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Environmental Impacts of Consumption in the European Union:High-Resolution Input-Output Tables with Detailed Environmental Extensions
Abstract
For developing product policy, insight into the environmental effects of products is required. But available life-cycle assessment studies (LCAs) are hardly comparable between different products and do not cover total consumption. Input-output analysis with environmental extensions (EEIOA) of full consumption is not available for the European Union. Available country studies have a low sector resolution and a limited number of environmental extensions. This study fills the gap between detailed LCA and low-resolution EEIOA, specifying the environmental effects of household consumption in the European Union, discerning nearly 500 sectors, while specifying a large number of environmental extensions. Added to the production sectors are a number of consumption activities with direct emissions, such as automobile driving, cooking and heating, and a number of post consumer waste management sectors. The data for Europe have been constructed by using the sparse available and coarse economic and environmental data on European countries and adding technological detail mainly based on data from the United States. A small number of products score high on environmental impact per Euro and also have a substantial share of overall consumer expenditure. Several meat and dairy products, household heating, and car driving thus have a large share of the total environmental impact. Due to their sales volume, however, products with a medium or low environmental score per Euro may also have a substantial impact. This is the case with bars and restaurants, clothing, residential construction, and even a service such as telecommunications. The limitations in real European data made heroic assumptions necessary to operationalize the model. One conclusion, therefore, is that provision of data in Europe urgently needs to be improved, at least to the level of sector detail currently available for the United States and Japan.
... Similarly, the indirect emissions embodied in the goods/services consumed by households (e.g., food, electricity, durable goods) are derived by directly multiplying monetary expenditure for different goods and services with the relevant emission intensities for the specific goods/services. Here, this estimation is achieved through the use of input-output tables and the Leontief Inverse Matrix (Lenzen et al., 2012;Leontief, 1936Leontief, , 1970) (see Section 2.2) that have found extensive application in environmental studies (Eisenmenger et al., 2016;Huppes et al., 2006;Lenzen, Pade, & Munksgaard, 2010;Lenzen, Wood, & Wiedmann, 2010;Wiedmann et al., 2015;Wiedmann & Lenzen, 2018). ...
Households are responsible for a large fraction of the direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) at the national level. However, emission patterns are not homogeneous within the residential sector, with several factors affecting them. This study explores how income‐related divergences in consumption and time allocation affect the carbon footprint of the Japanese residential sector. To achieve this, we combine data on emission intensities from national input‐output tables with household‐level consumption and time allocation data from two large‐scale nationally representative surveys. Overall, we find that indirect emissions account for approximately 78% of the overall carbon footprint of the residential sector across the studied income groups. The overall carbon footprint and the emissions of several individual consumption categories follow an N‐shaped curve, with some of the lower‐income groups having disproportionately higher emissions compared to middle‐ and higher‐income groups. Conversely, emissions for other individual consumption categories increase almost linearly with income. This points to the fact that different factors can affect emissions across income groups. Specifically, the N‐shaped curves are driven by the propensity of lower‐income households to spend more time at home and rely on inefficient technologies, while the linear trend is driven by the propensity of higher‐income households to consume more. A detailed understanding of how these factors affect emissions patterns can provide useful insights for designing and implementing effective policies to achieve decarbonization the residential sector.
... IOA provides a complete picture of HLCA, which is primarily used to assess LCA data (Finnveden et al. 2009). Stand-alone input-output LCAs do not provide detailed process-level information; however, because of their all-encompassing nature, they have been widely used in macrolevel environmental impact studies (Huppes et al. 2006). In addition to considering the interconnections between natural ecosystems and social ecosystems systematically (Isard et al. 1968), improving industrial efficiency is key toward reducing the carbon footprint when assessing the environmental impact of intercity high-speed railways . ...
Urban ecosystems are complex systems with anthropogenic features that generate considerable CO2 emissions that contributes to global climate change. Quantitative estimates of the carbon footprint of urban ecosystems are crucial for developing low-carbon development policies to mitigate climate change. Here, we reviewed over 195 urban carbon footprint and carbon footprint-related studies, collated the recent progress in carbon footprint calculation methods and research applications of the urban ecosystem carbon footprint, analyzed the research applications of the carbon footprint of different cities, and focused on the need to study the urban ecosystem carbon footprint from a holistic perspective. Specifically, we aimed to: (1) compare the strengths and weaknesses of five existing carbon footprint calculation methods (life cycle assessment, input–output analysis, hybrid life cycle assessment, carbon footprint calculator, and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)); (2) analyze the status of current research on the carbon footprint of different urban sub-regions based on different features; and (3) highlight new methods and areas of research on the carbon footprint of future urban ecosystems. Not all carbon footprint accounting methods are applicable to the carbon footprint determination of urban ecosystems; although the IPCC method is more widely used than the others, the hybrid life cycle assessment method is more accurate. With the emergence of new science and technology, quantitative methods to calculate the carbon footprint of urban ecosystems have evolved, becoming more accurate. Further development of new technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, to assess the carbon footprint of urban ecosystems is anticipated to help address the emerging challenges in urban ecosystem research effectively to achieve carbon neutrality and urban sustainability under global change.
... For instance, about 15-22% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the livestock systems (Steinfeld et al., 2006;. The consumption of Meat and dairy products contributed to about 20-25% of the environmental impacts in Europe between 2006 and 2008 (Huppes et al., 2006;Weidema et al., 2008). This rising demand for agricultural land for meat production puts enormous strain on the environment and results in diverse damages such as loss of animal species, soil degradation from overgrazing and eutrophication (Bellarby et al., 2013;Garnett, 2009;IPBES, 2018). ...
The demand for meat and dairy products is expected to double by 2050 due to population growth and changing consumption patterns worldwide. According to the IPCC, meeting the target of keeping the global temperature rise below 2°C by the middle of the century calls for massive emission cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and natural resource use consumption associated with the global food system. In recent times, globalization and increased trade of food products have resulted in the displacement of environmental impacts related to local food consumption to regions overseas. Therefore, global mitigation options for agri-food climate- and resource use pressures requires that countries monitor and lower the environmental pressures from food consumption within and beyond their local borders. The current Danish environmental policy lays down ambitious targets to mitigate the territorial environmental impacts of Denmark’s agri-food industry, with GHG emissions, water quality and biodiversity at the centre of policy attention. However, a shortcoming of Denmark’s present climate and environmental policies is that they do not tackle the environmental pressures associated with food products consumed within Danish borders but produced overseas. In this context, a growing body of research proposes that allow country-specific estimation of environmental pressures from consuming locally sourced and imported products.
This PhD project applies two consumption-based (CB) environmental accounting methods, namely the environmentally extended multi-regional input-output analysis and biophysical model of agricultural trade to evaluate Denmark’s national and subnational food-related CB accounts (or footprints) for GHG emissions (i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)), and cropland, grassland and blue water use from 1995 to 2014. Secondly, the thesis quantifies the potential for Denmark to reduce its global food-related GHG emissions and resource consumption based on scenarios that include household dietary shifts towards plant-based foods and food waste prevention as well as improvements in livestock feed use efficiencies...
... Various methods for estimating the footprint of households and governments have been developed over the last years, being top-down (by applying Environmentally Extended Input-Output tables (EEIOTs) combined with households' expenditure statistics), bottom-up (in applying LCA on representative products that are up-scaled) or hybrid approaches (being a combination of the former two), and having all their pros and cons (for a more detailed discussion see e.g. Huppes et al. 2006). Within this study , the Consumer Footprint approach, developed by EC-JRC and described in Sala et al. 2019, is applied. ...
Assessing the environmental impact due to consumption of goods and services is a pivotal step towards achieving the sustainable development goal related to responsible production and consumption (i.e. SDG 12). Household appliances plays a crucial role and should be assessed in a systemic manner, namely considering all life cycle stages, technological efficiency, and affluence aspects. The present study assess the impact of such household appliances used in Europe, and tests scenarios of potential impact reduction at various scales. Life cycle assessment is applied to 14 different household appliances (ranging from dishwashers to television devices) selected to build a set of representative products, based on their economic value and diffusion in households in Europe. Related impacts are calculated with the Environmental Footprint method for calculating a Consumer Footprint “appliances” for the baseline year 2010. A number of scenarios encompassing eco-solutions on a technical level, changes in consumption pattern, behavioral changes, as well as the combination of all these aspects are run to estimate the Consumer Footprint related to household appliances for the year 2030, compared against this baseline scenario. The baseline Consumer Footprint is confirming the importance of the use phase in leading the impacts in almost all impact categories. Testing different scenarios concludes that there is a reduction of the impact for most of the categories (with up to 67% for the ozone depletion potential, and still around 35% for the global warming potential), while two of the here examined impact categories (i.e. land-use and mineral resource depletion) show an overall potential that is even negative – i.e. the results of all scenarios are higher than the ones of the 2010 baseline scenario. The increase in purchase and use of such appliances may offset energy efficiency benefits in some of the examined categories. Hence, the assessment of sustainability of appliances consumption should always include several scales, from the efficiency of the products (micro scale), to the improvement of the energy mix (meso scale), up to accounting for socio-economic drivers and patterns of consumption affecting the overall appliances stock (macro scale).
... Future work can use these data to shed more light on the carbon footprint across regions [1], cities [2] and, particularly, households [3]. The tables enable an assessment of direct and indirect environmental impact of existing consumption patterns [4], and can be used to extend macro or CGE analyses to cover also distributional impacts of e.g. climate and energy policies [5,6]. ...
This dataset represents bridging matrices between two different data classification systems: consumption by purpose (COICOP) and products by activity (CPA). While the former classification is used in household budget and expenditure surveys, the latter represents the industry sector dimension that is typically adopted in national accounts and input-output tables. We collect input data from Eurostat on total household consumption for 35 COICOP and 63 CPA categories for the year 2015. Based on these data, we construct bridging or concordance tables for 30 European countries using recently developed matrix balancing techniques. The resulting tables enable data conversion between consumption- and production-based statistics, facilitating research that integrates macroeconomics, multi-sectoral international trade and heterogeneous agents in household-level expenditure micro-data. Although they are a necessary input in several types of research, they are often constructed on an ad hoc and region-specific basis and not shared publicly. As such, making this dataset available will be useful for computable general equilibrium and input-output models and for carbon footprint and life cycle analyses that incorporate rich consumption micro-data, for instance to shed light on distributional aspects of climate and energy policies. Furthermore, by eliminating a barrier raised by differences in statistical classifications, this dataset may foster collaboration between different research teams and may facilitate soft-linking between complementary analytical tools used for policy support.
... First, the impacts embodied in capital formation in a specific year are directly allocated to the economic sector using them (e.g. Huppes et al., 2006;Södersten, Wood, & Hertwich, 2018). Second, a vintage approach can be used that allocates impacts embodied in capital produced in the past to current economic production according to depreciation of this capital stock (Chen et al., 2018). ...
