Life cycle sustainability

Since an assessment on the level of the material is not complete, an assessment on the level of products is required, which covers all life cycle phases, i.e. production, use and end-of-Ufe. Such a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCS) should be the core of an assessment, while it has to be completed by a variety of other tools, which address e.g. compliance with local emission limits and consumer protection regulations. Legal compliance requires other efforts than an overall sustainability assessment. Since compliance is an issue companies have to... 

The following three subsections present the three inter-linked methods Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Engineering (LCE), and Life Cycle Sustainability. LCA will be introduced first since it is subject to an ISO standard and forms the classical core of life cycle studies. The further developments towards LCE and LCS are addressed in the following sections. Links to further reading and other information sources will be given in the text and in the list of references. 

Figure 14 shows the systematic inclusion of social aspects into the Life Cycle Sustainability approach at IKP. The original name LCWT (WT for Working Time ) was changed to LCWE. 

Fig. 14 Life Cycle Sustainability of products according to approach developed at IKP...

Fig. 15 Data collection on level of the unit process for complete Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment...

Wolf M-A, Kupfer T Baitz M (2001) Life cycle sustainability - R D of bio-source based polymers. Fifth conference on ecomaterials, HI, USA, November 2001 IKP, PE (1992-2002) GaBi 4 software system and databases for life cycle engineering. Copyright, TM Stuttgart, Echterdingen... 

FIGURE 61.2 Information flows needed for a complete LCA. (From UNEP/SETAC LCI, Towards a life cycle sustainability assessment Making informed choices on products. Job Number DTI/1412/PA, Stockholm, 86p, 2011.)... 

This standard defines the interdisciplinary tasks that are required throughout a system s life cycle to transform customer needs, requirements, and constraints into a system solution. This document is intended to guide the development of systems (which include humans, computers, and software) for commercial, government, military, and space applications. The information applies to an enterprise within an enterprise that is responsible for developing a product design and establishing the life cycle infrastructure needed to provide for life cycle sustainment. 

Silvenius F, Katajajuuri J, Grdnman K, Koivupuro RHS, Virtanen Y. Role of packaging in LCA of food products. In Finkbeiner M, editor. Towards life Cycle Sustainability Management. Dordrecht Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011. 

Table 14.1 Three Pillars of Life Cycle Sustainability...

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment A Holistic Evaluation of Social, Economic, and Environmental Impacts... 

THREE PILLARS OF SUSTAINABILITY AND THE NEED FOR LIFE CYCLE SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT... 

This study used the PROSUITE endpoint impact assessment method in which all impacts are categorized into five main impacts, including impact on human health, impact on social being, impact on prosperity, impact on natural environment, and impact on exhaustible resources. These impacts are then combined with normalization and weighting to obtain a single sustainability score (see the section Methodologies for Assessing Life Cycle Sustainability). 

In summary, LCSA is a hohstic approach to assess the life cycle sustainability of a product/service, which is inclusive for three pillars of sustainability. It overcomes the difficulty in quantifying social indicators to provide relatively indicative quantitative results. 

Finkbeiner M, Schau EM, Lehmann A, Traverso M. Towards life cycle sustainability assessment. Sustainability 2010 2(10) 3309—22. 

Zamagni A, Buttol P, Buonamici R, Masoni P, Guinee JB, Huppes G, et al. D20 blue paper on life cycle sustainability analysis deliverable 20 of work package 7 of the CALCAS project. 2009 [cited 2014 Aug 10]. Available from http //www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/ssp/publications/calcas report d20.pdf. 

Halog A, Manik Y. Advancing integrated systems modelling framework for life cycle sustainability assessment. Sustainability 2011 3(2) 469—99. 

Schneider L, Lehmann A, Einkbeiner M (2011) Life cycle management konferenz 2011— towards life cycle sustainability management resource 4/2011... 

Mora, E. P. (2007) Life cycle, sustainability and the transcendent quality of building materials, Building and Environment, 42 1329-34. 

Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) adds two elements to an environmental LCA social and economic factors. The term refers to "the evaluation of all environmental, social and economic negative impacts and benefits in decision-making processes towards more sustainable products throughout their life cycle" [93]. 

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