Ottar Michelsen's research while affiliated with Norwegian University of Science and Technology and other places
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Publications (69)
This case focuses on the use of the CapSEM Model by the Norwegian furniture industry, beginning with efforts that raised sustainability awareness through a series of case studies over a period of more than 10 years. It started with a Cleaner Production (CP) programme for a group of furniture companies in a small community. The goal for another case...
This chapter gives an overview of the history of the development of environmental management systems (EMS) and the purpose of an EMS. It expands on the description of the different steps of an EMS under the model Plan-Do-Check-Act and clarifies the use of concepts within EMS. Companies are motivated by external pressure from stakeholders, national...
The construction sector and built environment have the potential to impact on a variety of systemic dimensions, ranging from specific processes in the production of construction materials to pan-national regulations affecting regional areas and cities. This case study uses the CapSEM Model in order to identify the potential enabling and constrainin...
Human activities put pressure on the natural environmental and the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (LCA) is becoming a more prevalent tool to assess the relevant environmental impacts from products and processes on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems. The Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method (GLAM) project of the Life Cycle Initia...
Vi vet lite om hvordan arbeidslivet ser ut om 30 år. Likevel er det en del utviklingstrekk som har gjort seg gjeldende de senere årene og som det kan være grunn til å tro vil forsterke seg i årene framover. Overordnet handler dette blant annet om en økende globalisering, automatisering og autonome systemer og nye måter å organisere arbeid og verdik...
Vi vet lite om hvordan arbeidslivet ser ut om 30 år. Likevel er det en del utviklingstrekk som har gjort seg gjeldende de senere årene og som det kan være grunn til å tro vil forsterke seg i årene framover. Overordnet handler dette blant annet om en økende globalisering, automatisering og autonome systemer og nye måter å organisere arbeid og verdik...
Species turnover is ubiquitous. However, it remains unknown whether certain types of species are consistently gained or lost across different habitats. Here, we analysed the trajectories of 1827 plant species over time intervals of up to 78years at 141sites across mountain summits, forests, and lowland grasslands in Europe. We found, albeit with...
There is generally a mismatch in the land use classification of life cycle inventory (LCI) databases and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods. This mismatch can hinder the proper assessment of land use impacts on biodiversity. To facilitate such assessments, we matched the land use classes of two global LCIA methods to five widely used LCI d...
The construction sector is progressively becoming more circular by reducing waste, re-using building materials and adopting regenerative solutions for energy production and biodiversity protection. The implications of circularity on construction activities are complex and require the careful evaluation of impacts to select the appropriate path forw...
Aims
Understanding fine-grain diversity patterns across large spatial extents is fundamental for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation. Using the GrassPlot database, we provide benchmarks of fine-grain richness values of Palaearctic open habitats for vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and complete vegetation (i.e., the sum of the...
While climatic research about treeline has a long history, the climatic conditions corresponding to the upper limit of closed alpine grasslands remain poorly understood. Here, we propose a climatic definition for this limit, the 'grassline', in analogy to the treeline, which is based on the growing season length and the soil temperature. Eighty-sev...
The direction and magnitude of long-term changes in local plant species richness are highly variable among studies, while species turnover is ubiquitous. However, it is unknown whether the nature of species turnover is idiosyncratic or whether certain types of species are consistently gained or lost across different habitats. To address this questi...
Purpose
Guidance is needed on best-suited indicators to quantify and monitor the man-made impacts on human health, biodiversity and resources. Therefore, the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative initiated a global consensus process to agree on an updated overall life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework and to recommend a non-comprehensive list of...
GrassPlot is a collaborative vegetation-plot database organised by the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) and listed in the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD ID EU-00-003). GrassPlot collects plot records (relevés) from grasslands and other open habitats of the Palaearctic biogeographic realm. It focuses on precisely delimited plots...
The article, Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway.
PurposeHabitat destruction is today the most severe threat to global biodiversity. Despite decades of efforts, there is still no proper methodology on how to assess all aspects of impacts on biodiversity from land use and land use changes (LULUC) in life cycle analysis (LCA). A majority of LCA studies on land extensive activities still do not inclu...
