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Prof. Guido Sonnemann
Université de Bordeaux

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0 Industrial Ecology
0 Sustainable Chemistry
0 Sustainable Materials
0 Life cycle management
0 Life Cycle Assessment LCA

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Short Biography

Prof. Guido Sonnemann undertakes teaching and research in the field of life cycle approaches for sustainable chemistry and materials development in the context of a circular economy at the University of Bordeaux, France, where he heads the Life Cycle Group CyVi at the Institute of Molecular Sciences. He has a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Rovira and Virgili, Spain, after training in environmental chemistry and engineering in France and Germany. After a time as consultant, he worked for ten years from 2002 to 2012 on various aspects of life cycle and integrated resource management in the United Nations Environment Programme in Paris, at the end as scientific focal point for the Resource Efficiency sub-programme. He has published more than hundred journal papers, book chapters and professional reports. He is a co-editor of recent books on Integrated Life Cycle and Risk Assessment, Life Cycle Management and on Life Cycle Approaches to Sustainable Regional Development.

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Article
Published: 26 June 2021 in Environment, Development and Sustainability
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At a global level, it has been scientifically reported that the processes of water purification, management and disposal of wastewater, and solid waste generate environmental impacts, especially they contribute to global warming potential (GWP), which, in turn, is caused by the greenhouse gases emissions (GHGs). In this context, the main objective of the present research has been to assess the GWP of the water treatment, sewer and sanitation services of the city of Pamplona (Colombia) with a population of 50.000 inhabitants through Life Cycle Assessment but focusing only on the global warming potential impact. The results show that the operation of the three services emitted 1.07E+01 kg CO2-eq per inhabitant and per year, which emissions of GWP produced in water treatment is the most influential utility, accounting for 66% of the entire GWP, while the CO2 emitted from the sewer accounts for 20%, and the sanitation count for 14% of the total. Finally, strategies leading to the mitigation of the adverse GHGs currently produced by these public utilities are proposed.

ACS Style

Oscar Orlando Ortíz-Rodriguez; Guido Sonnemann; Raquel A. Villamizar-G. The carbon footprint of water treatment as well as sewer and sanitation utilities of Pamplona in Colombia. Environment, Development and Sustainability 2021, 1 -18.

AMA Style

Oscar Orlando Ortíz-Rodriguez, Guido Sonnemann, Raquel A. Villamizar-G. The carbon footprint of water treatment as well as sewer and sanitation utilities of Pamplona in Colombia. Environment, Development and Sustainability. 2021; ():1-18.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Oscar Orlando Ortíz-Rodriguez; Guido Sonnemann; Raquel A. Villamizar-G. 2021. "The carbon footprint of water treatment as well as sewer and sanitation utilities of Pamplona in Colombia." Environment, Development and Sustainability , no. : 1-18.

Lci methodology and databases
Published: 08 June 2021 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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How to apply allocation in an life cycle assessment (LCA) is a long-running and controversial debate. Consensus seems to exist on the fact that the allocation procedure should follow logically from the LCA goal definition. This paper proposes to use an axiomatic method to (1) identify an allocation procedure for co-production, joint treatment, and recycling, that best responds to a specific LCA goal and (2) communicate the rationale applied by the LCA practitioner transparently. The method is illustrated via a case study. The specific goal definition for which a suitable allocation procedure is identified is to evaluate what impacts can be attributed to a product, which could inform a company about potential sources of reputation damage. Subjective assumptions that reflect our vision of “what impacts can be attributed to a product” are described in definitions and axioms. Axioms are formulated that describe the system boundaries of the product system and the partitioning criterion. The derived allocation procedure corresponds to “Allocation at the Point of Substitution,” which is applied in one of the system models of ecoinvent. Partitioning is based on market information, which corresponds to a cause-oriented perspective on “what impacts can be attributed to a product.” Other LCA goal definitions and rationales could require different system boundaries or a different partitioning criterion. The axiomatic method presented in this paper supports the identification of a suitable allocation procedure for a defined LCA goal and the transparent communication of the rationale that backs up this procedure. Building forth on the approach of this paper, a collection of axioms and corresponding allocation procedures could be developed on which consensus might exist within the LCA community. Such goal-dependent allocation procedures could form the basis of future guidance on LCA.

