Julia Martínez-Blanco

The use of life cycle assessment for the comparison of biowaste composting at home and full scale.

Environmental impacts and gaseous emissions associated to home and industrial composting of the source-separated organic fraction of municipal solid waste have been evaluated using the environmental tool of life cycle assessment (LCA). Experimental data of both scenarios were experimentally collected. The functional unit used was one ton of organic waste. Ammonia, methane and nitrous oxide released from home composting (HC) were more than five times higher than those of industrial composting (IC) but the latter involved within 2 and 53 times more consumption or generation of transport, energy, water, infrastructures, waste and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emissions than HC. Therefore, results indicated that IC was more impacting than HC for four of the impact categories considered (abiotic depletion, ozone layer depletion, photochemical oxidation and cumulative energy demand) and less impacting for the other three (acidification, eutrophication and global warming). Production of composting bin and gaseous emissions are the main responsible for the HC impacts, whereas for IC the main contributions come from collection and transportation of organic waste, electricity consumption, dumped waste and VOCs emission. These results suggest that HC may be an interesting alternative or complement to IC in low density areas of population.

Challenges in Life Cycle Assessment: An Overview of Current Gaps and Research Needs

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of current gaps of and challenges for LCA structured into inventory, impact assessment, generic and evolving aspects. A total of 34 gaps and challenges were identified. These include challenges like ‘allocation’, ‘uncertainty’ or ‘biodiversity’, as well as issues like ‘littering’, ‘animal well-being’ or ‘positive impacts’ which are not covered as often in the existing LCA literature. Each of these gaps is described by a high-level overview of the topic and its relevance to LCA, and the state of the art in terms of literature and potential solutions, if any, is presented.

Scoping organizational LCA—challenges and solutions

PurposeAlthough the largely used life cycle assessment (LCA) was initially targeted for products, it can also be adapted to the organizational level. The resulting methodology is the so-called organizational LCA (O-LCA), introduced by ISO/TS 14072 and being developed by several initiatives. O-LCA’s object of study is the organization and its value chain; it adopts a life cycle approach and assesses a multi-set of environmental impacts. This paper introduces the methodological framework of O-LCA to researchers and practitioners and focuses particularly on the scoping phase.MethodsHere, we discuss the solutions adopted for each identified challenge when accommodating product LCA to organizations. Those critical elements are analyzed and contrasted with main baseline initiatives: primarily product LCA standards and also Organisation Environmental Footprint and GHG Protocol. Additionally, small deviations from ISO/TS 14072 that are proposed by the authors are pointed out and explained. An example was made up to illustrate and support the explanations.Results and discussionO-LCA also follows a four-phase approach, including goal and scope definition, inventory, impact assessment, and interpretation. Although product and O-LCA are comparable, main differences are mostly at the scope level, which is very relevant for the subsequent phases of O-LCA. Function is the main basis for the definition of the unit of analysis in product LCA, while in O-LCA, are the organization and its portfolio, which is unique for each organization. The reporting organization should be described in terms of subject of study, sites that are to be partially or totally considered, and period when the organization is depicted. Finally, as in product LCA, the boundary of the studied system is defined that includes direct and indirect activities along the value chain of the organization.ConclusionsMost principles, requirements, and guidelines of product LCA apply for O-LCA, and the major identified differences are at the unit of analysis and boundary definition level. A cross-divergence that affects the perspective of the two methods is that O-LCA is not foreseen for comparative assertions intended to be disclosed to the public.

Organizational LCA: the new member of the LCA family—introducing the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative guidance document

One of the flagship projects included in the phase III of the UNEP and SETAC’s Life Cycle Initiative partnership is the so-called BLCA of organizations.^ It was kicked off in mid2013, and during the last 2 years, its nearly 70 participants have been drafting and validating the BGuidance on organizational life cycle assessment^ (UNEP 2015). This editorial is the official announcement of the publication of this new UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative product and shortly presents it to the LCA community. Organizational LCA is a relevant and promising newmember of the LCA family. Just like social LCAwas promoted and supported by the publication of the Guidelines for Social LCA (UNEP/SETAC 2009), we expect that the guidance document now launched will serve making organizational LCAwidely applied.