Climate change is affecting the composition and functioning of ecosystems across the globe. Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate warming since their biota is generally limited by low temperatures. Cryptogams such as lichens and bryophytes are important for the biodiversity and functioning of these ecosystems, but have not often...
Increasing needs for decision support and advances in scientific knowledge within life cycle assessment (LCA) led to substantial efforts to provide global guidance on environmental life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) indicators under the auspices of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. As part of these efforts, a dedicated task force focused on ad...
The life cycle impact assessment guidance flagship project of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative aims at providing global guidance and building scientific consensus on indicators for assessing land use impacts on biodiversity. This paper summarizes the activities and highlights the main conclusions of the project. During the last two years the In...
In the alpine life zone, plant diversity is strongly determined by local topography and microclimate. We assessed the extent to which aspect and its relatedness to temperature affect plant species diversity, and the colonization and disappearance of species on alpine summits on a pan-European scale. Mountain summits in Europe's alpine life zone. Va...
Purpose
The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) guidance flagship project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle Initiative aims at providing global guidance and building scientific consensus on environmental LCIA indicators. This paper presents the progress made since...
The modelling of land use impacts on biodiversity is considered a priority in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Many diverging approaches have been proposed in an expanding literature on the topic. The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative is engaged in building consensus on a shared modelling framework to highlight best-practice and guide model application...
Purpose
As a class of environmental metrics, footprints have been poorly defined, have shared an unclear relationship to life cycle assessment (LCA), and the variety of approaches to quantification have sometimes resulted in confusing and contradictory messages in the marketplace. In response, a task force operating under the auspices of the UNEP/S...
The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative organized two consensus-building workshops regarding Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) models and indicators for land use impacts on biodiversity. This article presents a synthesis of the main recommendations drawn from the opinions of the experts present, from the Initiative’s perspective. The needs of LCA practition...
Land use interventions is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and degradation of a broad range of ecosystem services. In the frame of LCA there is not clear consensus yet on the use of (a) specific impact indicator(s) to quantify land use impacts on biodiversity.The UNEP SETAC Life Cycle Initiative has successfully provided a platform for...
In the context of life cycle impact assessment, the evaluation of land use impacts needs to be inclusive, incorporating models that allow the quantification of the impact of land use on soil. Soil is a key compartment, determining the supply of ecosystem services as well as supporting biodiversity. The present study reviews and compares a set of mo...
Loss of biodiversity is one of the most severe threats to sustainability, and land use and land use changes are still the single most important factor. Still, there is no sign of any consensus on how to include impacts on biodiversity from land use and land use changes in LCIA. In this paper, different characteristics of biodiversity are discussed...
Depletion in oil resources and environmental concern related to the use of fossil fuels has increased the interest in using second generation biomass as alternative feedstock for fuels and materials. However, the land use and land use change for producing second generation (2G) biomass impacts the environment in various ways, of which not all are u...
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the most important approaches to quantify environmental impacts of products from cradle to grave. Environmental indicators are required to measure the greening of the economy and of products. With the globalization of our economy, there has been a steadily growing need to create a worldwide consensus set of env...
Purpose
The aim of this study is apply available methods to assess impacts on biodiversity from the land use caused by plantation grown radiata pine in New Zealand in a life cycle assessment framework. This is done both to quantify the impact as well as compare the results obtained by different methods.
Methods
Data on location and productivity for...
Purpose
Habitat loss is a significant cause of biodiversity loss, but while its importance is widely recognized, there is no generally accepted method on how to include impacts on biodiversity from land use and land use changes in cycle assessment (LCA), and existing methods are suffering from data gaps. This paper proposes a methodology for assess...
This study assesses the environmental impacts from production of 1 kg barley, oat and spring wheat, in central southeast Norway by means of life cycle assessment. The results were given for twelve impact categories, selected based on relevance to the system. These categories are climate change, fossil depletion, freshwater ecotoxicity, freshwater e...
There is a strong need for methods within life cycle assessment (LCA) that enable the inclusion of all complex aspects related to land use and land use change (LULUC). This article presents a case study of the use of one hectare (ha) of forest managed for the production of wood for bioenergy production. Both permanent and temporary changes in above...
