Risto Soukka

Uncertainty and Sensitivity in the Carbon Footprint of Shopping Bags

Carbon footprints for several shopping bag alternatives (polyethylene, paper, cotton, biodegradable modified starch, and recycled polyethylene) were compared with life cycle assessment. Stochastic uncertainty analysis was used to study the sensitivity of the comparison to scenario and parameter uncertainty. On the basis of the results, we could give only a few robust conclusions without choosing a waste treatment scenario or limiting the parameter space. Given the scenario of current waste infrastructure in Finland, recycled polyethylene bags seem to be the most preferable (−7 to 24 g CO eq./bag) and biodegradable bags the least preferable (38 to 60 g CO eq./bag) option. In each analyzed waste treatment scenario, a few parameters dominated the uncertainty of results. Most of these parameters were downstream of the shopping bag manufacturing (consumer behavior, landfill conditions, method of waste combustion, etc.). The choice of waste treatment scenario had a greater effect on the ranking of bags than parameter uncertainty within scenarios. This result highlights the importance of including several scenarios in comparative life cycle assessments.

Role of Packaging in LCA of Food Products

This article presents the results from life cycle assessment case studies of packed food products made in the Futupack2010EKO Project, where environmental impacts of different food packaging options were investigated. Also environmental impact scenarios resulting from the unutilised food supply caused by food wasted in households as a function of different sizes of packaging were included. The studied environmental impacts were climate change, eutrophication and acidification. A consumer survey was carried out to determine and model the amount of food waste from consumers. The results of the LCA case studies showed that the production chain of the wasted food was usually a more significant source of environmental impacts than the packaging production chain. Packaging solutions that minimise the generation of food will lead to the lowest amount of total environmental impacts over the entire product-packaging-chain.

Methods for reducing buyer perceived risk related to the adoption of technological innovations

Industrial technology suppliers marketing and selling technological innovations need to be able to reduce buyer perceived risk. Innovation buyers face high perceived risks, especially in the initiation and implementation phases of innovation adoption. We deliver insights on risk reduction tools by examining the case of a monitoring system innovation designed to enhance process efficiency in an electrolytic copper refining process. We examine the case from both the buyer and seller perspective and propose concrete methods that sellers can employ to reduce buyer perceived risk. At the initiation phase, we illustrate a life cycle-based tool for performance assessment. In the implementation phase, we identify three key supplier processes namely adaptation, championing, and cooperative implementation that may facilitate the buying firms successful implementation of the innovation. The findings provide more in-depth understanding about the role of risk reduction in the marketing and procurement of technological innovations.

Biogenic carbon emissions of integrated ethanol production.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present greenhouse gas study results for biofuels produced with partial qualified utilisation of pulp wood or forest residues when integrated into kraft pulp mill systems. The impact of considering biogenic carbon on the results is also presented.Design/methodology/approach – The material and energy balances of the integrated ethanol production were simulated for the study with a mill‐wide simulation model. Data for the simulation were obtained from prehydrolysis and cooking experiments. The life cycle model for greenhouse gas calculation was created based on the simulation results. In this paper, the change of forest carbon stock caused by residue removal from forest soil and carbon delay of forest growth after stand felling were also taken into consideration, to discuss the true greenhouse gas emissions of forest biomass utilisation.Findings – The emission reduction levels achieved with these ethanol fuels derived from forest biomass ranged from 80 to 90 per cen...

Neural networks in process life cycle profit modelling

Changes in operational environment of the process industry such as decreasing selling prices, increased competition between companies and new legislation, set requirements for performance and effectiveness of the industrial production lines and processes. For the basis of this study, a life cycle profit (LCP) model of a pulp process was constructed using different kind of process information including chemical consumptions and production levels of material and energy flows in unit processes. However, all the information needed in the creation of relevant LCP model was not directly provided by information systems of the plant. In this study, neural networks was used to model pulp bleaching process and fill out missing information and furthermore to create estimators for the alkaline chemical consumption. A data-based modelling approach was applied using an example, where factors affecting the sodium hydroxide consumption in the bleaching stage were solved. The results showed that raw process data can be refined into new valuable information using computational methods and moreover to improve the accuracy of life cycle profit models.

