Dissertations / Theses: 'Social-Life Cycle Assessment'

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Ekener-Petersen, Elisabeth. "Tracking down Social Impacts of Products with Social Life Cycle Assessment." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys (fms), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-137974.

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An important aspect of sustainable development is the social impacts from the consumption of goods and services. A recently developed method for social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) assesses the potential positive and negative social impacts along a product’s life cycle, while avoiding shifting negative impacts from one part of the supply chain to another. This thesis evaluated the applicability of S-LCA in three case studies, as well as a way of introducing an ethical perspective on the distribution of social impacts among stakeholders. The case study of laptop computers identified workers and the local community as the stakeholders at greatest risk of negative social impacts, with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Brazil being most prone to these impacts. A case study of vehicle fuels identified some fossil and some renewable fuels with high or very high risks of negative impacts, suggesting a need for strict procurement requirements on social performance for all types of vehicle fuels. A study of e-waste recycling in Pakistan revealed negative social impacts on workers and the community, while decreasing poverty by providing employment. By performing a social hotspot assessment using S-LCA methodology, much can be learned about the potential social impacts associated with a product’s life cycle, and potentially important aspects that would otherwise have been neglected can be identified. Some methodological issues of S-LCA requiring further attention are: Indicator relevance. Impact pathways between indicators and performance assessment on social issues must be examined and improved. Aggregation and weighting of impacts and indicators. With major uncertainties still present, results must be transparent, but also aggregated for the purposes of interpretation and communication. Assessment of the use phase. To be more complete, S-LCA methodology needs to be complemented with an assessment of the use phase. Introduction of context. Identifying the context of relevant stakeholders in different parts of the life cycle would allow identification of the greatest leverage in improvement of social conditions.
En viktig del av hållbar utveckling är att hantera social påverkan från konsumtionen av varor och tjänster. Social livscykelanalys (S - LCA) är en metod som syftar till att bedöma positiv och negativ social påverkan av produkter under hela deras livscykel och samtidigt undvika att bara flytta negativ påverkan från en del av livscykeln till en annan. Denna avhandling utvärderar S - LCA i tre fallstudier, samt undersöker hur fördelningen av den sociala påverkan på olika intressentgrupper kan bedömas ur ett etiskt perspektiv. I en fallstudie som utfördes på en laptop identifierades arbetstagare och lokalsamhället som de intressenter, som löper störst risk för negativ social påverkan. Länder som Kina, Ryssland, Saudiarabien, Thailand och Brasilien var de som var mest kopplade till denna påverkan. En fallstudie kring fordonsbränslen visade att av de bränslen som bedömts uppvisade både en del fossila och en del förnybara bränslen höga eller mycket höga risker för negativ social påverkan, vilket tyder på att strikta upphandlingskrav gällande social prestanda behövs för alla typer av drivmedel. En studie av återvinning av elektroniskt avfall i Pakistan uppvisade påtaglig negativ social påverkan på arbetstagarna och lokalsamhället, samtidigt som återvinningen gav sysselsättning som minskar fattigdomen. Genom att använda S-LCA vid bedömningen av en produkt finns det mycket att lära om potentiell social påverkan från produktens livscykel. Viktiga aspekter, som annars riskerar att missas, kan nu identifieras med S-LCA. Metoden är dock inte färdigutvecklad, och metodfrågor som behöver ytterligare uppmärksamhet är: Relevanta indikatorer. Kopplingen mellan indikatorerna och den påverkan man försöker mäta måste undersökas närmare och förbättras. Sätt att aggregera och väga ihop påverkan. Med tanke på de osäkerheter som ännu så länge finns kring metoden måste resultaten hållas transparenta, samtidigt som sammanfattande resultat behövs för tolkning och kommunikation. Påverkan i användningsfasen. För att bli mer komplett, måste metoden kompletteras med en bedömning av social påverkan i användningsfasen. Sätta resultaten i sitt sammanhang. Utgångsläget för dem, som berörs av en produkts sociala påverkan avgör vilken hävstångseffekt en förbättring av de sociala förhållandena kan ha, och kan därmed påverka vilka åtgärder som bör prioriteras.

QC 20131217

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Neugebauer, Sabrina [Verfasser], Matthias [Akademischer Betreuer] Finkbeiner, Matthias [Gutachter] Finkbeiner, and Rainer [Gutachter] Grießhammer. "Enhancing life cycle sustainability assessment : tiered approach and new characterization models for social life cycle assessment and life cycle costing / Sabrina Neugebauer ; Gutachter: Matthias Finkbeiner, Rainer Grießhammer ; Betreuer: Matthias Finkbeiner." Berlin : Technische Universität Berlin, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1156182409/34.

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Karlewski, Hannah [Verfasser], Matthias [Gutachter] Finkbeiner, and Walter [Gutachter] Klöpffer. "Social Life Cycle Assessment in der Automobilindustrie / Hannah Karlewski ; Gutachter: Matthias Finkbeiner, Walter Klöpffer." Berlin : Technische Universität Berlin, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1156350077/34.

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Cooper, Jasmin. "Life cycle sustainability assessment of shale gas in the UK." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2017. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/life-cycle-sustainability-assessment-of-shale-gas-in-the-uk(692252b3-faab-4428-899c-afbcdeec787a).html.

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This research assesses the impacts of developing shale gas in the UK, with the focus of determining whether or not it is possible to develop it sustainably and how it could affect the electricity and gas mix. There is much uncertainty on the impacts of developing shale gas in the UK, as the country is currently in the early stages of exploration drilling and the majority of studies which have been carried out to analyse the effects of shale gas development have been US specific. To address these questions, the environmental, economic and social sustainability have been assessed and the results integrated to evaluate the overall sustainability. The impacts of shale gas electricity have been assessed so that it can be compared with other electricity generation technologies (coal, nuclear, renewables etc.), to ascertain its impacts on the UK electricity mix. Life cycle assessment is used to evaluate the environmental sustainability of shale gas electricity (and other options), while life cycle costing and social sustainability assessment have been used to evaluate the economic and social sustainability. Multi-criteria decision analysis has been used to combine the results of three to evaluate the overall sustainability. The incorporation of shale gas into the UK electricity mix is modelled in two future scenarios for the year 2030. The scenarios compare different levels of shale gas penetration: low and high. The results show that shale gas will have little effect on improving the environmental sustainability and energy security of the UKâs electricity mix, but could help ease energy prices. In comparison with other options, shale gas is not a sustainable option, as it has higher environmental impacts than the non-fossil fuels and conventional gas and liquefied natural gas: 460 g CO2-Eq. is emitted from the shale gas electricity life cycle, while conventional gas emits 420 g CO2-Eq. and wind 12 g CO2-Eq. The power plant and drilling fluid are the main impact hot spots in the life cycle, while hydraulic fracturing contributes a small amount (5%). In addition to this, there are a number of social barriers which need to be addressed, notably: traffic volume and congestion could increase by up to 31%, public support is low and wastewater produced from hydraulic fracturing could put strain on wastewater treatment facilities. However, the results indicate that shale gas is economically viable, as the cost of electricity is cheaper than solar photovoltaic, biomass and hydroelectricity (9.59 p/kWh vs 16.90, 11.90 and 14.40 p/kWh, respectively). The results of this thesis show that there is a trade-off in the impacts, but because of its poor environmental and social ratings shale gas is not the best option for UK electricity. The results also identify areas for improvement which should be targeted, as well as policy recommendations for best practice and regulation if shale gas were to be developed in the UK.

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Grönkvist, Sofia. "Social Life Cycle Assessment in the Textile Industry: a case study in a small company." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-384470.

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Investigations of the textile industry and apparel sector often reveal unethical behaviours towards workers and lack of transparency in the value chain. As consumers are getting more conscious and the external pressure and demand for more sustainable clothing increases, companies need to implement management systems to control their operations and ensure actions are socially responsible. The Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) methodology published by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2009 are suggested to measure positive and negative social impacts on stakeholders along a products entire life cycle, from cradle to grave. The methodology is still under development and no methods have yet been standardized or internationally recognized. To contribute to the development of the S-LCA and its practical use in real world situations, the present study aims to evaluate the applicability of existing methodologies and tools by applying them to a cotton shirt from a small company in Sweden. The case study was performed by conducting an S-LCA following the four phases: Goal and scope; Life Cycle Inventory; Life Cycle Impact Assessment and; Life Cycle Interpretation. Generic country-level data and organisation specific data were collected through questionnaires, document review and desktop screening, while two different assessment tools were tested for the different data types. For generic country-level data, a Social Hotspot Assessment framework developed for this study, was applied and evaluated. For organisation specific data the existing Subcategory Assessment Method (SAM) was subject for feasibility evaluation. The S-LCA conduction involved several application issues that affect the perceived applicability and feasibility of the methods. Problems identified relate to the definition of system boundaries and uncertainties in the choice of appropriate and relevant indicators. The major problems refer to data collection both in terms of availability and quality issues both with regards to the inventory and assessment phase. Further, in the assessment and interpretation phase uncertainties regarding assessment criteria’s and aggregation of results evolved when using the framework for identifying hotspots, affecting the reliability of the results. Despite the identified issues, it is evident that it is possible to conduct and finalise a Social Hotspot Assessment using the methodology. However, based on the reliability issues of the results and the effort it requires, it is concluded that the applied framework is not feasible for smaller clothing companies with limited resources. The assessment of organisation specific data by applying SAM, is considered incomplete and identified issues reflect the incompatibility of the method and are thus not considered applicable or feasible for smaller companies.

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Wan, He. "Assessing CSR and Applying Social Life Cycle Assessment: A case study on Biochemical Oxygen Demand Online Monitor." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-182191.

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Wuhan China and Borlänge Sweden collaborate to promote sustainable business growths. This thesis, being part of sustainable business project, aims to understand how business can contribute to sustainable development and explore mechanisms of social life cycle assessment. In an effort to answer research questions and further to achieve the general purpose, a BOD online monitor case study is described and analyzed by applying both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data collection is based on interviews and documents. In the case of BOD online monitor, the thesis identifies Boffin and Universtar companies’ CSR levels. It also observes that SLCA method is able to discover Boffin and Universtar’s social performances at life cycle impact assessment stage and disclose online monitor’s social impacts at interpretation stage. The thesis finally concludes that business’ CSR level can be evaluated from three dimensions: companies’ goals on conducting business, business operation performances and resolved problems. SLCA method is able to disclose enterprises’ social performances, discover underlying factors that might hinder corporations’ ability to contribute to sustainable development and improve product’s social at the same time.

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Giorgianni, Giulia. "Analisi dei principi e dei metodi per la valutazione della sostenibilità dei prodotti e dei processi con un'applicazione ai componenti per l’edilizia." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2016.

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Tale elaborato si pone l’obiettivo di analizzare una tematica oggigiorno molto discussa, ma tuttora per molti versi inesplorata: la sostenibilità. Esso è stato scritto con la volontà di rendere disponibile uno scritto di consultazione che fornisca una panoramica il più possibile completa sugli studi e le metodologie applicative elaborati fino ad ora connessi al tema della sostenibilità. La logica con cui lo scritto è articolato, prevede in primis un inquadramento generale sul tema della sostenibilità, fortemente connesso con il concetto di Life Cycle Thinking, e prosegue concentrando l’attenzione su aspetti via via più specifici. Il focus dell’analisi si concentra infatti sullo studio delle singole tecniche del ciclo di vita e successivamente sulle potenzialità di applicazione delle stesse ad uno specifico settore: quello edilizio. All’interno di questo settore è poi fornito un dettaglio in merito ai materiali ceramici per i quali si è intrapreso un serio percorso verso l’applicazione concreta dei principi dello sviluppo sostenibile. Per consolidare i temi trattati, l’elaborato si concentra infine sull’analisi di due studi applicativi: uno studio di Life Cycle Assessment e uno di Life Cycle Costing realizzati al fine di studiare i profili ambientale ed economico delle piastrelle ceramiche in contrapposizione a quelle in marmo.

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Aucamp, Ilse Carin. "The role and the place of social impact assessment in the project life cycle / Ilse C. Aucamp." Thesis, North-West University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/351.

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Social lmpact Assessment is a relatively new field of study in South Africa and abroad. It is dynamic and constantly changes as it develops. Current literature indicates that there is a need for SIA to be done through all phases of the project life cycle. The assumption made in this study is that this is not happening in practice. This study investigated the current practices in South Africa. Six case studies were analysed. The results confirmed the assumptions. The case studies were measured against the principles of Social lrnpact Assessment, lntegrated Environmental Management and Social Development. The main recommendations are that Social lmpact Assessments should be conducted throughout the Project Life Cycle and be initiated as early in the planning phase as possible. It is recommended that Social lmpact Practitioners should be exposed to the Social Development approach as these two philosophies could enhance each other. Social Impact Assessment forms part of the Integrated Environmental Management tools, and shouldn't be treated as a snapshot assessment, but as a process. Only when treated as a process, it can truly contribute to sustainable development.
Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

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Ny, Henrik. "Strategic Life-Cycle Modeling for Sustainable Product Development." Licentiate thesis, Karlskrona : Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00352.

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Decision makers are challenged by complex sustainability problems within the socio-ecological system. In response, a vast range of sustainability-related methods/tools have been developed, each focusing on certain aspects of this challenge. Without a unifying theory it is, however, unclear how these methods/tools can support strategic progress towards sustainability and how they relate to each other. This need for clarity and structure urged some sustainability pioneers to start develop an overarching framework for strategic sustainable development (SSD), often called “The Natural Step (TNS) framework”, from the NGO that has facilitated its development and application, or the “backcasting from sustainability principles (BSP) framework” from its main operational philosophy. The aim of this thesis is to study if, and in that case how, this framework can aid coordination and further development of various sustainability-related methods/tools, specifically to increase their capacity to support sustainable product development (SPD). Life-cycle assessment (LCA), “templates” for SPD and systems modeling and simulation (SMS) are the methods/tools in focus. A new strategic life-cycle management approach is presented, in which the main sustainability aspects, LCA “impacts”, are identified through socioecological sustainability principles. This creates new opportunities to avoid the reductionism that often follows from traditional system boundaries or from a focus on specific impacts. Ideas of how this approach can inform the studied tools are given. This may eventually lead to a whole integrated toolbox for SPD (a “Design Space”). As part of such a Design Space, a new “template” approach for SPD is developed. A case study of a sustainability assessment of TVs at the Matsushita Electric Group indicates that this approach can create a quick overview of critical sustainability aspects in the early part of the product development process and facilitate communication of this overview between top management, product developers, and other stakeholders. A potential integration between BSP and SMS is also discussed. It is suggested that this should start with BSP to create lists of critical presentday flows and practices, ideas of long term solutions and visions, and a first rough idea about prioritized early investments. After that, SMS should be applied to study the interrelationships between the listed items, in order to create more robust and refined analyses of the problems at hand, possible solutions and investment paths, while constantly coupling back to the sustainability principles and guidelines of the BSP framework. v Decision makers seem to need more of an overview and of simplicity around sustainability issues. A general conclusion is, however, that it is important that this is achieved without a loss of relevant aspects and their interrelations. Over-simplifications might lead to sub-optimized designs and investments paths. Combining the BSP framework with more detailed methods/tools seems to be a promising approach to finding the right balance and to get synergies between various methods/tools.