... For instance, about 15-22% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the livestock systems (Steinfeld et al., 2006;Tubiello et al., 2015). The consumption of Meat and dairy products contributed to about 20-25% of the environmental impacts in Europe between 2006 and 2008 (Huppes et al., 2006;Weidema et al., 2008). This rising demand for agricultural land for meat production puts enormous strain on the environment and results in diverse damages such as loss of animal species, soil degradation from overgrazing and eutrophication (Bellarby et al., 2013;Garnett, 2009;IPBES, 2018). ...
The global use of and pressure on land resources will continue to rise in tandem with the predicted rise in global population and food demand. Addressing unavoidable trade-offs between satisfying human needs and biodiversity conservation for future generations is of paramount importance when tackling the global environmental challenges of land use. Food consumption patterns are inextricably linked to land-use and land-use changes. The domestic supply and final use of food by humans and feed by animals within the borders of a country have environmental impacts overseas. Countries like Denmark, with considerably high livestock production, import “virtual” land needed to produce cereals and other fodder crops. Denmark's high meat and dairy consumption and trade levels make it a compelling case for this study. The overarching question is: how much land is required to support food and feed consumption in Denmark? This paper assesses the global cropland footprint of Danish food and feed supply from 2000 to 2013 using a consumption-based physical accounting approach. In addition to domestic croplands for local food and supply, we estimate the hectares of cropland displaced in other countries to satisfy Danish demand for food and feed in this period. Secondly, we calculate Denmark's global cropland requirements for the supply of specific livestock products, namely; pork, eggs, beef, milk, and mutton. Globally, animals provide a third of the protein in human diets and agricultural GDP. The total global cropland footprint of Danish food and feed supply decreased by 18% from 1568 kha in 2000 to 1282 kha in 2013 because of a reduction in the consumption of ruminant livestock products. A high share of this reduction can be attributed to increased local self-sufficiency in feed supply as opposed to rising food imports. The share of cropland used for feed in total cropland declined by 5% whereas the share of cropland used for food increased from 28% in 2000 to 32% by 2013. Our findings suggest that reducing domestic meat consumption coupled with local self-sufficiency policies for both food and feed supply could be a means of lowering ecological degradation in exporting countries.
... Moreover, some other studies tackling the environmental impacts of consumption have been performed by combining EEIOA and process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) in a hybrid framework. Huppes et al. (2006) quantified the environmental impacts of consumption in the European Union (EU), while other studies focused on smaller geographical scales. Heinonen and Junnila (2011), for example, quantified the impacts of two metropolitan cities in Finland, Pairotti et al. (2015) quantified energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of the Mediterranean diet, and Guan et al. (2016) assessed the energy embodied in buildings in China. ...
Purpose
Trade is increasingly considered a significant contributor to environmental impacts. The assessment of the impacts of trade is usually performed via environmentally extended input–output analysis (EEIOA). However, process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to traded goods allows increasing the granularity of the analysis and may be essential to unveil specific impacts due to traded products.
Methods
This study assesses the environmental impacts of the European trade, considering two modelling approaches: respectively EEIOA, using EXIOBASE 3 as supporting database, and process-based LCA. The interpretation of the results is pivotal to improve the robustness of the assessment and the identification of hotspots. The hotspot identification focuses on temporal trends and on the contribution of products and substances to the overall impacts. The inventories of elementary flows associated with EU trade, for the period 2000–2010, have been characterized considering 14 impact categories according to the Environmental Footprint (EF2017) Life Cycle Impact Assessment method.
Results and discussion
The two modelling approaches converge in highlighting that in the period 2000–2010: (i) EU was a net importer of environmental impacts; (ii) impacts of EU trade and EU trade balance (impacts of imports minus impacts of exports) were increasing over time, regarding most impact categories under study; and (iii) similar manufactured products were the main contributors to the impacts of exports from EU, regarding most impact categories. However, some results are discrepant: (i) larger impacts are obtained from IO analysis than from process-based LCA, regarding most impact categories, (ii) a different set of most contributing products is identified by the two approaches in the case of imports, and (iii) large differences in the contributions of substances are observed regarding resource use, toxicity, and ecotoxicity indicators.
Conclusions
The interpretation step is crucial to unveil the main hotspots, encompassing a comparison of the differences between the two methodologies, the assumptions, the data coverage and sources, the completeness of inventory as basis for impact assessment. The main driver for the observed divergences is identified to be the differences in the impact intensities of goods, both induced by inherent properties of the IO and life cycle inventory databases and by some of this study’s modelling choices. The combination of IO analysis and process-based LCA in a hybrid framework, as performed in other studies but generally not at the macro-scale of the full trade of a country or region, appears a potential important perspective to refine such an assessment in the future.
... For example Áč [2014] draws the attention to the effects of climate change on developed countries, conflicts, migration, spreading of diseases and other that have serious economic consequences. Similarly, over-consumption (76% of BUS and 58% ECO agree) results not only in depletion of resources but also a sharp increase in the amount of waste, which creates environmental costs [Huppes et al. 2006, Mózner, 2014, Pikoń 2015. The problem of poverty (59% of BUS and 37% of ECO agree) is not only a sociological and economic problem but it may also cause serious environmental problems [ Duraiappah 1998, Baland et al. 2010, Deodatis et al. 2014, as well as a gap between rich and poor (64 % BUS agree, 39 % ECO disagree) [World Bank 2017, Davies et al. 2017]. ...
The aim of the survey was to find out if there is a difference in the perception of relevance of the global issues to their respective study fields between students of economic and ecological study fields at four Slovak universities and if there is such difference among the students of the four faculties. We used an on-line questionnaire developed in the project Ethical Internacionalism in Higher Education Research Project (http://eihe.blogspot.sk/). The responses were analysed in the program Statistika 12. We found out that there is a difference in the perception of global topics between the students of Business and Ecology. The results will be used to innovate the study programs at the respective faculties and similar faculties.
... According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) [2], about 1.3 billion tons of food, equivalent to one-third of all the food produced for human consumption, is lost or wasted every year. Such an amount of food waste represents a missed opportunity to achieve global food security as well as to mitigate the use of resources and the resulting environmental impacts [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Indeed, the impact of food waste on the environment (and on the sustainability of food systems as a whole) has been widely studied, with research confirming that it occurs at all steps of the food supply chain [2,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. ...
Reducing food waste is globally considered as a key challenge in developing sustainable food systems. Although most food waste is generated at the household level, consumers hardly recognize their responsibility, and the factors underpinning their perception of the quantity of food wasted at home are still unclear. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing the results of a large-scale survey conducted in Italy. The perceived quantity of household food waste was measured through a Likert scale and analyzed by means of a logistic regression against a set of predictors, including food waste motivations, perception of the effects of food waste, and sociodemographic variables. As expected, the perceived quantity of food waste declared by respondents was very low. Among the main determinants, food shopping habits and the level of awareness about the reasons why food is wasted played a key role. In contrast, the perception of the environmental effects of food waste seemed to be less important. Differences among subsamples recruited in different areas of Italy were detected, suggesting that further studies, as well as awareness-raising policies, should also consider context-related variables.
... Another common extension of IOT is introducing resources (such as wind and water) inputs and emissions to the conventional IOT. Huppes et al. added a number of environmental sectors into the IOT to specify the environment impacts of household consumption in EU [35]. Tukker et al. presented the setup procedure of EEIOT, providing powerful support for analysis of total environmental impacts and external costs assessment [36]. ...
Environmentally extended input-output table (EEIOT), a balanced matrix of industrial commodity and environmental resources, is widely used to evaluate environmental policy impacts. However, the existing EEIOTs contain energy consumption and pollution emission but neglect emission abatement cost and benefit. In this study, a novel Chinese emission abatement sector extended input-output table (EAS-IOT) is developed through introducing abatement cost, emission charge and abatement benefit into the conventional input-output table. Furthermore, this new EAS-IOT is applied to estimate the environmental efficiency and assess the effects of environmental policies on economy and environment. Results show that the new framework of EAS-IOT has advantage on solving the problem of biased efficiency estimation related to the conventional input-output table.
... Others have used top down approaches like inputoutput analysis to examine the relationship among environmental impacts, household consumption, and urban density (Huppes et al 2006, Baiocchi et al 2010, Jones and Kammen 2011, Minx et al 2013, Jones and Kammen 2014. Others have sought to link bottomup analyses like life cycle assessment (LCA) with more top-down approaches like DMC or urban metabolism (UM) (e.g. ...
As cities grow, their environmental and natural resource footprints also tend to grow to keep up with the increasing demand on essential urban services such as passenger transportation, commercial space, and thermal comfort. The urban infrastructure systems, or socio-technical systems providing these services are the major conduits through which natural resources are consumed and environmental impacts are generated.
This paper aims to gauge the potential reductions in environmental and resources footprints through urban transformation, including the deployment of resource-efficient socio-technical systems and strategic densification. Using hybrid life cycle assessment approach combined with scenarios, we analyzed the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water use, metal consumption and land use of selected socio-technical systems in 84 cities from the present to 2050. The socio-technical systems analyzed are: (1) bus rapid transit with electric buses, (2) green commercial buildings, and (3) district energy. We developed a baseline model for each city considering gross domestic product, population density, and climate conditions. Then, we overlaid three scenarios on top of the baseline model: (1) decarbonization of electricity, (2) aggressive deployment of resource-efficient socio-technical systems, and (3) strategic urban densification scenarios to each city and quantified their potentials in reducing the environmental and resource impacts of cities by 2050.
The results show that, under the baseline scenario, the environmental and natural resource footprints of all 84 cities combined would increase 58%–116% by 2050. The resource-efficient scenario along with strategic densification, however, has the potential to curve down GHG emissions to 17% below the 2010 level in 2050. Such transformation can also limit the increase in all resource footprints to less than 23% relative to 2010. This analysis suggests that resource-efficient urban infrastructure and decarbonization of electricity coupled with strategic densification have a potential to mitigate resources and environmental footprints of growing cities.
... At present, the application on carbon emissions assessment is currently focused on the calculations of carbon emissions of some products or services, and has a mature relevant standard for reference. Huppes et al. (2006) combined the environmental expansion of input-output analysis (EEIOA) with product LCA and constructed a mixed mathematical model for Research on the Carbon Emissions... calculating the proportion of various consumer goods in the European family environment affect [27]. Weber et al. (2008) analyzed the carbon footprint of global and American households by using consumer spending surveys and multi-country LCAs [28]. ...
