Finnveden, G.; Hauschild, M.Z.; Ekvall, T.; Guinee, J.; Heijungs, R.; Hellweg, S.; Koehler, A.; Pennington, D.; Suh, S.

Title

Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment

Published in

Journal of Environmental Management, 91, pages 1-21, 2009

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment is a tool to assess the environmental impacts and resources used throughout a product’s life cycle, i.e., from raw material acquisition, via production and use phases, to waste management. The methodological development in LCA has been strong, and LCA is broadly applied in practice. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of recent developments of LCA methods. The focus is on some areas where there has been an intense methodological development during the last years. We also highlight some of the emerging issues. In relation to the Goal and Scope definition we especially discuss the distinction between attributional and consequential LCA. For the Inventory Analysis, this distinction is relevant when discussing system boundaries, data collection, and allocation. Also highlighted are developments concerning databases and Input–Output and hybrid LCA. In the sections on Life Cycle Impact Assessment we discuss the characteristics of the modelling as well as some recent developments for specific impact categories and weighting. In relation to the Interpretation the focus is on uncertainty analysis. Finally, we discuss recent developments in relation to some of the strengths and weaknesses of LCA.

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doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.06.018

Moberg, Åsa
Johansson, Martin
Finnveden, Göran
Jonsson, Alex

Title

Printed and tablet e-paper newspaper from an environmental perspective — A screening life cycle assessment.

Published in

Environmental Impact Assessment Review, doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2009.07.001

Abstract

Viable alternatives to conventional newspapers, such as electronic papers, e-papers or e-readers, are intended to have many of the qualities of paper, such as reading using reflective light, high resolution, 180° viewing angle. It has been suggested that the environmental impact of e-paper can be lower than for printed and internet-based newspapers. However, in order to find the facts of the matter, a thorough life cycle perspective covering raw material acquisition, production, use and disposal should preferably be used to study the environmental performance of the different products. A screening life cycle assessment was performed to describe the potential environmental impacts of two product systems; printed on paper and tablet e-paper newspapers. Results show that the most significant phase of the life cycle for both product systems was the production of substrate or platform. Accordingly, key aspects that may affect the resulting environmental performance of newspaper product systems were for the printed newspaper number of readers per copy and number of pages per issue and for the tablet e-paper newspaper lifetime and multi-use of the device. The printed newspaper in general had a higher energy use, higher emissions of gases contributing to climate change and several other impact categories than the tablet e-paper newspaper. It was concluded that tablet e-paper has the potential to decrease the environmental impact of newspaper consumption. However, further studies regarding the environmental impact of production and waste management of electronic devices and internet use, as well as more comprehensive assessment of toxicological impacts are needed. As the data on the electronic devices becomes more comprehensive this may prove to be a major limitation of electronic newspaper systems. Developers are suggested to strive towards minimisation of toxic and rare substances in production.

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Moberg, Åsa
Johansson, Martin
Finnveden, Göran
Jonsson, Alex

Title

Screening environmental life cycle assessment of printed, web based and tablet e-paper newspaper.

Published in

Report from the KTH Centre for Sustainable Communications, Stockholm, 2009 (Second edition).
TRITA-SUS 2007:1
ISSN: 1654-479X

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Moberg, Å., Borggren, C., Finnveden, G. and Tyskeng, S.

Title

Effects of a total change from paper invoicing to electronic invoicing in Sweden. A screening life cycle assessment focusing on greenhouse gas emissions and cumulative energy demand.

Published in

Report from the KTH Centre for Sustainable Communications, Stockholm 2008.
TRITA-SUS 2008:3
ISSN:1654-479X

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