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Bergström, Pauline. "Mapping surplus food redistribution initiatives in Sweden and a Life Cycle Assessment of environmental, social and economic impacts of some representatives." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-388642.

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggest that out of all food that is produced, 1/3 ends up as food waste. In high income countries, such as Sweden, the food waste mainly originates from the last stages of the food chain, e.g. at food stores and households. Sweden is a member of the EU as well as the United Nations, and follows the common legislation for waste in the EU and has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations. In the Sustainable Development Goal number 12, food waste in terms of reduction is addressed, although Sweden does not have a clear goal that addresses how to reduce food waste. Food banks have globally been a strategy to redistribute surplus food from the retail sector to people in need, something that has not been common in the Nordic region of Europe (including Sweden) until the 1980’s. However, in Sweden, food banks have not been used as a way to prevent food waste but as a way to help people in need, perhaps because there is a well-established well-fare system in the country. Recently, initiatives that redistribute surplus food from the retail sector have been developed - working towards different consumer groups and solutions. This study aimed to map out the different surplus food redistributing initiatives in Sweden, categorise them and analyse some of the initiatives that represented different solutions and consumer groups. The chosen initiatives were ReFood, City Mission Uppsala (Matkassen and Mikaelsgården), City Mission Stockholm (Matmissionen), Food2change, Foodloopz and Allwin. The methods used for analysing the chosen initiatives were Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, Social Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing. To weigh the environmental-, social- and economic impacts against each other, a total sustainability ranking system was used to point out the most favourable option for a redistributing surplus food initiative, in terms of sustainability. The results showed that the environmental impacts (Green House Gases (kg CO2 equivalents/functional unit)) were the lowest for, in this order, ReFood, Mikaelsgården and Allwin, Foodloopz, Matmissionen and Matkassen, and Food2change. For the social impacts, the results showed that Allwin is the initiative that redistribute the largest amount of surplus food to the consumer group “exposed people”, followed by Matmissionen that redistribute the second largest amount of surplus food to “people with low income”. Allwin is also the initiative with the highest capacity and largest yearly environmental savings, as the company redistributes a much larger amount of food than the other initiatives. The results for the economic impacts showed that all but one initiative, Food2change, have monthly financial losses. The overall sustainability ranking showed that the initiative that is the most favourable is Matkassen followed by Matmissionen and Allwin, Food2change, Foodloopz, ReFood and Mikaelsgården.

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Welling, Sebastian. "Assessing the Social Performance of Products: Developing a Set of Indicators for Vattenfall AB Connected to the International EPD® system." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-197717.

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A set of indicators has been developed by the author of this work to assess the social performance of Vattenfall’s products (electricity & heat). This set of indicators has been adapted to the requirements of the International EPD® system. The aim has been to create a set of indicators that can be applied to all processes within the lifecycle. The indicators are supposed to make a best possible statement of the social performance of a companies’ product, including the most relevant issues and topics within the pillar of social science and social sustainability. The method used for the development of the indicators is the Delphi method. The Delphi process includes several rounds of reviewing. A group of experts usually carries out the reviewing. In this study five rounds of reviewing has been conducted with the help of nine experts. The first round has been an extensive literature review. The 390 indicators found in the literature have been classified according to the system and the instruction of S-LCA, which are described in the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products. The fifth round of reviewing has been the last one and consensus on the list of indicators could be reached. The outcome of the development process has been a set of 30 indicators. Not all subcategories proposed in UNEP/SETAC’s Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products have been covered. The indicators have been distinguished into two categories: core and additional. Some important social issues could not be expressed in the form of an indicator. They have been added in the final outcome of the paper, the ‘socioprofile’, as additional information. The measurement and impact assessment of qualitative indicators have been a major challenge of this study. Data availability can be seen as another critical field of the study and the application of the indicators. Other studies that have been conducted focused on a lower amount of indicators. The study has shown the possibility to quantify and measure social impacts to a certain degree. The proposed indicators are aiming at a globally focused assessment of social sustainability. The inclusion of experts and the group discussions with those experts have shown the importance of these indicators. The next step in the development of social sustainability indicators is the implementation of these indicators in a practical application and the study of the outcome. To be applicable within the International EPD® system, the Product Category Rules also have to be updated to allow for a Sustainable Product Declaration.

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Umair, Shakila. "Informal Electronic Waste Recycling in Pakistan." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys (fms), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-167975.

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The aim of this thesis was to study governance aspects of informal electronic waste recycling and to provide better knowledge of the business in terms of structure, stakeholders, governance aspects and social impacts. The thesis consists of a cover essay and two papers appended at the end of the thesis. The cover essay summarizes the papers and puts them in context. The objective of Paper I is to study the business of informal electronic waste recycling in Pakistan and highlight its governance issues. Paper II assesses the social impacts of this business using UNEP-SETAC Guidelines. The thesis examines these specific questions: Q1) What is the current situation of informal e-waste recycling in Pakistan? Q2) Who are the important stakeholders and what are their roles in this business? Q3) What are the governance issues enabling this informal business? Q4) What are the social impacts for individuals and society arising from this business? Paper I presents the international and local e-waste flows, business structure, the stakeholders involved and the existing governance issues of the business. It shows weak enforcement of legislation, the complexities emerging with numerous stakeholders, the profitability of informal recycling, little concern for the health damaging exposure for workers from poorest and most vulnerable people in society, and the lack of awareness of the hazards involved results in several governance issues. The paper also highlights how this business lacks characteristics of good governance, which makes it a challenge to control this business. Paper II assesses the social impacts of informal e-waste recycling in Pakistan using UNEP/SETAC guidelines for conducting a Social Lifecycle Analysis (SLCA). It showed that this business has positive impacts relating to societal issues and individual/family economics, and in the economic development of Pakistan but otherwise most impacts were negative. The findings of Paper II fill an important data gap and can be integrated with data on other stages of ICT product lifecycle to produce a full SLCA of such products.
Syftet med denna avhandling var att studera styrningsaspekter informella återvinning elektroniskt avfall och för att ge bättre kunskap om verksamheten i fråga om struktur, intressenter, styrningsaspekter och sociala konsekvenser. Avhandlingen består av en täck uppsats och två tidningar bifogade i slutet av uppsatsen. Locket uppsats samman tidningarna och sätter dem i sitt sammanhang. Syftet med papper I är att studera verksamheten i informella återvinning elektroniskt avfall i Pakistan och belysa dess styrningsfrågor. Papper II bedömer de sociala konsekvenserna av denna verksamhet med hjälp av UNEP-SETAC riktlinjer. Avhandlingen undersöker dessa specifika frågor: Q1) Vad är den nuvarande situationen för informella återvinnings e-avfall i Pakistan? Q2) Vilka är de viktigaste intressenterna och vilka är deras roller i den här branschen? Q3) Vilka styrningsfrågor som möjliggör denna informella företag? Q4) Vilka är de sociala konsekvenserna för enskilda och samhället som följer av detta företag? Papper I presenterar internationella och lokala e-avfallsflöden, företagsstruktur, de inblandade aktörerna och de befintliga styrningsfrågor i verksamheten. Det visar en svag tillämpning av lagstiftningen, komplexiteten växande med många intressenter, lönsamheten för informella återvinning, lite oro för hälsan skadliga exponering för arbetstagare från de fattigaste och mest utsatta människorna i samhället, och bristen på medvetenhet om de risker inblandade resultaten i flera styrningsfrågor. Papperet belyser också hur denna verksamhet saknar egenskaper för god förvaltning, vilket gör det till en utmaning att styra denna verksamhet. Papper II bedömer de sociala konsekvenserna av informella återvinnings e-avfall i Pakistan använder UNEP / SETAC riktlinjer för att genomföra en social livscykelanalys (SLCA). Det visade sig att denna verksamhet har positiva effekter avseende samhällsfrågor och individ / familj ekonomi, och i den ekonomiska utvecklingen i Pakistan men annars de flesta effekterna var negativa. Resultaten av pappers II fyller ett viktigt tomrum uppgifter och kan integreras med uppgifter om andra stadier av IKT produktlivscykeln för att producera en full SLCA av sådana produkter.

QC 20150525

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Mariga, Valentina. "Sustainability analysis in the mining sector: a case study on new recycling technologies for sulphidic mine residues valorisation." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2021. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/23270/.

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Research has demonstrated that mining activities can cause serious impacts on the environment, as well as the surrounding communities, mainly due to the unsafe storage of mine tailings. This research focuses on the sustainability assessment of new technologies for the recovery of metals from mine residues. The assessment consists in the evaluation of the environmental, economic, and social impacts through the Life Cycle based methods: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA). The analyses are performed on the Mondo Minerals bioleaching project, which aim is to recover nickel and cobalt from the Sotkamo and Vuonos mine tailings. The LCA demonstrates that the project contributes to the avoided production of nickel and cobalt concentrates from new resources, hence reducing several environmental impacts. The LCC analysis shows that the company’s main costs are linked to the bioleaching process, caused by electricity consumption and the chemicals used. The SLCA analyses the impacts on three main stakeholder categories: workers, local community, and society. The results demonstrated that a fair salary (or the absence of it) impacts the workers the most, while the local community stakeholder category impacts are related to the access to material resources. The health and safety category is the most impacted category for the society stakeholder. The environmental and economic analyses demonstrate that the recovery of mine tailings may represents a good opportunity for mine companies both to reduce the environmental impacts linked to mine tailings and to increase the profitability. In particular, the project helps reduce the amounts of metals extracted from new resources and demonstrates that the use of the bioleaching technology for the extraction of metals can be economically profitable.

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Andersson, Jenny. "Environmental Impacts of Contaminated Site Remediation : a Comparision of two Life Cycle Assessments." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Thematic Studies, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-1931.

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The decision process of which technique to choose for remediation of contaminated sites has traditionally focused on the clean up level, the time required and the economical resources. The environmental costs of the remediation are seldom taken into consideration. With a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) it is possible to receive an overall picture of the environmental impacts caused by a remediation technique. In this thesis a comparison of two LCA methods has been made. The methods are named REC and Uva and are used in the Netherlands and Germany. Two remediation techniques, the adsorption technique and the bioremediation technique, were compared and data from a discontinued petrol station were used. The output from the REC method indicated that the adsorption technique causes more environmental costs then the bioremediation technique. The main reason is because the adsorption technique consumes more groundwater and energy. The UvA method presented a different result. According to this method the bioremediation technique causes more environmental costs. This is because the bioremediation technique consumes more energy and causes more emissions. The main reasons of the difference between the REC and the UvA methods are that they use diverse ways to calculate the consumption of energy, have different system boundaries and consider different impact categories. A conclusion of the present study is that a decision process of which remediation technique to use at a contaminated site could be dependent on which method is used as a decision support tool.

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Grilli, Piero. "Environmental impacts of circular scenarios for the textile industry : A planetary boundaries-based life cycle assessment of cotton t-shirt." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-194682.

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Planetary Boundaries (PB) and Circular Economy (CE) are becoming the paradigm for sustainability. There is an increasing interest to operationalise PB into a framework for businesses to maximise profitability within environmental limits. The context of the cotton textile industry makes a good setting for understanding the casual chain of connections between the socio-economic system expressed by extensive global supply chain of cotton, and its ecological interconnection with the Earth’s system that is put under pressure. For this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) is recognised as a suitable approach for measuring the linkages between those two systems. Results show that among all phases of the life cycle of a cotton t-shirt, the usage phase is the most impacting for most of environmental indicators, followed by the manufacturing and farming phase. Production or extraction of raw material as elements considered upstream in the supply chain are the predominant cause of impacts in this case study. Increasing circularity of the system yields to an improvement in environmental performance. However, the system remains largely unsustainable when taking into account the state of the Earth’s system, through the PB. When assessing sustainability through LCA, ecological references like PB, must be considered to understand absolute environmental sustainability a product system. This will reveal whether less impacting options in the system, are still deteriorating a state of the environment as a part of the Earth’s system, which needs to be the area of protection. In conclusion, linking planetary boundaries to life cycle assessment can help assess the absolute environmental sustainability, as opposed to relative sustainability, of a production system. Combining an assessment of the state of the environment (safe, critical/uncertain, at risk), and the assessment of environmental hotspots of the system under scrutiny, will determine where priority for goals and actions of improvements for environmental sustainability needs most attention.

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Ahmed, Shehzad, Marcos H. K. Conradt, and Valeria De Fusco Pereira. "Alternative Fuels for Transportation : A Sustainability Assessment of Technologies within an International Energy Agency Scenario." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Avdelningen för maskinteknik, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-3628.

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Transport sector is an essential driver of economic development and growth, and at the same time, one of the biggest contributors to climate change, responsible for almost a quarter of the global carbon dioxide emissions. The sector is 95 percent dependent on fossil fuels. International Energy Agency (IEA) scenarios present different mixes of fuels to decrease both dependence on fossil fuels and emissions, leading to a more sustainable future. The main alternative fuels proposed in the Blue map scenario, presented in the Energy Technologies Perspective 2008, were hydrogen and second-generation ethanol. An assessment of these fuels was made using the tools SLCA (Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment) and SWOT Analysis. A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) is the background used to guide the assessment and to help structure the results and conclusions. The results aim to alert the transport sector stakeholders about the sustainability gaps of the scenario, so decisions can be made to lead society towards a sustainable future.

Phone number 0708293568

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Moberg, Åsa. "Assessment of media and communication from a sustainability perspective." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-12502.