China is facing increasing pressure on international emissions. As the capital of China, Beijing should set an example for carbon emissions. Previous studies on carbon emissions mainly focused on household size and changes in household consumption structure during urbanization. The input-output method is mainly used, but the total output of each department is used to measure the intensity of CO2 emissions, so that the middle input and added value among the sectors are included, which leads to a large measurement result. Based on the input-output model, the paper chooses the latest input-output table of Beijing in 2012 and calculates the carbon emissions of residents in Beijing in 2012, which calculates the CO2 emission intensity by using the added value that avoids the problem of double counting. The results show that the total carbon emissions of Beijing residents is 762.948 million tons, of which the direct consumption energy of urban residents is mainly gasoline and heat, while that of rural residents is mainly coal and electricity. Indirect carbon emissions of residential consumption are divided into eight consumption categories. Among them, 57.2% and 18.9% were in transportation and housing, respectively. According to the above conclusions, this paper makes some recommendations.
... To identify opportunities for reducing environmental impacts, material use and waste generation across the spectrum of goods and services consumed in the US, life cycle assessment was identified as the most appropriate framework. However, the methods typically used for LCA of single products are not scalable or practical to do a full economy analysis that includes product-level detail, given the lack of life cycle inventory data for all products or services consumed in the US (Huppes et al., 2006). Another method of generating life cycle inventory data that uses readily-available economic input-output data to model a network of goods and services is environmentally-extended input-output (EEIO) analysis (Tukker, 2006). ...
National-scope environmental life cycle models of goods and services may be used for many purposes, not limited to quantifying impacts of production and consumption of nations, assessing organization-wide impacts, identifying purchasing hot spots, analyzing environmental impacts of policies, and performing streamlined life cycle assessment. USEEIO is a new environmentally extended input-output model of the United States fit for such purposes and other sustainable materials management applications. USEEIO melds data on economic transactions between 389 industry sectors with environmental data for these sectors covering land, water, energy and mineral usage and emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria air pollutants, nutrients and toxics, to build a life cycle model of 385 US goods and services. In comparison with existing US input-output models, USEEIO is more current with most data representing year 2013, more extensive in its coverage of resources and emissions, more deliberate and detailed in its interpretation and combination of data sources, and includes formal data quality evaluation and description. USEEIO was assembled with a new Python module called the IO Model Builder capable of assembling and calculating results of user-defined input-output models and exporting the models into LCA software. The model and data quality evaluation capabilities are demonstrated with an analysis of the environmental performance of an average hospital in the US. All USEEIO files are publicly available bringing a new level of transparency for environmentally extended input-output models.
... supply chain linked perspective. The applications of EIO analysis cover various problem domains including infrastructure systems, energy technologies, industrial sectors, international trade and household demand (Egilmez et al., 2013;Huang et al., 2009;Huppes et al., 2006;Kucukvar and Tatari, 2011;Weber and Matthews, 2007;Wiedmann et al., 2011). EIO-LCA methodology considers the sector-level interdependencies and represents sectoral direct requirements, which are represented by the A matrix. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on tracing GHG emissions across the supply chain industries associated with the US residential, commercial and industrial building stock and provides optimized GHG reduction policy plans for sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-step hierarchical approach is developed. First, Economic Input-Output-based Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) is utilized to quantify the GHG emissions associated with the US residential, commercial and industrial building stock. Second, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) based optimization framework is developed to identify the optimal GHG emissions’ reduction (percent) for each industry across the supply chain network of the US economy.
Findings
The results indicated that “ready-mix concrete manufacturing”, “electric power generation, transmission and distribution” and “lighting fixture manufacturing” sectors were found to be the main culprits in the GHG emissions’ stock. Additionally, the majorly responsible industries in the supply chains of each building construction categories were also highlighted as the hot-spots in the supply chains with respect to the GHG emission reduction (percent) requirements.
Practical implications
The decision making in terms of construction-related expenses and energy use options have considerable impacts across the supply chains. Therefore, regulations and actions should be re-organized around the systematic understanding considering the principles of “circular economy” within the context of sustainable development.
Originality/value
Although the literature is abundant with works that address quantifying environmental impacts of building structures, environmental life cycle impact-based optimization methods are scarce. This paper successfully fills this gap by integrating EIO-LCA and MILP frameworks to identify the most pollutant industries in the supply chains of building structures.
... However, an increasing number of LCA studies rely on the use of EEIO models to broaden the scope of their analysis, by including other processes indirectly implicated in the technological system, like e.g. maintenance, services etc. [34][35][36][37][38]. ...
... One principal disadvantage of EEIO analyses is the equalisation of monetary with physical units (UN et al., 2003). While much thought is given to errors arising from equalisation of monetary and physical units in general EEIO (Huppes et al., 2008;Suh and Huppes, 2002;Suh et al., 2004), surprisingly little effort has been made to quantify physical flow by final household consumption, even though it is apparent that different income groups not only consume different amounts but also consume completely different kinds of goods. Judging from marketing orientated research the consumption behaviour for different income groups seems to have been comprehensively investigated (Bils and Klenow, 2001). ...
One of the major trends in international affairs currently is the strong economic growth in developing countries, with the hope that this will lead people out of poverty. A key related question however is what does this increasing affluence mean for the environment? Here we investigate the relationship between income and Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the case of South Africa as a country with one of the highest income disparities. The relationship between income and environmental impact has been extensively studied for industrialised countries but only few examples of studies of this kind have been carried out for developing countries. Based on an environmentally extended input out analysis (EEIO) South Africa's direct and indirect GHG emissions were allocated to 104 industry sectors and their goods. Merging this information with the detailed consumption pattern of South Africa's population, the direct and indirect GHG emissions were allocated to fourteen income groups. We found that the average GHG emission per Rand spent decreases with income by 32% from the lowest to the highest income decile. This is due to additional income above a certain level being mainly spent for less carbon intense goods. However, since the richest ten per cent account for 44% of the direct consumption, they are still responsible for 23% of South Africa's total GHG emissions. A simulation of economic growth and different income distribution scenarios indicates that a lower Gini-coefficient might in the medium term result in higher GHG emissions from consumption.
... The core challenges to current consumption and production are threefold: energy availability, resource depletion, and ecosystem degradation (Primer, 2011). Based on the outcomes from Europe and other developed nations most of the researchers argue that food, housing, energy and transportation are the critical areas, which cause 70% to 80% of the environmental destructions (see, Tukker et al., 2008;Collins et al., 2006;Huppes et al., 2006;Nijdam et al., 2005;Harris, 2005;Stevens, 2010;Kersten et al., 2015). Therefore, following the aforementioned studies, we have concentrated on these four core areas in the following discussions. ...
This article reviews the literature and identifies challenges, research gaps, and further research directions on sustainable consumption and production (SCP). Several research gaps in the area of SCP are identified that includes: 1) there are very few research works analysing the mismatch between the demand and supply of sustainable products in the market, with the increasing environmental awareness of consumers; 2) despite the growing prominence of emerging nations like BRICS, research in the context of emerging markets in the area of SCP is very limited; 3) researchers on SCP do not seem to embrace mix-methodology; 4) most of the researchers mainly focus on policy reviews or factors behind customer buying patterns or on the use of cleaner energy. There is a further pressing need to explore the soft dimensions and psychological factors behind the acceptance level of policies and sustainable life style. Finally, we outline further research directions.
... A plausible explanation for this is the fact that this database is relatively outdated (and thus reflects older technology levels such as a lower diffusion of renewable energies) and is based on a number of technology assumptions rather than actual economic and environmental accounts (e.g., by forcing European production structures from a few countries and emissions on U.S. data). 80 For electricity, conventional LCA shows larger emissions than the other hybrid LCA models. This can be partly explained by the fact that the correspondent economic sectors include both production and trade of electricity, which would lower the emission intensity (emissions per economic output) as trade services require less energy inputs. ...
Improvements in resource efficiency often underperform because of rebound effects. Calculations of the size of rebound effects are subject to various types of bias, among which methodological choices have received particular attention. Modellers have primarily focused on choices related to changes in demand, however, choices related to modeling the environmental burdens from such changes have received less attention. In this study, we analyse choices in the environmental assessment methods (life cycle assessment [LCA] and hybrid LCA) and environmental input-output databases (E3IOT, Exiobase and WIOD) used as a source of bias. The analysis is done for a case study on battery electric and hydrogen cars in Europe. The results describe moderate rebound effects for both technologies in the short-term. Additionally, long-run scenarios are calculated by simulating the total cost of ownership, which describe notable rebound effect sizes - from 26 to 59% and from 18 to 28%, respectively, depending on the methodological choices - with favourable economic conditions. Relevant sources of bias are found to be related to incomplete background systems, technology assumptions and sectorial aggregation. These findings highlight the importance of the method set-up and of sensitivity analyses of choices related to environmental modeling in rebound effect assessments.
... supply chain linked perspective. The applications of EIO analysis cover various problem domains including infrastructure systems, energy technologies, industrial sectors, international trade and household demand (Egilmez et al., 2013;Huang et al., 2009;Huppes et al., 2006;Kucukvar and Tatari, 2011;Weber and Matthews, 2007;Wiedmann et al., 2011). EIO-LCA methodology considers the sector-level interdependencies and represents sectoral direct requirements, which are represented by the A matrix. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on tracing GHG emissions across the supply chain industries associated with the US residential, commercial and industrial building stock and provides optimized GHG reduction policy plans for sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-step hierarchical approach is developed. First, Economic Input-Output-based Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) is utilized to quantify the GHG emissions associated with the US residential, commercial and industrial building stock. Second, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) based optimization framework is developed to identify the optimal GHG emissions’ reduction (percent) for each industry across the supply chain network of the US economy.
Findings
The results indicated that “ready-mix concrete manufacturing”, “electric power generation, transmission and distribution” and “lighting fixture manufacturing” sectors were found to be the main culprits in the GHG emissions’ stock. Additionally, the majorly responsible industries in the supply chains of each building construction categories were also highlighted as the hot-spots in the supply chains with respect to the GHG emission reduction (percent) requirements.
Practical implications
The decision making in terms of construction-related expenses and energy use options have considerable impacts across the supply chains. Therefore, regulations and actions should be re-organized around the systematic understanding considering the principles of “circular economy” within the context of sustainable development.
Originality/value
Although the literature is abundant with works that address quantifying environmental impacts of building structures, environmental life cycle impact-based optimization methods are scarce. This paper successfully fills this gap by integrating EIO-LCA and MILP frameworks to identify the most pollutant industries in the supply chains of building structures.
Improved environmental quality and resource efficiency are essential policy plans for emerging economies. The vulnerability to climatic adversities initiates the need to construct and identify how to evaluate and ensure resource efficiency. Although many studies explore multiple deriving factors of resource consumption, very little is known regarding the integration of infrastructure, technical change, and trade-adjusted resource consumption. Hence, this study intends to examine the empirical links between disaggregated infrastructure development, technological efficiency change, and resource consumption using annual data of BRICS countries from 1990 to 2018. In doing so, we employ a cross-sectional augmented auto-regressive distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) estimator for short-term and long-term estimations that allows heterogeneity in the slope parameters and dependencies across countries. The results exhibit that cumulative and disaggregated (transport, energy, financial, and information and communication (ICT)) infrastructure development increase resources consumption across all model specifications; however, the magnitude of different infrastructure indices vary, such as transport and energy (financial and ICT) infrastructure producing the highest (lowest) impact. In contrast, technical efficiency changes and their interactive terms with each infrastructure development index decrease resource consumption, implying that the resource-depleting consequence of infrastructure development can be neutralized with higher technical efficiency, and the highest decoupling exists in energy and ICT infrastructure. Similar results are obtained using the Common Correlated Effect Mean Group (CCEMG) estimator. These results provide substantial policy implications.
