Sustainability life-cycle assessment tools

Depending on the aim of the study, appropriate life-cycle methods and scope have to be chosen [27]. Most of the methods either consider all stages of the ENM or nanoproduct life-cycle, or focus only on specific parts of the life-cycle. For example, some methods focus only on the environmental health effects of ENMs, whereas life-cycle assessment (LCA) focuses on all environmental impacts of a nanoproduct, and thus also includes considerations such as impacts of energy consumption. LCA is essentially a comprehensive tool for environmental sustainability assessment. 

LCC is also used as a tool for triple-bottom-1 ine assessment of the sustainable development where win-win situations and trade-offs are identified by considering LCC in conjunction with life cycle assessment (LCA) and its social impact such as the externalities as shown in Fig. 4. 

The environmental necessity to stop this negative development by switching to alternative strategies independent of fossil resources nowadays is generally undisputed. Already in 1992, the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development explicitly specified the political intention and willingness of most countries to forcefully support the development of bio-based and biocompalible materials. Literally, Principle 4 of the Rio Declaration slates that In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it With the tools of life cycle assessment (LCA) and cleaner production studies, much effort is contemporarily devoted to quantifying the environmental impact and feasibility of processes for production of polymeric materials (Sudesh and Iwala 2008). 

Since life cycle assessment (LCA) can be more than an environmental impact assessment approach, chapter Life Cycle Sustainabiftty Assessment A Holistic Evaluation of Social, Economic, and Environmental Impacts discusses life cycle sustainabiftty assessment. This extends the holistic environmental LCA to account for the economic and social pillars of sustainabiftty. Lastly, chapter Embedding Sustainabiftty in Product and Process Development—The Role of Process Systems Engineers describes the practical role of process systems engineers in the implementation of sustainabiftty in product and process development. It shows some key aspects and tools that practitioners should take into account to design and develop more sustainable products and processes during material selection, process design, process and product modeling, and supply chain implications. 

Use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a Policy Tool in the Field of Sustainable Packaging Waste Management,... 

To determine the environmental impacts of a product or a process, a life cycle assessment is often conducted. Life cycle assessment provides a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the environmental impacts of a product or process throughout its entire life cycle. LCA is a powerful and widely used tool for measuring the sustainability of an enterprise or a concept and informing decisions with respect to sustainability and environmental considerations. Guidelines for conducting an LCA are defined by the ISO 14040 series [ 1 ]. There are four main stages to an LCA ... 

LCA is a usefiil tool for measuring environmental sustainability and identifying environmental performance-improvement objectives [5]. Enviromnental sustainability is about making products that serve usefiil market and societal functions with less environmental impact than cmrently available alternatives. Moreover, environmental sustainabihty necessarily implies a commitment to continuous improvement in environmental performance. The key measurement tool for environmental sustain ility is life cycle assessment. 

As biopolymers capture a larger market share, the measurement of their life cycle environmental impacts will be important to enable consumers and producers to identify more sustainable methods of use, production and disposal for such products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool that quantifies the environmental sustainability of biobased polymers from cradle to grave. ... 

The key measurement tool to assess the enviromnental sustainability of a product is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Life cycle inventory analysis accounts for all inputs and outputs for a particular product and is typically practiced on a cradle-to-grave basis. A key benefit of LCA is the opportunity to benchmark performance against competitor products and processes in the marketplace, both to justify performance claims and to identify operations appropriate for performance improvement efforts. 

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) can be completed at plastics manufacturing operations to understand the effects that manufacturing changes have on the carbon footprint, waste generation, and pollution. LCA can be used to design sustainability into products and processes. LCA can be calculated with the use of an LCA tool provided online (LCA Tool 2013). 

Elter, J., J.S. Cooper (2007) Sustainability tools Applying life cycle assessment A fuel cell case study, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Sustainable Engineering Series, 5th Session. 

The LCA, a tool used for measuring environmental sustainability and identifying environmental performance improvement objectives. Life cycle assessment of biopolymer can be depicted by Figure 4. 

Concluding we may say that not the absolute values of any assessment count, but Life Cycle Assessment should be a participatory process, as it is a good communication and learning tool. By assessing different scenarios a systematic discussion built on agreed upon assumptions with stakeholders and decision makers about optimal solutions for sustainable development becomes possible. 

Kalakul, S., Malakul, R, Siemanond, K., Gani, R. (2014). Integration of life cycle assessment software with tools for economic and sustainability analyses and process simulation for sustainable process design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 17, 98-109. 

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