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This thesis aims to assess potential environmental impacts of media and communication and to contribute to the development of methods for sustainability assessment. Although the main focus is on printed and electronic media products and environmental impacts, a broader sector analysis is also included and social aspects are discussed. The thesis provides a review of different environmental assessment tools in order to better understand their relationships and the appropriateness of different tools in different situations. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to assess printed and electronic versions of newspapers, books and invoices. Results of the screening LCAs of newspapers and books indicate that when comparing printed and electronic versions there are benefits and drawbacks for both. For news and books read on e-reading devices with energy efficient e-ink screens, the main environmental impacts in the studies stemmed from the production of the device and partly from disposal, with the latter having the potential to reduce some environmental impacts through recycling of materials. However, there are data gaps regarding the production of the e-reading devices, most notably for the e-ink screen and the waste management of obsolete e-reading devices. Existing data on internet energy use are uncertain. The potential impacts from a hypothetical total change from paper invoices to electronic invoices in Sweden were assessed through a screening consequential LCA regarding greenhouse gas emissions and cumulative energy demand. The results indicate that emissions and energy demand could decrease as a result of a change. The screening LCAs performed indicate that users’ practices could substantially influence the environmental impacts. Key factors which can influence results and comparisons of printed and electronic media products are total use of electronic devices, total use of printed media, amount and type of paper, energy use of electronic devices, potential printing of electronic media, electricity mix, and the system boundaries set for the assessments. To get a wider perspective, a sector study of the ICT sector and media sector concerning global greenhouse gas emissions and operational electricity use was performed. It was estimated that the contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions in 2007 was roughly 1-2 % for each sector. To assess media and communication products from a sustainability perspective, social aspects should also be covered. The author participated in an international project group on social aspects and LCA, one outcome from which was guidelines for social LCA (S-LCA). In addition to providing guidance for S-LCA, another important role of the guidelines is to facilitate discussions, criticism and proposals for improvement and development of the methodology being developed. The LCA and sector studies in this thesis are limited to direct and to some extent indirect environmental impacts. Further studies of the environmental impacts of more long-term changes in practices and potential structural changes, as well as potential social impacts, could provide important additional insights. This could increase the possibility of facilitating sustainable practices related to ICT and media.
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Erlandsson, Lars-Åke. "Rättvist trä : Livscykelanalys av träprodukter ur ett socialt hållbarhetsperspektiv." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för skog och träteknik (SOT), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-85989.

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The purpose of the present degree project was to investigate the possibilities of assessing social sustainability and, on this basis, to carry out an equality analysis of wood as a construction material. The latter part of the purpose was met by carrying out social life cycle assessments focusing on gender equality: one for wood as anengineering material and one for house with wooden frame. The result was presented as a gender index which indicated the proportion of the work carried out by women. To gain more knowledge about wood as an engineering material a complete social life cycle assessment is necessary. A complete social life cycle analysis should not be reduced to a single measurement number by merging different effect categories of social sustainability. The conclusion in the report was that such an analysis is better to present in so-called polar diagrams where each individual impact category can be distinguished, but not necessarily all indicators. The method used to assess gender equality can be used to assess other impact categories.

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Prouty, Christine M. "Socioeconomic Factors' and Water Source Features' Effect on Household Water Supply Choices in Uganda and the Associated Environmental Impacts." Scholar Commons, 2013. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4749.

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Over the last twenty years or more, Uganda has benefitted from significant strides in water and sanitation initiated by the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. While the rapid progress towards development has been vastly beneficial, it is also important that it does not occur at the expense of the environment. The environmental impacts of these water sources must be evaluated and understood. However, to develop a robust understanding of the impact requires inclusion of the community members who use these sources and their perceptions of them. Consequently, the goal of this research is to investigate the interrelationships between socioeconomic factors, water source features, and household water source and treatment choices, along with the associated environmental impacts of those choices. This research focuses on two villages in Wakiso District, Uganda--Nalugala and Kitala and includes: (1) development and implementation of a country-specific survey of 200 households to gain qualitative and quantitative accounts of socioeconomic factors (e.g., education, gender of the head of household, number of household members), water source features (cost, convenience, quality, quantity of water) and community members' water supply choices; (2) statistical analysis to investigate any correlation between socioeconomic factors, water source features and household source choice; and (3) a life cycle assessment of each water source and treatment method used in the surveyed communities to highlight their associated environmental impacts. Based on statistical findings, the water source features which are considered most significant to impacting household choice are convenience, visual water quality (turbidity), and cost. When inspecting socioeconomic factors using the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), no significant correlation was determined between the PPI levels and source choice. Consequently, the PPI was disaggregated to further analyze any significant correlations between socioeconomic indicators in the survey (social, economic, and educational) and water source choice. Three factors (i.e. gender of head of household, number of household members, and construction material of the house's external walls) were significantly correlated with the household's choice for their water source. The combination of qualitative and quantitative survey data underscores the disconnection between community members' perceptions of water quality and the actual, laboratory-tested data. This notion (perception vs. reality) asserts itself because the treatment techniques that respondents use for local sources are based on their perceived ideas of water quality. The techniques sometimes contradict the theoretical treatment methods (based on water quality tests) needed to raise a source's water to potable standards. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted on each source and (1) the treatment methods community members most frequently used in comparison to (2) the theoretical treatment methods which would be necessary to raise each source to potable standards. Tap water was found to have the highest environmental impact based on actual community practices. Although it was tested to meet drinking water standards, community members boiled it, increasing its impacts in the categories of land use and global warming. On the other hand, rainwater and surface water had the highest impacts in the same categories (global warming and land use) based on the theoretical treatment which is required for the source water to be potable. The impact of the various fuel sources used to treat water by boiling was also evaluated. The greatest impact was for the use of propane gas followed by charcoal.

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Wiik, Marianne, and Mikaela Sahlin. "Life Cycle Assessment : Life cycle assessment of a high speed centrifugal separator." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-32798.

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The main objective is to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) on a hot milk high-speed centrifugal separator (HMRPX 918-HGV-74C, product number 881275 01 01. The purpose of a life cycle assessment (LCA) is to provide a picture of a product’s total environmental impact during its lifecycle. The study is carried out according to ISO 14 040, i.e. all methods, data and assumptions are accounted for in order to make an external review possible. An LCA could provide the basis for an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). The LCA clearly shows that the main environmental impact of the separator is caused by CIP and electricity used during operation. The major part of the impact from the CIP chemicals is due to the energy needed for their manufacture. Fossil fuels account for most of the impact for both operation and manufacture of chemicals. Therefore customers should be encouraged to use environmentally friendly electricity and chemicals, such as renewable energy sources and sodium hydroxide made with membrane technology. It is also important to use as little as possible of cleaning agents and make sure that waste is treated properly.
www.ima.kth.se

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Demade, Maxime. "Analyse sociale de cycles de vie : les cycles de vie des représentations paysagères de l'éolien." Thesis, Bordeaux 3, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018BOR30047/document.

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L’utilisation croissante du vocable de la transition dans le débat public contribue à l’émergence de nouvelles méthodes de recherche dont les géographes commencent à se saisir. La transition invite à réfléchir dans un cadre d’action nouveau. Appliquée au domaine des énergies, elle rencontre le géographe dans ses interprétations des dynamiques spatiales. Ce cadre spatio-temporel inédit, où sont introduites les notions de territorialisation de l’énergie et de réversibilité, constitue une opportunité pour le géographe de penser ces enjeux nouveaux selon des approches du couple espace-temps réinterprétées. Dans ce contexte, la thèse vise à comprendre et à analyser les mécanismes socio-spatiaux mis à l’épreuve par le développement des énergies renouvelables, et plus particulièrement des éoliennes. La spécificité de la démarche réside dans une traduction géographique de l’Analyse de Cycle de Vie. Pour ce faire, la thèse réinvestit le concept de paysage dans son interprétation dynamique. Cependant, l’analyse de cycle de vie nous invite à repenser la dynamique paysagère selon la notion d’événement. La thèse interroge l’arrivée d’un projet éolien comme un événement et s’intéresse à ses modes de surgissement, les déstabilisations socio-spatiales induites et les mécanismes de régulation entrepris par les individus. L’objectif de la recherche est d’expérimenter la conduite d’une Analyse sociale de Cycle de Vie des représentations paysagères de l’éolien. L’ambition se voit confrontée à une contrainte majeure, celle du temps. Le temps imparti de la thèse rencontre les temps politiques et les temps de l’expérience. Événements construits ou événement subis, ils impactent différemment les représentations socio-spatiales selon des échelles de temps variables. L’intention d’une recherche diachronique nous enjoint à réfléchir aux enjeux épistémologiques et méthodologiques stimulants de l’élaboration d‘un corpus particulier où peuvent être analysées conjointement des données de natures et de sources diverses. L’analyse est menée sur les discours et particulièrement sur les références spatiales et les sensibilités des individus face à l’arrivée d’éoliennes sur un territoire. La thèse retrace les étapes des cycles de vie de l’événement-éolien traduites et interprétées selon les contextes de terrains
The increasing use of the transition terms in the public debate contributes to the emergence of new research methods whom geographers begin to apprehend. Transition invites to consider a new action framework. In the matter of energy domain, the transition concept involves geographers in their socio-spatial interpretations. This new spatiotemporal frame, where are introduced the notions of territorialisation of the energy and the reversibility, provides an opportunity to consider these issues from a reinterpretation of the space-time couple. In this context, the thesis aims in understanding and analyzing of socio-spatial mechanisms tested by the renewable energies development, especially wind turbines. The specificity of this approach may be a geographical rendition of the Life Cycle Assessment method. For this purpose, the thesis requires the concept of landscape in its dynamic meaning. However, the life cycle assessment invites us to reshape the idea of landscape dynamics according to the notion of event. The thesis explores the arrival of a wind turbines project as an event and it focus on its sudden emergence, the induced socio-spatial destabilizations and the individual and social adaptations. The purpose of this research is to investigate a Social Life Cycle Assessment of the landscape representations of the wind energy. This ambition faces a time constraint. The allowed time of a PhD thesis faces political times and the times of the experience. Created events or suffered events impact the socio-spatial representations differently and over various timescales. Considering a diachronic study brings about rethinking the epistemological and methodological issues raised by a corpus which gathers several types of data, from different sources and which would be analyzed together. The analysis is led on discourses and especially on spatial textual references along with the individual sensibilities revealed when a wind turbines project is initiated on territory. The thesis tracks the life cycle steps of windpower-events that we interpret according to the socio-spatial context of the study terrains

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Tucker, Dagny. "Mainstreaming Culture(s) of Sustainability: The Civic Society, Business and Design Imperative." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Jaume I, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/420860.

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This work identifies the gap between and – describes the characteristics of – the necessary link between peace and sustainability. Through the lens of the following constructs; a) political-economic and civic society; b) historical context and contemporary forces behind ingrained ideologies of capitalism and consumption; c) current and emerging business models and d) the imperatives of climate change, this work develops insights and tests strategies for processes through which well-being economies and sustainable culture(s) are more fully able to emerge in support long-term positive peace.
Este trabajo identifica la brecha entre y - describe las características de - el vínculo necesario entre paz y sostenibilidad. A través de la lente de las siguientes construcciones; Político-económico Y la sociedad cívica; El contexto histórico y las fuerzas contemporáneas detrás de las ideologías arraigadas del capitalismo Y el consumo; Modelos empresariales actuales y emergentes y los imperativos del cambio climático, este trabajo desarrolla ideas y prueba estrategias para procesos a través de los cuales las economías y la (s) cultura (s) sostenible (es) son más capaces de emerger en apoyo de una paz positiva a largo plazo.

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Naughton, Colleen Claire. "Modeling Food Security, Energy, and Climate and Cultural Impacts of a Process: the Case Study of Shea Butter in Sub-Saharan Africa." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6000.

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Millions of people in the world, particularly women and people in sub-Saharan Africa, suffer from hunger and poverty. Three of the major 2015-2030 United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to eliminate hunger through food security and sustainable agriculture, eradicate poverty, and achieve gender equality through women’s empowerment. Shea trees and their associated fruit and butter can play a major role in each of these three SDGs for women and their families throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Shea trees are located over a wide expanse stretching more than 5,000 kilometers across over eighteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These trees produce fruit that encase a kernel within a nut from which shea butter can be extracted. Shea butter production is unique in that it is predominately controlled by women and they utilize the profits they earn from selling the nuts or butter for items to support their families such as purchasing grain for depleted stores during the hungry season and paying for children’s school fees or clothing. Shea butter is also cited as a sustainable oil compared to other world oils such as peanut, palm, soybean, or cocoa butter which require heavy land use land change and fertilization while shea trees often grow in existing fields or fallows without fertilization, application of pesticides, or clear cutting of forests. However, shea butter production is still human and material energy intensive, requiring substantial amounts of firewood to heat and dry the shea nuts and the shea tree distribution and associated shea butter production and role in African livelihoods is under threat from the increasing effects of globalization and climate change. Thus, this dissertation fills in important research gaps in the existing literature on shea (Vitellaria paradox and nilotica) and sustainable development by developing and implementing methods to model food security, energy, and climate and cultural impacts of a process using shea butter production as a case study. To begin, the first comprehensive shea tree land suitability model to estimate potential shea production and amount of women collectors was created using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that combined eight parameters: land use, temperature, precipitation, elevation, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), soil-type and soil-drainage. Even under conservative estimates, the model produced an extensive shea tree suitability area of 3.4 million square kilometers with 1.8 billion trees in 23 countries and over 18 million women collectors, encompassing a total population of 112 million. Next, this dissertation improved the global application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a tool used to measure the entire environmental impacts of a process from extraction of materials through end-of-life stages, by utilizing a hybrid-LCA methodology that incorporated human energy and embodied energy and emissions from firewood of five traditional and improved shea butter production processes common throughout West Africa. When the LCA results of shea butter production were compared to other LCA studies of world oils, shea butter performed better in abiotic depletion and human toxicity impact categories as well as global warming potential when indirect land use land change was considered. Nevertheless, a large amount of human and firewood embodied energy and emissions were involved in shea butter production. However, mechanization of certain production steps was found to significantly reduce human energy without increasing total embodied energy. Furthermore, improved cookstoves modeled in this dissertation could reduce global warming potential, human toxicity, and embodied energy by 77-78%, 15-83%, and 52% respectively. These results would not have been captured in traditional LCA methodology and this was the first study to compare process-based and economic input-output LCAs in a developing country with very different reliance on and accessibility to resources than developed countries. Finally, an in-depth ethnographic study was conducted in this dissertation, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand the importance of shea butter to African’s livelihoods in the context of food security and climate change. Shea butter was found to have a vital role in the maintenance and development of social bonds between female friends and family as well as an integral role in all religious and traditional ceremonies including a special shea ceremony. Additionally, 93% of survey respondents agreed there has been a decrease in shea fruit yields during their life time, 80% of which believed this was attributed to decreased rainfall. Moreover, 83% of 181 shea trees sampled were found to have an invasive vine species, drying out and/or have large worms. Therefore, recommendations derived from this dissertation for development agencies, governments and industry include further research on and promotion of: parkland management, preservation, and regeneration as well as reduction in the amount of human energy and firewood in shea butter production by providing better access of women collectors to mechanization, improved cookstoves, and transportation (i.e. donkey carts and bicycles) for harvesting shea fruit. Overall the research developed in this dissertation contributed significantly to the existing literature on shea and developed methods and a framework that has applications for achievement of the UN’s SDGs for 2030 particularly to obtain food security.

