Michael Alan Martin

• PhD Environmental Systems Analysis and Environmental Management
• Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

This study aimed to analyse the environmental performance of a commercial aquaponic system in Sweden. The system produces rainbow trout and 40+ varieties of leafy greens, edible flowers and herbs, about 50 % of which is lettuce, in total about 1200 kgs of plants was sold in 2022. Attributional life cycle assessment was employed to assess the enviro...

To address the pressing need for sustainability in healthcare and reduce plastic waste, this study assesses the environmental and economic impacts of plastic trocars in Stockholm's healthcare sector. Using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) across seven scenarios, the findings reveal that the Reusable-recycling scenario reduce...

Today's globalised agricultural sector poses significant environmental challenges that are expected to worsen with population growth, increased urbanisation, and with the effects of climate change. In this context, vertical farming systems have gained traction as potential solutions to create a more resilient and sustainable food system. This study...

Urban farming initiatives are increasingly considered to contribute to the development of sustainable cities—not only regarding increased circularity and resource efficiency but also to address and improve the social and economic dimensions of city regions’ sustainability. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding upscaling and how urban farm...

Within the current scenario of cropland use and forest surface loss, there is a need for the implementation of viable urban farming systems, e.g., indoor vertical farming (VF). Light management is fundamental in VF, although responses to light spectra are often species-specific. As the interest of consumers and farmers towards baby-leaf vegetables...

The green city seeks to intertwine greenery, landscapes and agriculture into townscapes to create a sustainable urban form that will support high standard of living with nature, increased biodiversity and circular flow of resources. This paper conceptualizes and discusses visions, scales and elements of the agroecological urbanism and the green cit...

The number of vertical farms has been expanding rapidly in recent years to provide more resilient and sustainable global food provisioning closer to consumers. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on whether vertical farms can provide sustainable sourcing of food. The purpose of this study is to assess the environmental performance of a m...

Food production and consumption significantly contribute to climate change. The public sector, which procures large quantities of food, has a crucial role in steering toward more sustainable food systems. More empirical studies involving practitioners are called for to understand the complexity of sustainable public food procurement. This study exa...

The field of urban agriculture has seen an increase in development and attention in recent years, with a large share of literature addressing whether urban agriculture may pose a solution for food insecurity and combat environmental impacts. However, few studies have examined the many sustainability claims of urban agriculture systems, especially f...

https://ruaf.org/assets/2024/07/RUAF-24377-UA-Magazine-41_final.pdf Localizing food production for urban populations promises to shorten supply chains and reconnect producers with consumers, improving sustainability and resilience. This requires technologies that decouple food production from environmental constraints such as seasonal climates and...

Intensive dairy farming, particularly enteric fermentation and manure management, is a major contributor to negative impacts on the local and global environment. A wide range of abatement measures has been proposed to reduce livestock-related emissions, yet the individual and combined effects of these innovations are often unknown. In this study, w...

Zur Emissionsminderung in der Milchviehhaltung stehen verschiedene Maßnahmen zur Diskussion: u. a. die Verfütterung der Makroalge Asparagopsis, die Kot-Urin Trennung mit Hilfe einer Kuh-Toilette oder die Gülleansäuerung während der Ausbringung auf dem Feld. Ziel dieser Untersuchung war es, die Emissionsminderungspotenziale dieser drei Maßnahmen z...

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...

Policymakers in the EU are betting on a transition from a linear to a circular economy to ensure human activity remains within the planet's boundaries. Public procurement is vital in this context, e.g., accounting for 20% of the Swedish GDP, with circular public procurement critical to the transition. Although circular public procurement is garneri...

Vertical farms are often claimed to have better environmental performance compared to conventional products on the market. However, there are few assessments of the environmental performance of vertical farms, in particular commercial systems. This study has aimed to analyze the environmental performance of a large commercial vertical farm in Swede...