Ecological innovations (EIs) are believed to play a crucial role both for the future competitiveness of companies and environmental protection. Thus, many researchers have investigated the determinants stimulating the adoption of EIs, but they usually consider determinants as a static concept. In this paper, these determinants are hypothesized to vary with companies’ propensity to adopt them, that is, the degree to which companies consider relevant the choice to invest in EIs.
In this view, the paper investigated a sample of 222 innovative SMEs following a multi-step procedure. By means of a composite indicator, firstly the SMEs’ propensity to adopt EIs was calculated. Secondly, in order to identify the determinants that stimulate SMEs to invest in eco-innovation, the procedure of Principal Component Analysis based on the ScotLass algorithm was applied. Thirdly, the determinants individuated as the principal components extracted were investigated through OLS and quantile regression.
The results suggest that among the SMEs with a higher propensity to invest in EIs, the more evident determinants are the ambition to reach better economic performance, the capacity to establish networking, and the endogenous competencies of SMEs. Also, the variable structural nature concerning the firm's size shows a high relevance.
China has been witnessing profound changes in the consumption behaviors of its population during the last several decades. To better gauge the current consumption structure of Chinese households and investigate the burden exerted by consumption on resources, we calculated the household material footprint (HMF) in China within the individual consumption classification framework developed by the United Nations. HMF is the only life‐cycle‐based indicator adopted into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Four types of raw materials and 15 representative consumption divisions were analyzed in this research. The total HMF in China increased by 103% from 1992 to 2017, although the per capita HMF remains lower than the global average. The per capita HMF growth in rural and urban areas differs, with urban citizens consuming 2.8 more metric tons of resources than rural residents as of 2017. The HMF of all materials studied shows a rising trend, especially for metal ores, which underpins the real estate and auto industries. Food‐related consumption is the main contributor to the HMF in China, while consumption of housing and transportation has less proportion yet more growth potential compared with developed countries. This study adds to the literature of studies on the consumption behaviors and domestic demands of China and has further methodologically significant meaning for similar studies in other countries and practical value for policymakers. Overall, this study demonstrates that despite an upsurge in consumption behaviors and gratifying economic records, the incurred resource and environmental burden may fuel risks for sustainable development.
In China, the per capita consumption expenditure of households has increased by more than six times over the past three decades. We investigate the energy and greenhouse gas footprints of Chinese households between 1995 and 2019 using a global multi-regional input-output model. The results show that the GHG footprint of Chinese households increased by 37.1% whereas the energy footprint increased by only 3.3%. Unlike the significant increase in household expenditure, the growth of footprints was relatively small owing to a substantial decrease in footprint intensities. Import has played an increasingly important role in footprints of Chinese households. The share of imported emissions increased from 3% to 14.4% during 1995–2019 and that of imported energy in the footprint also increased from 2% to 11%. Further decomposition indicates that imported emissions and energy are mainly due to imports of intermediate products to produce goods and services in China. Finally, analysis at the product group level reveals that household consumption related to shelter and food plays an important role in generating emissions and energy use by Chinese households. With the increasing income and expenditure of households, it is important to encourage environmentally-friendly lifestyles to realize sustainable consumption in China.
This chapter discusses the relevance of life cycle assessment within the context of the SDGs and the European Green Deal as a method to assess transboundary effects within the environmental assessment of consumption. The consumption footprint indicator, developed for assessing the environmental impacts of EU consumption, is employed to illustrate how transboundary effects embedded in trade can be evaluated from supply chain and consumption perspectives. Attention is paid to different approaches to model the trade component of consumption, the role of products in different impacts and the relevance of ‘net importer’ territories.
South Korea is a global leader in electronics, but little is known about their climate change impact. Here, we estimate the direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Korean electronics by developing a new and high-resolution (∼380 sectors) environmentally extended input–output model, named KREEIO. We find that final demand for Korean electronics led to nearly 8% of national GHG emissions in 2017, mostly because of indirect emissions embodied in the electronics supply chain. Notably, the semiconductor and display sectors contributed 3.2% and 2.4% to national emissions, with capital investment accounting for 17% of the two sectors’ total emissions or nearly 1% of national emissions. For other electronic products, scope 1, scope 2, and upstream scope 3 emissions on average accounted for 3%, 10%, and 87% of a sector’s GHG intensity, respectively. Detailed contribution analysis suggests that reducing Korean electronics GHG emissions would benefit most from the transition to a low-carbon electricity grid, but mitigation efforts in many other sectors such as metals and chemicals are also important. Overall, our study underscores the significance of electronics GHG emissions in South Korea, especially those from semiconductors and displays, and the mitigation challenges these sectors face as demand continue to grow globally.
Future teachers have an important role in education for sustainable development. This article describes textile craft teacher students’ perceptions of sustainable textile craft. The data derives from a survey of craft teacher students of the University of Eastern Finland (N = 20). The questionnaire included open-ended and multiple choice questions about sustainability of textile craft education and the relevance of sustainability in the students’ lives. The study reveals textile craft teacher students’ conceptions as consumers, craft makers and future textile craft teachers. The open-ended questions were analyzed by content analysis and the multiple choice questions were analyzed with statistical methods. The results were reflected to Victor Papanek’s function complex. As consumers, students favour good quality products and recycling of textiles. They are concerned about workers’ work conditions and against child labour. Although values and perceptions related to sustainable consumerism are high, sometimes the actual purchasing behaviour differs from the values because of the students’ meagre budgets. As craft makers, availability of locally produced materials and materials made of natural fibres are important to students. As future textile craft teachers, students think that craft is an excellent way to teach sustainability and sustainable craft. They consider it is important to teach life-cycle thinking but also craft culture and skills. Key words: clothing and textile design, sustainable craft, textile craft teachers.
Die Transformation des kommunalen Ernährungssystems in Richtung Nachhaltigkeit hat einen hohen Koordinationsbedarf zwischen verschiedenen staatliche und nichtstaatlichen Akteuren und ihren raumentwicklungsrelevanten Aktivitäten. Verantwortliche Planungsakteure betreten in der Koordination dieser Aktivitäten mitunter Neuland und zeigen Kreativität und Risikobereitschaft, um Instrumente der Raum- und Regionalentwicklung oder auch aus angrenzenden Planungsbereichen für die Steuerung des Ernährungssystems einzusetzen und anzupassen. Interessanterweise erweisen sich nicht die staatlichen Planungsakteure als Schlüsselakteure für transformative Aktivitäten im Ernährungssystem, sondern intermediäre Akteure aus der regionalen Wirtschaft, die eine enge Verknüpfung zwischen zivilgesellschaftlichen oder staatlichen Akteuren leisten. Voraussetzungen, dass staatliche und nicht-staatliche Akteure sich für die Transformation des Ernährungssystems einsetzen sind (1) Wissen über Zusammenhänge von Ernährung und Nachhaltigkeit sowie ein Bewusstsein für die Problematik, (2) eine gemeinsame oder geteilte Werteorientierung, (3) Innovationsbereitschaft und Offenheit gegenüber neuen oder ungewohnten Lösungsvorschlägen sowie (4) positive Erfahrungen und Erlebnisse bezüglich der Wirksamkeit des eigenen Handelns.
This research aims to develop a social equity conscious policy making framework, cognizant of lifestyle, consumption, demographics, proactiveness and the distribution of costs and benefits across society. The proposed framework is applicable in multiple jurisdictions, wherever consumption, environmental footprint intensity, and basic societal demographic data are available. For preference weighting, a survey is undertaken to identify stakeholder preferences toward environmental issues and proactive behavior to reduce environmental burdens. A framework is developed and applied to the case study nation of Japan, which is undergoing shifting demographics including both an aging, shrinking population. This novel study demonstrates the nature of societal outcomes through the lens of inequity underpinned by lifestyle related environmental burdens (objective factors) and stakeholder preferences (subjective factors). We identify that the mitigation of environmental footprints leads to improved social equity outcomes, and that stakeholder proactiveness can positively influence both equity and consumption burden outcomes. A key finding is that broad participation is shown to be more effective than targeted participation. Research findings can assist policy makers through an identification of consumption, demographic and footprint trends and their impacts on social inequity and consumption burden outcomes.
Hot water supply is one of the leading consumers of energy in the building sector in cold climate areas. The use of woody biomass is effective in reducing CO2 emissions in hot-water supply systems. This report deals with a system that combines a wood pellet boiler (PB) and a heat pump system with CO2 (CO2HP) that is used in a facility for disabled people. The following research was conducted. The operation of a hybrid system combining a PB and CO2HPs was investigated. While operating the system, four specific operations were developed as countermeasures to save on costs and reduce system troubles while reducing CO2 emissions. The processes and results are introduced. Numerical simulations were carried out to optimize the operation. The hot water temperature, water volume, and hot water loads were simulated. The influence of the water volume ratio on the cost and primary energy consumption under the requirements for safe system operation was studied. The regional economic ripple effects (REREs) of this system were studied. The wood pellet boiler is not only a measure for reducing primary energy consumption but can also play an important role in a regional economy for sustainable development in countries that import energy resources such as Japan.
The article presents the results of a study aiming to select the optimal source of heat for a newly designed single-family home. Commercial software was used to compare heating and ventilation systems involving a bituminous coal boiler, a condensing gas boiler, a biomass boiler, a heat pump with water and glycol as heat transfer media. The effectiveness of natural ventilation, mechanical ventilation with a ground-coupled heat exchanger, and solar heater panels for water heating were evaluated. The analysis was based on the annual demand for useful energy, final energy, and non-renewable primary energy in view of the pollution output of the evaluated heating systems. The analysis revealed that the heat pump with water and glycol was the optimal solution. However, the performance of the heat pump in real-life conditions was below its maximum theoretical efficiency. The biomass boiler contributed to the highest reduction in pollutant emissions (according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Change guidelines, carbon dioxide emissions have zero value), but it was characterized by the highest demand for final energy. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery was required in all analyzed systems to achieve optimal results. The introduction of mechanical ventilation decreased the demand for final energy by 10% to around 40% relative to the corresponding heating systems with natural ventilation.
