to climate measures or goals, and the implications of choosing an alternative climate metric. Results and discussion: Of the sample of 85 articles, more than half reported GHG emissions as CO2 equivalent emissions. Of these, 81% unambiguously reported the climate metric used. Most often, there was no justification for the choice of a characterization model. Where a justification was given, the most common reason was alignment with the requirements of a program or PCR document. In some cases, the choice of characterization model was determined by the choice of impact assessment method (e.g., CML, ReCiPe). In other cases, the choice of characterization model was based on the desire to compare results to other studies. It is noted that none of the abovementioned reasons is scientific justification related to a stated climate objective. Not surprisingly, most studies made no attempt to interpret results reported as CO2 equivalent emissions in relation to climate measures or goals, and most did not discuss the potential implications of alternative climate metrics. For almost half of the articles, the choice of climate metric was assessed as potentially having major implications for decision-making or comparison to alternative systems. Conclusions: Based on this survey, it is evident that key aspects of ISO 14044:2006 are routinely not being followed. When GHG emissions are aggregated into a single impact category indicator result, there is a loss of transparency about climate impacts over time and the potential to unknowingly trade short-term climate benefits against the exacerbation of the difficulties of achieving long-term climate stabilization. As such, whenever GHG emissions are reported as CO2 equivalent emissions, it is imperative that the choice of characterization model is unambiguously reported and justified, that results are interpreted in relation to environmental outcomes, and that the potential implications of selecting alternative models are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Winter heating in rural areas of northern China requires about 200 million tonnes of standard coal, of which coal is used as the main heat source, causing serious air pollution and exacerbating the greenhouse gas effect. Abundant "zero-carbon" straw in rural areas is a viable strategy for replacing coal-fired heating. The purpose of this paper is to compare the environmental and economic performance of straw heating scenarios. Methods: The environmental impacts and economic costs of four straw heating models across household, village, township, and county scales were compared through life cycle assessment and life cycle cost methods. In this study, the 24-h heat demand of 1 m2 (5.18 MJ) was used as a functional unit. Results: The results showed that the county scale straw cogeneration (CSC) model exhibits the best environmental performance. The global warming potential (GWP) and primary energy demand (PED) of the CSC model are only 11.17% and 10.82% of the household heating model. Straw heating is preferable at the township scale to the village scale from environmental aspects, and direct combustion heating is superior to gasification. For economic aspects, fuel costs are the highest as a percentage of total costs, and the CSC model has the lowest economic costs, with an LCC of 47% of the HSP model. Replacing 20% of coal with straw for heating can reduce annual emissions by 128 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent and the energy conservation and emission reduction impact by 0.17 (19.97%) in rural areas of China. Conclusions: Straw heating reduces the environmental impact as scale increases. At the same scale, straw direct combustion for heating has better environmental and economic performance than gasification. The county scale straw heating model has 89% lower carbon emissions than household scale, and has the best overall performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the traditional approach in life cycle assessment (LCA) where characterization factors (CFs) are applied to life cycle inventory (LCI) results to convert them into common units for impact assessment. While this method has been widely accepted and used, there are emerging approaches that deviate from this standard by connecting to intermediate flows or activity variables instead of elementary flows. The article suggests revising LCA standards and software to accommodate these new methods, highlighting the need for a more flexible and inclusive approach in LCA. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: The organic farming sector is growing, and environmental aspects are a matter of discussion next to the quantity and quality of organic products. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method is an efficient solution to fill these gaps. Methods: A three-year field experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of winter wheat varieties and their mixtures in grain yield and quality. Four single cropping of winter wheat cultivars and eight mixed cropping systems sown with mixed or alternate rows of two cultivars were compared. The LCA method via to cradle-to-farm gate approach was employed. The SimaPro 9.6.0.1 Analyst software, and integrated method of the software ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint and Endpoint, Hierarchical (H) V1.1 / World (2010) H and primarily the Cut-off System Model approach was applied, considering one kg of grain protein yield in dry matter as the functional unit. Results: The results were expressed in impact categories of global warming, GW (kg CO2 eq); terrestrial acidification, TA (kg SO2 eq); freshwater eutrophication, FE (kg P eq); marine eutrophication, ME (kg N eq); terrestrial ecotoxicity, TE (kg 1,4-DCB); freshwater ecotoxicity, FET (kg 1,4-DCB); human non-carcinogenic toxicity, HNCT (kg 1,4-DCB); land use, LU (m2a crop eq), and water consumption, WC (m3). The variants with the lowest environmental impact levels tend to be those where Vanessa was implemented. The hotspots were detected on the level of direct field emissions for the impact category of GW, FE, or ME, then on the level of manure management for the impact category of TA, or on the level of agrotechnology in the impact category of TE and FET. Conclusions: The results of this research may be used as an example of an environmental