Assessing the Environmental Benefits of Compost Use-on-Land through an LCA Perspective

Due to increasing compost use in agriculture, there is an urgent need to evaluate compost benefits and impacts versus other fertilizers. Here we review the recent progress made in the quantification of positive effects associated with compost use on land using life cycle assessment (LCA), an internationally recognised environmental tool. Nine environmental benefits were identified in an extensive literature review: nutrient supply, carbon sequestration, weed pest and disease suppression, increase in crop yield, decreased soil erosion, retention of soil moisture, increased soil workability, enhanced soil biological properties and biodiversity, and gain in crop nutritional quality. Quantitative figures for each benefit were drawn from the literature and classified into short-term: less than 1 year; mid-term: less than 10 years and long-term: less than 100 years.

Life cycle assessment of flexibly fed biogas processes for an improved demand-oriented biogas supply.

This paper analyses concepts to facilitate a demand oriented biogas supply at an agricultural biogas plant of a capacity of 500kWhel, operated with the co-digestion of maize, grass, rye silage and chicken manure. In contrast to previous studies, environmental impacts of flexible and the traditional baseload operation are compared. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed to detect the environmental impacts of: (i) variety of feedstock co-digestion scenarios by substitution of maize and (ii) loading rate scenarios with a focus on flexible feedstock utilization. Demand-driven biogas production is critical for an overall balanced power supply to the electrical grid. It results in lower amounts of emissions; feedstock loading rate scenarios resulted in 48%, 20%, 11% lower global warming (GWP), acidification (AP) and eutrophication potentials, and a 16% higher cumulative energy demand. Substitution of maize with biogenic-waste regarding to feedstock substitution scenarios could create 10% lower GWP and AP.

Life Cycle Assessment of Organizations

In order to protect the environment in a credible manner, organizations need to rely on stable schemes. The most applied and widespread approaches for environmental assessments at the organization level have only recently considered the full value chain and mostly concentrate on a single aspect. Carbon footprinting, for example, has shown that the environmental impacts beyond the walls of the organization can play an important role in the overall impact of an organization. While life cycle assessment (LCA) was originally conceived to be applicable only for products, its benefits and potential might also be extended for organizational assessme nt. The discussions on the carbon footprint of organizations and the development of the Scope 3-standard of the GHG (greenhouse gas) Protocol promoted the future use of a corporate approach. Several initiatives are on the way for the LCA of organizations: UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative proposes organizational LCA (O-LCA), using as a backbone ISO/TS 14072; moreover, the European Commission launched a guide for the Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF). The main new elements of the methodology are at the scope and inventory phase, when the unit of analysis and the system boundary are defined, as well as the approach for data collection. LCA of organizations may represent a key element in the internal decision-making system of an organization, as it can provide insight on the organization and value chain and identify hotspots where action is more needed. It may also provide information and support the organization for voluntary or mandatory reporting to third parties and in its communication plan. This chapter aims to discuss the need and features of the LCA of organizations, present the several initiatives that currently exist, provide an overview of the technical framework and proposals to streamline the application of the methodology, and finally to illustrate each one with two case studies.

The implementation of organizational LCA to internally manage the environmental impacts of a broad product portfolio: an example for a cosmetics, fragrances, and toiletry provider

PurposeThis paper presents the implementation of O-LCA by a Brazilian cosmetics manufacturer. The case study was developed within the framework of the road testing of the “Guidance on organizational LCA” of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. The aim is to illustrate methodological choices and implementation challenges encountered by the company, i.e., related to the broad product portfolio. The study demonstrates that O-LCA allows quantifying and managing environmental impacts throughout global supply chains and for every individual product.MethodsO-LCA provides the methodological framework for applying LCA to organizations, and a set of application options based on the structure and experience of organizations. The reporting organization is NATURA Brazil in 2013. The 2600 products in the portfolio are modeled in this first exercise of the company through the bestsellers at each of its ten product category groups. A hybrid approach is considered for data collection: top-down approach for modeling corporate activities and bottom-up approach for upstream and downstream life cycle phases. The data sources are NATURA’s recordings, data gathered from suppliers, estimates from mass and energy balances, and life cycle inventory databases. The approach to acquire direct data or use life cycle databases depends on the representativeness of each raw material or packaging.Results and discussionThe results show that major impacts could be detected during use phase that demands water and energy to use rinse-off products (the use phase of NATURA’s products contributed over 41% to most impact categories), and in the supply chain, and generated during the obtaining of plant origin ingredients and materials for packaging. Overall, the whole NATURA had in 2013 a potential impact on climate change of 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 eq, a natural land transformation of 1.3 million m2, and a fossil depletion of 0.23 million tonnes of oil eq, among other impacts. Apart from the results at the organizational level, individual results for product bestsellers were calculated and are presented here.ConclusionsThe study confirmed the applicability of the O-LCA model at NATURA, addressed operational issues related to broad product portfolios, considering several dimensions such as data quality and availability, LCA software, and data management. Despite NATURA’s existing practices and previous knowledge in modeling environmental impacts of products and corporate activities, managing the large amount of data involved prove being a complex task. The company identified gaps and opportunities able to guide future method implementation and LCA-based management.

