Francesca Verones

Norwegian University of Science and Technology | NTNU · Industrial Ecology Programme

Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a robust approach to estimate the environmental impacts of an offshore wind farm (OWF). However, methodological hurdles remain, particularly the lack of appropriate indicators to assess ecosystem impacts during OWF construction and operation and the scarcity of marine ecological data. To address the lack of in...

Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) distinguishes three types of water use: (1) consumptive water use, (2) degradative water use, and (3) in-stream water use. When it comes to assessing the impact of turbine water use (TWU, major source of in-stream water use) in LCA, so far, no method exists to quantify the related environmental impacts. Here, we...

The global shift towards renewable energy plays an important role in fighting climate change. To facilitate the global growth of renewable energy production, the expansion of the electric grid becomes inevitable. Yet further construction of power lines poses a risk to biodiversity. Power lines traverse natural habitats and can lead to habitat conve...

Purpose Marine vertebrate populations have halved in the past decades, and invasive species are a major driver for this loss. While many model the spread of invasive species, a model to assess impacts of marine invasions, after introduction, has hitherto been missing. We present the first regionalized effect factors for marine invasions. These fact...

The growing environmental consequences caused by plastic pollution highlight the need for a better understanding of plastic polymer cycles and their associated additives. We present a novel, comprehensive top-down method using inflow-driven dynamic probabilistic material flow analysis (DPMFA) to map the plastic cycle in coastal countries. For the f...

The expansion of the electric grid is inevitable. Renewable energy is on the rise, and new transmission lines must be built to link new electricity production facilities with the local network. In addition, higher electricity demand due to electrification will lead to the growth of the distribution grid. However, further construction of power lines...

Comprehensive but interpretable assessment of the environmental performance of diets involves choosing a set of appropriate indicators. Current knowledge and data gaps on the origin of dietary foodstuffs restrict use of indicators relying on site-specific information. This Personal View summarises commonly used indicators for assessing the environm...

Abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), significantly impacts marine ecosystems and biodiversity by incidental capture known as ghost fishing. Such impacts were quantified during the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries' annual ALDFG cleanup operation in September 2023 by examining the characteristics of retrieved ALDFG and recording the...

Alien species form one of the main threats to global biodiversity. Although Life Cycle Assessment attempts to holistically assess environmental impacts of products and services across value chains, ecological impacts of the introduction of alien species are so far not assessed in Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Here, we developed country-to-country-s...

Biodiversity and ecosystem services are vital for humanity. We explain what these terms encompass and show examples of their relevance for our well-being. However, we are currently losing species at unprecedented rates due to a variety of human pressures, such as habitat loss, pollution, or climate change. This makes it very important to be able to...

Invasive species are the second most important reason for species extinction since 1500 ad . In addition, these invasive species can cause vast economic loss. In marine ecoregions, alien species introductions are increasing, and those that become invasive have caused profound changes in many marine ecoregions. We compiled a database consisting of i...

Land use is a major threat to terrestrial biodiversity. Life cycle assessment is a tool that can assess such threats and thereby support environmental decision-making. Within the Global Guidance for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (GLAM) project, the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment aims to create a life cycle impact assessment method ac...

In life-cycle impact assessment, currently available characterisation factors (CF) for climate change impacts on biodiversity are highly simplified and do not consider spatial and taxonomic differentiation of species or local climate variability. We develop the first spatially and taxonomically specific CFs for the impacts of 20 GHGs on biodiversit...

Several water footprint indicators have been developed to curb freshwater stress. Volumetric footprints support water allocation decisions and strive to increase water productivity in all sectors. In contrast, impact-oriented footprints are used to minimize the impacts of water use on human health, ecosystems, and freshwater resources. Efforts to c...

Ongoing efforts focus on quantifying plastic pollution and describing and estimating the related magnitude of exposure and impacts on human and environmental health. Data gathered during such work usually follows a receptor perspective. However, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) represents an emitter perspective. This study examines existing data gatheri...

Reduced river discharge and flow regulation are significant threats to freshwater biodiversity. An accurate representation of potential damage of water consumption on freshwater biodiversity is required to quantify and compare the environmental impacts of global value chains. The effect of discharge reduction on fish species richness was previously...

Human activities put pressure on the natural environmental and the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (LCA) is becoming a more prevalent tool to assess the relevant environmental impacts from products and processes on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems. The Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method (GLAM) project of the Life Cycle Initia...

Water temperature is an abiotic master variable for the survival of aquatic organisms. Global warming alters the thermal regimes of rivers and, thus, poses a threat to freshwater biodiversity. To address the impacts of water temperature changes related to global warming on freshwater fish species in life cycle assessment (LCA), we developed spatial...