design application based on hotspot detection in organic agriculture from the LCA perspective. The study results can also be implemented into the cropping system related to organic farming on arable land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents a transparent and rigorous methodological approach to conducting a case study of social performance (SP) within the conventional life cycle of Canadian beef. The objective was to explore the potential benefits and risks (or hotspots) of practices on Canadian beef farm businesses (BFBs) and slaughter operations (BSOs) to establish valid benchmarks and a social sustainability roadmap for decision-makers to improve SP. Methods: This study undertook a novel and participatory approach to social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). Respondents from both within and at-arms-length to the beef value chain were engaged to identify SP practices and perceptions and develop the life cycle inventory. The goal and scope, inventory, assessment, and interpretation were conducted in a three-phased approach: (i) scoping; (ii) practice-based assessment; and (iii) deep-dive assessment. Data collected through mixed methods, including Q method, interviews, surveys, and literature review, were assessed using a type I (reference scale) approach and interpreted through critical interpretive synthesis. Organizational SP was explored at BFBs and BSOs, considering the following stakeholders: value chain actors, farmers, employees, and cattle. Results and discussion: Outcomes from the applied approach explore the interrelations between organizations and stakeholders along the value chain. Impact categories concerning labour management, people's health and safety, and animal care were prioritized for deep-dive assessment. Subcategories included novel topics, like recruitment and retention and access to mental health resources. A range of potential benefits and areas for improving SP were identified at BFBs and BSOs. Potential risks from SP were identified for stakeholders from working hours, communication and dispute resolution, animal transport, and personal protective equipment practice areas. Results informed strategic activities for the National Beef Sustainability Strategy. Conclusion: This study contributes to the social sustainability discourse in livestock systems by demonstrating a qualitative approach to S-LCA that can be replicated by practitioners to explore valid and locally specific social dimensions of sustainability. Practitioners may consider the approach and results in future studies to better capture and manage the complex and dynamic nature of livestock systems, leading to more effective social sustainability decisions that incorporate diverse stakeholder perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Meeting the demands of a growing and increasingly affluent population necessitates a deeper understanding of the environmental and economic implications of production. This implication is most relevant in key production sectors including agriculture and livestock. This article is intended to provide an understanding of the influence of methods of assessing land-use change (LUC) with respect to minimizing both the global warming potential (GWP) and the monetary costs of pig feed formulation. Methods: Feed mixtures intended for slaughter pigs were generated for minimal cost and GWP impacts by applying four differing LUC assessment methods. The objective function was the Danish slaughter pig feed unit, minimized for cost in Danish crowns (DKK), with GWP impacts constrained in multiple steps. Attributional LCA methodology was applied using the Agri-footprint 6.3 database, with GWP impacts calculated excluding land use changes, including direct land-use changes and including the carbon opportunity cost. Analyses of the functional relationship between the optimal cost and the GWP impact were conducted, followed by a comparative LCA of the cost of comparable feed mixture by applying two sets of functional units: 100 slaughter pig feed units and 1 kg of pig live weight. Results and discussion: A similar relationship between cost and GWP impact was observed across all methods, although variability of GWP impact magnitude depending on method was observed. Reducing at an equivalent cost, GWP reduction ranged from 5.6 to 27% based on the pig feed functional unit, and 2.4 to 13% based on the pig live weight functional unit. Optimizing feed mixtures for GWP impacts resulted in significantly increased contributions to other impact categories, including a 56% increase in terrestrial ecotoxicity. Despite the increased contributions to other impact categories, all optimized feed mixtures achieved a reduction in endpoint indicators and single score. Endpoint reductions to the feed unit were 2.3–25% for ecosystem damage, 7.4–15% for human health, and 6.0–16% based on a single score value. Conclusions: The findings emphasize the key importance of addressing LUC when optimizing the GWP of agri-food production. Suggestions are provided for areas of improvement in future optimization studies applying a dietary unit as the objective function, including additional midpoint impact categories and/or extended optimization covering whole areas of protection. The findings suggest that GWP impacts may be reduced at no additional cost if included or embedded in the pig feed formulation procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Solid-state batteries (SSBs) are a current research hotspot, as they are safer and have a higher energy density than state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). To date, their production only occurs on a laboratory scale, which provides a good opportunity to analyze the associated environmental impacts prior to industrialization. This paper investigates the environmental impacts of the production of cylindrical SSB, to identify environmental hotspots and optimization potentials. Methods: Here, an attributional cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed, focusing on SSBs that use a NMC811/lithium germanium phosphorous sulfide (LiGPS) composite cathode, a sulfide-based solid separator electrolyte, and a lithium metal anode. The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is performed in Umberto 11 using the Environmental Footprint 3.1 method with primary and