ACS Style

Dieuwertje L. Schrijvers; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann. An axiomatic method for goal-dependent allocation in life cycle assessment. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2021, 26, 1223 -1235.

AMA Style

Dieuwertje L. Schrijvers, Philippe Loubet, Guido Sonnemann. An axiomatic method for goal-dependent allocation in life cycle assessment. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2021; 26 (6):1223-1235.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dieuwertje L. Schrijvers; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann. 2021. "An axiomatic method for goal-dependent allocation in life cycle assessment." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 26, no. 6: 1223-1235.

Journal article
Published: 29 April 2021 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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The dissipation of metals leads to potential environmental impacts, usually evaluated for product systems with life cycle assessment. Dissipative flows of metals become inaccessible for future users, going against the common goal of a more circular economy. Therefore, they should be addressed in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) in the area of protection “Natural Resources.” However, life cycle inventory databases provide limited information on dissipation as they only track emissions to the environment as elementary flows. Therefore, we propose two LCIA methods capturing the expected dissipation patterns of metals after extraction, based on dynamic material flow analysis data. The methods are applied to resource elementary flows in life cycle inventories. The lost potential service time method provides precautionary indications on the lost service due to dissipation over different time horizons. The average dissipation rate method distinguishes between the conservation potentials of different metals. Metals that are relatively well conserved, including major metals such as iron and aluminum, have low characterization factors (CFs). Those with poor process yields, including many companion and high‐tech metals such as gallium and tellurium, have high CFs. A comparative study between the developed CFs, along with those of the Abiotic Depletion Potential and Environmental Dissipation Potential methods, show that dissipation trends do not consistently match those of the depletion and environmental dissipation potentials. The proposed methods may thus be complementary to other methods when assessing the impacts of resource use on the area of protection Natural Resources when pursuing an increased material circularity. This article met the requirements for a gold‐silver JIE data openness badge at http://jie.click/badges.

ACS Style

Alexandre Charpentier Poncelet; Christoph Helbig; Philippe Loubet; Antoine Beylot; Stéphanie Muller; Jacques Villeneuve; Bertrand Laratte; Andrea Thorenz; Axel Tuma; Guido Sonnemann. Life cycle impact assessment methods for estimating the impacts of dissipative flows of metals. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Alexandre Charpentier Poncelet, Christoph Helbig, Philippe Loubet, Antoine Beylot, Stéphanie Muller, Jacques Villeneuve, Bertrand Laratte, Andrea Thorenz, Axel Tuma, Guido Sonnemann. Life cycle impact assessment methods for estimating the impacts of dissipative flows of metals. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alexandre Charpentier Poncelet; Christoph Helbig; Philippe Loubet; Antoine Beylot; Stéphanie Muller; Jacques Villeneuve; Bertrand Laratte; Andrea Thorenz; Axel Tuma; Guido Sonnemann. 2021. "Life cycle impact assessment methods for estimating the impacts of dissipative flows of metals." Journal of Industrial Ecology , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 14 April 2021 in Sustainability
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The Landes de Gascogne forest, located in southwestern France, spans nearly 10,000 km2 and consists largely of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster). This forest in unique to Europe because it is almost entirely created and managed by man for specific industries. On the basis of a material flow analysis, we assessed the upstream supply chain of maritime pine from 2013 to 2019, using a cradle-to-gate approach. The assessment is based on data provided by Alliance Forêts Bois, an important stakeholder of the region and leader in the production of forest resources in France. For various reasons, the harvest totals decreased 10% in the last years. We identified a clear orientation to specific industries—in 2019, 45% was used as pulpwood. This is due to the overall design of the current territory, species of tree, and market values of the pulp and paper industry. The current design provides a limited supply of old growth trees, which produce high-quality logs for construction-based products, and are also more resistant to climate variability. A future shift or balance in raw material flows could be a crucial step in protecting the long-term economic viability of the region. This article aims to contribute to new attempts in providing comprehensive views of stocks and flows in the French forest-wood supply chain.

