Sustainability assessment of energy systems: integrating environmental, economic and social aspects

Santoyo-Castelazo, E.; Azapagic, Adisa

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.05.061

Cited by 463 publications

(193 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The researchers primarily used a process-based LCSA framework for the life cycle sustainability impacts of electricity production in U.K. In addition, scenario-based analysis is also conducted to see the long-term socio-economic and environmental implications of electricity generation policies [44,124]. Similarly, Traverso et al [60] built a process-based LCSA model and life cycle costing is used for economic impact analysis of sustainability assessment of the assembly step of photovoltaic (PV) modules production.…”

Section: 2broadening the Scope Of System Boundary And Indicators: mentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems Thinking for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: A Review of Recent Developments, Applications, and Future Perspectives

et al. 2017

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Abstract:Tracking the environmental impacts of production, use, and disposal of products (e.g., goods, and services) have been an important issue in the global economy. Although Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a widely applied method to track these environmental impacts and support policies, it has certain limitations and an isolated way of evaluating the environmental impacts with no consideration of social and economic impacts and mechanisms. To overcome the limits of current LCA, three mechanisms have been proposed in the literature: (1) broadening the indicators by including social and economic indicators in addition to the environmental impacts; (2) broadening the scope of analysis from product-level assessment to national and global levels; (3) deepening the assessment by inclusion of more mechanisms to account for interrelations among the system elements, uncertainty analysis, stakeholder involvement, etc. With these developments, LCA has been evolving into a new framework called Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). Practical application of LCSA requires integration of various methods, tools, and disciplines. In this study, a comprehensive literature review is conducted to investigate recent developments, current challenges, and future perspectives in the LCSA literature. According to the review, a high number (40%) of LCSA studies are from the environmental science discipline, while contributions from other disciplines such as economics (3%) and social sciences (9%) are very low. On broadening the scope of analysis, 58% of the studies are product-level works, while 37% quantified the impacts at national level and achieved an economy-wide analysis, and only 5% of the studies were able to quantify the global impacts of products using LCSA framework. Furthermore, current applications of LCSA have not considered the rebound effects, feedback mechanisms, and interrelations of the system of interest sufficiently. To address these challenges, we present a complete discussion about the overarching role of systems thinking to bring tools, methods and disciplines together, and provide practical examples from the earlier studies that have employed various system-based methods. We discuss the importance of integrated system-based methods for advancement of LCSA framework in the following directions: (1) regional and global level LCSA models using multi-region input-output analysis that is capable of quantitatively capturing macro-level social, environmental, and economic impacts; (2) dealing with uncertainties in LCSA during multi-criteria decision-making process and expert judgments in weighting of LCSA indicators; and (3) integration of system dynamics modeling to reveal complex interconnections, dependencies, and causal relationships between sustainability indicators.

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Section: 2broadening the Scope Of System Boundary And Indicators: mentioning

confidence: 99%

Systems Thinking for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: A Review of Recent Developments, Applications, and Future Perspectives

et al. 2017

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“…In general, previous studies on the sustainability assessment methodology have concluded that the three dimensions of sustainability should be applied in assessments in addition to life cycle assessment to support informed decision-making [34][35][36] and that several complementary sustainability indices could be applied due to theoretical or methodological differences between current indices [37]. Previous studies have also addressed the need to develop integrated approaches to sustainability assessment in process industry to support informed decision-making [2][3][4].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Piloting of Sustainability Assessment Metrics for Arctic Process Industry in Finland—The Biorefinery Investment and Slag Processing Service Cases

Husgafvel

Poikela²,

Honkatukia

et al. 2017

Sustainability

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Abstract:Regionally, there has been a lot of focus on the advancement of sustainable arctic industry and circular economy activities within process industry in the Finnish Lapland. In this study, collaboration between university and industry was established facilitated by regional development actors to develop and pilot test a sustainability assessment approach taking into account previous work in this field. The industry partners in this study were a biorefinery investment in the first case and a slag processing service in the second case. As a result of the joint efforts, novel sets of environmental and economic sustainability assessment indicators and associated sub-indicators were developed and the existing set of social indicators was updated. Moreover, environmental and social sustainability assessments were implemented in the biorefinery case accompanied by a separate evaluation of regional economic impacts. In the slag processing case, environmental, economic and social sustainability were assessed. The results of the sustainability assessments indicated very good level of overall performance in both cases. However, specific elements that contributed to lower level of performance included lack of specific sustainability management and reporting approaches and need for better performance in supply chain sustainability, monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions, life cycle thinking and circular economy training. The expected effects of the planned investment on the regional economy were very positive based on the results of the evaluation.

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“…The authors suggest a graphical representation of the analysis aiming at simplifying the communication for decisionmakers. Santoyo-Castelazo and Azapagic [46] suggest using LCA within their decision-support framework for assessing energy systems. Berrill et al [52] …”

Section: Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Santoyo-Castelazo and Azapagic [46] apply MCDA to the case of electricity supply in Mexico. They first analyse 11 different explorative scenarios for 2050 with various technologies, electricity mixes and reduction of climate emissions.…”

Section: Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (Mcda)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The MCDA was first done by weighting these 12 criteria evenly. Then, as a sensitivity analysis, and to reflect the different preferences of the stakeholders involved (such as industry or government), different weights were given to three most important criteria across stakeholders, i.e., climate change (GWP), human toxicity (HTP) and costs (annualised) [46].…”

Section: Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (Mcda)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Methods for assessing future scenarios from a sustainability perspective

et al. 2017

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Future scenarios are often used to address long-term challenges characterised by uncertainty and complexity, as they can help explore different alternative future pathways. Scenarios can therefore be a useful tool to support policy and guide action towards sustainability. But what sustainability aspects are put forward in scenarios and how are they assessed? This paper aims to explore how to assess future scenarios, categorised according to Börjeson et al. (Futures 38:723-739, 2006) i.e. predictive, explorative and normative scenarios. By conducting a literature review and a document analysis, we map tools and methods that are currently used to assess environmental and social sustainability aspects in scenarios. We also draw on experiences from methods for impact assessments of Swedish municipal comprehensive plans, which can be considered as future scenarios. We identify whether some sustainability aspects are less recurrent than others in the reviewed assessments or even left out. We find that there is no single tool that can be used to assess scenarios. Some quantitative tools based on databases may be more suitable for assessing scenarios within a shorter time horizon, whereas qualitative assessment methods might better fit the purpose of long-term transformative scenarios. We also find that assessment frameworks may be useful to guide the assessment, as to what its intended purpose is and which sustainability aspects to include. Finally we discuss whether further assessment tools are needed in order to include a wider array of potential environmental or social consequences of the content of scenarios.

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Sustainability assessment of energy systems: integrating environmental, economic and social aspects

Cited by 463 publications

References 43 publications

Systems Thinking for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: A Review of Recent Developments, Applications, and Future Perspectives

Systems Thinking for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: A Review of Recent Developments, Applications, and Future Perspectives

Development and Piloting of Sustainability Assessment Metrics for Arctic Process Industry in Finland—The Biorefinery Investment and Slag Processing Service Cases

Methods for assessing future scenarios from a sustainability perspective

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