literature data and the Evoinvent 3.9 database for background data. Results and discussion: The results show climate change impacts of 205.43 kg CO2 eq./kwh (for the base case), with hotspots primarily attributable to the electrolyte and cathode production, and more specifically to the LiPS and LiGPS synthesis as well as to the cathode active material. Additionally, the scenario analysis shows that an upscaling of the LiPS and LiGPS synthesis reduces environmental impacts across all assessed impact categories. In addition, it was shown that the use of an in situ anode further improves the overall environmental performance, while the use of alternative cathode active materials, such as NMC622 and LFP did not lead to any improvements, at least with reference to the storage capacity. Conclusion: The article highlights the environmental hotspots of sulfide-based SSB production, namely electrolyte and catholyte synthesis. The results show that upscaling the synthesis reduces the environmental impact and that cells with higher energy density show a favorable environmental performance. However, SSBs are still in the development stage and no final recommendation can be made at this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Life cycle assessment (LCA) distinguishes three types of water use: (1) consumptive water use, (2) degradative water use, and (3) in-stream water use. When it comes to assessing the impact of turbine water use (TWU, major source of in-stream water use) in LCA, so far, no method exists to quantify the related environmental impacts. Here, we developed the first midpoint characterization factors (CFs) with global coverage for turbine water use of storage and pumped storage hydropower power plants. Methods: The midpoint CF at the basin scale describes the hydropower regulation potential (HRP) [HDOR·y] per TWU [m3]. The HRP indicates the probability of how strongly the natural flow regime of a river is potentially affected by all upstream reservoir operation, calculated as the quotient between reservoir volume [m3] and the annual river discharge [m3/y]. The hydropower degree of regulation (HDOR) thereby equals the unitless m3/m3 fraction. The TWU depends on the electricity production [kWh] and the turbine efficiency [m3/kWh]. We tested the sensitivity of the input data on the calculated CFs for four parameters (discharge, turbine efficiency, multipurpose allocation, and plant type). Furthermore, we performed a case study to analyze if consumptive and TWU impacts of producing 1 kWh are correlated or not. Results and discussion: The calculated CFs for the 342 basins vary from 1.13E-13 HDOR·y/m3 to 3.28E10-7 HDOR·y/m3. The HDOR values range from 0.0015 to 16.66, and the TWU varies between 0.0030 km3 and 2824 km3. A HDOR ≥ 0.02 can be interpreted as affected basin, and only 23 out of 342 basins have a HDOR below this threshold. This confirms that TWU of hydropower production can have important environmental impacts. The sensitivity analyses revealed that discharge and turbine efficiency are the most sensitive parameters because they are influencing almost all basins. The results of the case study showed that a high consumptive water-use impact does not automatically lead to a high TWU impact and vice versa (R2 values of 0.0081 and 0.003). Conclusion: Our study highlights that it is important to account for the environmental impacts of in-stream water use in LCA, as otherwise, the environmental impact can be underestimated, which could lead to wrong conclusions. However, the CFs are not meant to replace a local risk assessment of hydropower reservoir operation and should only be used for relative comparison between basins. The CF application in LCA will represent a step forward towards more sustainable hydropower development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Due to climate change, the severity and length of heat waves are increasing, and this trend is likely to continue while mitigation efforts are insufficient. These climatic events cause overheating inside buildings, which increases mortality. Adaptation measures reduce overheating but induce environmental impacts, including on human health. This study aims to integrate the overheating-related effects on human health in building LCA to provide a design aid combining mitigation and adaptation. Methods: In a novel approach, an existing building LCA tool is utilised to evaluate life cycle impacts, including damage to human health expressed in DALYs. The overheating risk is then evaluated using an existing dynamic thermal simulation (DTS) tool and prospective climatic data. Overheating is expressed as a degree-hour (DH) indicator, which integrates both the severity (temperature degrees over a comfort threshold) and the duration (hours). By assuming proportionality between DALYs and DH × area in a first step, the 2003 heat wave mortality data, 2003 climatic data, and a simplified model of the national residential building stock were used to identify a characterisation factor, which can then be used to evaluate DALYs corresponding to any building using DH obtained by thermal simulation. Results: The proposed overheating model not only allows to derive a characterisation factor for overheating to be used in building LCA but also provides practical insights. The first estimation of the characterisation factor is 1.35E-8DALY. DH-1.m-2. The method was tested in a case study corresponding to a social housing apartment building in France built in 1969 without insulation. The thickness of insulation implemented in the renovation works was varied. For this specific case study, the contribution of overheating is significant, ranging from 1.1E-5DALY.m-2.y-1 to 2.2E-5DALY.m-2.y-1, comparable to the contribution of heating. DTS and LCA results found an optimal thickness, minimising the human health indicator in DALYs. This underscores the potential of active cooling to reduce human health impacts, especially if it consumes electricity produced by a photovoltaic system integrated in the building. Conclusion: Combining DTS and LCA makes it possible to evaluate damage indicators on human health, including building life cycles (e.g., material and energy) and overheating-related impacts. An application on a case study shows this method's feasibility and gives a first order of magnitude of overheating health impacts