Sustainability’s growth, year after year, continues to be staggering, becoming a reference point for those working on these issues. There are 65,433 papers in the Scopus database, of which 61,016 (93%) are articles. The year 2022 proposes 16,996 papers, 21% more than the previous year (14,053 papers). The comparison is even more significant compare...

This report is written within the Swedish Wool Initiative project, funded by Vinnova. The project aims at increasing the competitiveness for Swedish wool and contributing to a more sustainable and circular textile industry through developing circular products based on discarded Swedish wool. Apart from project leader Axfoundation, project partn...

Rapid growing population, urbanization, climate change, decreasing agricultural production, and soil degradation causes massive challenges for food production and supply chain in Southeast Asia, especially in urban areas. A sustainable food production and supply chain system is needed to produce and supply food for Southeast Asia urban areas. One p...

The greenhouse sector has seen many advances to improve its resource demands, though little is known of the environmental impacts. This study aims to assess the environmental performance of a horticultural greenhouse in Sweden producing herbs. Life cycle assessment is employed to analyze different scenarios. These include previous measures, such as...

Alternative food production technologies are being developed to meet the global increase in population and demand for a more sustainable food supply. Aquaponics, a combined method of vegetable and fish production, is an emerging technology that is widely regarded as sustainable. Yet, there has been limited research on its environmental performance,...

With the expansion of vertical farming systems worldwide, many claims of the benefits of these systems are being used in media and by VF producers. Despite this, there is little support in the literature, with few studies assessing the sustainability, potential, and viability of these systems. This has caused a number of expectations and controvers...

Indoor vertical farms (IVF) have expanded rapidly in recent years as an approach to secure resilient food provisioning in urban areas. Sustainability is often promoted by IVFs, focusing primarily on farm-level metrics and information about work with packaging. However, there are few assessments of the implications IVFs have throughout their life cy...

Vertical farming systems are often outlined to provide promising solutions to secure food supplies, produce more sustainable food, and reduce pressure on agricultural land by shifting food production to urban environments and buildings. However, little is known of the potential implications these systems have for sustainability and how vertical far...

With the expansion of vertical farming systems worldwide, many claims of the benefits of these systems are being used in media and by VF producers. Despite this, there is little support in the literature, with few studies assessing the sustainability, potential, and viability of these systems. This has caused a number of expectations and controvers...

Industrialization is indispensable for socio-economic development but poses far-reaching implications for resources and the environment. Consequently, industrial symbiosis-based collaborations are gaining recognition as a viable strategy to manage resource consumption for mitigating environmental distress. However, these types of synergistic collab...

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/gronsaker-fran-urbana-inomhusodlingar-blir-allt-mer-populart

Vertical farms have expanded rapidly in urban areas to support food system resilience. However, many of these systems source a substantial share of their material and energy requirements outside their urban environments. As urban areas produce significant shares of residual material and energy streams, there is considerable potential to explore the...

In the craft brewing industry, kegging solutions have changed dramatically in recent years. While steel kegs once dominated the draught beer market, single-use plastic kegs have increased in popularity due to their convenience, especially in the craft brewing sector. With the increasing importance of the circular economy and the introduction of pol...

This article provides guidelines for conducting consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. It presents the main features of two alternative approaches used in LCA-attributional and consequential-and describes how consequential LCA can be performed consistently and appropriately, with an example provided to guide practitioners. It is argued...

There is a general agreement in the LCA community that there are two types of LCAs: attributional and consequential. There have been numerous discussions about the pros and cons of the two approaches and on differences in methodology, in particular about methods that can be used in consequential LCA. There are, however, methodological aspects of at...

Public procurement has been recognized as a tool to promote more sustainable production and consumption practices. As such, an increasing body of literature has become available in recent years focusing on the sustainable public procurement of food. This article reviews the literature on the sustainable public procurement of food with the aim to an...

Animal husbandry contributes to roughly 15% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions, of which the majority originates from methane emissions associated with ruminant enteric fermentation. Recent studies have shown that methane emissions from ruminants can be heavily reduced (up to 90% reduction) by introducing the seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis in th...