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Dai, Dan, and Xiuying Tang. "Transitioning towards sustainable management of building materials in China." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Avdelningen för maskinteknik, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-2666.

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The purpose of this research is to examine how The Natural Step Framework, combined with Life Cycle Assessment and Ecological Footprint could help to manage the sustainability challenges of construction materials in China and to consider how these tools and concepts might inform each other in combination. Based on a literature review regarding the current reality of building materials in China and industry experience with use of existing sustainability concepts and tools, we build a conceptual model to integrate the three above concepts and attempt to analyse how they could work better together in the management of a sustainable transition. We then analyse the likely strengths and limitations of such an integrated model and finally use this to inform a vision of a sustainable future for building materials, discussing how the model may help China move towards sustainability.

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Saha, Polin, Salman Ahmad, Ashfaq Abbasi, and Masood Khan. "Environmental Management Systems and Sustainability : Integrating Sustainability in Environmental Management Systems." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sektionen för ingenjörsvetenskap, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-3228.

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To check rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions, many management tools are being used by different industries. In order to address environmental issues the corporate sector has seen a drastic increase in the use of environmental management systems. There is strong need to check how these environmental management systems are rendering environmental management services. Research shows that environmental management systems are mistakenly expected to prescribe technical and environmental objectives. Without describing what goals an organization must achieve, they lay out a system for management of numerous environmental obligations. Hence environmental management systems are not strategic; they tend to reactively fix issues contingent upon their occurrence and may miss opportunities to avoid problems before they occur. Further, environmental management itself is seen in isolation of a socio-ecological context, which makes environmental management lose ground and operate in a virtual vacuum. Mostly environmental management is identified as an ’agenda’ which runs counter to the overall development of an organization. Provided, environmental management systems can be integrated with basic principles of sustainable development these management systems can be utilized as a launching pad to move organizations towards sustainability. Built to render the administrative services only through a mechanism of self regulation and continuous improvement, these management systems can be used to deliver sustainable product planning. The present study illustrates the possibilities for integration of sustainability objectives into environmental management systems. In our effort to integrate sustainability in environment management systems extensive literature reviews, interviews and a case study (Hammarplast AB) have been used. For the analysis of the current reality, a framework for strategic sustainable development and methods incorporating “backcasting from principles of sustainability” – i.e. templates for sustainable product development and strategic life cycle management – has been used. The use of tools not only illustrates contemporary sustainability gaps but also gives a concrete set of guidance to integrate sustainability in environmental management systems.

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Riot, Jeanne. "Le management de l’environnement à travers ses instruments : De la diffusion d’outils à la construction de dynamiques d’action collective pour l’innovation environnementale." Thesis, Paris, ENMP, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013ENMP0085/document.

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La réduction des impacts environnementaux des entreprises s'appuie notamment sur de nombreux instruments d'évaluation environnementale (ACV, Bilan Carbone, etc.) censés guider leurs actions. Or, malgré leur importante diffusion, la question de leur performativité, c'est-à-dire de leur capacité à transformer effectivement les pratiques managériales, reste posée. Autrement dit, nombre de ces outils d'évaluation ne deviennent pas ipso facto des instruments de gestion. Dans les travaux en ingénierie de l'environnement, les difficultés d'appropriation des instruments d'évaluation sont associées aux propriétés intrinsèques de ces outils (ergonomie, robustesse des modèles scientifiques) et font l'objet d'un travail de révision permanente. Dans cette thèse, nous explorons les dimensions organisationnelles et cognitives de cette appropriation, en particulier l'émergence de communautés épistémiques et pratiques structurées autour des instruments et qui constituent le milieu réceptif à leur déploiement.Issue d'un travail en CIFRE dans un cabinet de conseil en environnement, cette thèse étudie, à partir de six cas empiriques, les processus et les conditions dans lesquels les instruments enclenchent des dynamiques d'action collective. Au-delà du niveau élémentaire des instruments, nous étudions les dispositifs qui sont mis en œuvre dans le cours d'actions collectives ainsi que leurs effets inattendus. La thèse met en évidence l'existence de dispositifs plus ou moins élaborés qui influent sur les capacités d'apprentissage des entreprises. La caractérisation de ces dispositifs permet d'identifier de nouvelles figures d'acteurs et des communautés intermédiaires, plus ou moins intégrées à l'entreprise, jouant un rôle clé dans les dynamiques d'action collective
Firms reduce their environmental impacts thanks to a series of environmental assessment tools such as LCA and Bilan Carbone (the latter being a specific form of carbon footprint assessment tool). which are supposed to act as decision support tools. However, even if these tools are widely spread among companies, the question of their performativity, or the way they effectively change managerial practice, remains. In other words several of these assessment tools do not become ipso facto management instruments. Research on environmental sciences link the difficulties of assessment tools appropriation to the tools' inherent properties (ergonomics, scientific models' robustness) and are subject to a to constant revision work. In this thesis, we explore the organisational and cognitive dimensions of this appropriation; in particular the emergence of epistemic and practice communities structured around the instruments, which constitute a receptive environment for their deployment.Based on a field work in an environmental consultancy agency, this thesis examines for six empirical case studies the process and the conditions under which the instruments trigger a sustained collective action. Beyond the basic instrument level, we study the features that are implemented in the course of collective actions and their unexpected effects. This research project highlights the existence of a variety elaborate devices, which affect firms learning capabilities. The characterisation of these devices helps identifying new managerial figures and intermediate communities, integrated to a greater or lesser extent to the company, playing a key role in the dynamics of collective action

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Olivier, Hervé-Bazin, Iacovino Carlo, and Ren Hanzi. "Applying the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development to Water management." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Avdelningen för maskinteknik, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-3817.

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A strategic management of water is integral for any society aiming at moving towards sustainability. This thesis aims to provide a common understanding of how water management should be considered within sustainability constraints, using ‘backcasting’ from basic sustainability principles as a compass. With a common language, a constructive dialogue is then possible to unify all stakeholders to move together towards sustainability. To answer the research question “How can an interaction with water stakeholders be strategically developed to progress toward the service of water in a sustainable society”, a methodology based on Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment, the Template for Sustainable Product Development and Multi-Stakeholder Platforms has been utilised within one domestic and one industrial water user case study in Blekinge, Southern Sweden. In this locality, water is regarded as abundant in volume. Yet it was revealed that what is consumed by society is not water as such; but the purity of water. Within this context, opportunities to move towards sustainability have arisen and the case study organizations were able to utilise improvements in reporting and operations. Economic activity such as new infrastructure, pollutant trading schemes and product accreditation are amongst the many concepts identified as potential steps towards the service of water in a sustainable society.

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Moraga, Gustavo Longaray. "Avaliação do ciclo de vida e simulação termoenergética em unidade habitacional unifamiliar do Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/169822.

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Os edifícios são responsáveis por importantes impactos ambientais, principalmente, pelo seu longo ciclo de vida. Neste sentido, as edificações são potenciais redutoras de danos ambientais, já que as decisões sobre seu impacto podem ser feitas em projeto. No Brasil, o Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida (PMCMV) produziu mais de dois milhões de unidades de habitação, sendo um importante gerador de impactos. Foram realizadas pesquisas avaliando impactos sociais, urbanísticos e arquitetônicos do PMCMV, entretanto ainda existe escassez de estudos avaliando os impactos ambientais dessas edificações. Esta pesquisa utiliza a metodologia de Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV) para quantificar os impactos ambientais potenciais de uma casa do PMCMV. A metodologia considera três fases, com referência no estudo de caso de uma casa térrea situada na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre (sul do Brasil). A Fase 1 quantifica o uso de energia através de simulação termoenergética, testando envoltórias alternativas em comparação à original. A Fase 2 realiza a ACV preliminar, para verificar as contribuições de impacto mais relevantes em dois modelos selecionados. A Fase 3 desenvolve a ACV final com dados adaptados para a realidade brasileira. Os resultados demonstram que os impactos operacionais da edificação são os mais importantes ao longo do ciclo de vida de 50 anos, para as duas alternativas de envoltória avaliadas. Mesmo assim, os requerimentos incorporados da edificação podem representar impactos importantes, ultrapassando 40% em categorias como aquecimento global e depleção da camada de ozônio. O transporte de materiais de construção e matérias primas é um dos maiores causadores dos impactos incorporados. Além desse, a recorrência de manutenções mostra-se importante, assim como a durabilidade dos materiais de construção. A aplicação da ferramenta de ACV confirma sua importância como instrumento para a tomada de decisão, identificando processos mais relevantes na qualificação ambiental de edificações.
Buildings are responsible for expressive environmental impacts, especially for its long life-cycle. In fact, buildings are important potential reducers of environmental damages, because decisions concerning its future impacts can be made at design stage. In Brazil, “My House My Life” program (MHMLP) produced more than two million dwellings, generating significant impacts. Some of MHMLP impacts were already addressed, such as social, urban and architectural, however there is a lack on environmental impacts studies focused on these buildings. This research applies Life Cycle Assessment method to quantify potential environmental impacts of a MHMLP dwelling. Methodology considered three phases, using as reference the case study of a single-story house located at the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre (southern Brazil). Phase 1 quantifies energy use through thermal dynamic simulations, considering different encloses types in comparison to the original option. Phase 2 applies streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework to evaluate the most important contributions to the environmental impacts of the two previously selected models. In phase 3, LCA was developed considering data regionalization and adaptation to the Brazilian context. Results show that operational impacts are the most important ones on the 50 years dwelling life cycle, for both evaluated alternatives. Nevertheless, embodied impacts can represent more than 40% of total global warming and ozone depletion potential impacts. Transportation of raw and construction materials is one of the most important contributors to embodied impacts. Furthermore, recurrent embodied impacts are important, as well as construction materials durability. LCA application validates its importance as a framework to support decision-making, identifying hotspots on buildings environmental qualification.

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Wärmark, Katarina. "Assessment of water footprint for civil construction projects." Thesis, Institutionen för vatten och miljö, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-257147.

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Water is an irreplaceable resource and the strain on it is getting tougher. Around 40 per cent of the water withdrawn in Europe is for industrial use. With a growing population and an increased demand for food and energy per capita, the demand and pressure on our water resources will increase. CEEQUAL is a rating scheme for the civil construction industry and has raised the water footprint as an important sustainability issue to consider when choosing building materials. There is however little knowledge within the industry of how to do this. This paper offers information regarding available water footprint tools and gives a practical example using two of the most developed methods; the Water Footprint Network (WFN) method and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The case study showed that the results are very dependent on which method one chooses. The LCA method gives a bigger footprint since it is more inclusive than the WFN method. There are however some similarities when looking at which of the materials that are high-risk and low-risk materials when it comes to freshwater footprint. Among the studied products, steel was the material that uses and consumes the most water per kilogram, and could also be imported from water scarce areas. Fill material had a low water consumption and use per kilogram, but the huge amount used in the project makes it the material that used and consumed most water in total. Fill material is most often produced locally because of the large amount used, and was therefore not as significant when weighting the results by a water stress index. Calculating a water footprint can be used as a part of declaring the environmental performance of a project by including it in an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), a sustainability report or by setting up an Environmental Profit and Loss (E P&L) account for water. It can also be used to identify and assess risks related to water use.
Färskvatten är en begränsad, men förnybar resurs som på grund av sina unika egenskaper saknar substitut i många processer och användningsområden. Resursen är ojämnt fördelad över världen och många lever idag i vattenstressade regioner. I Europa står industrisektorn för cirka 40 procent av det totala vattenuttaget. Med en växande befolkning och ökad efterfrågan på mat och energi per capita kommer konkurrensen om vattenresurserna att bli hårdare. Vi måste därför anpassa oss efter denna verklighet och framtid och börja använda våra färskvattenresurser mer effektivt. Certifieringssystemet CEEQUAL har lyft vattenavtryck för byggprodukter som en viktig fråga vid val av material. Inom branschen vet man i dagsläget inte hur man ska hantera den frågan och utgångspunkten för denna rapport är att ge vägledning bland de metoder som finns tillgängliga idag samt att ge ett praktiskt exempel på två av de mest utvecklade metoderna, Water Footprint Network (WFN) metoden och livscykelanalys (LCA). Som ett praktiskt exempel utfördes en fallstudie som visade att resultatet av en vattenavtrycksanalys beror väldigt mycket på vilken metod som väljs, vilket innebär att harmonisering inom branschen är viktigt. LCA-metoden ger ett större avtryck än WFNmetoden då metoden inkluderar fler typer av vattenanvändning. Av de studerade materialen visade sig stål vara det som både använder och förbrukar mest vatten per kilogram. Det är också ett material som i betydande grad importeras från regioner som kan vara vattenstressade. Fyllnadsmaterial var ett av materialen med lägst vattenavtryck per kilogram, men då det används i så stora mängder i anläggningsprojekt är det detta material som bidrar med störst totalt vattenavtryck. På grund av den stora mängd som används utvinns fyllnadsmaterial dock oftast lokalt. Detta gör att vattenavtryckets signifikans minskar när det viktas med ett vattenstressindex, då det generellt finns gott om vatten i Sverige. Vattenavtryck kan användas till deklaration av potentiell påverkan på vattenresurser genom att inkludera resultatet i en miljövarudeklaration eller hållbarhetsrapport. Det kan även användas i ett naturkapitalkonto (E P&L) för vatten eller för att identifiera risker kopplade till vattenanvändning samt ge vägledning vid materialval och val av leverantör.