induced by buildings. A more sophisticated model could replace the assumed proportionality between DALYs and DH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cultured meat is produced by cultivating animal cells in a bioreactor in a culture medium that provides nutrients and growth factors. Among other animal sera, fetal bovine serum (FBS) has traditionally been the most common used in the culture medium of mammalian cell cultures, i.e., 10% FBS medium that contains 10% FBS and 90% DMEM/F12 (v/v). As the aim of cultured meat is to replace livestock production, animal component-free culture media needs to be developed. Methods: We analyzed the environmental impact of replacing the 10% FBS culture medium with serum substitutes, i.e., growth factors, Essential 8™, protein hydrolysates from egg-white, eggshell membrane, poultry residues, pork plasma, and pea concentrate, and Tri-basal 2.0 + ITS medium that contains fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2), fetuin, bovine serum albumin (BSA), and insulin transferrin selenium (ITS). Life cycle assessment with a cradle-to-gate approach was used to quantify global warming potential, freshwater and marine eutrophication, terrestrial acidification, land use, water consumption, fossil resource scarcity, particulate matter formation, cumulative energy demand, and ozone formation of preparing 1-L culture medium. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the impact changes under various production conditions including variations in the impact allocation strategy, production location, and energy sourcing. Results and discussion: The 2% FBS medium (2% FBS, 96% DMEM/F12, and 2% growth factors (v/v)) reduced all environmental impacts where marine eutrophication had the highest reduction (77%), while land use was the least affected with a reduction of 6%. The Tri-basal 2.0 + ITS and protein hydrolysates media reduced most of the analyzed environmental impacts. Protein hydrolysates from egg-white had the lowest environmental impacts reducing 81% global warming potential, 28% water consumption, 59% fossil scarcity, 87% eutrophying emissions, 91% terrestrial acidification, 82% particulate matter, and 70% ozone formation, compared to FBS-containing medium. Land use and energy demand were reduced the most by 17 and 37%, respectively, when the 10% FBS medium was replaced with the Tri-basal 2.0 + ITS medium. Conclusions: Changing the input of FBS in culture media from 10 to 2% (v/v) reduced all studied environmental impacts. Further reductions were achieved when FBS was totally replaced by basal media DMEM/F12, Essential 8™, protein hydrolysates, and recombinant growth factors. Land use was the least reduced, as it was driven by starch extraction to produce glucose for the DMEM/F12 basal medium. Culture medium with protein hydrolysates from egg-white achieved the highest impact reductions compared with the FBS-containing medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper provides global weights (weighting factors) for the three endpoint impact categories (areas of protection (AoPs)) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Life Cycle Initiative's "Global Guidance for Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators and Methods" (GLAM) project, namely human health, ecosystem quality, and natural resources and ecosystem services. Methods: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to elicit the preferences of respondents on the GLAM AoPs, and they were then used to calculate the respective weights. Responses were obtained from a subset of countries pertaining to each income level defined by the World Bank (i.e. low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high). The adimensional (between 0 and 1) weights were derived using two different approaches: econometric and multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA). The econometric approach obtained weights by transforming the estimated preference parameters from a multinomial logit model. The MCDA approach obtained weights representing the vectors that best reconstitute the choices of each individual, using linear programming to fit an additive value function. Results: When considering responses from all income groups, the weights from the econometric approach are 0.42, 0.31, and 0.26 for human health, ecosystem quality, and natural resources and ecosystem services, respectively. Following the same order for the AoPs, the weights from the MCDA approach are 0.41, 0.32, and 0.27. For high-income countries, ecosystem quality has the highest weight; for upper-middle-income countries, ecosystem quality and human health have the same weights using the econometric approach, while in the MCDA approach, human health is weighted higher than ecosystem quality. For the two lower income country groups, the priority is given to human health with both approaches. Recommendations for the use of these weights are also provided, as well as a comparison with other existing weights. Conclusion: The two methods obtained similar weights overall, although with some differences when disaggregated by income groups. The weights proposed in this paper are suitable for decision-makers or users who want to use survey-derived weights for endpoint-based LCA when using the AoPs of GLAM. These weights can be used in projects where the decision-makers do not want to or have no resources to identify a set of weights themselves, or when decision-makers are not involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a comprehensive Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (S-CBA) conducted as part of a research project, studying biofuel production for the maritime and aviation sectors, from various types of non-food waste biomasses. The inclusion of social considerations complements and expands on the environmental and economic ones. The importance of social group criteria was determined through expert questionnaires, leading to the identification of social impacts groups and social criteria from stakeholders across participating countries. The results successfully identified and quantified social impacts, and align with those reported in similar cases in relevant literature. Social Cost-Benefits, monetarizing social factors, demonstrated several social benefits, including reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions. However, it