ACS Style

Rory Layton; Rachel Horta Arduin; Haji Yazdeen; Regis Pommier; Guido Sonnemann. Material Flow Analysis to Evaluate Supply Chain Evolution and Management: An Example Focused on Maritime Pine in the Landes de Gascogne Forest, France. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4378 .

AMA Style

Rory Layton, Rachel Horta Arduin, Haji Yazdeen, Regis Pommier, Guido Sonnemann. Material Flow Analysis to Evaluate Supply Chain Evolution and Management: An Example Focused on Maritime Pine in the Landes de Gascogne Forest, France. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (8):4378.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Rory Layton; Rachel Horta Arduin; Haji Yazdeen; Regis Pommier; Guido Sonnemann. 2021. "Material Flow Analysis to Evaluate Supply Chain Evolution and Management: An Example Focused on Maritime Pine in the Landes de Gascogne Forest, France." Sustainability 13, no. 8: 4378.

Lci methodology and databases
Published: 01 April 2021 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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Partitioning is often recommended as allocation procedure in attributional Life Cycle Assessments (a-LCAs). However, little guidance is available on how to apply partitioning to recycled products. This paper aims to demonstrate and discuss the application of the allocation procedure allocation at the point of substitution (APOS) via an evaluation of the impacts of the recycled phosphor yttrium europium oxide (YOX) from end-of-life fluorescent lamps. Starting from a multifunctional recycling process, APOS is applied by (1) identifying the products of the foreground sub-system, (2) identifying the origin of the recycled waste, (3) defining the boundaries of the production systems, and (4) applying economic allocation. It appears that recycled YOX is accountable for lower impacts than primary YOX for most impact categories. The largest contributor to the impacts of recycled YOX are the impacts related to the primary production of the fluorescent lamp, such as the use of mercury in the lamp tube. Even if this can be counter-intuitive to accept—as these impacts seem unrelated to YOX—these results provide useful information on whether the supply route of rare earth elements (REEs) from end-of-life fluorescent lamps is “future proof,” regarding potential (supply) risks due to environmental impacts upstream in the product supply chain. The application of APOS is demonstrated on the end-of-life recycling of rare earth elements. APOS provides the user of the recycled REE information about environmental impacts upstream in the product’s value chain. This could inform about the sustainability of the company’s operations—i.e., whether the future use or production of a material might be compromised due to (regulations to decrease) environmental impacts.

ACS Style

Dieuwertje L. Schrijvers; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann. “Allocation at the point of substitution” applied to recycled rare earth elements: what can we learn? The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2021, 1 -14.

AMA Style

Dieuwertje L. Schrijvers, Philippe Loubet, Guido Sonnemann. “Allocation at the point of substitution” applied to recycled rare earth elements: what can we learn? The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2021; ():1-14.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dieuwertje L. Schrijvers; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann. 2021. "“Allocation at the point of substitution” applied to recycled rare earth elements: what can we learn?" The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment , no. : 1-14.

Journal article
Published: 20 January 2021 in Sustainability
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The application of circularity strategies to improve resource use and recovery should be considered with their potential impacts on the environment. Their effectiveness could be evaluated by combining the material circularity indicator (MCI) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methods. Environmental trade-offs may be underestimated for some strategies given that the loss of material quality with recycling has not been captured within the methodological framework of MCI. The current study demonstrates how significantly this limitation may influence the trade-offs in a case study. The methods are applied to several scenarios for the circularity improvement of alkaline batteries. The joint interpretation of MCI and LCA scores is carried out using waterfall charts and normalized indicator scores. Results suggest that improving circularity generally reduces environmental impacts, although there is large variability among two sets of values. For example, an increase of MCI score by 14% for two recycling scenarios translates to a small reduction of impacts in one case (0.06–1.64%) and a large reduction in another (9.84–56.82%). Observations from the case study are used to discuss the design and scope of MCI use and its combining with LCA. Lastly, we draw on the opportunities of the new comparative approach.