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Chai, Yi, and Zhenqing Gao. "Product-Service System Innovation in Urban Mining-A case study with Volvo CE." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för maskinteknik, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-5471.

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Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of construction machines. Now they want to access a sustainability-focused mining field – urban mining. This study is to find a solution helping Volvo CE quickly access to urban mining with a Product-Service System (PSS) development concept. To do this, the authors completed surveys and several interviews with construction companies, to understand the user and customer needs. The authors also go through a functional analysis on a new prototype of their collaboration partner - Stanford University. The result of this thesis is a PSS concept for urban mining, developed with machine selection guidelines combined with Life Cycle Assessment, and Quality Function Deployment. Recommendations include: 1) Improve the communication between Volvo CE and their Customers. 2) Adding more visible services. 3) Adding multiple business solutions provide to customers. 4) Understanding relevant stakeholders in urban mining 5) Expand research on urban mining.

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Gustavsson, Jessica, and Anna Grunewald. "End-of-Life treatment of Radio Base Station transceivers in Europe, Japan and the USA : a Life Cycle Assessment study." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 1999. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-33040.

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The background to this study is increased efforts at Ericsson to evaluate the environmental impact of the products. Earlier Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies at Ericsson have mainly focused on the production- and use phases, whereas the End-of-Life (EoL) phase has not been thoroughly considered. This, along with the fact that legislation on producer responsibility for electronics is anticipated in a number ofcountries around the world, has made research in the environmental impact of the EoLphase increasingly important. The main objectives of this study were: To develop scenarios for the most likely EoLtreatment of Radio Base Station transceivers in the three geographic areas Europe, Japanand the USA, to evaluate the environmental impacts of these scenarios by using the LCAmethodology, and finally, to compare the environmental impacts of the two options for EoL treatment of a Radio Base Station transceiver; dismantling and shredding without former dismantling. Initially, two transceivers were sent out for recycling trials, one to the Japanese recycling company Total Environmental Recycling Management and another to the American recycling company United Recycling Industries Inc. Also, contacts were established with the recycling companies MIREC B.V. in the Netherlands and Ragn-Sells Elektronikåtervinning AB in Sweden. Out of the results from the recycling trials and the contacts with MIREC and Ragn-Sells, four different scenarios were developed. These scenarios all start with manual dismantling. Furthermore, the Swedish recycling companyAB Arv Andersson was contacted and an additional scenario based on shredding of an entire transceiver without former dismantling was developed. It shall be noted that the shredding scenario is a hypothetical scenario, based on the assumption that the transceiver does not contain any beryllium oxide components, which otherwise often require the transceiver to be dismantled. The five EoL treatment scenarios discussed above were combined with assumptions on the take-back logistics for discarded transceivers and totally nine different EoL scenarios were developed. Finally, the environmental impacts of these nine scenarios were evaluated by using the LCA methodology, and the following final conclusions were drawn: • The environmental impact due to transportation is relatively large compared to theimpact of other processes involved in the End-of-Life phase of a transceiver. • In most cases, aeroplane transportation causes several times larger environmental impact per tonkilometre than truck transportation does. • It appears that, from an environmental point of view, shredding of an entire transceiver without former dismantling is a just as good alternative for End-of-Lifetreatment of a transceiver as a recycling process starting with dismantling.
Denna studie har sin bakgrund i ökade satsningar inom Ericsson att utvärderaprodukternas miljöpåverkan. Tidigare livscykelanalyser (LCA) hos Ericsson harhuvudsakligen fokuserat på produktions- och användningsfaserna, medansluthanteringsfasen inte har studerats lika noggrant. Detta, samt det faktum attlagstiftning om producentansvar för elektronikskrot är på väg att införas i ett flertalländer i världen, har ökat betydelsen av forskning om sluthanteringsfasens miljöpåverkan. Denna studies huvudsakliga syften var: Att utveckla scenarier för den mest troligasluthanteringen av transceivrar för radiobasstationer i de tre geografiska områdenaEuropa, Japan och USA, att utvärdera miljöpåverkan av dessa scenarier med hjälp avLCA metodiken, och slutligen, att jämföra miljöpåverkan av de två alternativamöjligheterna till sluthantering av transceivrar för radiobasstationer; demontering ochfragmentering utan föregående demontering. Inledningsvis skickades två transceivrar ut för provskrotning, en till det japanskaåtervinningsföretaget Total Environmental Recycling Management och en till detamerikanska återvinningsföretaget United Recycling Industries Inc. Kontakt togs ävenmed återvinningsföretagen MIREC B.V. i Holland och Ragn-Sells ElektronikåtervinningAB i Sverige. Utifrån resultaten av provskrotningarna och kontakterna med MIREC ochRagn-Sells utvecklades fyra olika scenarier. Samtliga dessa scenarier inleds med manuelldemontering. Dessutom kontaktades det svenska återvinningsföretaget AB ArvAndersson och ytterligare ett scenario baserat på fragmentering av en hel transceiver utanföregående demontering togs fram. Det skall betonas att fragmenteringsscenariot är etthypotetiskt scenario baserat på antagandet att transceivern inte innehåller någraberylliumoxidkomponenter, vilka annars ofta medför att transceivern måste demonteras. De fem ovanstående scenarierna för sluthantering av transceivrar kopplades ihop medantaganden om logistiken för återtagande av uttjänta transceivrar och totalt utveckladesnio olika scenarier. Slutligen utvärderades miljöpåverkan av dessa nio scenarier medhjälp av LCA metodiken och följande slutsatser drogs: • Miljöpåverkan orsakad av transporter är relativt stor i jämförelse med påverkanorsakad av andra processer som är involverade i en transceivers sluthanteringsfas. • Oftast orsakar flygtransporter flera gånger större miljöpåverkan per tonkilometer änlastbilstransporter gör. • Ur miljösynpunkt förefaller fragmentering av en hel transceiver, utan föregåendedemontering, vara ett lika bra alternativ för sluthantering av en transceiver som enåtervinningsprocess som börjar med demontering.

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NR 20140804

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Lindroth, Mikael. "Life cycle assessment of radiorelay systems : A comparative study on the environmental effectsof different transmission media." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 1999. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-32417.

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This degree project, Life cycle assessment of radio relay systems, was conducted at Telia AB, Telia Network Services AB, Farsta, and the section of Industrial Ecology of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool with which it is possible to calculate the environmental load from a product, material or service during all the phases in its life cycle. The results presented in this study are based on such an LCA. Radio relay is an alternative to optical fibre cables, but little information was available within Telia on the environmental impact from the use of radio relay systems as a transmission media. The goal of the project is to provide Telia with useful information regarding the systems involved and where and how the environment is affected by the use of the systems. Two types of radio links are looked at in this project: one high capacity, long hop radio link, and one low capacity radio link. The high capacity link is the Nera NL290, a Norwegian radio link system with an n+1 STM1 capacity. This system is of an older, bulky design. The second radio link in the study is the Ericsson Mini-link E. This radio link is one of the most common radio links on the market. Six scenarios, or cases, are the basis for the study: two Nera NL290 cases, two Mini-link E cases, and two optical fibre cable cases. For all systems, there is one worst case scenario, and one best case scenario. The best case scenarios are distinguished by having a higher capacity overall, and covers longer distances. The best case scenarios have the following properties - Product (distance between stations [km] (capacity [Mbps])): •Optical fibre cable (50 (2.5 Gbps)) •Nera NL290 radio link (50 km (310) •Ericsson Mini-link E radio link (30 ( 34 )) The worst case scenarios have the following properties: •Optical fibre cable (30 (155) •Nera NL290 radio link (30 (155 )) •Ericsson Mini-link E radio link (15 ( 42 )) Included in the study are production of materials constituting the systems, transports to and from building sites, manufacture of radio links, infrastructure, network elements, and station equipment. The results of the study are: •No clear difference can be seen between the use of radio links or buried optical fibre cables as a transmission media in regards to the environmental impact. •The environmental impact is mainly dependent on the capacity, and secondarily on the distance. •Optical fibre cables have one phase that is clearly more polluting than the res, and that is the actual work of burying the cable in the ground. •The Nera NL290 is a radio link system with a relatively high content of circuit boards in the construction. •For the Ericsson Mini-link E, there is no obvious phase that is more polluting than the rest, but the overall environmental load is high. •The operation, or use, of the different systems gives an almost negligible contribution to the total environmental load. Suggestions for improvement: •When planning new routes for optical fibre cables, the direction should be chosen so that as much as possible of the cable can be buried with ploughing. •For optical fibre cables, strive to build the cable together with other construction efforts. •Secure the cable installation for the long term. •For radio links, use existing infrastructure to as high degree as possible. •Build flexible systems that can handle additional capacity with upgrades. •When building new infrastructure for radio relay or mobile phone sites, endeavour to build the mast/tower on solid rock base. •The use of LED-type obstruction lights can
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Alfredsson, Eva. "Green consumption energy use and carbon dioxide emission." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Kulturgeografi, 2002. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-80.

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The aim of this thesis is to explore the quantitative potential to reduce energy requirements and CO2 emissions through changed patterns of consumption, given unchanged levels of consumption expenditure. The thesis question is analysed using a systems analysis approach which in this case means that life cycle assessment data on energy requirements and CO2 emissions related to household consumption are combined with a financial and behavioural analysis to make sure that the budget constraint is kept and that both the first and second order effects of adopting a green consumption pattern are analysed. The budget constraints are kept using a general linear model. By using marginal propensities to spend to direct the reallocation of saved or deficit money calculated utility is maintained as far as possible. Further, investigations explore the impact of individual household demographic characteristics and geographic context on household consumption patterns, energy requirements and CO2 emissions. The key result of this thesis is that changed household behaviour, choosing “green“ products and energy efficient technology will not make a big difference. What can be achieved in the short time perspective by adopting an almost completely green consumption pattern and energy efficient technology is a reduction of energy requirements by around 8% and CO2 emissions by around 13%. With a longer time perspective and further technological change that provides additional possibilities to move consumption patterns in a greener direction, the effect on energy requirements and CO2 emissions is still fairly small. By 2020, the potential to reduce energy requirements is around 13% and CO2 emissions around 25%. In the most extreme scenario (2050), the scope for reducing energy requirements is 17% and for CO2 emissions 30%. All these reductions will be outpaced by growth in income almost as soon as they are implemented. Of policy relevance the results reveal that very limited impact can be expected by a policy relying on greener consumption patterns, whether adopted voluntarily or as a result of incentives such as tax changes. Such a policy cannot achieve more than a small and temporary reduction to growth in energy requirements and CO2 emissions. It is also shown that, prescribing specific consumption patterns as a means of reducing energy requirements and CO2 emissions has to be done with care. This is illustrated by one of the experiments in which adopting a partly green consumption pattern, a green diet, in fact increased total energy requirements and CO2 emissions. This, and the results of all the other experiments show the importance of applying a systems approach. It demonstrates that life cycle data alone are irrelevant for assessing the total effects of adopting green consumption patterns. Further research on the potential to reduce energy requirements and CO2 emissions thus primarily needs to better capture system wide effects rather than to improve on, and fine tune the measurement of the energy requirements and CO2 emissions related to individual products.

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Roy, Axel. "From a complex to a simpler building product Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) : Focus on simplification of LCA conduct for electronic and electrical equipment." Thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-119851.

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Arvizu, Piña Víctor Alberto. "Las "Declaraciones Ambientales de Producto" como instrumento de mejora ambiental en el sector de la construcción en México : el sector de la vivienda como enfoque inicial." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/525837.