also highlighted social costs, such as Economic Costs associated with the initial investment. The study revealed critical social hotspots within the impact categories, making significant strides in understanding the social impacts of biofuel production, providing valuable insights for decision-makers, and contributing to the broader goal of sustainable and socially responsible biofuel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calculates the future levelized cost of storage (LCOS) and conducts a prospective life cycle assessment (PLCA) for second‐life batteries (SLB) in Flanders, Belgium. A cradle‐to‐grave approach is chosen for climate change (CC) and economic impacts of SLB. Impacts of processes related to the first and the second life are allocated according to the delivered electricity. Furthermore, impacts are determined according to their temporal occurrence. For LCOS, activities are time adjusted by discounting. For PLCA, new background databases are generated and changed based on the activities occurrence in time. Additionally, future CC impact of three Belgian energy paths is modeled, introducing user‐defined scenarios of PLCA. To conceptualize impacts, three use cases are defined: (a) residential, (b) industrial and (c) utility use case (UTI). The residential and industrial use cases (INDs) represent photovoltaic (PV) installations with battery storage, the UTI is a large‐scale battery participating in the Belgian secondary reserve market. Lowest LCOS of the SLB in 2050 are found in the IND, namely 39.66 €/MWh, and are below the benchmark batteries. CC impact of SLB in the residential is 58.7 gCO2eq$\text{gCO}_2{\rm eq}$/kWh and below the benchmark batteries. The CC impact of SLB is 75.2 and 78.5 gCO2eq$\text{gCO}_2{\rm eq}$/kWh in the industrial and UTI and thus higher than the benchmark batteries. Crucial for both assessments are increased dismantling and repurposing facility throughput, fair charging tariffs, the manufacturing, the charging electricity generated by PV installations, and power electronics. On the contrary, changing the background does not lead to major changes in CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impacts resulting from plastic food packaging, made from both fossil‐based and bio‐based polymers, are increasingly analyzed in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. However, the literature reveals significant variations in results for the same polymer within the same scope. To enhance the reliability of these assessments, data quality assessment (DQA) plays a relevant role. However, despite most of the LCA studies employing aggregated life cycle inventory (LCI) datasets, in the literature, DQA methods for aggregated processes are not available. To fill this gap, in this paper, a DQA for aggregated LCI datasets is proposed and demonstrated through its application to 101 aggregated LCI datasets, extracted from Ecoinvent and GaBi databases. The DQA method has been developed by adapting and integrating the pedigree matrix and the data quality ranking proposed by the recently published EC Plastic LCA method. The three data quality indicators (DQIs) used are technological, geographical, and time‐related representativeness. The application of this method exhibits an overall positive evaluation of the selected datasets with differences among the three DQIs. Moreover, it highlights the role of metadata structure in adequately supporting a robust DQA. Indeed, in the absence of a common framework that defines, assesses, and provides access to data quality information, transparency must be assured by the operator in the metadata interpretation and related assumptions along the DQA process. Finally, although the proposed DQA method was developed for the plastic sector, its application can be extended to LCI aggregated datasets relevant to other sectors, materials, and products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tissue scarcity poses global challenges for corneal transplantation and public health. Xeno-keratoplasty using animal-derived tissues offers a potential solution, but its environmental and economic implications remain unclear. This study evaluated two xeno-keratoplasty procedures at a single institution: (1) native corneas (Option 1) and (2) tissue-engineered corneal scaffolds derived from slaughterhouse waste (Option 2). Life cycle assessment (LCA) quantified environmental impacts across 18 midpoint indicators, while cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) incorporated cost and environmental impact using two approaches. Option 1 exhibited significantly lower environmental impact than Option 2 across most indicators, primarily due to the energy and equipment demands of cell culture in Option 2. Both CEA approaches (carbon offset pricing and utility decrement) demonstrated cost-effectiveness dominance for Option 1. Xeno-keratoplasty using native corneas (Option 1) appears more environmentally and economically favorable than tissue-engineered scaffolds (Option 2) in the current analysis. Future studies could explore diverse xeno-keratoplasty techniques for optimizing sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Methods Results Conclusion Operating rooms generate 1.8 million tons of waste annually, or 20%‒30% of the total healthcare waste in the United States. Our objective was to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) for endoscopic sinus surgeries (ESSs) in order to analyze its environmental impact.A comprehensive LCA of ESS was performed considering energy, climate, and water use impacts associated with the materials and processes used. It focuses on the ESS performed at a large tertiary academic hospital and then extends the impacts to consider annual US surgeries. The assessment considers end‐of‐life waste management at both landfills and incinerators.Single‐use instrument production constitutes 89%‒96% of the total impacts throughout the life cycle of an ESS. Waste‐to‐energy incineration is shown to be a preferred end‐of‐life destination, as it recovers much of the input production energy of plastic items, ultimately reducing the input to 36%, although this is done at the expense of higher greenhouse gas emissions. For multi‐use items, decontamination dominates environmental impact (>99% of totals), but consideration of reusable items reduces