ACS Style

Edis Glogic; Guido Sonnemann; Steven Young. Environmental Trade-Offs of Downcycling in Circular Economy: Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Material Circularity Indicator to Inform Circularity Strategies for Alkaline Batteries. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1040 .

AMA Style

Edis Glogic, Guido Sonnemann, Steven Young. Environmental Trade-Offs of Downcycling in Circular Economy: Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Material Circularity Indicator to Inform Circularity Strategies for Alkaline Batteries. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (3):1040.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Edis Glogic; Guido Sonnemann; Steven Young. 2021. "Environmental Trade-Offs of Downcycling in Circular Economy: Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Material Circularity Indicator to Inform Circularity Strategies for Alkaline Batteries." Sustainability 13, no. 3: 1040.

Research and analysis
Published: 21 December 2020 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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Concerns have risen in recent years about the accessibility of raw materials considered “critical” for technological advancements. The GeoPolRisk indicator was designed as a midpoint indicator in life cycle sustainability assessment to measure geopolitical supply risk with the aim to incorporate raw material criticality as a complement to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). A recent review of supply risk methods conducted within the Task Force on mineral resources of the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment Programme highlighted the opportunity to extend the methodology to an endpoint level. We address this opportunity by presenting GeoPolEndpoint, an indicator that measures the socio‐economic damage of the use of mineral resources linked to the area of protection “Natural Resources” in LCA. We build upon previous efforts by introducing price elasticity considerations and modeling potential effects of supply disruptions on commodity markets in the form of a welfare loss and a loss of consumer surplus. The socio‐economic damage occurs as geopolitically driven increased costs for raw materials. We test our method on aluminum, cobalt, nickel, and copper, materials relevant for lithium‐ion batteries. Results show that nickel and cobalt dominate the contribution to socio‐economic damages because of their price and supply risk; we estimate the impact of the use of the four analyzed materials as a potential increased cost ranging from 0.30 to 1.86 USD/kWh depending on the technology and year. We build the steps to assess how the use of certain raw materials could have a substantial economic impact when developing technologies, possibly identifying the shifting of burden due to certain materials not usually deemed important from an environmental perspective. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

ACS Style

Jair Santillán‐Saldivar; Tobias Gaugler; Christoph Helbig; Andreas Rathgeber; Guido Sonnemann; Andrea Thorenz; Axel Tuma. Design of an endpoint indicator for mineral resource supply risks in life cycle sustainability assessment The case of Li‐ion batteries. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Jair Santillán‐Saldivar, Tobias Gaugler, Christoph Helbig, Andreas Rathgeber, Guido Sonnemann, Andrea Thorenz, Axel Tuma. Design of an endpoint indicator for mineral resource supply risks in life cycle sustainability assessment The case of Li‐ion batteries. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jair Santillán‐Saldivar; Tobias Gaugler; Christoph Helbig; Andreas Rathgeber; Guido Sonnemann; Andrea Thorenz; Axel Tuma. 2020. "Design of an endpoint indicator for mineral resource supply risks in life cycle sustainability assessment The case of Li‐ion batteries." Journal of Industrial Ecology , no. : 1.

Short review
Published: 04 December 2020 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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ACS Style

Daniel Maga; Nils Thonemann; Philip Strothmann; Guido Sonnemann. How to account for plastic emissions in life cycle inventory analysis? Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 168, 105331 .

AMA Style

Daniel Maga, Nils Thonemann, Philip Strothmann, Guido Sonnemann. How to account for plastic emissions in life cycle inventory analysis? Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 168 ():105331.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Daniel Maga; Nils Thonemann; Philip Strothmann; Guido Sonnemann. 2020. "How to account for plastic emissions in life cycle inventory analysis?" Resources, Conservation and Recycling 168, no. : 105331.