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The building sector environmental impact is specially important in emerging economies such as Mexico, due to the population increase and urban growth that they are currently facing. Due to the holistic approach of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), this tool has been widely accepted among the scientific community to evaluate and improve the products environmental performance from various sectors, such as building. However, their adaptation to this field requires taking into account some aspects that are not always addressed equally. This is often because a lack of a common methodological platform. Because of this, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are presented as an option that provides the same methodological platform for LCA studies, and moreover, promotes continuous environmental improvement through market competitiveness. Thus, the use of this ecolabel has increased in developed countries as one of the main instruments for the environmental assessment of building products. However, in addition to these products, would it be possible to implement EPDs as an environmental improvement tool, at the scale of an entire sector such as building? To what extent can emerging economies countries follow the EPD implementation strategy followed by developed countries? What chances would EPDs have in helping to meet the government's sustainability goals for housing sector, and what chances would companies have to implement this type of ecolabel? This work aims to answer these questions, in order to fulfill its main objective: to determine the possibilities and the influence of EPD implementation in Mexico's building sector environmental performance, according to the federal government goals for this area. To achieve this, first, a general approach describing the problem that originates this investigation is made. Then, a background and a general framework of the thesis topic are determined, as well the key factors for EPD development in building sector. With this as a reference, the respective analysis is done in the Mexican context, mainly with the two main stakeholders detected: government and private sector. Subsequently, two approaches of EPD implementation are presented: one top-down, considering the government as a promoter of this ecolabel, which analyzes the sustainability instruments and programs of housing sector, as well as the chances of EPDs to integrate to them; and another bottom-up, considering the business sector as executing agent and implementer of these ecolabels, which analyzes the chances that would eventually have companies to implement EPDs. Finally, the general conclusions are established. The analysis shows that the instruments and programs that seek sustainability for housing are compatible and complementary with EPDs, as well as EPDs have the chances to contribute to the fulfillment of the government's sustainability objectives. Although some barriers have been detected to EPDs implementation, it has been found that there is a widespread interest of Mexican companies in incorporating within their sustainability strategies the use of ecolabels in the materials they use. However, the cost of developing LCA studies, the lack of demand for products with environmental information, and the lack of understanding of EPDs usefulness, discourage companies from incorporating them. In spite of this, it is concluded that housing sector can be an adequate starting point for the EPD development in Mexico.
El sector de la construcción conlleva un impacto ambiental que es particularmente importante en economías emergentes como México, debido a la fase de crecimiento poblacional y urbano al que se enfrentan actualmente. Ante esto, el Análisis de Ciclo de Vida (ACV) es una herramienta que por su enfoque holístico, ha sido ampliamente aceptada entre la comunidad científica para evaluar y mejorar el desempeño ambiental de productos de diversos sectores, como el de la construcción. Sin embargo, su adaptación a este campo requiere de ciertas consideraciones que no siempre son abordadas de la misma manera, debido entre otras cosas, a la falta de una plataforma metodológica común. Por lo anterior, las Declaraciones Ambientales de Producto (DAP) se presentan como una opción que además de proveer una misma plataforma de cálculo para el ACV, propicia la mejora ambiental continua a través de la competitividad del mercado. Es así que el uso de este ecoetiquetado se ha incrementado en los países desarrollados, como uno de los principales instrumentos para la evaluación ambiental de los productos de construcción. Sin embargo, además de estos productos, ¿sería posible implementar las DAP como una herramienta de mejora ambiental, a escala de todo un sector como el de la construcción? ¿hasta qué punto los países de economías emergentes podrían seguir la estrategia de implementación de las DAP seguida por los países desarrollados? ¿qué potencial tendrían las DAP para coadyuvar en el cumplimiento de los objetivos de sostenibilidad que busca el gobierno para el sector de la vivienda, y cuál tendría la iniciativa privada para implementar este ecoetiquetado? Este trabajo pretende responder a estas preguntas, para cumplir así su objetivo principal: determinar las posibilidades y el impacto obtenido en el desempeño ambiental del sector de la construcción en México, que supondría la implementación de las DAP, de acuerdo con las metas y objetivos del gobierno federal en este rubro. Para lograr esto, primero se hace un planteamiento general donde se describe la problemática que da pie a esta investigación. Después se hace un análisis donde se describen los antecedentes y marco general del tema de tesis, donde se determinan los elementos que han sido clave para el desarrollo de las DAP en el sector de la construcción. Con esto como referencia, se hace el respectivo análisis en el contexto mexicano, principalmente, alrededor de los dos principales actores involucrados: gobierno e iniciativa privada. Posteriormente, se hace una propuesta donde se plantean dos enfoques de implementación de las DAP: uno top-down, considerando al gobierno como agente promotor de este ecoetiquetado, donde se analizan los instrumentos y programas de sostenibilidad en torno al sector, así como las posibilidades de las DAP de coadyuvar en su cumplimiento; y otro bottom-up, considerando al sector empresarial como agente ejecutor e implementador de estas ecoetiquetas, donde se analiza la capacidad que eventualmente tendría la iniciativa privada para implementar este tipo de ecoetiquetado. Finalmente se establecen las conclusiones generales. El análisis muestra que los instrumentos y programas que buscan la sostenibilidad de la vivienda, son compatibles y complementarios con este ecoetiquetado, así como que las DAP tienen el potencial de coadyuvar en el cumplimiento de los objetivos de sostenibilidad del gobierno. Aunque se han detectado barreras para implementar las DAP, se ha encontrado que existe un interés generalizado de las empresas mexicanas en incorporar entre sus estrategias de sostenibilidad, el uso de ecoetiquetado en los materiales que utilizan. No obstante, el costo de elaborar un ACV, la falta de demanda de este tipo de productos, y el poco entendimiento sobre su utilidad, desalientan entre los empresarios su incorporación.

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Wolff, Anastasia. "Responsabilité sociétale : quelles contributions des entreprises à la conservation de la biodiversité ?" Thesis, Lyon, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017LYSEM039/document.

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Alors que nous faisons face à une crise biologique majeure, acteurs institutionnel et ONGs exhortent les entreprises à s’engager pour enrayer cette érosion écologique. L’objectif de la thèse est d’analyser, évaluer et faire évoluer la contribution potentielle des entreprises à la conservation de la biodiversité dans le cadre de leur responsabilité sociétale (RSE).Un cadre d’analyse est développé pour évaluer la prise en charge par une entreprise de ses responsabilités écologiques en termes de moyens – les initiatives RSE a priori favorables à la biodiversité mises en œuvre – et de résultats – la compatibilité des activités de l’entreprise avec la conservation de la biodiversité. Après avoir caractérisé les initiatives RSE à partir de l’étude d’engagements d’entreprises endossés comme contributions à la Stratégie nationale pour la biodiversité, une méthode est proposée pour détecter si les activités d’une entreprise sont écologiquement non-durables. Le postulat est que le respect des capacités de charge des écosystèmes est un prérequis à la conservation effective de la biodiversité. Cette méthode, adaptée de l’évaluation environnementale absolue de la durabilité, est appliquée, dans le cadre de deux projets de recherche-intervention, au portfolio alimentaire du Groupe Casino et au cycle de vie de deux installations de stockage de déchets dangereux de SARP Industries. Des orientations stratégiques visant à éviter-réduire-compenser les pressions non durables sont proposées. Soulignant l’importance de renforcer la prise en charge des pressions étendues, cette thèse ouvre plus largement des perspectives pour les secteurs d’activité et les politiques publiques
As we are experiencing a major biological crisis, institutional actors and NGOs are calling on businesses to engage efforts aiming at halting biodiversity loss. The objective of the thesis is to analyze and evaluate the potential contribution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to biodiversity conservation.A framework is developed to analyze to which extent a company takes in charge its ecological responsibilities. After characterizing CSR initiatives based on the case study of business commitments to contribute to the French National Biodiversity Strategy, a method is proposed to test whether business activities exert unsustainable pressures on ecosystems. It is assumed that compatibility with ecosystems’ carrying capacities is a prerequisite for effective biodiversity conservation. This method, adapted from the “absolute environmental sustainability assessment” (AESA) approach, is applied in the context of research-intervention projects to the food portfolio of the mass-market retailer Groupe Casino and to the life cycle of two facilities of SARP Industrie specialized in the disposal and storage of hazardous waste. The comparison of the company’s environmental footprints with the ecological constraints is used to draw a comprehensive strategy based on the mitigation hierarchy. As our results highlight the opportunity to strengthen the management of extended pressures through CSR, possible implications for sectors and public policies are discussed

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Bicalho, Tereza. "Les limites de l'ACV. Etude de la soutenabilité d'un biodiesel issu de l'huile de palme brésilienne." Phd thesis, Université Paris Dauphine - Paris IX, 2013. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01002055.

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L'analyse de cycle de vie (ACV), telle qu'elle est pratiquée aujourd'hui, peut conduire à des résultats biaisés. L'utilisation de cet outil s'avère particulièrement sensible dans des cadres réglementaires. En effet, au lieu d'inciter les entreprises à réduire leurs impacts sur l'environnement, les certifications obtenues à partir des ACV risquent de produire un effet contraire : comme elles tendent à récompenser des moyennes industrielles plutôt que les résultats propres aux entreprises, elles peuvent détruire toute incitation pour ces dernières à agir correctement sur le plan environnemental. Dans cette thèse nous proposons des éléments de réflexion en matière de gestion pouvant être utiles à l'évolution de l'ACV à partir d'une étude de cas sur l'évaluation de la soutenabilité d'une filière biodiesel issu d'huile de palme brésilienne dans le cadre de la Directive EnR. Trois principaux résultats émergent de ce travail doctoral. Le premier se rapporte à la réflexion que nous menons sur l'évaluation de la durabilité imposée par la Directive EnR. Le deuxième renvoie aux réponses concrètes sur l'évaluation de la filière biodiesel évaluée à l'égard de la Directive, notamment par rapport aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre. Le troisième résultat concerne l'identification des besoins latents en matière d'évaluation de qualité des données d'ACV

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Touceda, Gomez Maria Isabel. "Implementation of socioeconomic criteria in a life cycle sustainability assessment framework applied to housing retrofitting. The Brussels-Capital region case study." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/238640.

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Most of the housing stock in European cities needs to be updated to fulfill current requirements. Although energy and climate have been prioritized in European policies, other sustainable development challenges are sometimes disregarded. Retrofitting plays a part in addressing social concerns such as unemployment and poverty. Therefore, these issues also need to be tackled during the decision-making process.Decision makers need assessment methods to help them to comprehensively address complex processes such as retrofitting on a territorial scale. Several tools are available to address certain aspects of building sustainability, but these often disregard social inclusion aspects. The life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methodology seems to be an appropriate framework, but it needs further adaptation and development for the intended application; that is, to guide policy-making related to housing retrofitting in a given territory towards a more sustainable model of development.This PhD thesis develops an assessment tool in the framework of LCSA. The proposal combines environmental assessment methods with a set of specifically developed socioeconomic models. The socioeconomic models address social and socioeconomic concerns, which are relevant in housing retrofitting processes, for which a cause-effect relationship can be established. The so-called characterization models result from the identification, combination and adaptation of available methods developed within various research fields. These methods analyze damages to the health of workers involved in the life cycle and to the health of the household living in the retrofitted dwelling. Impacts on human well-being and dignity are addressed through prosperity, in terms of fair employment, alleviation of fuel poverty of households, and contribution to economic growth.Two retrofits are analyzed and compared in multiple scenarios of household and housing conditions. The impacts of the retrofitting on sustainable development are calculated considering their remaining life period and taking into account the reference situation where retrofitting would not be undertaken. Some of the results are unexpected, whereas others were more predictable, and the tool helps to properly quantifying them. However, the tool does not provide a unique solution: the “best-performing” scenarios regarding natural environment are the “less-performing” scenarios regarding health and well-being, and vice versa. Decisions therefore need to be adjusted and aim for a combination of job creation, meeting environmental targets, overcoming poverty thresholds and using available public resources. This LCSA proposal helps to adapt measures which promote retrofitting to housing typologies, household type and dwelling conditions. This tool also serves to identify scenarios to prioritize and quantify the potential improvements in the retrofitting process.
En Europe, la plupart du parc bâti de logements doit être rénové en accord avec les besoins actuels. Dans les politiques européennes, la priorité est donnée à l’énergie et au climat et d’autres défis liés au développement durable semblent être négligés. La rénovation parait pouvoir atténuer des problèmes sociaux tels que le taux de chômage, la pauvreté ou l’exclusion sociale et doit donc aussi être considérées.Les décideurs publics ont besoin de méthodes d’analyse qui leur permettent d’aborder des processus complexes comme la rénovation de logements au niveau du territoire. Il y plusieurs outils à disposition pour analyser certains aspects de la durabilité des bâtiments mais, souvent, ces outils ne prennent pas en compte des aspects d’inclusion sociale. La méthodologie d’analyse de la durabilité du cycle de vie (LCSA en anglais) s’avère un cadre approprié pour aborder cette problématique mais il est encore nécessaire de la développer et de l’adapter pour l’appliquer à l’objet de cette étude ,c’est-à-dire, guider la prise de décisions publiques, en relation avec la rénovation de bâtiments à l’échelle du territoire, vers un développement plus durable.Cette recherche développe « sur mesure » un outil d’analyse dans le cadre du LCSA. La méthodologie proposée combine des méthodes d’analyse environnementale avec un ensemble de modèles socioéconomiques, dits modèles de caractérisation. Ces derniers, spécifiquement développés, ciblent des préoccupations sociales et socioéconomiques qui concernent le processus de rénovation du logement et dont la relation cause-effet peut être établie. Ils résultent de l’identification, la combinaison et l’adaptation de méthodes existantes développées dans différents domaines. Ces méthodes analysent les impacts sur la santé des travailleurs impliqués dans tout le cycle de vie et sur la santé du ménage qui habite le logement. Les impacts sur le bien-être et la dignité humaine sont analysés au moyen de la prospérité, en termes de travail juste, de la lutte contre la précarité énergétique et de la contribution au développement économique.Les effets produits par deux rénovations à Bruxelles sont analysés et comparés dans plusieurs scénarios, pour la période de vie qui reste au logement. Quelques résultats s’écartent de ceux attendus ;d’autres pouvaient être pressentis mais cet outil permet de les quantifier de manière appropriée. Cependant, l’outil ne dégage pas de solution unique :dans certains cas, les bénéfices en termes de bien-être sont moindres pour les scénarios où la rénovation produit les meilleurs résultats environnementaux, et vice versa. Les décisions résultent de l’ajustement et la combinaison entre les objectifs en termes d’environnement, de création d’emploi, seuils de seuil de pauvreté et les ressources publiques disponibles. Cet outil aide à l’adaptation des politiques et mesures d’encouragement aux typologies de bâti, aux types de ménages et aux conditions du logement. Il permet l’identification de scénarios à rendre prioritaire, ainsi que de quantifier les effets d’éventuelles améliorations à apporter au processus de rénovation urbaine.
Doctorat en Art de bâtir et urbanisme (Polytechnique)
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Almeida, Marcelo Costa. "Avaliação social do ciclo de vida de produtos: Proposta de método e avaliação preliminar do álcool etílico hidratado combustível." Universidade de São Paulo, 2009. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/86/86131/tde-07072009-085537/.

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Esta Tese propõe e aplica um método de Avaliação Social do Ciclo de Vida de Produtos. Os indivíduos que compõem o recurso humano desempenham o papel de vetor entre o sistema social e o sistema de produto. Duas categorias de sustentabilidade social são definidas: 1) Atendimento de Necessidades Básicas; e, 2) Autonomia Intelectual. O Indicador desenvolvido para a primeira categoria é a Renda Monetária Anual, medida em unidades monetárias. O indicador desenvolvido para a segunda categoria é a Escolaridade Ajustada pela Duração do Vínculo. A escolaridade dos indivíduos, medida em anos equivalentes de estudo, é multiplicada pelo número de meses em que houve o vínculo entre o sistema social e sistema de produto através de cada indivíduo, no ano de referência da avaliação. Critérios de referência são desenvolvidos para a avaliação dos indicadores. A renda e a escolaridade ajustada são impactadas por fatores que avaliam a gravidade da desigualdade entre os indivíduos do conjunto recurso humano e entre estes e os indivíduos do conjunto consumidor. Os resultados são comparados com valores de referência para condição mínima de sustentabilidade em cada categoria de sustentabilidade. Um modelo matemático é desenvolvido para que nenhum desempenho positivo em uma, ou mais categorias, seja suficiente para anular o desempenho negativo em qualquer categoria, ou categorias, avaliada. Este método é aplicado em uma avaliação preliminar do Álcool Etílico Hidratado Combustível.
A method for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products is proposed and applied. In this method, the individuals that constitute the human resources play the role of vectors connecting the social system and the product system. Two categories of social sustainability are defined: 1) Basic Needs Fulfillment; and, 2) Intellectual Autonomy. The Annual Monetary Income, in monetary units, is the indicator of the former category. The Job Duration Adjusted Schooling is the indicator of the later category. The individualss schooling, in years of study equivalent, is multiplied by the number of months that the link between the social and the product systems lasted, in the reference year of the assessment. Reference criteria are defined for the assessment of the indicators. The income and the adjusted schooling are impacted by two inequality gravity factors. One factor concerns the inequality gravity among the individuals of the human resource. The other factor concerns the inequality gravity between the individuals in the human resource and the consumer groups. The results are compared to reference values of minimum sustainability for each category of sustainability. A mathematical model for aggregation of category indicators is developed to not allow that a positive result for any category indicator, or set of categories, offsets a negative result in any other sustainability category, or set of categories. This method is applied to a preliminary assessment of the Hydrous Ethyl Alcohol Fuel.