This report presents the results of the Life Cycle Indicators (LC-IND2) project3, aimed at developing two sets of Life Cycle Assessment-based indicators for assessing the environmental impact of EU consumption: the Consumer Footprint and the Consumption Footprint. The indicators have been designed aiming at:
•building a Life cycle assessment-based framework for monitoring ofsustainable production and consumption (e.g. in relation to the SustainableDevelopment Goal 12). The methodology allows assessing 16 environmentalimpacts from three different perspectives: end-consumer product groups level;areas of consumption (food, housing, mobility, consumer goods, andappliances); the average EU consumer;
•developing a single headline indicator to monitor the evolution of the overallenvironmental impacts of EU consumption and production at Member State level,as well as the progress towards decoupling economic growth from environmentalimpacts. The single headline indicator is the results of weighting the 16 indicatorsmentioned above;
•testing ecoinnovation scenarios along the supply chains, from extraction of rawmaterials, to consumer behaviour, up to end of life options.
Main results indicate that the EU can be considered a “net importer of environmental impacts”. This implies that the Consumption Footprint (overall impacts related to consumption of good and services, including trade) is higher than the Domestic Footprint (impacts generated in the EU area).
Five areas of consumption (food, mobility, housing, household goods, and appliances) have been assessed through the Life Cycle Assessment of more than 130 representative products. Consumption of food emerged as one of the main driver of impacts generated by household consumption, followed by housing (especially for space heating) and mobility (especially the use of private cars). Consumer Footprint was increasing between 2010 and 2015, at a rate of 6% over the 5 years.
The environmental impact of the consumption of an average EU citizen is outside the safe operating space for humanity for several impact categories, namely climate change, resource use (fossils fuels, minerals and metals), freshwater eutrophication, photochemical ozone formation, land use, and particulate matter. Despite the differences in the robustness of the impact categories, results conclude that for most categories the impacts are close (if not over) to the planetary boundary.
Systematically evaluating the emission intensity and total emission of industries is indispensable for understanding energy and environmental sector performance in general and to support scientific climate change policy-making. In this study, an environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) model with a detailed disaggregation of energy sectors is developed to investigate the life-cycle environmental impacts of different industries. A special case study of the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, is conducted to illustrate the potential benefits of its use in the environmental policy-making field. The I–O table is transformed and disaggregated based on the energy use patterns and the underlying economic structure. Key GHG emissions, including CO2, CH4 and N2O, are considered and the CO2 equivalent intensities of different economic sectors are calculated. An in-depth analysis of key industries is conducted to further investigate the interactions between different industries. It is founded that the Province of Saskatchewan is a trade exposed and emission intense economy. The emission intensity of agriculture is higher than the mean level, and is difficult to reduce due to the large farm machines used in agricultural production. Fossil-fuel electric power generation, as an intermediate input, has a strong effect on other industries and is a key factor for emission reduction.
U.S. output has steadily outpaced the rise in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the past several decades. The decoupling of these two trends represents a decline in aggregate GHG emission intensity. Using recently released national datasets covering industry-specific GHG emissions and shipments, this paper decomposes the relative importance of changes in various channels underlying changes in aggregate GHG emissions in the U.S. from 1997 to 2015: scale or national output growth, cross-sector composition changes, and a technique effect capturing other factors lowering emission intensities within the country’s productive industries. The results demonstrate that reductions in within-sector techniques explain two-thirds, and cross-sector shifting of economic activity towards cleaner industries explains one-third of the increasing gap. Using data on industry exports and imports, this paper further investigates the relative environmental effect of trade on GHG emissions. Together, increased exporting, and importing, of both intermediate and final goods, has corresponded to a relatively small expansion of cleaner sectors and appears to have contributed slightly to the relative expansion of cleaner U.S. industries. In 2015, U.S. imports of intermediate and final goods account for the displacement of roughly 290 million metric tons of U.S. GHG emissions, representing less than 5% of U.S. GHG emissions in the same year.
Modern lifestyles demand a number of products derived from petroleum-based sources that eventually cause carbon emissions. The quantification of lifestyle and household consumption impacts upon carbon emissions from both the embodied CO2 (EC) and materially retained carbon (MRC) viewpoints is critical to deriving amelioration policies and meeting emission reduction goals. This study, for the first time, details a methodology to estimate both EC and MRC for Japan, focusing on petrochemicals and woody products utilizing the time series input-output table, physical value tables and the national survey of family income and expenditure, leveraging time series input-output-based material flow analysis (IO-MFA) and structural decomposition analysis (SDA). Findings elucidated hot spots of deleterious consumption by age of householder and the critical factors which underpin them including intensity effects, pattern effects and demographic shifts over time. Although demographic shifts associated with an aging, shrinking population in Japan decreased EC and MRC, the negative effect reduced in size over time during 1990-2005. Policy implications identify the potential to mitigate approximately 21% of required household emission reductions by 2030 through strategies including recycling initiatives and the recovery of carbon from products covered within current recycling laws and hot spot sectors which are not currently considered such as apparel.
There exists little evidence in the literature of the extent to which static environmentally extended multiregion input–output (EE-MRIO) studies actually contribute to political decision-making and policy formulation. This paper provides an overview of the reported applications of EE-MRIO analysis in an environmental context, either initiated by questions from policy makers or demonstrated by researchers. The applications are structured according to their scope and scale, the coverage of the DPSIR environmental policy framework (driving forces/pressures/state/impact/response), and the type of application (problem analysis/agenda setting, ex ante and ex post/monitoring). Results from interviews with policy makers (Belgium) show both their interest in IO-modelling and specific needs they have to make it more useful in their own context. The more experimental EE-IO models serve well for the early policy phase of problem analysis and agenda setting. Also, their use can prove the importance of strengthening international collaboration to develop internationally recognized EE-IO models.
Möglichkeiten der Gestaltung und Steuerung von Märkten der Nahrungsmittelversorgung auf kommunaler Ebene werden seitens der Politik sowie der Praktiker aus Verwaltung und Planung als begrenzt erlebt. Die Gründe hierfür liegen im Wesentlichen in einer Delokalisierung moderner Ernährungssysteme, welche mit Prozessen der Globalisierung und Ausdifferenzierung (horizontal nach Nahrungsmittelgruppen, vertikal nach Wertschöpfungsstufen) einhergeht. Dies hat zunehmend komplexe und abnehmend transparente Produktions-, Prozess- und Wertschöpfungsketten im Nahrungsmittelbereich zur Folge. Gemeinsam mit einer starken Konzentration des Lebensmitteleinzelhandels in Deutschlands auf wenige Großkonzerne, trägt dies dazu bei, dass Nahrungsmittelmärkte auf kommunaler Ebene als schwer zugänglich für Gestaltung und Koordination, beispielsweise in Richtung ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit oder der Stärkung regionaler Identität, erfahren werden. Gleichzeitig ist jedoch auf Ebene der Kommunen eine Vielzahl professioneller Betriebe in Produktions-, Verarbeitungs- und Versorgungfunktionen der Nahrungsmittelmärkte eingebunden und über diese auch untereinander sowie zu Betrieben auf regionaler, nationaler und internationaler Ebene verbunden. Das Vorhandensein dieser Marktakteursnetzwerke eröffnet die Möglichkeit, die Nahrungsmittelversorgung von Kommunen mit den Methoden der sozialen Netzwerkanalyse (SNA) zu erfassen, zu beschreiben und systematisch zu analysieren. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es, anhand der Analyse horizontaler Marktakteursnetzwerke der Nahrungsmittelversorgung zweier süddeutscher Kommunen, einen Ansatz zur systematischen Erfassung der Marktstrukturen der Nahrungsmittelversorgung zu entwickeln und darauf aufbauend Ansatzpunkte für ihre Gestaltbarkeit auf kommunalpolitischer Ebene abzuleiten.
Decision makers are tasked with defining and implementing measures that can meet established environmental targets. However, it is not always clear how effective the measure(s) will be in meeting the specified goals and which measures should be prioritized for implementation. To fill this gap, we have developed a method for testing planned actions to estimate potential impact on targets. The method can be performed at any scale, e.g., at the national, regional, or city level. The approach considers several factors, including the total consumption of an area, region-specific consumption-based environmental hotspots, the decision makers, the reduction targets and related measures, as well as multiple impact types. We present the method using the example of the municipality Gothenburg, Sweden. In collaboration with local authorities in Gothenburg, we co-created scenarios that bundle proposed measures intended to make progress towards their climate target of 3.5 tons carbon dioxide equivalents per capita. We then quantified how measures related to two known environmental hotspots, fuel and electronics, may affect climate change impact levels by the target year of 2035. The scenarios indicate that despite targeting known high-impact product types in Gothenburg, the efforts lead to only 14% of the reduction needed to meet the specified goal.
This paper aims at analyzing which is the eco-innovation level of the companies operating in the international market according to the Sustainability Innovation Cube (SIC) model developed by Hansen, Grosse-Dunker, & Reichwald (2009), so as to reveals an element of competitiveness in international market; at wit, BRF, Bunge, Docol, Intelbrás and Tigre. Also, identify how the issues of sustainability and innovation are understood in the corporations operating in the international market and review the motivations to the main programs and existing eco-innovation projects in the corporations studied. In this regard, a qualitative study of exploratory nature was carried out together with the five companies, by means of semi-structured interviews, observations, websites, internal documents, public notice, regulations, among others, which were reviewed using the technique of content analysis in depth. Data assessment was elaborated through the correlation of the theoretical background, of SIC tool and the information collected from the field. The outcomes enables to confirm that the companies surveyed have a high rate of eco-innovation, which exception of BRF, and discloses that eco-innovation contributes to enhance competitiveness in the operations of the companies in international market too.
Decarbonisation of stationary energy supply, particularly electricity grids, is the current focus of climate change mitigation policy. However, studies have suggested that this narrow policy focus is insufficient to achieve meaningful global emissions reductions. Using Iceland as a case study, this paper demonstrates that significant emissions arise from transport and imported products, which are often not fully captured in territorial GHG inventories. This results in high greenhouse gas emissions per capita regardless of the nation's domestic energy supply. The result is a low carbon illusion in which rich economies believe they are reducing their GHG responsibility whilst global emissions continue to grow.
This paper presents the first consumption-based carbon footprint (CBCF) analysis for Iceland, a nation where the stationary energy supply is 99% renewable, and could be viewed as a decarbonisation ‘future case’ for rich nations globally. The study combines Icelandic household expenditure data with the Multi-Regional Input-Output database Eora to calculate the CBCF of Icelandic households. The average annual CBCF of Icelandic households was 10.4 tCO2eq/capita, similar in magnitude to other EU nations despite Iceland's unique energy supply. GHG emissions from transport, food and goods dominated the household CBCF. The national CBCF was higher than most European nations and 55% higher than the territorial emissions inventory. Approximately 71% of household emissions were attributed to imported goods, which were mapped globally revealing that the GHG emissions burden of Icelandic consumption falls primarily on developing nations. The findings suggest that a broader GHG accounting framework and resulting policy focus is required, both in Iceland and globally, that incorporates both supply and demand-based GHG reduction strategies.