overall energy consumption and global warming potential (GWP) by 25%‒33%.Single‐use items dominate the total environmental impact of ESS. While multi‐use items require additional decontamination over their lifetimes, results show that their incorporation reduces energy consumption and GWP by 25%‒33%, demonstrating the clear environmental benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND RESULTS CONCLUSION Tomatoes are a significant product of the Mediterranean region and a crucial component of the Mediterranean diet. The formulation of dried tomato products enriched with proteins and bioactive compounds could be a strategic approach to promote adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Six different novel tomato products were analyzed using different protein enrichment sources (pea proteins and leaf proteins) and drying technologies (hot‐air dryer, microwave vacuum dryer, and conventional dryer). The novelty of this approach lies in combining product‐specific criteria with global societal factors across their life cycles. Using 21 criteria and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) survey of experts, the social sustainability score for each product was determined through a multi‐criteria assessment.The tomato product's life cycles have minimal regional impacts on unemployment, access to drinking water, sanitation, or excessive working hours. However, they affect discrimination, migrant labor, children's education, and access to hospital beds significantly. The study identified nutritional quality as the top criterion, with the most sustainable design being a tomato bar enriched with pea protein and processed using microwave vacuum drying.The study revealed that integrating sensory and nutrient compounds into social sustainability assessments improves food sustainability and provides a practical roadmap for social life cycle assessments of food products. It emphasized the importance of considering global social issues when reformulating Mediterranean products to ensure long‐term adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Incorporating social factors into sustainability scores can also enhance the effectiveness of product information for conscious customers. © 2024 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To help ensure a prosperous future on Earth for coming generations, academia and industry need to transform the way they plan and carry out the synthesis of novel materials to make them more environmentally sustainable. In particular, the field of reticular materials, i.e., metal‐organic frameworks, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, and covalent organic frameworks, has great potential to outperform other materials and revolutionize various fields of applications. This review highlights several key aspects from the choice of their starting materials, solvents and synthetic methodologies that fall under the umbrella of the Green Chemistry principles, and incorporates a Circular Economy perspective by providing relevant strategies such as reuse, regeneration, or recycling to maximize the value of the Earth's available resources. Moreover, it will shed light on the life cycle assessment results of selected reticular materials and consider how constraints imposed by Green Chemistry principles, life cycle assessment metrics, and circular patterns will shape the future rational sustainable design and discovery of reticular materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talc is widely used in the automotive industry as a primary reinforcement in part manufacturing. However, its relatively high density, low impact strength, and difficulty in recycling pose challenges. The present study investigates the utilization of graphene grown on talc derived from waste polypropylene (PP) and graphene nanoplatelet obtained from waste tires by recycling and upcycling processes to be used as reinforcing agents in thermoplastic processing by keeping mechanical integrity and part performance properties the same compared to the part used in serial production. The whole value chain was examined by developing compound formulation, scaling up with a high shear mixer, and injection molding of the selected exterior part of the glass front grill with its part performance tests with the real‐case thermal and structural finite element analysis. Regarding the mechanical performance analysis, the developed compound formulation having 9 wt% micron scale talc with graphene nanoparticles and hybrid additive yielded substantial enhancements of 32% and 22% in flexural and tensile strength, respectively, in the homopolymer polypropylene (HomoPP) matrix by achieving 10% weight reduction. With a systematic life cycle assessment study, CO2 reduction was provided by 55% for the selected part by replacing virgin HomoPP with mechanically recycled waste PP originally unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) straps cannot be recycled in some regions. The aim of this paper was to evaluate an alternative for recycling discarded PET straps in concrete paving blocks. Fresh and hardened properties of the composite were tested for dosages containing 1%, 5% and 10% of shredded PET straps by total weight. Later, the environmental impacts of this recycling alternative were evaluated using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The increase of shredded PET straps content decreased slump, density and flexural strength of blocks, and a content of 5% of plastic had the lowest water absorption. All studied environmental impacts were reduced by increasing the amount of plastic content. Although shredded plastic straps could not improve the technological properties of concrete, except from water absorption, this recycling alternative could still be used to reduce environmental impacts of paving blocks production, substituting raw materials with up to 5% of plastic by weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal powder contributes to the environmental burdens of additive manufacturing (AM) substantially. Current life cycle assessments (LCAs) of metal powders present considerable variations of lifecycle environmental inventory due to process divergence, spatial heterogeneity, or temporal fluctuation. Most importantly, the amounts of LCA studies on metal powder are limited and primarily confined to partial