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Stouris, Konstantinos. "The WeCycle Project – Carbon Calculator development for IT equipment." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-233582.

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With global emissions of human activities that drive climate change on the rise, global institutions and authorities are trying to introduce new regulations in the industry, in order to accomplish a significant reduction of carbon emissions. In order for companies to be more effective in reducing carbon emissions, not only from their products but also along their value chains and product portfolios, it is of vital importance to understand and quantify them. Following that need, tools that can measure the carbon footprint of various corporate operations (carbon calculators) have risen in popularity in the latest years. A sector in which companies can significantly improve their environmental impact is their IT equipment portfolio. WeCycle, as developed by Greener Scandinavia AB (partner of this project), is a platform that facilitates reselling of old IT equipment, while aiming to reduce its environmental impacts. This project then, in cooperation with WeCycle, aims to develop a software tool that calculates the environmental benefits (kg of CO2 eq. avoided) when reusing old IT equipment. This can help clients estimate this benefit, while also providing a CSR incentive. The specific methodological steps needed in order to complete the project included literature review concerning the state of e-waste and initiatives to minimize its environmental impacts, guidelines, and procedures related to LCA of IT equipment and various other carbon calculators, developing calculation model and assumptions in order to compile the database, interface design, and finally using and testing the software tool against a real case scenario - case study provided by WeCycle. The results, and design process of the project, were enlightening in the matter of understanding potential benefits of reusing IT equipment, but also in identifying the “hotspot” stages of an electronic device’s lifecycle. Even though variations were noticed depending on the type of the device (e.g. smartphones vs desktop computers), it is evident that the emissions that occur during the production phase are considered of major importance (ranked either 1st or 2nd most important/emission heavy stage), and therefore the benefits of reusing are of a high relative magnitude. All in all, this project resulted in a useful tool for WeCycle to measure the benefits of their practices, as well as for any user or company that would like to measure the carbon emissions that can be avoided when they give their old IT equipment up for resell. Hopefully, by easily quantifying these benefits, this tool can motivate both a behavioral change in the industry, as well as researchers to expand it in order to cover all sectors of the industry and everyday life.
När globala utsläpp av mänskliga aktiviteter stiger, försöker globala institutioner och myndigheter att införa nya regler för att minska koldioxidutsläppen. För att företagen ska vara mer effektiva när det gäller minskade koldioxidutsläpp, inte bara från sina produkter men också med sina värdekedjor och produktportföljer, är det viktigt att förstå och kvantifiera dem. För att uppnå detta, har verktyg som kan mäta koldioxidavtrycket av olika företagsverksamheter (kolkalkylatorer) ökat i popularitet de senaste åren. En sektor i vilken företag kan förbättra sin miljöpåverkan är deras IT-utrustning. WeCycle, ett projekt som utvecklats av Greener Scandinavia AB (partner för detta projekt), är en plattform som underlättar återförsäljning av gammal IT-utrustning medan den siktar på att minska miljöpåverkan. Projektet, i samarbete med WeCycle, syftar till att utveckla ett mjukvaruverktyg som beräknar miljöfördelar (kg CO2-ekv.) vid återanvändning av gammal IT-utrustning. Detta kan hjälpa kunder att uppskatta denna fördel, samtidigt som de ger ett CSR-incitament. Projektets resultat var till hjälp för att förstå de potentiella fördelarna med att återanvända IT-utrustning, men också för att identifiera "hotspot" -stadierna i en elektronisk apparats livscykel. Även om det märktes variationer beroende på enhetens typ (t.ex. smartphones jämfört med stationära datorer) är det uppenbart att utsläpp som uppstår under produktionsfasen är av stor betydelse (rankad antingen viktigaste eller näst viktigaste fasen) och därför ger återanvändning relativt stor miljönytta. Förhoppningsvis, genom att kvantifiera dessa fördelar med ett lättanvänt verktyg, kan detta projekt motivera både en beteendemässig förändring i branschen och forskare att vidareutveckla verktyget till att omfatta alla industrisektorer och hushållens konsumtion.

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Svensson, Jenny, and Alice Kjellson. "A Comparative Study of Social, Economic and Environmental Aspects of Paraffinand Wood Pellets Used for Cooking in Low Income Households in South Africa : A minor field study." Thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys (fms), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-178061.

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The majority of low income households in South Africa have limited access to electricity, and typically cook on stoves fuelled by paraffin. Paraffin represents a fossil fuel. It is a relatively cheap fuel in South Africa. Another fuel that can also be used for cooking is wood pellets, which is a renewable fuel. It can be used in a similar way to that of paraffin and is relatively cheap compared to other renewable energy sources. To investigate if living conditions among low income households can be improved the focus of the study was to evaluate the sustainability of cooking on paraffin and wood pellets. This was done by comparing social, environmental and economic aspects associated with the two cooking fuels. The social aspects were investigated through an interview study, the environmental aspect through a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) and the economic aspects through a partial life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) focusing on the user phase. The interview study showed that paraffin users considered four aspects as the most important when cooking, namely safety, health, affordability and quality. The study also found that the majority were willing to change to another cooking fuel if these aspects were fulfilled. The LCA showed that both systems score the highest on 9 out of 18 environmental impact categories over a 16-year perspective. The economic analysis showed that the user phase of the wood pellet system is more economically beneficial during the 16-year time period than the paraffin system. It was concluded that wood pellets could be used as an option to paraffin for cooking and would most likely increase living conditions for low income households.
Majoriteten av låginkomsthushåll i Sydafrika har begränsad tillgång till elektricitet och vanligtvis sker matlagningen på paraffinspisar. Paraffin är ett fossilt bränsle. Det är ett relativt billigt bränsle i Sydafrika. Ett annat bränsle som också kan användas för matlagning är träpellets som är ett förnyelsebart bränsle. Det kan användas på liknande sätt som för paraffin och är ganska billigt i jämförelse med andra förnybara energikällor. För att undersöka om levnadsförhållanden för låginkomsthushåll kan förbättras låg fokus för denna studie på att utvärdera hållbarheten för att laga mat på paraffin och träpellets. Detta genomfördes genom att jämföra sociala, miljömässiga och ekonomiska aspekter associerade med dessa bränslen för matlagning. De sociala aspekterna undersöktes genom en intervjustudie, de miljömässiga aspekterna genom en jämförande livscykelanalys (LCA) och de ekonomiska aspekterna gjordes genom en livscykelkostnadsanalys (LCCA) för användarfasen. Intervjustudien visade att paraffinanvändare anser att fyra aspekter är de viktigaste vid matlagning, nämligen säkerhet, hälsa, kostnad och kvalitet. Studien visade också att majoriteten var villiga att byta till ett annat bränsle för matlagning om dessa aspekter var uppfyllda. Livscykelanalysen visade att båda systemen hade högst miljöpåverkan i 9 av 18 miljöpåverkanskategorier vardera inom ett 16-årsperspektiv. Den ekonomiska analysen visade att under en 16-årsperiod var användarfasen mer kostnadseffektiv för matlagning på träpellets jämfört med paraffin. Studien visade att träpellets kan användas som ett alternativ för paraffin vid matlagning och kommer troligtvis öka levnadsförhållanden för låginkomsthushåll.

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Svensson, Jenny, and Alice Kjellson. "A Comparative Study of Social, Environmental and Economic Aspects of Paraffin and Wood Pellets Used for Cooking in Low Income Households in South Africa : A Minfor Field Study." Thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys (fms), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-172821.

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The majority of low income households in South Africa have limited access to electricity, and typically cook on stoves fuelled by paraffin. Paraffin represents a fossil fuel. It is a relatively cheap fuel in South Africa. Another fuel that can also be used for cooking is wood pellets, which is a renewable fuel. It can be used in a similar way to that of paraffin and is relatively cheap compared to other renewable energy sources. To investigate if living conditions among low income households can be improved the focus of the study was to evaluate the sustainability of cooking on paraffin and wood pellets. This was done by comparing social, environmental and economic aspects associated with the two cooking fuels. The social aspects were investigated through an interview study, the environmental aspect through a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) and the economic aspects through a partial life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) focusing on the user phase. The interview study showed that paraffin users considered four aspects as the most important when cooking, namely safety, health, affordability and quality. The study also found that the majority were willing to change to another cooking fuel if these aspects were fulfilled. The LCA showed that both systems score the highest on 9 out of 18 environmental impact categories over a 16-year perspective. The economic analysis showed that the user phase of the wood pellet system is more economically beneficial during the 16-year time period than the paraffin system. It was concluded that wood pellets could be used as an option to paraffin for cooking and would most likely increase living conditions for low income households.
Majoriteten av låginkomsthushåll i Sydafrika har begränsad tillgång till elektricitet och vanligtvis sker matlagningen på paraffinspisar. Paraffin är ett fossilt bränsle. Det är ett relativt billigt bränsle i Sydafrika. Ett annat bränsle som också kan användas för matlagning är träpellets som är ett förnyelsebart bränsle. Det kan användas på liknande sätt som för paraffin och är ganska billigt i jämförelse med andra förnybara energikällor. För att undersöka om levnadsförhållanden för låginkomsthushåll kan förbättras låg fokus för denna studie på att utvärdera hållbarheten för att laga mat på paraffin och träpellets. Detta genomfördes genom att jämföra sociala, ekologiska och ekonomiska aspekter associerade med dessa bränslen för matlagning. De sociala aspekterna undersöktes genom en intervjustudie, de miljömässiga aspekterna genom en jämförande livscykelanalys (LCA) och de ekonomiska aspekterna gjordes genom en livscykelkostnadsanalys (LCCA) för användarfasen. Intervjustudien visade att paraffinanvändare anser att fyra aspekter är de viktigaste vid matlagning, nämligen säkerhet, hälsa, kostnad och kvalitet. Studien visade också att majoriteten var villiga att byta till ett annat bränsle för matlagning om dessa aspekter var uppfyllda. Livscykelanalysen visade att båda systemen hade högst miljöpåverkan i 9 av 18 miljöpåverkanskategorier vardera inom ett 16-årsperspektiv. Den ekonomiska analysen visade att under en 16-årsperiod var användarfasen mer kostnadseffektiv för matlagning på träpellets jämfört med paraffin. Studien visade att träpellets kan användas som ett alternativ för paraffin vid matlagning och kommer troligtvis öka levnadsförhållanden för låginkomsthushåll.

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Lúcio, João Francisco Alexandre. "Social Life Cycle Assessment for Additive Manufacturing: A Review." Master's thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/28732.

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The aim of this dissertation is to assist in the development of the project FIBR3D – Hybrid Processes based on Additive Manufacture of Thermoplastic Matrix Composites Reinforced with Fibers, by providing a base insight on the Social Life Cycle Assessment methodology (SLCA) and other related methodologies. The main objective of this dissertation is to present a literature review to identify the existing life cycle based methodologies, which will give a base knowledge on how they work and how they can be implemented within the project FIBR3D. This study will help in the development of a life cycle based parametric model that will be used to assess the Additive Manufacturing technology that is being developed within the project. The main objective of this work is to study the Social Life Cycle Assessment methodology (SLCA), although it is considered that first it is needed to understand how the environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methodologies work, because they retain some similarities with each other and can be connected to create the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment methodology (LCSA). After the study of the other two methodologies, the Social Life Cycle Assessment is analyzed with more detail. These methodologies were studied by analyzing information from papers, book chapters and standards. The keywords that were used in the search of the selected documents were, for example, “Life Cycle Assessment”, “Life Cycle Costing” and “Social Life Cycle Assessment”. After analyzing the selected documents, the information was summarized in tables so it is possible to conclude what can help in the development of the project and what can still be studied in more depth. In this dissertation 17 papers about LCA and LCC and 13 papers about SLCA are analyzed. In addition to the papers, some standards were also studied, because they are considered essential in the study of these methodologies. From all the analyzed papers, only two tried to link the SLCA methodology with the additive manufacturing technology (AM), which was unexpected, but plausible because the AM is a technology still under development. With the analysis of the papers it is possible to perceive that there is a great need to develop studies that apply these methodologies to assess the AM technology and products/processes in the phase of development. Apparently, despite the scarcity of studies, it is already clear that the AM technology is considered to have an immense potential to revolutionize industries and to change some standards at the social and society level.

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HONG, CHIEN-YU, and 洪倩玉. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Municipal Waste-to-Energy Operation." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7wgs3j.

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碩士
國立臺北大學
自然資源與環境管理研究所
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Due to the fast growth of economy and population, urban population had grown massively. The trash produced by large population became a problem for this world. The limited land use and the slow progress of recycling technology, we now use Waste to Energy skill. This essay research on 24 incineration plants in Taiwan and discuss the pro and cons of Municipal Waste to Energy technology to our society. 　　Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act is the source of emissions of view, ISO 14064:2006 using organizations point of view, Local Government Greenhouse Gas Inventories to the county and the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory is based on the state view of greenhouse gas inventory. The total emissions of 24 incineration plants in Taiwan in 2016 were 3.6 million tons in 2016, and the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions from incineration municipal waste was calculated by mass balance method. 　　The life cycle of Waste to Energy is defined as three stages: transportation, incineration and power generation, and the main interests of this research are identified as workers, local communities and society. Waste incineration plant operating performance using data envelopment analysis, the Private-Own- Operate Refuse Incineration Plant has the best performance; However Public-Own-Operate Refuse Incineration Plant has poor performance. The negative impact of the waste incineration plant as a Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) Facility has always been a concern to the public. Therefore, it is worth discussing how the stakeholders choose between positive and negative impacts. 　　This research focuses on the issue of feedback facilities and public　supervision. Waste incineration plants set up supply facilities for cooling and heating systems such as nursing home. In response to future social trends, the waste incineration plant operates annually In order to be in line with international current affairs, it is recommended to write a corporate social responsibility report spontaneously, to expose their major issues and management principles, and to communicate with stakeholders.