Climate impact studies have indicated ecological fingerprints of recent global warming across a wide range of habitats1, 2. Although these studies have shown responses from various local case studies, a coherent large-scale account on temperature-driven changes of biotic communities has been lacking3, 4. Here we use 867 vegetation samples above the...
Norway, like many countries, has realized the need to extensively plan its renewable energy future sooner rather than later. Combined heat and power (CHP) through gasification of forest residues is one technology that is expected to aid Norway in achieving a desired doubling of bioenergy production by 2020. To assess the environmental impacts to de...
Green procurement is seen both as a public strategy to promote sustainable products and as a business strategy to improve environmental performance of the supply chain and thus meet demands for more environmentally friendly products, including from public institutions. Green Public Procurement (GPP) is a part of the national strategy for sustainabl...
Public regulations can result in improved environmental performance of products. In this paper eco-efficiency is used to assess the most likely outcome of potential new regulations. The paper presents a case study of furniture production in Norway where different scenarios for improving the environmental performance of the products are presented. F...
In this article, a three-step method, proposing how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can improve the environmental
performance in their supply chain, is presented. The method is based on (1) an assessment of their products, (2) identification
of critical processes that should be improved, and (3) identification of actors in the supply cha...
Consumer pressure is usually considered as one of the major drivers for more environmental friendly products. During the last decade an increasing focus on public procurement has emerged as an important contributor to that pressure. In this paper we focus on the role of municipalities and counties in green public procurement. Based on surveys we in...
New requirements and regulations have increased the pressure on companies to provide information on their products. This is
challenging for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since they lack both expertise and resources. In this paper, the
possibilities to develop environmental product declarations (EPDs) for products with use of data-assis...
The forestry sector is experiencing an increasing demand for documentation about its environmental performance. Previous studies have revealed large differences in environmental impact caused by forestry operations, mainly due to differences in location and forestry practice. Reliable information on environmental performance for forestry operations...
Goal, Scope and BackgroundLand use and changes in land use have a significant impact on biodiversity. Still, there is no agreed upon methodology for
how this impact should be assessed and included in LCA. This paper presents a methodology for including land use impact on
biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment and provides a case example from...
This paper presents a methodology to combine environmental assessment information and knowledge on supplier relationships.
The work is based on a case study of production of a chair. The methods used are shown to be effective to reduce the number
of suppliers that should be managed from an environmental point of view and also obtain an overview ove...
Aims and Scope. Land use by agriculture, forestry, mining, house-building or industry leads to substantial impacts, particularly on biodiversity and on soil quality as a supplier of life support functions. Unfortunately there is no widely accepted assessment method so far for land use impacts. This paper presents an attempt, within the UNEP-SETAC L...
This paper shows how the eco-efficiency concept can be used to evaluate value and environmental performance when considering different scenarios for redesigning extended supply chains (ESCs). Results from a case study on furniture production in Norway are used to illustrate the concept.
An extended supply chain includes all processes necessary for...
This paper presents a methodology about how eco-efficiency in extended supply chains (ESCs) can be understood and measured. The extended supply chain includes all processes in the life cycle of a product and the eco-efficiency is measured as the relative environmental and value performance in one ESC compared to other ESCs. The paper is based on a...
The paper presents a feasibility study for applying biodiesel in recreational boats in the United Kingdom for the purpose of rational utilization of energy resources and environmental protection. Biodiesel has been widely used to fuel diesel engines for onshore vehicles, particularly for agriculture machinery. Application of biodiesel for merchant...
This paper gives a brief presentation of the industrial ecology study and research programs at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU). These programs have been running for a few years, and they have recently been evaluated. The
revised program will be presented. A central topic within the framework of industrial ecology is eco-ef...
Information about the environmental performance of transport systems is believed to become increasingly important in the future. This paper shows how the environmental performance of different transport chains can be compared against each other by a set of environmental impact categories. By the use of different weighting models, slight variations...