material types. To this end, based on the data surveyed from a metal powder supplier, this study conducted an LCA of titanium and nickel alloy produced by electrode-inducted and vacuum-inducted melting gas atomization, respectively. Given that energy consumption dominates the environmental burden of powder production and is influenced by metal materials' physical properties, we proposed a Bayesian stochastic Kriging model to estimate the energy consumption during the gas atomization process. This model considered the inherent uncertainties of training data and adaptively updated the parameters of interest when new environmental data on gas atomization were available. With the predicted energy use information of specific powder, the corresponding lifecycle environmental impacts can be further autonomously estimated in conjunction with the other surveyed powder production stages. Results indicated the environmental impact of titanium alloy powder is slightly higher than that of nickel alloy powder and their lifecycle carbon emissions are around 20 kg CO2 equivalency. The proposed Bayesian stochastic Kriging model showed more accurate predictions of energy consumption compared with conventional Kriging and stochastic Kriging models. This study enables data imputation of energy consumption during gas atomization given the physical properties and producing technique of powder materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of alternative (electric and hydrogen) and conventional diesel buses in a large metropolitan area. The primary focus was on hydrogen derived from coke oven gas, a byproduct of the coking process, which is a crucial step in the steel production value chain. The functional unit was 1,000,000 km traveled over 15 years. LCA analysis using SimaPro v9.3 revealed significant environmental differences between the bus types. Hydrogen buses outperformed electric buses in all 11 environmental impact categories and in 5 of 11 categories compared to conventional diesel buses. The most substantial improvements for hydrogen buses were observed in ozone depletion (8.6% of diesel buses) and global warming (29.9% of diesel buses). As a bridge to a future dominated by green hydrogen, employing grey hydrogen from coke oven gas in buses provides a practical way to decrease environmental harm in regions abundant with this resource. This interim solution can significantly contribute to climate policy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an experimental approach to the study of the compressive strength, isothermal calorimetry and life cycle assessment (LCA) of alkali-activated pastes based on soda–lime–silica glass, established to investigate the effect of the nature and proportion of the activator. Four different activators are compared: Portland cement, sodium silicate, sodium carbonate (at four percentages by weight: 5, 10, 15 and 25 wt% relative to glass) and sodium hydroxide (3.5 wt%). Portland cement and sodium carbonate were added in dry form (powder), while sodium hydroxide (pellets) and silicate were used in solution. At room temperature, glass exhibited slow reaction kinetics, with mechanical performance increasing significantly beyond 28 days of curing. The nature of the activator had a direct impact on the mechanical performance of the activated glass. Cement-activated pastes and those containing 25 wt% of sodium carbonate developed strength at an early age (0–7 days). The other activators showed lower strength development before 28 days of reaction. While a higher activator content improved short-term performance, it also increased the environmental impact, primarily due to the activator. The LCA, conducted on 11 indicators, revealed that the environmental impact was largely driven by the type and amount of activator used. A performance impact indicator (PII) related to global warming was introduced to compare pastes with different performance values. At an early age (0–28 days), the PII was lower when the activator level was high but decreased over time as the strength improved. In terms of long-term performance (360 days), hydroxide and sodium carbonate (10 wt%) achieved compressive strengths of 91 and 74 MPa, respectively. These systems offered a balance between high performance and a reduced environmental impact, making them of interest for sustainable applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental impact of Bitcoin mining has raised severe concerns considering the expected growth of 30% by 2030. This study aimed to develop a Life Cycle Assessment model to determine the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions associated with Bitcoin mining, considering material requirements and energy demand. By applying the impact assessment method IPCC 2021 GWP (100 years), the GHG emissions associated with electricity consumption were estimated at 51.7 Mt CO2 eq/year in 2022 and calculated by modelling real national mixes referring to the geographical area where mining takes place, allowing for the determination of the environmental impacts in a site-specific way. The estimated impacts were then adjusted to future energy projections (2030 and 2050), by modelling electricity mixes coherently with the spatial distribution of mining activities, the related national targeted goals, the increasing demand for electricity for hashrate and the capability of the systems to recover the heat generated in the mining phase. Further projections for 2030, based on two extrapolated energy consumption models, were also determined. The outcomes reveal that, in relation to the considered scenarios and their associated assumptions, breakeven points where the increase in energy consumption associated with mining nullifies the increase in the renewable energy share within the energy mix exist. The amount of amine-based sorbents hypothetically needed to capture the total CO2 equivalent emitted directly and indirectly for Bitcoin mining reaches up to almost 12 Bt. Further developments of the present work would rely on more reliable data related to future energy projections and the geographical distribution of miners, as well as an extension of the environmental categories analyzed. The Life Cycle Assessment methodology represents a valid tool to support policies and decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the extraction of cellulose