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Lourenço, Francisco Manuel Parracho. "A social life cycle assessment methodology for additive manufacturing products." Master's thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/90123.

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The additive manufacturing technology, also known as 3D printing, is gaining popularity among the general public, the media, and in the industries. This technology is being viewed as a disruptive technology with the potential to replace many manufacturing processes and to change society as we know it. With its rapid proliferation in recent years, an understanding of the possible impacts of this technology on the stakeholders has become a crucial matter. There are many studies available in the literature concerning its economic and environmental impacts. However, research regarding the social impacts of this technology is still scarce. The main goal of this dissertation was to develop a methodology based on social life cycle assessment to measure the social impacts of an additive manufacturing product, on different stakeholders, throughout its different life cycle stages. In order to develop the methodology, six steps were adapted from the generally accepted social life cycle assessment methodology, namely: (1) Goal and scope definition; (2) Selection of stakeholder categories, subcategories and indicators for the additive manufacturing technology; (3) Definition of indicators groups; (4) Calculation method and scoring system; (5) Development of a method to aggregate the scores of the indicators and (6) Interpretation of the results. The second objective of this dissertation was to identify possible indicators that could be used in the proposed methodology to measure the social impacts of an additive manufacturing product. A list of 26 indicators has been selected from the literature. The third and last objective was to validate the 26 selected indicators, to understand if these indicators really capture the social impacts of the additive manufacturing technology. To that end, an exploratory case study was conducted in an additive manufacturing company based in England. Based on the results of the case study, 20 of the 26 indicators were validated and can be used in the proposed methodology to measure the social impacts. This study is the first to propose a methodology based on the social life cycle assessment to measure the social impacts of an additive manufacturing product, from a life cycle perspective. The proposed methodology is capable of providing a final score that quantifies the social impact of the product throughout all its life cycle stages. It also provides scores for each subcategory, stakeholder category, and life cycle stage, which facilitates the identification of hotspots that require attention by the organizations engaged in the value chain of the product. To support the implementation of the proposed methodology, a computational application model was also developed for the present study.

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Nemarumane, Takalani Musundwa. "Social impact assessment of sugar production operations in South Africa : a social life cycle assessment perspective." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8647.

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M.Tech. (Quality and Operations Management)
This paper focuses on the social impact of the sugar industry in South Africa. A social impact assessment is a method that aims to assess social features of the product and their positive and negative aspects in terms of its processing of raw material to the final stages of its disposal. The objectives of the study were guided by the guidelines on social life cycle assessment of products of the South African Sugar Industry developed by the United Nations Environmental Programme and SETAC initiatives. The main aim is to add value to the social assessment methodology and application techniques of social impacts assessment, focusing on the sugar industry in South Africa. The study’s main focus is on health and safety, freedom of association, employee’s wages, gender equality in the workplace, working conditions, crime and the social wellbeing of the communities that surround the sugar industry’s operations. Field research, historic comparative research, interviews and questionnaires were used for the collection of relevant data. The areas that grow sugar were identified to have low unemployment rates as compared to areas that do not grow sugar. Although it is good that the sugar industry decreases the level of employment in some areas, the decrease in sugar production during the season of 2010-2011 could have major financial and social challenges for these areas, and could also impact the rest of South Africa. The other social impacts discussed above are also assessed and presented in the paper.

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HUNG, PI-FANG, and 洪苾芳. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Reuse of Municipal Waste Water Effluent." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7w4f9n.

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碩士
國立臺北大學
自然資源與環境管理研究所
105
Taiwan is affected by population growth and changes in industrial structure. The water resources demand to increase. However it is limited by terrain and climate change which cause rainfall time maldistribution. It result water resource in crisis. According to solve this phenomenon, develop the diversification of water resources which is indispensable. In this study, the systematic reclaimed water was submitted to analysis. To summarize the condition of reclaimed water, and used the most relative five stakeholders in the structure of specification, through social life cycle identify stakeholders who are most relevant to recycled water issues , as value chain actors, society and user. It was taking the reclaimed water treatment plant of Fengshan stream and Yongkang for example. The reclaimed water treatment plant of Fengshan stream was constructed. And the reclaimed water treatment plant of Yongkang will be constructed in the future. It collected the information of this two reclaimed water treatment plans, and connected with the three stakeholders to assess. We proposed the problems which might confront about the developments of reclaimed water and made relative improving suggestion through three categories about value chains actors, society and user.

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ZANCHI, LAURA. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: application to the automotive sector and challenges for the lightweighting." Doctoral thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2158/1085729.

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This research represents one of the first examples of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment application to the lightweight design in the automotive sector. Beside an extensive literature review, mostly dedicated to identify the starting point of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) in the automotive sector, this work provides contributions regarding S-LCA implementation and integration of results in the LCSA. Moreover, also LCA and LCC have been addressed as a way to find out environmental and economic issues related to lightweight solutions to be conveyed in the LCSA framework S-LCA was developed according to the methodology proposed by the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics initiative, and this represents another innovative element of this research that applied the social quantitative approach as the first case in the automotive sector. Moreover, an interesting contribution is given by the number of real case studies which involved LCA, LCC, S-LCA and LCSA evaluations. The relevance of this research is also provided by the substantial collaboration with the majority of Europe’s automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that have been involved both in the data collection, and results discussion. In some case companies were involved in the discussion about the role that LCSA might play in the early design phase of vehicle components, especially when lightweight solutions are explored. Finally, a contribution also regards the data availability increase, particularly for what concern environmental data for innovative materials, and related manufacturing technologies, in the lightweighting context.

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Siebert, Anke. "Socio-economic assessment of wood-based products from German bioeconomy regions:: a social life cycle assessment approach." 2018. https://ul.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A34798.

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The effort on mitigating climate change has conjured up a vision of a bioeconomy. Therefore, industrial production has to turn away from fossil-based resources to bio-based ones. In Germany, the BioEconomy Cluster aims to establish a bioeconomy region that is based on non-food biomass, especially wood. The complexity of this transition raises doubts as to whether it necessarily leads to a better, more sustainable living in the regions. Currently, life cycle assessment tools are viewed as adequate to evaluate sustainability aspects associated to products. A method to analyse potential social effects of products is at an early stage. Therefore, this PhD thesis develops a social life cycle assessment approach to assess wood-based production systems in a bioeconomy region in Germany. A framework was formulated with major concepts and definitions applied. The goal and scope comprise to identify of social hotspots and opportunities of the foreground activities involved in a production system in a German bioeconomy region. The system boundary was defined as an area smaller than a country and major stakeholder categories were selected. In addition the organisations’ conduct was determined as the main unit of analysis. Based on the frameworks’ major elements a social indicator set with seven social indices (e.g. health & safety; participation) and 32 social indicators (e.g. accidents) was selected to make the inventories. Therefore, sustainability standards and sLCA case studies were screened and stakeholder interviews were conducted to set up a ﬁnal set. Within this PhD thesis context-specific performance reference points (PRPs) were determined for the sLCIA phase. Compared with the organisations’ indicator values, they indicate a “relatively poor” or “relatively better” social performance (i.e. a social opportunity or hotspot). The PRPs considered the classification of economic sector of the assessed organisation and in some cases the size of the organisation as factors influencing the potential social effects. The framework provides major elements (i.e. a context-specific indicator set and characterisation approach) to assess relevant social effects associated with the organisations production activities involved in a products production. Therefore, the sLCA approach supports producer’s decision making which may mitigate negative social effects and accelerate positive ones.:Summary i Acknowledgements ii List of Publications vii List of Figures ix List of Tables xii List of Abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Bioeconomy and sustainability 1 1.2 The BioEconomy Cluster 2 2 Social Life Cycle Assessment, S-LCA 3 2.1 The history of sLCA 3 2.2 The UNEP-SETAC guidelines 4 2.3 Review on sLCA 5 2.3.1 Goal and scope definition 8 2.3.2 Social life cycle inventory 9 2.3.3 Characterisation 10 3 Research question and aim of the thesis 12 4 Social life cycle assessment: in pursuit of a framework for assessing wood-based products from bioeconomy regions in Germany 14 4.1 Abstract 14 4.2 Introduction 15 4.2.1 Germany’s wood-based bioeconomy 15 4.2.2 Social life cycle assessment 16 4.2.3 Goal and structure of the paper 17 4.3 Defining the goal and scope 17 4.3.1 Defining the goal—the purpose of the developed sLCA approach 17 4.3.2 Regional system boundaries 18 4.3.3 The production system 19 4.3.4 Stakeholder categories 19 4.3.5 Defining and using a functional unit 20 4.3.6 Activity variables—relating social effects to the product 21 4.3.7 Social indices and indicators 22 4.3.8 Developing context-specific social indices and indicators 23 4.3.9 Presenting the social effects to regional producers 24 4.4 Social life cycle inventory (sLCI) 25 4.4.1 SLCIs in global hotspot assessment studies 25 4.4.2 SLCIs in regional hotspot assessment studies 26 4.5 Social life cycle impact assessment (sLCIA) 27 4.5.1 Characterisation method: international PRPs 28 4.5.2 Characterisation method: national PRPs 28 4.5.3 Characterisation method: sector PRPs 29 4.5.4 Characterisation method: regional PRPs 29 4.6 An sLCA framework for regional bioeconomy chains 31 4.7 Summary and outlook 33 5 Social life cycle assessment indices and indicators to monitor the social implications of wood-based products 35 5.1 Abstract 35 5.2 Introduction 36 5.3 Materials and methods 38 5.3.1 Screening criteria 38 5.3.2 Overview of research steps 40 5.3.3 Screening of global sustainability standards 41 5.3.5 Screening of national sustainability and forest certiﬁcation standards 43 5.3.6 Screening of sLCA case studies 43 5.3.8 Stakeholder interviews 44 5.3.9 Selection based on feasibility of implementation 46 5.4 Results and discussion 48 5.4.1 Index: health and safety 52 5.4.2 Index: adequate remuneration 52 5.4.3 Index: adequate working time 53 5.4.4 Index: employment 53 5.4.5 Index: knowledge capital 54 5.4.6 Index: equal opportunities 55 5.4.7 Index: participation 56 5.5 Outlook 56 5.6 Conclusion 57 6 How not to compare apples and oranges: Generate context-specific performance reference points for a social life cycle assessment model 59 6.1 Abstract 59 6.2 Introduction 60 6.2.1 Background 60 6.2.2 The RESPONSA framework 61 6.2.3 Goal of this work 64 6.3 Influence factors recognised in the context-specific characterisation approach for the German wood-based bioeconomy 65 6.3.1 Classification of the influential conditions 65 6.3.2 The geographical location 68 6.3.3 The economic sector 68 6.3.4 The size of the organisation 69 6.4 The scoring approach and data sources 69 6.4.1 The scoring approach 69 6.4.2 Data sources to determine PRPs 70 6.5 Characterisation approach for quantitative indicators 70 6.5.1 Characterisation of quantitative indicators (full data) 70 6.5.2 Characterisation of quantitative indicators (partial data) 71 6.6 Characterisation approach for qualitative indicators 73 6.6.1 Characterisation of qualitative indicators with binary answers on a sectoral level 73 6.6.2 Characterisation of qualitative indicators with ranked answers on a sectoral level 74 6.6.3 Characterisation of qualitative indicators on a sectoral and organisational size level 76 6.7 Exemplary case study 77 6.7.1 Classifying organisations in the product system 77 6.7.2 Determining the sLCIs 78 6.7.3 sLCIA step 78 6.7.4 Relating social effects to the product 81 6.7.5 Discussion of the results 83 6.8 Discussion and outlook 84 6.9 Conclusion 85 7 Discussion of the main results 87 7.1 Organisations as unit of analysis 87 7.2 A country as major system boundary 88 7.3 A context-specific indicator set 89 7.4 Impact assessment: Economic sector and organisational size PRPs 90 7.5 The interpretation of the results 92 7.6 Limitations of the approach 94 7.7 Use for the Cluster 95 7.8 Outlook 96 8 Conclusion 97 9 Use of RESPONSA – A REgional SPecific cONtext-ualised Social life cycle Assessment tool 100 9.1 The RESPONSA user interface 100 9.1.1 Inputs from the organisations 101 9.1.2 The calculation made by RESPONSA 102 9.1.3 Output for the organisation 103 References cv Appendix A cxiii Appendix B cxx Appendix C cxxiv CURRICULUM VITAE cxxviii Author contribution cxxx Eigenständigkeitserklärung cxxxiii Bibliographische Beschreibung cxxxiv

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Labuschagne, Carin. "Sustainable project life cycle management : development of social criteria for decision-making." Thesis, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/28609.

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An initial analysis of sustainable project life cycle management methodologies’ current status highlighted that social and environmental aspects of sustainable development are not addressed effectively. An acceptable model aimed at addressing the various sustainable development aspects from a project management perspective is thus needed. This study’s main research objective was consequently to develop the different elements of such a model for social business sustainability. The research focused on the three main research questions discussed below. Which lifecycles should be considered when evaluating the project’s possible impacts? Projects implement or deliver certain products, which in turn, can produce other commodities sold by the company. The three lifecycles, i.e. project, asset and product, were studied to determine which lifecycles to consider when evaluating projects’ possible impacts. It was concluded that it is specifically the project’s deliverables and its associated products that have economic, social and environmental consequences. These life cycles must therefore be considered as part of the project life cycle when evaluating social impacts. What social business sustainability impacts or aspects should be considered in the project life cycle? A sustainable development framework that can be applied to projects directly to ensure their alignment with sustainable development does not exist at present. A social sustainability assessment framework as part of a sustainability assessment framework for operational initiatives was consequently developed and introduced. The social framework was verified and validated by means of case studies, a survey and a Delphi Technique case study to test the framework’s completeness and relevance. How should project management methodologies be adopted to ensure incorporation of social business sustainability? The research indicated that the various social aspects are addressed in different ways in the individual asset life cycle phase. The social criteria in the framework should therefore also be addressed in different ways in the project management methodologies. A Social Impact Indicator (SII) calculation procedure, based on a previously introduced Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) calculation procedure for environmental Resource Impact Indicators (RIIs), was developed as a method to evaluate social impacts in the project life cycle phases. Case studies in the process industry and statistical information for South Africa have been used to establish information availability for the SII calculation procedure.
Thesis (PhD (Engineering Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006.
Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM)
unrestricted

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