Towards Net Zero Carbon Initiatives A Life Cycle Assessment Perspective

As industrialized nations look into emerging new technologies focusing on renewable or efficient energy use — along with the move towards Sustainable Development Goals — challenges related to achieving low carbon economy projects have gained much attention. This book explores various initiatives and potential methods to achieve net-zero carbon targets and issues.Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will play an important role as an effective and comprehensive method to analyze potential greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts of a technology or system. LCA is a holistic and system-wide scientific method that can be used to quantify impact metrics chosen to evaluate any emerging Net-Zero Carbon technologies of interest, and reveal environmental trade-offs or further research opportunities that are required for balancing CO2 emissions. LCA perspectives of Net-Zero Carbon Technologies can also be used to outline decision-making strategies for a nation's shift towards low carbon economic development.

This book discusses the concepts, methods and case studies pertaining to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based Carbon Footprint Assessment. It covers chapters on Carbon Footprint Assessment with LCA methodology & case studies on carbon footprint calculation following the LCA approach on power plants in India, Impacts of Vehicle Incidents On CO2 Emissions and school buildings in India.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an established methodology used to quantify the environmental impacts of products, processes and services. Circular economy (CE) thinking is conceptual way of considering the impacts of consuming resources. By taking a closed loop approach, CE provides a framework for influencing behaviours and practices to minimise this impact. Development of the circular economy is a crucial component in the progression towards future sustainability. This book provides a robust systematic approach to the circular economy concept, using the established methodology of LCA. Including chapters on circular economic thinking, the use of LCA as a metric and linking LCA to the wider circular economy, this book utilises case studies to illustrate the approaches to LCA. With contributions from researchers worldwide, Life Cycle Assessment provides a practical, global guide for those who wish to use LCA as a research tool or to inform policy, process, and product improvement.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has developed in Australia over the last 20 years into a technique for systematically identifying the resource flows and environmental impacts associated with the provision of products and services. Interest in LCA has accelerated alongside growing demand to assess and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across different manufacturing and service sectors. Life Cycle Assessment focuses on the reflective practice of LCA, and provides critical insight into the technique and how it can be used as a problem-solving tool. It describes the distinctive strengths and limitations of LCA, with an emphasis on practice in Australia, as well as the application of LCA in waste management, the built environment, water and agriculture. Supported by examples and case studies, each chapter investigates contemporary challenges for environmental assessment and performance improvement in these key sectors. LCA methodologies are compared to the emerging climate change mitigation policy and practice techniques, and the uptake of ‘quick’ LCA and management tools are considered in the light of current and changing environmental agendas. The authors also debate the future prospects for LCA technique and applications.

This book is a uniquely pedagogical while still comprehensive state-of-the-art description of LCA-methodology and its broad range of applications. The five parts of the book conveniently provide: I) the history and context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with its central role as quantitative and scientifically-based tool supporting society’s transitioning towards a sustainable economy; II) all there is to know about LCA methodology illustrated by a red-thread example which evolves as the reader advances; III) a wealth of information on a broad range of LCA applications with dedicated chapters on policy development, prospective LCA, life cycle management, waste, energy, construction and building, nanotechnology, agrifood, transport, and LCA-related concepts such as footprinting, ecolabelling,design for environment, and cradle to cradle. IV) A cookbook giving the reader recipes for all the concrete actions needed to perform an LCA. V) An appendix with an LCA report template, a full example LCA report serving as inspiration for students who write their first LCA report, and a more detailed overview of existing LCIA methods and their similarities and differences.

Environmental life cycle assessment is often thought of as cradle to grave and therefore as the most complete accounting of the environmental costs and benefits of a product or service. However, as anyone who has done an environmental life cycle assessment knows, existing tools have many problems: data is difficult to assemble and life cycle studies take months of effort. A truly comprehensive analysis is prohibitive, so analysts are often forced to simply ignore many facets of life cycle impacts. But the focus on one aspect of a product or service can result in misleading indications if that aspect is benign while other aspects pollute or are otherwise unsustainable. This book summarizes the EIO-LCA method, explains its use in relation to other life cycle assessment models, and provides sample applications and extensions of the model into novel areas. A final chapter explains the free, easy-to-use software tool available on a companion website. (www.eiolca.net) The software tool provides a wealth of data, summarizing the current U.S. economy in 500 sectors with information on energy and materials use, pollution and greenhouse gas discharges, and other attributes like associated occupational deaths and injuries. The joint project of twelve faculty members and over 20 students working together over the past ten years at the Green Design Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the EIO-LCA has been applied to a wide range of products and services. It will prove useful for research, industry, and in economics, engineering, or interdisciplinary classes in green design.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is internationally accepted as a core topic in the field of environmental management in various industries for obtaining a complete picture of the environmental impacts of products or processes. In contrast to other types of environmental management tools or sustainability assessment methods, LCA methodologies take a holistic approach to include all relevant processes starting from the extraction of natural resources to various manufacturing stages that lead to the final product.Following an evidence-approach, LCA is underpinned by quantitative methodologies to study real-world problems and uncover 'hidden' impacts beyond the conventional boundary of a single-stage manufacturing system, to develop sustainable strategies that consider regional or global production chains.This book offers multi-disciplinary perspectives of new LCA developments and applications, spanning from data variability to ecosystem services, plus the evaluation of the net greenhouse gas from Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) methods and waste management. Perspectives of green chemistry principles via LCA, combined with life cycle atom economy approaches are explored. Industrial symbiosis concepts, LCA as an Entrepreneurial Tool for Business Management and Green Innovations, and blockchain-enabled LCA are also presented.

26 Circular economy and regional implications -- 27 Life cycle management for regional development in France: Example of building sector -- 28 From product LCAs to territorial LCAs: Methodological principles -- 29 Integrated life cycle and risk assessment of human health impacts in Catalonia -- 30 LCA application in regional waste management in Chile -- 31 Water footprint assessment at the regional level -- 32 Carbon footprint of biofuels -- 33 Sustainable procurement based on life cycle costing -- 34 Sustainability performance in industrial parks -- 35 Sustainable redevelopment of degraded land and landscapes -- Part V: Integrated use of life cycle approaches in key economic sectors -- 36 Sustainable agri-food chains and LCA -- 37 Integration of LCA, LCC, and SLCA methods for assessing a bioeconomy region -- 38 Responsible mining - from a life cycle to a stewardship approach -- 39 Trends and considerations of renewable energy development: A regional perspective -- 40 Closing the loop: The example of packaging -- 41 Life cycle aspects of the Walloon wood sector -- 42 Global warming assessment of Himalayan buildings -- 43 Integrated waste management and resource recovery in India -- 44 Biodiversity restoration and sustainable tourism in south-western Australia -- Part VI: Life cycle perspectives for regional socio-economic development -- 45 Synthesis - life cycle approaches and perspectives for sustainable regional development -- Index