Populations are becoming more urban than rural, creating concentrated areas with high consumption of products. Understanding and influencing the environmental impact of consumption within cities becomes therefore increasingly important. Although there have been several studies evaluating the environmental impact of consumption at the global, national, and regional scale, there are few methods currently available to estimate impact at the urban level. There is therefore a need for a systematic approach to select appropriate, region-specific representative products. This study combines material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to select representative products that can be used as proxies to assess the environmental impact of urban areas using life cycle impact factors. The selection was based on the following criteria: the top consumed products within a product category, consistent products with respect to time and geography, and product types with known high environmental impact. The representative products were identified for three Swedish cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, using sixteen years of annual urban-level material flow analysis data (1996–2011). A total of 71 products across 44 categories, were identified as representative of the 10,000 product types consumed in the urban areas analyzed. The method described in this study can be used by practitioners to identify representative products in any urban area with material flow data and allows for a more comprehensive and tailored analysis that what has been previously available.
Research on sustainable practices has attracted increasing interest as a way to understand energy demand and transitions towards sustainability. In this paper we elaborate on how practice theories can inform the discussion of experimentation. Practice theory suggests that the everyday life of people appears recalcitrant. Practices are robust, resilient and have multiple, historically formed constituents and are thereby difficult to destabilize and change quickly. The making and breaking of links inside and between practices is highlighted, as is the need for enduring, multi-sited change efforts. Practice theory further helps us to better understand the constitution of new, levelled forms of expertise, the distributed nature of experimentation and the enrolment of citizens as active participants in sustainability transitions. We have operationalized and examined these suggestions in a Finnish research project related to climate change mitigation and energy use in detached houses. We report specific modes of experimentation and innovation, including user innovations, and the shared resources of situated expertise, the collective and shared processes of empowerment and the ways in which normality is challenged by ruptures in everyday life. Based on the results, we derive suggestions for effective policy interventions. We also bring forward a set of generic suggestions for more sensitive, appreciative and effective public policies on sustainability transitions and cast experimentation in a particular and partial role in such policies.
The sustainable development goals (SDGs) launched by the United Nations (UN) set a new direction for development covering the environmental, economic and social pillars. Given the complex and interdependent nature of the socio-economic and environmental systems, however, understanding the cause-effect relationships between policy actions and their outcomes on SDGs remains as a challenge. We provide a systematic review of cause-effect analysis literature in the context of quantitative sustainability assessment. The cause-effect analysis literature in both social and natural sciences has significantly gained its breadth and depth, and some of the pioneering applications have begun to address sustainability challenges. We focus on randomized experiment studies, natural experiments, observational studies, and time-series methods, and the applicability of these approaches to quantitative sustainability assessment with respect to the plausibility of the assumptions, limitations and the data requirements. Despite the promising developments, however, we find that quantifying the sustainability consequences of a policy action, and providing unequivocal policy recommendations is still a challenge. We recognize some of the key data requirements and assumptions necessary to design formal experiments as the bottleneck for conducting scientifically defensible cause-effect analysis in the context of quantitative sustainability assessment. Our study calls for the need of multi-disciplinary effort to develop an operational framework for quantifying the sustainability consequences of policy actions. In the meantime, continued efforts need to be made to advance other modeling platforms such as mechanistic models and simulation tools. We highlighted the importance of understanding and properly communicating the uncertainties associated with such models, regular monitoring and feedback on the consequences of policy actions to the modelers and decision-makers, and the use of what-if scenarios in the absence of well-formulated cause-effect analysis.
Sustainable development is presented as a response to the recognition of long-term limits on the human economy, expressed as three sets of constraints: techno-economic efficiency, environmental compatibility and social equity. Assessing and improving the sustainability of products and services necessarily requires a life-cycle approach, considering the complete supply chain, and examining the role of consumption as the driver for production. The economic and environmental dimensions can be explored by integrating value chain analysis (VCA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) to show the distribution of economic benefits and environmental impacts along the supply chain. Environmental intensities (i.e. impact per unit of added value) are frequently high for material extraction and refining, and reduce progressively along the supply chain through manufacturing and distribution. Amongst other conclusions, this finding reveals inequity and unsustainability in many supply chains. Incorporating consideration of social equity in analysis of supply chains will require further methodological development, not only to record the social benefits of activities in the supply chain but also to analyse the relationship between the agents in the supply chain. This will require “soft system” analysis to complement the “hard system” approaches of VCA and LCA. From the consumption perspective, sustainable development requires not only reduction in the environmental intensity of products and services but also more equitable distribution of economic and social benefits along the supply chain. For consumers in affluent societies, income is the main determinant of consumption. A popular and acceptable message for such consumers could be that sustainable consumption is consistent with purchasing expensive items with low environmental impacts and equitable supply chains, rather than cheap and frugal items; i.e. quality and luxury rather than quantity.
The goal of this paper is twofold: i) to investigate the carbon footprint of Greek households throughout the period 1995–2012, in order to identify the main socio-economic factors that affect GHG emissions, and ii) to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented policies to tackle climate change. In this, a consumption-based emissions inventory approach is applied. The analysis is based on an environmentally-extended input-output model including direct CO2 emissions from households, indirect CO2 emissions from electricity consumption and indirect CO2 emissions from energy used in the production of goods and services purchased by households, domestic or imported. Statistical analysis and appropriate regression models were developed in order to identify the main factors influencing the carbon footprint of Greek households. The results indicate that the observed trends during the period 1995–2008 can be attributed to the effect of high economic growth. This trend is partially counterbalanced by favorable weather conditions and the implementation of greenhouse mitigation policies and measures mainly in the supply side. Since 2008 the shrinking household income is the dominant driver. In addition, the effectiveness of energy conservation policies and measures in place is rather low, while the effect of imports is limited.
Known as hybrid LCA, integrated use of economic input–output (IO) analysis and process-based LCA (PLCA) has become a major tool of LCA inventory analysis. Proceeding from the basics of IO, this chapter discusses the issues of monetary versus physical data, multiregional extension, end-of-life phase with waste management and recycling, cost and price (with implications for life cycle costing), technology choices, and substitution. Besides the strengths of hybrid LCA, several often-cited “weaknesses” are also addressed.
Summary Eco-industrial initiatives, which close industrial loops by turning wastes at one point in a value chain into inputs at another point, are attracting growing interest as a solution to the problem of sustainability of industrial systems. Although Germany and Japan have made important advances in building recycling incentives into their industrial systems and sought competitive advantage from doing so, China is arguably taking the issue even further (in principle) through its pursuit of a circular economy, now enshrined in law as an official national development goal. In this article, we review a number of the eco-industrial initiatives taken in China and compare them using a common graphical representation with comparable initiatives taken in the West and elsewhere in East Asia. Our aim is to demonstrate some common themes across the case studies, such as the transformation from the former linear economy to a circular economy and the evolutionary processes in which dynamic linkages are gradually established over time. We discuss the drivers of these eco-industrial initiatives as well as the inhibitors, setting the initiatives in an evolutionary framework and introducing a notion of Pareto eco-efficiency to evaluate them. We make the argument that China might be capturing latecomer advantages through its systematic promotion of eco-industrial initiatives within a circular economy framework.
This is the main report of the project “Prioritisation within the integrated product policy” commissioned by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in the years 2003-4.
The main objectives of the project was to:
• Establish a detailed and well-documented method for prioritising product areas and product groups where Danish measures will provide most environmental improvement. The data basis shall be
easy to maintain and update, so that it can be used in future prioritisation as well.
• Apply the developed method on products that are currently used in Denmark (own production as well as imported products) and on products that are currently produced in Denmark (export-products),
at a level of detail justified by the method, and hereby establish a prioritised list of product areas and product groups where Danish measures will have largest importance for the environment.
In addition, the project has:
• Analysed the prioritised product groups with the aim of identifying new product groups suited for environmental labelling.
• Further analysed and presented the project results in the areas covered by the four product panels (agriculture/foods, electronics, retail trade and textiles).
• Further developed the project’s database, to increase its applicability as a Danish reference-database for life cycle assessment. This includes an addition of physical units where possible, and a further disaggregation of selected product groups.
The project furthermore provides data and tools applicable for everyone who performs lifecycle assessments of products produced and/or used in Denmark.
Like many economic exchanges, industrial symbiosis (IS) is thought to be influenced by social relationships and shared norms among actors in a network. While many implicit references to social characteristics exist throughout the literature, there have been few explicit attempts to operationalize and measure the concepts. The “short mental distance,”“trust,”“openness,” and “communication” recorded among managers in Kalundborg, Denmark, set a precedent for examining and encouraging social interactions among key personnel in the dozens of eco‐industrial networks around the world. In this article we explore the relationships among various aspects of social embeddedness, social capital, and IS. We develop a conceptual framework and an approach using quantitative and qualitative methods to identify and measure these social characteristics, including social network structure, communication, and similarities in norms and conceptions of waste, and apply them in an industrial network in Nanjangud, South India. The findings suggest that there is a fairly high level of shared norms about dealing with waste—the “short mental distance”—in this network, but by‐product transactions are only weakly correlated with the structure and content of communication among managers. Replication of this approach can increase the understanding and comparability of the role of social characteristics in eco‐industrial activities around the world.
By ‘working with the willing’, the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) has successfully facilitated industrial symbiosis throughout the United Kingdom and, in the process, delivered significant economic and environmental benefits for both Programme members and the country as a whole. One of the keys to NISP's success is that, unlike failed attempts to plan and construct eco‐industrial systems from scratch, the Programme works largely with existing companies who have already settled in, developed, and successfully operate within a given locale. This article argues that existing and mature industrial systems provide the best prospects for identifying opportunities for, and ultimately facilitating, industrial symbiosis. Due to levels of diversification and operational fundamental niches that, in the fullness of time, develop within all industrial systems, industrially mature areas are deemed to be industrial symbiosis ‘conducive environments’. Building on the conservation biology concept of a habitat suitability index, the article presents a methodology for comparing a potential site for eco‐industrial development to a known baseline industrial ‘habitat’ already identified as being highly conducive to industrial symbiosis. The suitability index methodology is further developed and applied to a multi‐criteria evaluation geographic information system to produce a ‘habitat’ suitability map that allows practitioners to quickly identify potential industrial symbiosis hotspots (the methodology is illustrated for England). The article concludes by providing options for the development of symbiosis suitability indices and how they can be used to support the facilitation of industrial symbiosis and regional resource efficiency.
Industrial symbiosis describes the mutualistic interaction of different industries for beneficial reuse of waste flows or energy cascading that results in a more resource-efficient production system and fewer adverse environmental impacts. Research shows that many information and communication technology (ICT) tools for industrial symbiosis development have been created, but the results of those efforts are unclear. Drawing from advancements in knowledge-based economics and management, this article applies a knowledge-based framework to evaluate opportunities for ICT within industrial symbiosis development. ICT systems designed to enable industrial symbiosis are surveyed and evaluated within the proposed framework to identify strengths, trends, and opportunities for continued development. An appendix provides a capsule summary of the 17 ICT tools that are assessed in the article.
