Life-Cycle based methods for sustainable product development

Klöpffer, Walter

doi:10.1007/bf02978462

Cited by 234 publications

(126 citation statements)

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“…The year of publication of their 'Produktlinienanalyse' coincided with the year of publication of the Brundtland report 'Our Common Future' (WCED 1987 Klöpffer and Renner ( 2007 ); see also Klöpffer ( 2003 )) extensively discusses what exactly they mean by LCSA. They adopted the 'triple bottom line' (Elkington 1998 ) or the 'three-pillar' interpretation of sustainability, referred to as 'people, planet and prosperity' at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.…”

Section: Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The triple bottom line approach basically says that for achieving more sustainable futures, environmental, economic as well as social impacts of activities have to be taken into account. In the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, also life cycle analysis ( http://www.un-documents.net/jburgpln.htm ) was introduced, and thus, Klöpffer ( 2003 ) argues that 'any environmental, economic, or social assessment method for products has to take into account the full life cycle from raw material extraction, production to use and recycling or waste disposal. In other words, a systems approach has to be taken'.…”

Section: Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: What Is It and What Are Its Challenges?

Guinée

2016

Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology

119

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Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) has developed fast over the last three decades. Today, LCA is widely applied and used as a tool for supporting policies and performance-based regulation, notably concerning bioenergy. Over the past decade, LCA has broadened to also include life cycle costing (LCC) and social LCA (SLCA), drawing on the three-pillar or 'triple bottom line' model of sustainability. With these developments, LCA has broadened from merely environmental assessment to a more comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). LCSA has received increasing attention over the past years, while at the same time, its meaning and contents are not always suffi ciently clear. In this chapter, we therefore addressed the question: what are LCSA practitioners actually doing in practice? We distinguished two sub-questions: which defi nition(s) do they adopt and what challenges do they face? To answer these questions, LCSA research published over the past half decade has been analysed, supplemented by a brief questionnaire to researchers and practitioners. This analysis revealed two main defi nitions of LCSA. Based on these two defi nitions, we distinguished three dimensions along which LCSA is expanding when compared to environmental LCA: (1) broadening of impacts, LCSA = LCA + LCC + SLCA; (2) broadening level of analysis, product-, sector-and economy-wide questions and analyses; and (3) deepening, including other than just technological relations, such as physical, economic and behavioural relations. From this analysis, it is clear that the vast majority of LCSA research so far has focused on the 'broadening of impacts' dimension. The challenges most frequently cited concern the need for more practical examples of LCSA, effi cient ways of communicating LCSA results and the need for more data and methods particularly for SLCA indicators and comprehensive uncertainty assessment. We conclude that the three most crucial challenges to be addressed fi rst are developing quantitative and practical indicators for SLCA, life cycle-based approaches to evaluate scenarios for sustainable futures and practical ways to deal with uncertainties and rebound effects.

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Section: Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: What Is It and What Are Its Challenges?

Guinée

2016

Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is also recognized that it is important to integrate the three pillars of sustainability-ecology, economics, and social equity-using the same functional unit and system boundaries and preferably in quantitative terms in order to evaluate whether alternative product systems are "more or less sustainable." (Klöpffer 2003(Klöpffer , 2008Reap et al 2008b). Numerous methodological challenges might lead us to question the feasibility of societal life cycle assessment (SLCA), even though a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) work group determined there were no fundamental barriers (Grießhammer et al 2006).…”

Section: Can Social Impacts Be Quantified?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Klöpffer (2003Klöpffer ( , 2008 highlighted that the goal of SLCA or life cycle sustainability assessments is to provide reliable results that can inform decisions (and facilitate learning) at multiple levels of society. People do not need-or often use-detailed knowledge of impact pathways or damage costs to make judgments about the relative risks and benefits of alternative products or technologies (Lenzen 2006).…”

Section: Can Social Impacts Be Quantified?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Norris (2006) proposes a method for life cycle attribute assessment to summarize attributes of processes across a company supply chain. Klöpffer (2003Klöpffer ( , 2008 argued that, for meaningful product sustainability assessments, all impacts must be quantitatively linked to a functional unit. Weidema (2006) draws from cost-benefit analysis and LCA to propose a comprehensive set of indicators and provide examples of impact chains, linking the social inventory indicators to impacts on human well-being and productivity.…”

Section: What Is the Question And Who Is Asking?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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