To secure sustainable and resilient food systems, new approaches, innovations, techniques, and processes are needed. In recent years, urban farming firms have been developing and experimenting with innovative approaches to expand their offerings and connect with consumers in new ways. New business models are being developed to provide functions and...

The study reviews the insights into improving the sustainability of vertical farms and the potential to improve further through more circular approaches such as urban and industrial symbiosis to integrate with buildings/urban areas.

The aim of this project was to review the context and broader systemic implications of increased electrification of urban public transportation systems. We do this by applying a novel methodology, whereby we study the discourse used to promote the electrification of Swedish bus fleets and the competition between electrification and biogas. This pro...

A webinar/video I recorded on my research with the sustainability of vertical urban farming systems. It includes the background, discourse, methods, assessments, and thoughts on how it should, could be done and improved. https://vimeo.com/555790269

Industrial symbiosis (IS), a research topic which focuses on how firms can collaborate over energy, utilities, materials or services, has seen considerable interest and growth in recent years due to the popularity of the circular economy. The topic has been identified as an approach for the circular economy (CE) in both the scientific literature an...

The clothing industry has been active in recent years to develop more sustainable and circular business models, with extensive attention to fossil fibers and cotton, although wool has received little academic attention. This study follows the valorization process of conventionally discarded wool from a sheep farm in Sweden to produce a wool sweater...

o address increasing environmental sustainability concerns among consumers, many companies have developed approaches to provide functions, rather than products through product-service systems (PSS).This study evaluates a use-oriented tool rental service from Husqvarna, called‘Tools for you,’ with theaim to identify critical processes to improve the...

Purpose: In the brewing industry, conventional steel kegs have seen competition from single-use (also referred to as one-way) plastic kegs increase due to their lower cost, lighter weight, and ease of use. This study aims to assess the environmental performance associated with these kegging solutions for the brewing industry. The results of this st...

The Circular Economy (CE) concept is receiving increasing global attention and has captivated many disciplines, from sustainability through to business and economics. There is currently a strong drive by companies, academics and governments alike to implement the CE. Numerous “circularity indicators”have emerged that measure material flow or recirc...

A short video presentation of a poster presented at the LCAFOOD 2020 conference on urban farming systems and improvement potential through valorizing urban residual materials through urban symbiosis

The clothing industry has been identified by a number of studies to account for a large share of environmental impacts from personal consumption, especially due to the current “fast fashion” paradigm we are experiencing. Goals and targets for the clothing industry have already been outlined and communicated, with many industry representatives highl...

The concept of sustainability is a clear blue sea, a snowy mountain, a flowery meadow, in which there is resource sharing that allows us to satisfy human needs without damaging natural resources. The challenge is complex, and we hope to support the decarbonization of our society and mitigate climate changes. This Special Issue aims to outline diffe...

The application of industrial symbiosis to chemical processes is made possible by considering physical by-products as new sources in spite of potential waste. The by-product acts as a substitution of raw materials in symbiotic chemical companies, possibly taking into account geographical proximity. While advantages appear evident in terms of reduce...

Vertical farming has emerged in urban areas as an approach to provide more resilient food production. However, a substantial share of the material requirements come from outside their urban environments. With urban environments producing a large share of residual and waste streams, extensive potential exists to employ these material and energy stre...

Industrial symbiosis (IS), where different entities collaborate in the management of energy, utilities, materials, or services, has been identified as an approach to improve resource efficiency and circularity in industry. This article assesses the environmental performance of an IS network with firms involved in waste management, soil, surfaces, p...

With an expanding population and changing dynamics in global food markets, it is important to find solutions for more resilient food production methods closer to urban environments. Recently, vertical farming systems have emerged as a potential solution for urban farming. However, although there is an increasing body of literature reviewing the pot...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely used environmental assessment tool. However, only a small share of efforts have been made to extend communication. Researchers, practitioners, and their targeted audiences have divergent needs and knowledge for using and communicating the information provided from LCAs. As such, communication efforts are need...