The Guitang Group (GG), which operates one of China's largest sugar refineries, has been developing and implementing an internal and external industrial symbiosis strategy for more than four decades. The GG first invested in developing its own collection of downstream companies to utilize nearly all byproducts of sugar production. This strategy has generated new revenues and reduced environmental emissions and disposal costs, while simultaneously improving the quality of sugar.Internally, the GG's complex consists of interlinked production of sugar, alcohol, cement, compound fertilizer, and paper and includes recycling and reuse. Externally, the GG has established a strong customer base as a result of its product quality, has worked to maintain and expand its supply base through technological and economic incentives to farmers (and even to competitors), and has had to react to a strong government presence that fundamentally affects its operations.Operations to date support some of the fundamental concepts of industrial symbiosis. Significant challenges exist, though, if the company is to continue to prosper in the volatile globalized sugar market.
"Handbook of Input-Output Economics in Industrial Ecology" covers an array of topics including the history of industrial ecology and input-output economics, material flow analysis, LCA, sustainable consumption, policy applications, energy and climate change, waste management, national accounts and statistics, and new developments in modeling and theory. Particularly, this handbook is designed to offer a comprehensive coverage on three major issues: (1) theory and method of key analytical tools and models; (2) fundamental accounting principles and compilation of basic data; and (3) practical applications of the tools and models at various scales. First, various analytical tools and modeling techniques that are of particular importance to industrial ecology applications are comprehensively treated in this handbook, which includes hybrid models for LCA, Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and energy analysis; physical and hybrid-unit IO models; Waste IO model; multi-regional IO models; dynamic IO model; thermodynamic analysis; linear programming and optimization techniques; graph theory and network analysis; use of scenarios; and Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA). Second, basic accounting frameworks and compilation of required data for these analytical tools and models are shown, which covers e.g., the supply-use framework, resources accounts, time-use survey, Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs), compilation of environmental IO databases of Japan (3EID) and the U.S. (CEDA). Third, use of these data, tools and models for micro-, meso-, as well as macro-scale applications are presented throughout the chapters. Readers will also notice the difference in mode of writing in some chapters: for instance, some are written more as a practical and instructive guide (e.g., the step-by-step approaches for net energy analysis of Chapter 24) and some are done more as a theoretical contribution (e.g., the multistage process-based make-use system of Chapter 35).
"Handbook of Input-Output Economics in Industrial Ecology" can serve as a one-stop reference book for both industrial ecologists and input-output economists who are exploring the other discipline. This handbook would be particularly useful for those who study LCA, energy and climate change policy, environmental product policy and sustainable consumption.
A recurring theme in industrial sym-biosis research is characterization and quantification of connectedness or symbiotic intensity, typically by means of a number of physical transfers and a number of businesses and other entities involved. A count on the basis of symbiotic resource flows would, in principle, enable the use of indicators that are commonly used to quantify ecosystem integration in nature. The way to do so remains somewhat unre-solved, as industrial systems are different from natural systems.
Summary Studies of industrial symbiosis (IS) focus on the physical flows of materials and energy in local industrial systems. In an ideal IS, waste material and energy are shared or exchanged among the actors of the system, thereby reducing the consumption of virgin material and energy inputs, and likewise the generation of waste and emissions. In this study, the environmental impacts of an industrial ecosystem centered around a pulp and paper mill and operating as an IS are analyzed using life cycle assessment (LCA). The system is compared with two hypothetical reference systems in which the actors would operate in isolation. Moreover, the system is analyzed further in order to identify possibilities for additional links between the actors. The results show that of the total life cycle impacts of the system, upstream processes made the greatest overall contribution to the results. Comparison with stand-alone production shows that in the case studied, the industrial symbiosis results in modest improvements, 5% to 20% in most impact categories, in the overall environmental impacts of the system. Most of the benefits occur upstream through heat and electricity production for the local town. All in all it is recommended that when the environmental impacts of industrial symbiosis are assessed, the impacts occurring upstream should also be studied, not only the impacts within the ecosystem.
Water resource management is a critical component of eco‐industrial parks. This article proposes a methodology, termed the water resource management model for industrial parks, that integrates a water input‐output table with water pinch technology. A case study of the Yixing Economic Development Zone (YEDZ) in China illustrates the methodology. Each sector's water utilization and direct and indirect intersectoral interactions of water and water pollutants in 2007 and 2015 are accounted for. It is proposed that water metabolism in 2015 could achieve certain objectives of water resource management in the YEDZ. In addition, future policies are proposed. The YEDZ needs to focus on improving various technologies regarding the manufacture of textiles, the manufacture of raw chemical materials and chemical products, and the production and supply of electric and heat power—which will promote the utilization of water cascading among sectors and encourage the reuse of treated water from wastewater treatment plants. Last, future work for water resource management is proposed.
This research analyzes the Green City project in the town of Três Coroas, Brazil. We describe its management system, evaluating the change process and the economic, social, and environmental benefits since the recycling center has been in service. We demonstrate a successful case of operational and cultural change in the disposal of industrial waste, describing the key points that helped the adoption of a new set of procedures, and illustrating the role of the champion in the implementation of a symbiotic cluster.
While much work has been done on the conditions surrounding the emergence and establishment of industrial symbiosis (IS), new attention is being paid to understanding the evolution of IS over time. We demonstrate empirically how a new, facilitated IS initiative developed and evolved over an 8‐year period. We explore its network evolution by considering how the facilitator's actions enabled and precluded two fundamental network processes - serendipitous and goal‐directed processes. We discuss implications for a more generalized theory of IS development by exploring why and how different evolutionary trajectories may unfold.
Rebound effects for environmental efficiency mean that improvements for the efficiency cause unintentional reactions and reduce the effects of those improvements. Many papers on rebound effects have been published in the research field of energy economics since 80's. Kazzoom(1980) stimulated researchers and generated many papers (e.g. Lovins 1988, Greeene 1992, 1999, Shipper 2000, Binswanger 2001, Jalas 2002, Hofstetter 2003). Empirical studies were also accumulated. The summary by Greening(2000) pointed out an interesting features that empirical works had been concentrated on the subjects for partial equilibrium, which means that they targeted one or a few goods or services. Greening(2000)'s summary picked up over 74 papers. However, only one paper (Kydes 1992) used economy-wide model for analysis of the rebound effects. Besides that, Although Saunders(1992) discussed about the rebound effects within the framework of the macroscopic neoclassical growth theory, there existed no prices and could not capture the economy-wide interrelations. This paper presents the estimation of the rebound effects of Japanese economy with the applied general equilibrium model for the appraisal of environmental policies (hereinafter, we call it EPAM). EPAM disaggregate the economy into 33 industrial sectors inclusive of energy sectors (Coal products, Oil products, Electricity and Gas supply). EPAM can simulate the impact of the improvements of energy efficiencies on the total CO2 emission of Japanese economy. We will show the rebound effects depend upon the elasticity of substitution in industrial technology and in consumer's utility functions and the size of rebound effects are estimated 35% to 70%. The structure of this paper is as follows. The second section describes the framework of EPAM. The third section includes the theoretical contents. The fourth section describes the simulations and the results. The sixth section is the conclusion.
Normalisation provides a measure of the relative contribution from a product system to one or more environmental problems. Total yearly emissions for a reference year in a reference region are normally used to calculate normalisation figures. This paper provides up-to-date normalisation figures for the Netherlands in 1997/1998, Western Europe in 1995 and the world in 1990 and 1995. Impact categories considered were depletion of abiotic resources, land competition, global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone formation, radiation and toxicity. In all cases, a limited set of emissions or extractions are dominant contributors to the normalisation scores. Although much effort was spent on collecting emissions data and characterisation factors, particularly normalisation scores for radiation and toxicity remain considerably uncertain.
One assumption underlying the work on industrial symbiosis (IS) is that certain social conditions must be fulfilled in order for firms to develop symbiotic linkages. In this article we add depth to this insight by using institutional capacity as an underlying concept for these conditions, and we propose that such capacity influences IS by altering the opportunity set of actors. We then test the assumption on a dataset of 233 projects aiming to develop eco‐industrial parks. We find that the link between institutional capacity and the opportunities for symbiotic linkages perceived by actors is not always present and is more complicated than has been recognized thus far. We discuss potential alternative ways in which institutional capacity might influence IS and present ideas for future research to shed light on this important relationship.
Many scholars of industrial ecology have focused on the institutional and organizational challenges of building and maintaining regional industrial symbiosis through the synergistic integration of material and energy flows. Despite the promise that these intellectual developments hold for the future dematerialization of industrial production, they rarely address the actual regulatory obstacles of turning wastes into raw materials. In this article we introduce a potential future industrial symbiosis around the Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden, and assess the regulatory bottlenecks related to waste by-product consideration.
We find that although the Gulf of Bothnia region has technological and economic potential for industrial symbiosis, the regulatory support for this is insufficient. We suggest a common pool resource-based governance system that could utilize market and regulatory mechanisms in a regional-level cross-border system of governance. Importantly, the suggested governance system would protect the users of potential raw materials from unpredictable waste regulation, market risks related to large-scale material flows, and societal risks of hazardous waste treatment.
In view of recent studies of the historical development and current status of industrial symbiosis (IS), life cycle assessment (LCA) is proposed as a general framework for quantifying the environmental performance of by‐product exchange. Recent guidelines for LCA (International Reference Life Cycle Data System [ILCD] guidelines) are applied to answer the main research questions in the IS literature reviewed. A typology of five main research questions is proposed: (1) analysis, (2) improvement, and (3) expansion of existing systems; (4) design of new eco‐industrial parks, and (5) restructuring of circular economies. The LCA guidelines were found useful in framing the question and choosing an appropriate reference case for comparison. The selection of a correct reference case reduces the risk of overestimating the benefits of by‐product exchange. In the analysis of existing systems, environmentally extended input‐output analysis (EEIOA) can be used to streamline the analysis and provide an industry average baseline for comparison. However, when large‐scale changes are applied to the system, more sophisticated tools are necessary for assessment of the consequences, from market analysis to general equilibrium modeling and future scenario work. Such a rigorous application of systems analysis was not found in the current IS literature, but would benefit the field substantially, especially when the environmental impact of large‐scale economic changes is analyzed.