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is essential for practical and theoretical efforts to protect biodiversity. However, species classified as “Data Deficient” (DD) regularly mislead practitioners due to their uncertain extinction risk. Here we present machine learning-derived probabilities of being threatened by extinction for 7699 DD species,...

Purpose An adequate matching between the nomenclature of elementary flows in life cycle inventory (LCI) databases and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods is key for ensuring the proper application of life cycle assessment (LCA). However, the nomenclature of elementary flows lacks harmonization among the LCA community. This paper aims at def...

Besides being central for understanding both global biodiversity patterns and associated anthropogenic impacts, species range maps are currently only available for a small subset of global biodiversity. Here, we provide a set of assembled spatial data for terrestrial vascular plants listed at the global IUCN red list. The dataset consists of pre-de...

Marine animals have been known to interact with and become entangled in plastic debris for decades. Despite increasing annual input volumes of plastic waste to the natural environment and the threat this constitutes to marine biodiversity, impacts of mismanaged plastic waste generally remain unquantified in environmental impact assessments. In this...

Several water footprint indicators have been developed to curb freshwater stress. Volumetric footprints support water allocation decisions and strive to increase water productivity in all sectors. In contrast, impact-oriented footprints focus on minimizing the impacts of water use on human health, ecosystems, and freshwater resources. Efforts to co...

Purpose Marine litter, mostly plastics, is a growing environmental problem. Environmental decision makers are beginning to take actions and implement regulations that aim to reduce plastic use and waste mismanagement. Nevertheless, life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool commonly used to assist environmental decision making, does not yet allow for cons...

Global biodiversity is increasingly threatened by anthropogenic environmental change. While there is mounting evidence that habitat loss is a key threat to biodiversity, global assessments typically ignore additional threats from habitat fragmentation. Here, we present a species-area model that integrates habitat size and connectivity, considering...

While wind energy remains a preferred source of renewable energy, understanding the full spectrum of impacts are vital to balance climate-related benefits against their costs to biodiversity. Environmental impact assessments often fail to assess cumulative effects at larger spatial scales. In this respect, life cycle assessments are better suited,...

Human land use is one of the primary threats to terrestrial species richness and is considered a priority for meeting global sustainability and biodiversity targets. Decision-support tools, such as life cycle assessment (LCA), are widely used for developing strategies to achieve such objectives. Currently available life cycle impact assessment (LCI...

Rising incomes (and associated expenditures) have been shown to be a major driver of environmental problems. Lately, several studies have pointed to a break between the income driver and biodiversity loss on a per-capita level. The increase in land-use efficiency is pointed to as a key factor in this decoupling. However, a lot of the previous work...

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will probably include a goal to stabilize and restore the status of species. Its delivery would be facilitated by making the actions required to halt and reverse species loss spatially explicit. Here, we develop a species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) metric...

The transformation of a river into a reservoir and the subsequent occupation of the riverbed by a reservoir can impact freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity. We used the National Lake Assessment (134 reservoirs) and the National Rivers and Streams Assessment (2062 rivers and streams) of the United States Environmental Protection Agency in or...

Further reservoir-based hydropower development can contribute to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) on affordable and clean energy, and climate action. However, hydropower reservoir operation can lead to biodiversity impacts, thus interfering with the SDGs on clean water and life on land. We combine a high-resolution, location...

Globally, shrimp aquaculture has undergone a rapid development in the last decades, as it can help to satisfy the increasing food demand of a growing population. However, shrimp production can be accompanied by environmental impacts, such as land cover changes associated with pond construction, or the degradation of coastal areas through pollution....

Between 1992 and 2015, nearly 148 million hectares (Mha) within biodiversity hotspots – biologically rich but threatened terrestrial regions – worldwide underwent land‐cover changes, equating to 6% of the total areal extent of hotspots. Forest losses in hotspots amounted to 54 Mha (–7% of the forest area present in 1992), driven primarily by agricu...

Wind energy development continues to expand rapidly to meet international climate targets. However, these developments impact biodiversity and associated sustainability targets negatively. Environmental impact assessments (EIA) predominately focus on site-specific impacts; failing to account for cumulative impacts at larger spatial scales. Life cyc...

The article [ReCiPe2016: a harmonised life cycle impact assessment method at midpoint and endpoint level], written by [Mark A. J. Huijbregts · Zoran J. N. Steinmann · Pieter M. F. Elshout · Gea Stam · Francesca Verones · Marisa Vieira · Michiel Zijp · Anne Hollander · Rosalie van Zelm], was originally published Online First without Open Access. Aft...

