Absolute environmental sustainability assessments of long-lived systems: A review of challenges with the representation of time and future research directions

IF 9.6 1区 环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Caroline Amalie Clausen , Michael Zwicky Hauschild , Anders Bjørn
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Abstract

In Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment (AESA) various changes over time in e.g., technologies, environmental conditions, and socio-economic conditions are typically not explicitly considered. This may lead to a risk of invalid results and conclusions in assessments of product systems with a long lifetime (e.g., buildings), on the extent to which its future environmental impacts will be low enough. The aim of this study is to identify possible changes to AESA for improved representation of different types of changes throughout the lifetime of long-lived systems. First, we carried out a meta review of existing reviews of AESAs and dynamic life cycle assessments (LCAs) to compile pre-identified challenges related to the time dimension. Second, we identified and reviewed relevant AESA studies that specifically focus on long-lived systems to identify the current practices.
We identified 52 time-related challenges from the meta review and grouped them according to methodological- and stakeholder relevance. Most challenges are relevant for LCA development, including for researchers and practitioners. We found that most of the 14 identified AESA studies of long-lived systems focus on the representation of changes over time in the life cycle inventory phase, while changes over time in characterization factors, carrying capacities and the data for sharing the carrying capacities are rarely considered. Lastly, we offer suggestions for improvements to the current practice of AESA that can potentially address the identified challenges, such as consistent use of future scenarios (e.g., the shared socioeconomic pathways) throughout the phases of an AESA, e.g., for estimating prospective characterization factors and carrying capacities, and for sharing the carrying capacities. Our study contributes to the field of AESA by highlighting critical areas in need of future research to enable appropriate representation of time in studies of long-lived systems.
长寿命系统的绝对环境可持续性评估:时间表征和未来研究方向的挑战综述
在绝对环境可持续性评估(AESA)中,通常没有明确考虑技术、环境条件和社会经济条件等随时间的各种变化。这可能导致在评估具有长寿命的产品系统(例如,建筑物)时,在其未来环境影响足够低的程度上产生无效结果和结论的风险。本研究的目的是确定AESA的可能变化,以改进长寿命系统整个生命周期中不同类型变化的表示。首先,我们对现有的AESAs和动态生命周期评估(lca)进行了meta综述,以编制与时间维度相关的预先确定的挑战。其次,我们确定并回顾了相关的AESA研究,这些研究特别关注长寿命系统,以确定当前的做法。我们从meta综述中确定了52个与时间相关的挑战,并根据方法和利益相关者的相关性对它们进行了分组。大多数挑战与LCA发展相关,包括研究人员和实践者。我们发现,在已确定的14个长寿命系统的AESA研究中,大多数都集中在生命周期库存阶段随时间变化的表示上,而表征因素、承载能力和共享承载能力的数据随时间的变化很少被考虑。最后,我们提出了改进当前AESA实践的建议,这些建议可以潜在地解决已确定的挑战,例如在AESA的整个阶段一致地使用未来情景(例如,共享的社会经济途径),例如,用于估计预期表征因素和承载能力,以及共享承载能力。我们的研究通过强调未来需要研究的关键领域来促进AESA领域的发展,以便在长寿命系统的研究中适当地表示时间。
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来源期刊
Sustainable Production and Consumption
Sustainable Production and Consumption Environmental Science-Environmental Engineering
CiteScore
17.40
自引率
7.40%
发文量
389
审稿时长
13 days
期刊介绍: Sustainable production and consumption refers to the production and utilization of goods and services in a way that benefits society, is economically viable, and has minimal environmental impact throughout its entire lifespan. Our journal is dedicated to publishing top-notch interdisciplinary research and practical studies in this emerging field. We take a distinctive approach by examining the interplay between technology, consumption patterns, and policy to identify sustainable solutions for both production and consumption systems.
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