The conceptual framework of industrial symbiosis (IS) is gaining recognition for ensuring the conservation of natural resources and resilience of socio-ecological surroundings. Significant scholastic strides have been made for explaining the conceptual paradigm of IS. The current study relied upon the Bibliometric mapping technique to decipher the...

Collaborative consumption—through sharing services—has been promoted as an important step in transforming current consumption patterns toward more sustainable practices. Whilst there are high expectations for sharing services, there are few studies on the potential environmental benefits and impacts of sharing services. This study aims to analyze t...

Relatively few consumers are conscious of the waste generated in the course of producing the goods that they consume, although most are aware of the amount of waste they dispose of. This article reports on a small-scale survey (N = 28) among stakeholders aimed at developing adequate communication of preconsumer waste footprints of consumer goods in...

The recent uprising of the circular economy field has reignited the interest in industrial symbiosis and the utilisation of by-product resources between two separate entities. Industrial symbiosis refers to the exchange between companies or other entities, of resource flows typically considered as by-products or waste, where typically there is a mu...

Available here for free until late September: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344918302775 In order to enable industrial symbiosis (IS) as an approach for regional sustainable development, it is important that stakeholders involved in facilitating symbiotic exchanges can measure and comprehend the potential benefits and imp...

Since the introduction of the European Union's Renewable Energy Directive (RED), biofuel‐producing firms are required to perform life cycle assessment (LCA) based greenhouse gas accounting in order to fulfill part of directive's sustainability criteria. This paper adopts the concepts of “governing by standards” and “governing by numbers” to underst...

Within the frame of the EIT Raw Materials, STORM (Industrial Symbiosis for the Sustainable Management of Raw Materials) is a Network of Infrastructures project aiming at establishing an excellence network dedicated to provide services and tools to external customers for the implementation of innovative, sustainable business and cooperation models,...

Reviewing the potential for connecting urban residues for more circular production methods in the vertical hydroponic farming sector in Sweden.

The global population is increasing rapidly, and the amount of people living in urban areas are expected to almost double within 30 years. With a rising population, the demand for food and pressure on arable land is also increasing. Currently, about 26 % of the greenhouse gases emitted from Sweden come from agricultural activities, and with an incr...

Industrial symbiosis (IS), where different entities collaborate over energy, utilities, materials or services to create value and lower cost and environmental impact, has been identified as an approach to improve resource efficiency. North of Norrköping, Sweden, an industrial symbiosis network of firms exists, which currently exchange by-products,...

As the unsustainable consumption of goods and services continues to increase globally, collaborative consumption, sharing services and the sharing economy have been identified and promoted as an important step in transforming current business models toward more sustainable practices. However, the environmental implications of sharing services are n...

Policymakers worldwide are promoting the use of bio-based products as part of sustainable development. Nonetheless, there are concerns that the bio-based economy may undermine the sustainability of the transition, e.g., from the overexploitation of biomass resources and indirect impacts of land use. Adequate assessment methods with a broad systems...

On the west coast of Sweden, an evolving network of industrial actors is being developed to create green, local jobs while contributing to a sustainable future. Industrial symbiosis (IS) is being promoted by the Sotenäs Symbioscentrum (Sotenäs Symbiosis Center) to develop synergies between industrial actors involved in renewable energy, food produc...

Life cycle thinking is becoming an important aspect for business to consider, as it is included in many EU strategies and directives. However, through the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), the biofuel sector is the only industry sector in which life cycle assessment (LCA) is mandatory in order to justify the ‘sustainability’. This has had significa...

This article provides guidelines for conducting consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. It presents the main features of two alternative approaches used in LCA—attributional and consequential—and describes how consequential LCA can be performed consistently and appropriately, with an example provided to guide practitioners. It is argued...

In recent years, a growing interest from consumers to know the origins and contents of foods has put alternative choices, such as organic foods and dietary changes, on the agenda. Dietary choices are important to address, as many studies find that activities related to food production account for nearly 20–30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG)...