Biodiversity hotspots are the most biologically rich, yet threatened, terrestrial regions. From 1992 to 2015, they underwent 148 Mha of land cover changes, including forest losses (56 Mha, of which 40 Mha caused by agricultural expansion), declines of shrubland or savannah (23 Mha), and urbanization (10 Mha). The three largest losses in forest area...

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is a lively field of research, and data and models are continuously improved in terms of impact pathways covered, reliability, and spatial detail. However, many of these advancements are scattered throughout the scientific literature, making it difficult for practitioners to apply the new models. Here, we present...

Life cycle interpretation is the fourth and last phase of life cycle assessment (LCA). Being a “pivot” phase linking all other phases and the conclusions and recommendations from an LCA study, it represents a challenging task for practitioners, who miss harmonized guidelines that are sufficiently complete, detailed, and practical to conduct its dif...

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes can pose profound impacts on wildlife habitats, abundance and distribution and on human-dominated landscapes. We investigated LULC changes in the Greater Serengeti ecosystem, Tanzania, for a period of 41 years from 1975 to 2015. Specifically, we mapped LULC types for 1975, 1995 and 2015 and assessed the corres...

Understanding habitat quality and its dynamics is imperative for maintaining healthy wildlife populations and ecosystems. We mapped and evaluated changes in habitat quality (1975–2015) in the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem of northern Tanzania using the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. This is the first habi...

Biodiversity footprinting links consumers to the biodiversity pressure their consumption induces, thereby informing choices and enabling participation in remediation measures. In order for countries, cities and households to reduce their impacts it is useful to know more precisely what the various drivers of their footprints are. Here we ask: do ur...

Purpose The biosphere is progressively subjected to a variety of pressures resulting from anthropogenic activities. Habitat conversion, resulting from anthropogenic land use, is considered the dominant factor driving terrestrial biodiversity loss. Hence, adequate modelling of land use impacts on biodiversity in decision-support tools, like life cyc...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for analyzing and comparing environmental impacts of products throughout their life cycles, facilitating shifts towards more environmentally friendly products. However, LCA does currently not address terrestrial biodiversity impacts related to the conversion of terrestrial habitat into aquatic habitat. This con...

Whether it is for water supply, flood control or hydropower uses, the transformation of a river into a reservoir can impact freshwater ecosystems and their biodiversity. Using the National Lake Assessment (NLA; 148 reservoirs) and the National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA; 2121 rivers and streams) of the United States Environmental Protectio...

There is currently no life cycle impact assessment method for including impacts arising from plastic waste on the marine ecosystems where it accumulates. This limits the appropriateness and validity of resulting LCA rankings for plastic products especially. We develop an effect factor modelling approach for the impact pathway ‘entanglement in macro...

The assessment of ecosystem services (ES) is covered in a fragmented manner by environmental decision support tools that provide information about the potential environmental impacts of supply chains and their products, such as the well-known life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Within the flagship project of the Life Cycle Initiative (hosted b...

Purpose Regionalized life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) has rapidly developed in the past decade, though its widespread application, robustness, and validity still face multiple challenges. Under the umbrella of UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, a dedicated cross-cutting working group on regionalized LCIA aims to provide an overview of the status...

Because the biosphere is highly heterogeneous, species diversity impacts are typically assessed at local or regional scales. Since regional species richness impact metrics refer to different species compositions, they cannot be easily compared or aggregated to global impacts. Translating regional species richness impacts into global impacts allows...

Plastic waste from anthropogenic activities is accumulating in the marine environment and poses a threat to marine biodiversity. Nevertheless, tools to assess the potential ecosystem damage from plastic waste are currently lacking from sustainability assessment approaches, such as life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies. However, despite incomple...

It has been argued that the trade of water intensive crops may be beneficial as it helps alleviate regional differences in water scarcity by effectively transporting moisture from humid regions to arid ones. However, the incentive to grow export crops can also intensify pressure on local water resources. Water abstraction for use in growing cash cr...

Compared to conventional energy technologies, hydropower has the lowest carbon emissions per kWh. Therefore, hydropower electricity production can contribute to combat climate change challenges. However, hydropower electricity production may at the same time contribute to environmental impacts and has been characterized as a large water consumer wi...

Purpose Guidance is needed on best-suited indicators to quantify and monitor the man-made impacts on human health, biodiversity and resources. Therefore, the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative initiated a global consensus process to agree on an updated overall life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework and to recommend a non-comprehensive list of...