Assessing product environmental performance with PEF methodology: reliability, comparability, and cost concerns

PurposeThe Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method was launched by the European Commission to harmonize the measurement of the product’s environmental performance. The PEF aims to increase the supply of green products in EU markets by lowering the cost of measuring the product’s environmental performance, enabling reliable environmental claims, and conducting proper product comparison. This study assesses whether the methodological choices of PEF enable reliable and comparable PEF studies to be conducted in a cost-efficient way.MethodsThe PEF was compared with ISO 14044, ISO/TS 14067, and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard to identify the differences in the methodological choices. From a practical perspective, the possible challenges for PEF that could not be identified by a method comparison were obtained via interviews. The interviewees were company representatives participating in a 3-year PEF pilot phase to create Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR). To discover the possible advantages and disadvantages of the PEF, the methodological choices for PEF itself were assessed from the standpoints of reliability, comparability, and cost. In conclusion, some proposals for improvements have been suggested.Results and discussionThe impact assessment phase, i.e., some of the predefined impact assessment methods, together with a selected normalization method include disadvantages as regards reliability and comparability. They are not sufficiently mature to properly reflect both the product studied and its potential environmental impact. From a cost perspective, the inventory analysis phase increases the workload due to the cutoff ban, the numerous predefined impact assessment categories, and the data quality assessment of all data. However, the predefined issues, e.g., requirements for data quality to be determined in PEFCRs, could also increase the comparability and lower the costs of the PEF study, since these need not be determined separately for each study. Additionally, the reliability maybe increased due to the data quality assessment of all data.ConclusionsCurrently, in the PEFs 3-year pilot phase, both advantages and disadvantages exist as regards reliability, costs, and comparability. Since PEF aims are important, the Commission and PEFCR developers should devote time to finding the most appropriate methodological choices and continue developing the method further. It is important to find a balance between comparability, reliability, and costs. Additionally, the current issues and characteristics of EU green products market should be taken into account when implementing PEF.

Peat Production in High-Emission Level Peatlands - A Key to Reducing Climatic Impacts?

Both peat utilization and peatlands themselves contribute to increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article examines how peatlands with naturally high GHG emission levels affect net GHG emissions during the life cycle of peat. GHG emissions were measured from three drained peatland sites with high GHG emission levels. The impact of peatland type on the GHG emissions was considered when peat was assumed to replace coal in an energy production facility. The emission reduction levels achieved with the use of peat fuel originating from high-emission level peatlands stood at 35% compared to coal use and 30% compared to the average peat emission value. The findings indicate that GHG emissions can be reduced overall when peat from high-emission peatlands is utilized instead of coal. Lower emissions are primarily achieved because the harvesting of peat from high-emission level peatlands reduces the GHG emission levels of those lands.

DATA-BASED APPROACHES IMPROVING THE ACCURACY OF LIFE CYCLE PROFIT MODELS

Abstract Changes in operational environment of the process industry such as decreasing selling prices, increased competition between companies and new legislation, set requirements for performance and effectiveness of the industrial production lines and processes. In this study, a life cycle profit model of a pulp process was constructed. This model was based on different kind of process information like consumption and production levels of material and energy flows in unit processes. However, all the information needed for correlation calculations was not directly provided by information systems of the mill. Therefore we used correlation analyses and self-organizing map to determine missing dependencies between process variables. These data-based approaches were tested using an example, in which factors affecting the alkaline chemical consumption in the bleaching stage were solved. The results show that these methods can be successfully applied to improve the accuracy of life cycle profit models. Copyright

Business strategies for managing legislative requirements: a case study of legislative sustainability requirements for biofuels in the EU

Businesses employ different strategies to manage legislative requirements; however, there is little science-based understanding of the strategies that are in use. This study introduces a general legislation maturity model for businesses that includes company profiles, strategies and activity levels in relation to legislative requirements. Four strategies, namely defensive, adaptive, proactive and lead, are described through a case study of legislative sustainability requirements for biofuels in the EU that are organised according to their urgency and validity to biofuel producers, and the associated activity levels. This model will help managers to identify the strategies they employ, more systematically select strategies, understand the spatial and temporal scales and more efficiently allocate legislation management resources. The legislation maturity profiles, strategies, activities and urgency-validity framework are applicable in other industries.