The production of biofuels in Sweden has increased significantly in the past years in order to reduce fossil fuel dependence and mitigate climate impacts. Nonetheless, current methodological guidelines for assessing the GHG savings from the use of biofuels do not fully account for benefits from by-products and other utilities (e.g. waste heat and e...

Presenting results from the project ”Environmental and Socio-Economic Benefits of Swedish Biofuel Production” summarized in a 10 minute presentation.

The interest in the transition to a bio-based economy is growing worldwide, as it is seen as a means to reach sustainability goals, energy independence and the development of competitive, innovative bio-based products. Nonetheless, there are concerns that the expectations created for the bio-based economy may undermine the sustainability of the tra...

Sweden, a European leader in the consumption of biofuels, has surpassed targets set by the EU and is one of a few countries that has increased consumption of biofuels in recent years. Nonetheless, a large share of biofuels, and raw materials used to produce the fuels, are imported from regions outside Sweden. This paper reviews the environmental im...

Projektet Gröna affärer genom bättre resurseffektivisering tar fasta på att kartlägga industriers produktionsprocesser med överskott på energi och restmaterial. Tanken är den att industrin helst vill involvera sig med kreativa och produktionshöjande processer. Få orkar hålla fokus på det som blir över i produktprocessen. Det här projektet vill därf...

This project is meant to be a follow-up to the experiences gained in the pre-study on Greening Supply Chains as an attempt to make a “Market Readiness Analysis” regarding potentials for Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP). As the pre-study was carried out mainly as a literature review, this project will focus on experiences from case studies base...

This study will review the environmental implications of dynamic policy objectives and instruments outlined in the European Union 7th Framework Programme (EU-FP7) Project DYNAmic policy MIXes for absolute decoupling of EU resource use from economic growth (DYNAMIX) to address reductions in food consumption, food waste and a change in waste handling...

In recent years, a growing interest from consumers to know the origins and contents of foods has put alternative choices such as organic foods and dietary changes in the agenda. Dietary choices are important to address as many studies find that activities related to food production account for nearly 20-30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions...

The poster provides a brief overview of the Dynamix project results on modelling physical flows with environmental modelling techniques for Deliverable 6.2.

The poster provides a brief overview of the Dynamix project results on modelling physical flows with environmental modelling techniques for Deliverable 6.1.

The following report provides a brief overview of the development, production, policies and trends promoting biofuels in Canada and the U.S. in addition to some key contacts for collaboration with the f3. Information for the report was collected through literature reviews and interviews with leading researchers in Canada and the US during a researc...

This report presents quantitative estimates of the environmental significance of changes in material flows that can result from specific instruments in the three policy mixes designed. We applied life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon footprinting, and material pinch analysis to estimate the potential resource and environmental benefits of the key ins...

Biofuels have been promoted as a means to respond to future fossil fuel scarcity, geopolitical instability, energy self-sufficiency, and as a means to stimulate economic growth and mitigate climate change. To ensure that biofuels are produced sustainably, an increasing body of scientific literature has become available in recent years focusing on t...

This study will review the environmental implications of dynamic policy objectives outlined in the EU-FP7 Project DYNAMIX - Decoupling growth from resource use and its environmental impacts to address changes in food consumption, reductions in food waste and a change in waste handling systems. Data from FAOSTAT for the European Union with a base ye...

Many studies are available on the potential for increased biogas development and production in Sweden. The studies have varied assumptions on availability and potential for different substrates in addition to the demand for biogas in the transportation sector. Despite the potentials outlined, a dramatic increase has not been met in the biogas secto...

Biofuels have been promoted as a means to respond to future fossil fuel scarcity, geopolitical instability, energy self-sufficiency, and as a means to stimulate economic growth and mitigate climate change. To ensure that biofuels are produced sustainably, an increasing body of scientific literature has become available in recent years focusing on t...