A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: Current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues

Costa, Daniele; Quinteiro, Paula; Dias, Ana Cláudia

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.435

Cited by 156 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 136 publications

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“…The LCSA (analysis) framework is still being developed, and further research is needed regarding how to perform assessments on various case studies, integrate temporal and geographical perspectives, and define appropriate methods to cover the different levels of assessment (Costa et al 2019;Guinée 2016). The present study provides the results of an LCSA (analysis) case study of a wood-based component in an early development stage, where data availability is an issue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospective sustainability assessment: the case of wood in automotive applications

Mair-Bauernfeind

Zimek

Asada

et al. 2020

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose The introduction of renewable materials into automotive applications is perceived as an innovative lightweight solution. Wood-based materials are advantageous in that they have potentially lower environmental impacts as compared with other materials such as steel. However, using wood per se does not automatically ensure more sustainability. Few prospective sustainability assessment methods or studies on the use of wood-based materials in automotive applications have been carried out, although these are needed to reduce unintended, negative sustainability effects and to support sustainable oriented research and innovation. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the potential sustainability effects and consequences of introducing a wood-based component into an automotive application. Methods A combination of methods was used to analyze the potential sustainability effects when introducing wood into automotive applications. This prospective life cycle sustainability analysis solely relied on secondary data. The environmental impacts were analyzed using a simplified environmental life cycle assessment on the product level. A multi-regional input-output-based assessment was conducted to model the country-specific environmental and socioeconomic consequences. The potential shift in social risks and opportunities on a national scale was analyzed by conducting a generic social life cycle assessment. Various aspects of each approach differ, with each providing a specific perspective of the system under study. Results and discussion The results indicate that implementing wood into automotive application can have environmental, social, and economic benefits, according to most of the indicators analyzed. Mostly due to the product weight reduction due to the use of a wood-based component, the results show that environmental impacts decrease. Some possible consequences of using wood-based materials are increased value added and increasing the number of jobs in European countries. Similarly, the social risks and opportunities are shifted from countries all over the world to European countries, which perform better than developing countries according to several indicators. However, some indicators, such as migrant acceptance or local supplier quantity, perform better in the current situation. Conclusions The presented case study is particularly notable, because the results clearly indicate the advantages of using wood-based materials in automotive applications, although the application of such relatively holistic and complex approaches often may lead to rather indifferent pictures. Policy makers, researchers, and companies can apply this combination of methods that rely solely on generic data to obtain both feasible and informative results. These methods also allow users to link the product level assessment with a regional and social perspective and screen critical topics to support sustainability research and innovation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospective sustainability assessment: the case of wood in automotive applications

Mair-Bauernfeind

Zimek

Asada

et al. 2020

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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“…In many industrialized countries other treatments could be considered and are used, with important implications for the LCA results. As reported by Costa, Quintero and Dias [ 37 ], until December 2018, 144 articles written in English appeared in international literature dealing with the LCA application in the field of plastics materials; of those, 49 articles were devoted to real case studies and the remaining devoted to reviews, viewpoint, mixed approaches and methodological development articles, presenting the LCA foundations, main methods, current operation state and challenges. Several articles have focused their attention on energy consumption, global warming potential (GWP), LCA of mechanical recycling technologies and on processes.…”

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life-Cycle Assessment in the Polymeric Sector: A Comprehensive Review of Application Experiences on the Italian Scale

2020

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In recent years, a growing media campaign has demonized the use of plastic tout court, as solely responsible for environmental problems. Behind what is now vulgarly called plastic there are actually many applications and uses without which our daily life would be greatly penalized in the most common and routine actions. Our belief, in the role of researchers who have made polymers and their derivatives their main research object, is that sustainable use of polymeric materials is not only possible but is above all necessary. For this reason, in this review which is part of the Special Issue “State-of-the-Art Polymer Science and Technology in Italy”, we offer a rundown of life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies on polymers used in the most important production and commercial sectors carried out in the last few years by Italians researchers.

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“…Moreover, only published articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science were considered. Conference papers, books, book chapters, case studies, reports, editorials and review articles were excluded from the search [28]. The search strings consist of the combination of the title which includes "life cycle cost of electric vehicles"; "life cycle cost analysis of electric vehicles"; "life cycle cost assessment of electric vehicles"; and "cost analysis of electric vehicles".…”

Section: Conducting the Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Cost Assessment of Electric Vehicles: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Ayodele

Mustapa

2020

Sustainability

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The transportation sector has been reported as a key contributor to the emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Hence, the need for the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) into the transportation sector. However, the competitiveness of the EVs with the conventional internal combustion engine vehicles has been a bone of contention. Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is an important tool that can be employed to determine the competitiveness of a product in its early stage of production. This review examines different published articles on LCCA of EVs using Scopus and Web of Science databases. The time trend of the published articles from 2001 to 2019 was examined. Moreover, the LCC obtained from the different models of EVs were compared. There was a growing interest in research on the LCC of EVs as indicated by the upward increase in the number of published articles. A variation in the LCC of the different EVs studied was observed to depend on several factors. Based on the LCC, EVs were found not yet competitive with conventional internal combustion engine cars due to the high cost of batteries. However, advancement in technologies with incentives could bring down the cost of EV batteries to make it competitive in the future.

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A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: Current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues

Cited by 156 publications

References 136 publications

Prospective sustainability assessment: the case of wood in automotive applications

Prospective sustainability assessment: the case of wood in automotive applications

Life-Cycle Assessment in the Polymeric Sector: A Comprehensive Review of Application Experiences on the Italian Scale

Life Cycle Cost Assessment of Electric Vehicles: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

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