IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v4y2012i7p1412-1425d18577.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research Needs and Challenges from Science to Decision Support. Lesson Learnt from the Development of the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Recommendations for Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Serenella Sala

    (European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute of Environment and Sustainability. Via E. Fermi, 2749 I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy)

  • Rana Pant

    (European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute of Environment and Sustainability. Via E. Fermi, 2749 I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy)

  • Michael Hauschild

    (Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Produktionstorvet, Building 426, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark)

  • David Pennington

    (European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute of Environment and Sustainability. Via E. Fermi, 2749 I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy)

Abstract

Environmental implications of the whole supply-chain of products, both goods and services, their use, and waste management, i.e. , their entire life cycle from “cradle to grave” have to be considered to achieve more sustainable production and consumption patterns. Progress toward environmental sustainability requires enhancing the methodologies for quantitative, integrated environmental assessment and promoting the use of these methodologies in different domains. In the context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products, in recent years, several methodologies have been developed for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). The Joint Research Center of the European Commission (EC-JRC) led a “science to decision support” process which resulted in the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook, providing guidelines to the decision and application of methods for LCIA. The Handbook is the result of a comprehensive process of evaluation and selection of existing methods based on a set of scientific and stakeholder acceptance criteria and involving review and consultation by experts, advisory groups and the public. In this study, we report the main features of the ILCD LCIA recommendation development highlighting relevant issues emerged from this “from science to decision support” process in terms of research needs and challenges for LCIA. Comprehensiveness of the assessment, as well as acceptability and applicability of the scientific developments by the stakeholders, are key elements for the design of new methods and to guarantee the mainstreaming of the sustainability concept.

Suggested Citation

  • Serenella Sala & Rana Pant & Michael Hauschild & David Pennington, 2012. "Research Needs and Challenges from Science to Decision Support. Lesson Learnt from the Development of the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Recommendations for Life Cycle Impact As," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(7), pages 1-14, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:4:y:2012:i:7:p:1412-1425:d:18577
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/7/1412/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/4/7/1412/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthias Finkbeiner & Erwin M. Schau & Annekatrin Lehmann & Marzia Traverso, 2010. "Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(10), pages 1-14, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elena Tamburini & Paola Pedrini & Maria Gabriella Marchetti & Elisa Anna Fano & Giuseppe Castaldelli, 2015. "Life Cycle Based Evaluation of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Agricultural Productions in the Mediterranean Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Huysman, Sofie & Sala, Serenella & Mancini, Lucia & Ardente, Fulvio & Alvarenga, Rodrigo A.F. & De Meester, Steven & Mathieux, Fabrice & Dewulf, Jo, 2015. "Toward a systematized framework for resource efficiency indicators," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 68-76.
    3. Sarah M. Jordaan & Junghun Lee & Maureen R. McClung & Matthew D. Moran, 2021. "Quantifying the ecosystem services values of electricity generation in the US Chihuahuan Desert: A life cycle perspective," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(4), pages 1089-1101, August.
    4. Gallagher, John & Styles, David & McNabola, Aonghus & Williams, A. Prysor, 2015. "Making green technology greener: Achieving a balance between carbon and resource savings through ecodesign in hydropower systems," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 105(PA), pages 11-17.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kristina Henzler & Stephanie D. Maier & Michael Jäger & Rafael Horn, 2020. "SDG-Based Sustainability Assessment Methodology for Innovations in the Field of Urban Surfaces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-32, June.
    2. Datu Buyung Agusdinata & Wenjuan Liu & Sinta Sulistyo & Philippe LeBillon & Je'anne Wegner, 2023. "Evaluating sustainability impacts of critical mineral extractions: Integration of life cycle sustainability assessment and SDGs frameworks," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(3), pages 746-759, June.
    3. Sierra-Pérez, Jorge & Rodríguez-Soria, Beatriz & Boschmonart-Rives, Jesús & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2018. "Integrated life cycle assessment and thermodynamic simulation of a public building’s envelope renovation: Conventional vs. Passivhaus proposal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1510-1521.
    4. Hannah Karlewski & Annekatrin Lehmann & Klaus Ruhland & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2019. "A Practical Approach for Social Life Cycle Assessment in the Automotive Industry," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-60, August.
    5. Ming Tang & Huchang Liao & Zhengjun Wan & Enrique Herrera-Viedma & Marc A. Rosen, 2018. "Ten Years of Sustainability (2009 to 2018): A Bibliometric Overview," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    6. Oana Țugulea, 2017. "City Brand Personality—Relations with Dimensions and Dimensions Inter-Relations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Robin Hogrefe & Sabine Bohnet-Joschko, 2023. "The Social Dimension of Corporate Sustainability: Review of an Evolving Research Field," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
    8. Cristina López & Rocío Ruíz-Benítez & Carmen Vargas-Machuca, 2019. "On the Environmental and Social Sustainability of Technological Innovations in Urban Bus Transport: The EU Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-22, March.
    9. Miro Ristimäki & Seppo Junnila, 2015. "Sustainable Urban Development Calls for Responsibility through Life Cycle Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-25, September.
    10. Mauro Sciarelli & Mario Tani & Giovanni Landi & Ornella Papaluca, 2019. "The Impact of Social Responsibility Disclosure on Corporate Financial Health: Evidences from Some Italian Public Companies," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(3), pages 109-122, March.
    11. Sofia Pinheiro Melo & Alexander Barke & Felipe Cerdas & Christian Thies & Mark Mennenga & Thomas S. Spengler & Christoph Herrmann, 2020. "Sustainability Assessment and Engineering of Emerging Aircraft Technologies—Challenges, Methods and Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-27, July.
    12. Julian Gaus & Sven Wehking & Andreas H. Glas & Michael Eßig, 2022. "Economic Sustainability by Using Life Cycle Cost Information in the Buying Center: Insights from the Public Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-28, February.
    13. Heng Yi Teah & Yasuhiro Fukushima & Motoharu Onuki, 2015. "Experiential Knowledge Complements an LCA-Based Decision Support Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-16, September.
    14. Diana Carolina Gámez-García & José Manuel Gómez-Soberón & Ramón Corral-Higuera & Héctor Saldaña-Márquez & María Consolación Gómez-Soberón & Susana Paola Arredondo-Rea, 2018. "A Cradle to Handover Life Cycle Assessment of External Walls: Choice of Materials and Prognosis of Elements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-24, August.
    15. Oriana Gava & Fabio Bartolini & Francesca Venturi & Gianluca Brunori & Alberto Pardossi, 2020. "Improving Policy Evidence Base for Agricultural Sustainability and Food Security: A Content Analysis of Life Cycle Assessment Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-29, February.
    16. Najat Omran & Amir Hamzah Sharaai & Ahmad Hariza Hashim, 2021. "Visualization of the Sustainability Level of Crude Palm Oil Production: A Life Cycle Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, February.
    17. Man Yu & Anthony Halog, 2015. "Solar Photovoltaic Development in Australia—A Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-35, January.
    18. Henke, S. & Theuvsen, L., 2014. "Social Life Cycle Assessment: Eine sozioökonomische Analyse der Biogasproduktion," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 49, March.
    19. Thies, Christian & Kieckhäfer, Karsten & Spengler, Thomas S. & Sodhi, Manbir S., 2019. "Operations research for sustainability assessment of products: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 274(1), pages 1-21.
    20. Marco Scherz & Antonija Ana Wieser & Alexander Passer & Helmuth Kreiner, 2022. "Implementation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the Procurement Process of Buildings: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-22, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:4:y:2012:i:7:p:1412-1425:d:18577. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.