from Saudi Arabia-based date palm biomass utilizing a natural deep eutectic solvent (NaDES) integrated with a microwave-assisted process. A comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted in accordance with the ISO 14040 standard, encompassing four key stages: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory analysis (LCI), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and interpretation. The analysis was confined to a gate-to-gate boundary in which two impact assessment methods, namely, ReCiPe Midpoint (H) 2016 and ILCD 2011 Midpoint, were used to assess the environmental impacts. The OpenLCA software (version 2.1.1) with the European Life Cycle Database 3.2 (ELCD 3.2) was used in the study. The ReCiPe method identified impact categories such as fossil resource scarcity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, water consumption, human carcinogenic toxicity and marine ecotoxicity. Conversely, the ILCD method identified freshwater ecotoxicity, water resource depletion, mineral, fossil and resource depletion, human toxicity and cancer effects. The results indicate that freshwater ecotoxicity presents the most substantial environmental impact across both assessment methods, surpassing other categories. Fossil resource scarcity, even though originally appearing impactful, demonstrated a relatively lower normalized score compared to freshwater ecotoxicity. Terrestrial ecotoxicity and water consumption were found to be negligible in their impact. Our findings provide important insights into sustainable material science and waste management, affording potential applications for biomass utilization in the Gulf region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to comprehensively evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of remanufactured constant velocity (CV) joints using a newly proposed framework for automotive parts replacement. This framework utilizes actual vehicle sales data to accurately estimate the demand for CV joint replacements. Specific parameters are established to calculate this demand, enabling a quantitative assessment of both environmental and economic impacts associated with remanufacturing CV joints and other automotive parts. Additionally, sensitivity analyses are conducted to explore the relationship between environmental benefits and economic outcomes, particularly focusing on the preferences for remanufactured parts and their profitability. The results indicate that increasing the proportion of remanufactured CV joints significantly benefits the environment by reducing CO2 emissions, raw material usage, and energy consumption. However, this shift also leads to a decrease in total profits within the CV joint replacement market. To address this trade-off, the study suggests that financial incentives, such as subsidies or tax benefits, are necessary to support the remanufacturing industry and facilitate market expansion. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers aiming to promote sustainable manufacturing practices through effective subsidy policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the significant negative environmental impacts of the construction industry have caused a lot of concern, especially from the large number of temporary buildings required for mega projects. Reusing building components can help reduce pollution and preserve resources, but the economic and environmental effects are not well understood. This study has addressed the economic and environmental effects of reusing temporary building elements using life cycle assessment (LCA). The product system and functional unit in the current study is an office building equipment workshop with an area of 80 m2 and the system boundary is from cradle to gate. Life cycle assessment was accomplished using Simapro software and several life cycle assessment methods such as CML-la Baseline, BEES + , and IPCC was used to verify the results. The findings show that reusing disassembled building parts can reduce environmental damage by 79% and environmental damage costs by 77%. These results are important for construction managers seeking to make sustainable decisions that minimize environmental harm. Future research should expand the system boundary to include the entire building life cycle and apply the methodology to a wider range of building types and climates. Developing design guidelines for disassembly and reuse would also help promote sustainable construction practices. Overall, this study provides a robust framework for assessing the environmental and economic impacts of reusing building components, which is crucial for achieving sustainable development in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractRecycled tire steel fiber reinforced geopolymer concrete provides a sustainable and circular economy-based alternative to traditional steel fiber reinforced concrete, wherein steel wires derived from recycling of end-of-life tires are used as alternative fiber reinforcement, while cement is completely replaced with industrial wastes like fly ash and slag. This study presents the current state-of-knowledge on the engineering properties of recycled steel wires reinforced geopolymers wherein mechanical properties, rheology, durability, and microstructural investigations of recycled steel wires reinforced geopolymer composites were discussed and compared with industrial steel fibers reinforced geopolymers. A life cycle assessment was also performed to compare the environmental impacts of recycled steel wires reinforced geopolymers with steel and polypropylene fiber-reinforced geopolymers. The inclusion of recycled steel wires positively impacted the mechanical properties of geopolymer concrete, whereas rheology was adversely affected. Microstructural investigations indicated a compact geopolymer with strong fiber-matrix bond resulting from the presence of residual rubber on the fiber surface. There were a lot of discrepancies and limitations pertaining to durability in the literature. Life cycle assessment indicated a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of steel fiber and polypropylene fiber reinforced geopolymer by replacing them with recycled steel wires, indicating the sustainability and circular economy potential of recycled steel wires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]