Innovative waste recycling through industrial processes such as industrial and urban symbiosis has long been practiced and recently received much attention in the field of industrial ecology, with researchers making efforts to identify key contributing factors to successful industrial symbiosis. By analyzing 88 sample recycling projects in 23 eco‐towns in Japan, this article focuses on the factors of project scale, recycling boundary, and types of waste in relationship to environmental benefits and operational performance. The results showed that larger eco‐towns achieved more savings of virgin materials and higher stability in operation. Large‐scale projects tended to locate closer to the users of recycled products than did small‐scale projects. For treating similar types of waste, projects producing recycled products for special users (e.g., feedstock to a blast furnace for iron production) tended to locate closer to the users than those not producing for special users. The type of waste had a strong effect on the savings of virgin materials and recycling boundaries, while local factors had significant impacts on operational performance. The results also showed that agglomeration did not significantly contribute to the environmental benefits or operational performance of eco‐town projects. Another finding was that national agencies were helpful for facilitating cross‐prefecture transportation and long‐distance transaction of wastes. Implications of the findings are also discussed.
This article presents the quantitative eco-efficiency method developed for prioritising environmental investments in NOGEPA, The Netherlands Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Association involving all major oil and gas producers in The Netherlands. They are committed to a high level of environmental improvement in a Covenant with Dutch central government. Quantitative assessment of eco-efficiency in terms of cost per unit of environmental improvement requires the quantification of both costs and environmental impacts, each in a single indicator. The present study focuses on the development of a single environmental indicator for that purpose. The overall process for arriving at such an indicator has been structured according to ISO 14042 about the life cycle impact assessment. For the last step in this process, the establishment of weighting factors across environmental themes, a panel method has been chosen, involving as stakeholders the government officials involved, the industry experts and independent experts from scientific institutes.
The longer term sustainability of the minerals sector may hinge, in large part, on finding innovative solutions to the challenges of energy intensity and carbon dioxide (CO2) management. This article outlines the need for large-scale “carbon solutions” that might be shared by several colocated energy-intensive and carbon-intensive industries. In particular, it explores the potential for situating a mineral carbonation plant as a carbon sink at the heart of a minerals and energy complex to form an industrial symbiosis. Several resource-intensive industries can be integrated synergistically in this way, to enable a complex that produces energy and mineral products with low net CO2 emissions. An illustrative hypothetical case study of such a system within New South Wales, Australia, has been constructed, on the basis of material and energy flows derived from Aspen modeling of a serpentine carbonation process. The synergies and added value created have the potential to significantly offset the energy and emission penalties and direct costs of CO2 capture and storage. This suggests that greenfield minerals beneficiation and metals refining plants should consider closer integration with the power production and energy provision plants on which they depend, together with a carbon solution, such as mineral carbonation, as a critical element of such integration. Other sustainability considerations are highlighted.
This article presents the result of a two-year project funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify potential by-products partnerships between industries in a six-county metropolitan area in North Carolina, U.S.A. The project gathered data from 182 industries and institutions in the region regarding (1) by-products that might be usable by other, nearby firms, and (2) the inputs they used that might be furnished from another facility's by-products. These data, which were also linked to geographic information system maps, were used to identify potential regional partnerships for the reuse of materials, water, and energy. Of the 182 participating facilities, probable or possible partnerships were found for 48% during the limited project period. This project demonstrated the value of a local facilitator and the value of specific techniques for identifying and promoting potential by-products partnerships.
Eco-industrial park (EIP) projects have become more prevalent in China. In order to evaluate the performance of such innovative projects, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has set up a new national standard for EIPs, the first of its kind globally. This article examines the applicability and feasibility of the indicator system established in the standard. It first presents the details of this new standard. Then benefits and challenges in the standard's application are analyzed. The analysis shows that the new indicators are eco-efficiency-oriented and do not address the essence of the EIP. In the future, there will be a need to revise this set of indicators by considering the principles of eco-industrial development and local realities in order to ensure that the indicators are indeed used to promote sustainable development of industrial parks.
Industrial ecology has emerged as a key strategy for improving environmental conditions. A central element of industrial ecology is the concept of closing the loop in material use (cycling) by directing used material and products (wastes) back to production processes. This article examines the issue of geographic scale and loop closing for heterogeneous wastes through an analysis of the location and materials flows of a set of recycling, remanufacturing, recycling manufacturing, and waste treatment (RRWT) firms in Texas. The results suggest that there is no preferable scale at which loop closing should be organized. RRWT firms are ubiquitous and operate successfully throughout the settlement hierarchy. The cycling boundaries of RRWT firms are dependent primarily upon how and where their products are redirected to production processes rather than the firm's location in the settlement hierarchy. In other words, loop closing is dominated by the spatial economic logic of the transactions of the firm involved. These results suggest that we cannot assign loop closing to any particular spatial scale a priori nor can we conceive of closing the loop via RRWT firms in terms of monolithic networks bounded in space or place with internal material flows.
Closing loops by intercompany recycling of by-products is a core theme of industrial ecology (IE). This article considers whether industrial recycling networks or industrial symbiosis projects can be used as a starting point for much broader intercompany cooperation for sustainable development. Evidence presented is based on the results of an empirical investigation of the recycling network Styria in Austria, the recycling network Oldenburger Münsterland in Germany, and the manufacturing sector in Austria.
Statistical analysis shows that the percentage of by-products that are passed on to other companies for recycling purposes is not higher in member companies of the recycling networks than in the other companies of the manufacturing sector in Austria. In terms of cooperation, the relationships with the respective recycling partners are found to be very similar to regular customer relations. Furthermore, the companies of the recycling networks remain unaware of the network to which they belong. Instead, one of the main findings of this study is that intercompany recycling activities are regarded by the company representatives as bilateral market transactions, not as collaborative network activities.
This has potentially significant implications for the use of industrial symbiosis networks as starting points for sustainability networks with broader cooperation toward sustainability. The findings raise interesting questions as to whether such broader cooperation might result from a conscious planning process or might emerge largely spontaneously as part of normal market coordination. In any case, intercompany recycling is clearly considered to be a very important field of collaborative action for sustainability in industry.
The industrial park of Herdersbrug (Brugge, Flanders, Belgium) comprises 92 small and medium-sized enterprises, a waste-to-energy incinerator, and a power plant (not included in the study) on its site. To study the carbon dioxide (CO2) neutrality of the park, we made a park-wide inventory for 2007 of the CO2 emissions due to energy consumption (electricity and fossil fuel) and waste incineration, as well as an inventory of the existing renewable electricity and heat generation. The definition of CO2 neutrality in Flanders only considers CO2 released as a consequence of consumption or generation of electricity, not the CO2 emitted when fossil fuel is consumed for heat generation. To further decrease or avoid CO2 emissions, we project and evaluate measures to increase renewable energy generation.
The 21 kilotons (kt) of CO2 emitted due to electricity consumption are more than compensated by the 25 kt of CO2 avoided by generation of renewable electricity. Herdersbrug Industrial Park is thus CO2 neutral, according to the definition of the Flemish government. Only a small fraction (6.6%) of the CO2 emitted as a consequence of fossil fuel consumption (heat generation) and waste incineration is compensated by existing and projected measures for renewable heat generation.
Of the total CO2 emission (149 kt) due to energy consumption (electricity + heat generation) and waste incineration on the Herdersbrug Industrial Park in 2007, 70.5% is compensated by existing and projected renewable energy generated in the park. Forty-seven percent of the yearly avoided CO2 corresponds to renewable energy generated from waste incineration and biomass fermentation.
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) facilitates a systems view in environmental evaluation of products, materials, and processes. Life-cycle assessment attempts to quantify environmental burdens over the entire life-cycle of a product from raw material extraction, manufacturing, and use to ultimate disposal. However, current methods for LCA suffer from problems of subjective boundary definition, inflexibility, high cost, data confidentiality, and aggregation.This paper proposes alternative models to conduct quick, cost effective, and yet comprehensive life-cycle assessments. The core of the analytical model consists of the 498 sector economic input-output tables for the U.S. economy augmented with various sector-level environmental impact vectors. The environmental impacts covered include global warming, acidification, energy use, non-renewable ores consumption, eutrophication, conventional pollutant emissions and toxic releases to the environment. Alternative models are proposed for environmental assessment of individual products, processes, and life-cycle stages by selective disaggregation of aggregate input-output data or by creation of hypothetical new commodity sectors. To demonstrate the method, a case study comparing the life-cycle environmental performance of steel and plastic automobile fuel tank systems is presented.
Measures taken to protect the environment often have other, unintended effects on society. One concern is that changed behavior may offset part of the environmental gain, something that has variously been labeled “take-back” or “rebound.” In energy economics, the rebound effect encompasses both the behavioral and systems responses to cost reductions of energy services as a result of energy efficiency measures. From an industrial ecology perspective, we are concerned about more than just energy use. Any given efficiency measure has several types of environmental impacts. Changes in the various impact indicators are not necessarily in the same direction. Both co-benefits and negative side effects of measures directed to solve one type of problem have been identified. Environment is often a free input, so that a price-based rebound effect is not expected, but other indirect effects not connected to the price, such as spillover of environmental behavior, also occur. If the costs and impact of products that are already environmentally friendly are reduced, the “rebound” can be in the opposite, desired direction. Furthermore, I identify technical spillover effects. Hence a number of related effects, often producing positive results, are not as well understood. Household environmental impact assessments and eco-efficiency assessments take into account the rebound effect, but they do not necessarily take into account these other effects. The analysis hence indicates that the current focus on the rebound effect is too narrow and needs to be extended to cover co-benefits, negative side effects, and spillover effects.
The exchange of wastes, by-products, and energy among closely situated firms is one of the distinctive features of the applications of industrial ecological principles. This article examines the industrial district at Kalundborg, Denmark, often labeled as an “industrial ecosystem” or “industrial symbiosis” because of the many links among the firms. The forces that led to its evolution and to the interdependencies are described and analyzed. Key has been a sequence of independent, economically driven actions. Other potential forms of industrial linkages are critically reviewed in the light of the Kalundborg experience. The evolutionary pattern followed at Kalundborg may not be easily transferable to greenfield developments.
Eco-efficiency is an instrument for sustainability analysis, indicating an empirical relation in economic activities between environmental cost or value and environmental impact. This empirical relation can be matched against normative considerations as to how much environmental quality or improvement society would like to offer in exchange for economic welfare, or what the trade-off between the economy and the environment should be if society is to realize a certain level of environmental quality. Its relevance lies in the fact that relations between economy and environment are not self-evident, not at a micro level and not at the macro level resulting from micro-level decisions for society as a whole. Clarifying the why and what of eco-efficiency is a first step toward decision support on these two aspects of sustainability. With the main analytic framework established, filling in the actual economic and environmental relations requires further choices in modeling. Also, the integration of different environmental effects into a single score requires a clear definition of approach, because several partly overlapping methods exist. Some scaling problems accompany the specification of numerator and denominator, which need a solution and some standardization before eco-efficiency analysis can become more widely used. With a method established, the final decision is how to embed it in practical decision making. In getting the details of eco-efficiency better specified, its strengths, but also its weaknesses and limitations, need to be indicated more clearly.