Launch of a new report: “Road testing organizational life cycle assessment around the world: applications, experiences and lessons learned”

PurposeOrganizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) is still a rather young proposal, but moving towards becoming more broadly accepted as a scientifically mature and practical method. The UNEP/SETAC flagship project “LCA of organizations” concluded its “road-testing” phase and is glad to announce the publication of the final report “Road testing organizational life cycle assessment around the world: applications, experiences and lessons learned.” The full report can be accessed at http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/download/6060. This article shortly summarizes the flagship project phases and main outcomes, particularly the report recently launched, and pinpoints future actions.MethodsIn 2015, the “Guidance on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment” was published. During the following 2 years, the flagship project accompanied 12 organizations in the road testing of that O-LCA Guidance. They represent four world regions, different sectors and sizes. The road testers’ case studies and their feedback are the basis of the Road-testing Report.Results and discussionThe Road-testing Report aims to complement the O-LCA Guidance through the road testers’ experience, thus delivering advice for future practitioners and inspiration to method developers. It includes executive summaries of the O-LCA road testers’ case studies and the main results of a comprehensive survey through which the road testers share their experience, feedback, and lessons learned. The road testing confirmed the application potential of the O-LCA method and the positive outcomes of the road testing have shown that no immediate updates to the O-LCA Guidance are needed, but some priority actions were identified in order to further ease the application of O-LCA.ConclusionsThree main tasks for the coming years are identified by the authors: firstly, the challenges highlighted during the road testing should be addressed in the future by the LCA community; specific methodological difficulties of certain kinds of organizations, like the service sector, should be targeted; and finally, the potential revealed by the organizational perspective can be deployed in adjacent LCA fields. The flagship project team hopes that this second publication, together with the great acceptance of the O-LCA Guidance and the contribution of third parties, will pave the way to make O-LCA a mainstream tool.

Facts and figures from road testing the guidance on organizational life cycle assessment

PurposeOrganizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) is an emerging method to analyze the inputs, outputs, and environmental impacts of an organization throughout its value chain. To facilitate the method’s application, the Guidance on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment was published within the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative and applied by 12 “road-testing” organizations. In this paper, different aspects of the road testers’ studies are displayed and analyzed according to the feedback of the road testers.MethodsAn anonymous survey about the method application was conducted among the road testers. The analysis assessed, among others: (i) which goals the organizations initially pursued and their achievement; (ii) how previous experience with environmental tools contributed to the study design; (iii) which methodological options were chosen (like the scope of the study, data collection approaches, impact assessment methods and tools, and data sources); and (iv) which methodological challenges were faced.Results and discussionThe survey showed that analytical goals were of priority for most road testers and obtained a higher achievement level than managerial and societal goals for which either long-term measures or the inclusion of stakeholders are needed. Previous experience with product- or organization-related tools considering the whole life cycle proves useful due to available data and/or organizational models. The categorization of organizational activities, data collection, data quality assessment, and interpretation proved being the most challenging methodological elements. In addition, three cross-cutting issues of method application were identified: aligning the O-LCA study to previous environmental activities, designing the study, and availability of personnel and software resources.ConclusionsThe road-testing organizations verified the applicability and usefulness of the O-LCA Guidance and significantly widened the pool of case studies available. On the other hand, additional guidance for methodological challenges particular of the organizational level, the availability of software tools able to support O-LCA application, region-specific LCI databases, and a broadly recognized data quality assessment scheme would facilitate conducting O-LCA case studies.