Citations
... An EMS is based on the environmental policy of the organization, with the EMS being the tool to bring this to life (Fet 2006;Fet and Knudson 2017;Johnstone 2020). An environmental policy is a written statement defining the company's aims A company should decide if they just want to use an EMS to ensure it avoids breaking any legal constraints, or if the ambition is to demonstrate its control of the environmental performance as a competitive advantage (Michelsen and Skaar 2021). In the latter case, an environmental policy should set the rules and guidelines for how a company should operate and shape its organization. ...
Reference: Environmental Management Systems
... They assess the global (and irreversible) loss of the proportion of species in the ecosystem through a vulnerability score ). An improvement of this score has recently been proposed (Kuipers et al. 2019;Verones et al. 2022), defining the "global extinction probability". This latter estimation is more accurate for converting regional CFs into global CFs, by ensuring the regional summation of the conversion factors equals one. ...
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... Fertile soils are currently the paradigm amongst gardeners, with studies nding that 52% of gardeners apply fertilizers at least once a year (Dewaelheyns et al., 2013). We argue that the species that bene t from these activities are exactly those that are already winning in the Anthropocene (Staude et al., 2021). Nutrient-demanding species are increasing inside and outside natural ecosystems alike. ...
Reference: Putting conservation gardening into practice
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... Importantly, these practices need to be well-founded to avoid some risks to biodiversity such as introduction of invasive species 90 or biotic homogenisation. 91 Finally, through this integrative approach, we advocate pollination services as a compelling point of convergence for developing public policies and practices to recover and maintain many NCP. Therefore, pollination services are also a means to change paradigms of production with significant impacts on natural resource use and biodiversity conservation. ...
... The indicator result can be interpreted as the impact on the relative abundance of wild pollinators that is associated with the studied system. In the case of land use change (also referred to in LCA as land transformation), CFs would be derived by estimating the difference in the relative pollinator abundance between two different land use types and multiplying by a regeneration time 36,37 However, due to discrepancies in the operationalization of land "transformation" impact assessment, 29,38 we focus in this study on the derivation of applicable CFs for land "occupation" impacts, referred to simply as land use. ...
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... However, not only the maximum, but also the mean small-scale richness was exceptionally high, as the present-day mean across all available plots of 0.09/0.1 m 2 in the GrassPlot database (https://edgg. org/datab ases/Grass landD ivers ityEx plorer; see Biurrun et al., 2021) is only 11.8, or 9.6 if restricting the search to Switzerland and its neighbouring countries (n = 3735 and 775, respectively). When split into the main vegetation types, the mean richness values in 0.09 m 2 were much higher than present-day means, too (Appendix S5). ...
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... Seeds can be found almost anywhere, including very high, exposed summits [27,80,81], but seedling establishment is likely to select for certain response traits and thus species. While summit floras are commonly assembled from species that can grow in isolation or are confined to microshelters and tolerate raw substrates, the novel establishment of grassland depends on the success of late-successional species and soil development [82]. ...
Reference: Concepts in Alpine Plant Ecology
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... The CE concept is quickly gaining traction for some of the most pressing global, intersecting sustainable development challenges (Sparrevik et al., 2021). By evaluating significant literature on various CE techniques and frameworks produced by research academics, this study will offer 10 CE principles that were taken into consideration while building the CE-based 10R assessment and adaptation framework for the construction industry in Sri Lanka. ...
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... The sensitivity of bryophyte community has been shown also by a long-term study in French forests, where the rise in temperature together with nitrogen deposition shifted the bryophyte composition much more than that of vascular plants (Scarpitta et al., 2017). On Norwegian alpine meadows (Vanneste et al., 2018) temperature rise caused increase in bryophyte richness during 15 years while richness of vascular plants remained stable. ...
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... The ecological indicator values for moisture and nutrients reveal that the plots cover wide ecological gradients (Figures 5 and 6). Generally, the moisture gradient was relatively well covered in all elevational bands, with records of wet grasslands being more frequent at The data are available in Appendices S1-S4, with S1 and S3 comprising the header data for the square-foot and the square-metre plots and Appendices S2 and S4 including the species composition data of the square-foot and the square-metre plots, and in the GrassPlot database (Dengler et al., 2018; https://edgg.org/datab ases/Grass Plot) as data set ID CH-P. ...
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