Journal article
Published: 22 August 2020 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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The Geopolitical Supply Risk method, originally developed by Gemechu et al. (2016) and subsequently extended by Helbig et al. (2016a) and Cimprich et al. (2017, 2018), is aimed at incorporating supply risk assessment of “critical raw materials” as a complement to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) within life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). In this article, we further extend the method to consider the risk-mitigating potential of domestic recycling – thus advancing considerations of “circular economy” strategies for managing materials criticality. Our method captures two mechanisms through which domestic recycling can affect supply risk: a reduction in total imports (the “reduction effect”), and a potential redistribution of the import supply mix (the “redistribution effect”). We consider a range of outcomes from a best-case scenario (displacing imports from the riskiest trade partners) to a worst-case scenario (displacing imports from the least risky trade partners). Using our recently developed automated calculation tool, which significantly improves the practical applicability of the method by facilitating the otherwise burdensome computations required, we test and demonstrate our method on 13 raw materials used for information and communication technologies in the European Union. Thus, we test the notion that recycling mitigates supply risk. The reality is more complex. To maximize risk mitigation, recycling should ideally take place domestically, recycled material should be reinserted into the domestic economy, and the import supply mix should be considered, especially given that the redistribution effect sometimes exceeds the reduction effect.

ACS Style

Jair Santillán-Saldivar; Alexander Cimprich; Noor Shaikh; Bertrand Laratte; Steven B. Young; Guido Sonnemann. How recycling mitigates supply risks of critical raw materials: Extension of the geopolitical supply risk methodology applied to information and communication technologies in the European Union. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 164, 105108 .

AMA Style

Jair Santillán-Saldivar, Alexander Cimprich, Noor Shaikh, Bertrand Laratte, Steven B. Young, Guido Sonnemann. How recycling mitigates supply risks of critical raw materials: Extension of the geopolitical supply risk methodology applied to information and communication technologies in the European Union. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 164 ():105108.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jair Santillán-Saldivar; Alexander Cimprich; Noor Shaikh; Bertrand Laratte; Steven B. Young; Guido Sonnemann. 2020. "How recycling mitigates supply risks of critical raw materials: Extension of the geopolitical supply risk methodology applied to information and communication technologies in the European Union." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 164, no. : 105108.

Journal article
Published: 11 July 2020 in Sustainability
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The selection of an appropriate allocation procedure for co-production and recycling in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) depends on the goal and scope of the analysis. However, it is not always clear when partitioning or system expansion can be applied, or when to conduct an attributional or a consequential LCA, both for LCA practitioners and users of LCA results. In this paper, the influence of the goal and scope on the selected modeling approaches is clarified. The distinction between process-oriented and product-oriented LCAs, between system expansion and substitution, and between the cut-off approach and other allocation procedures are highlighted. Archetypes of goal and scope definitions are developed. These archetypes reflect the minimum amount of information required to select an allocation procedure. It is demonstrated via an illustrative example that the question “what is the environmental impact of a product” can result in at least 15 different research questions requiring at least five different modeling methods. Finally, perspectives are provided on the use of attributional and consequential approaches to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of products and processes.

ACS Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann. Archetypes of Goal and Scope Definitions for Consistent Allocation in LCA. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5587 .

AMA Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Philippe Loubet, Guido Sonnemann. Archetypes of Goal and Scope Definitions for Consistent Allocation in LCA. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (14):5587.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann. 2020. "Archetypes of Goal and Scope Definitions for Consistent Allocation in LCA." Sustainability 12, no. 14: 5587.

Short review
Published: 22 April 2020 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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ACS Style

Luis Tercero Espinoza; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Wei-Qiang Chen; Jo Dewulf; Roderick Eggert; James Goddin; Komal Habib; Christian Hagelüken; Alan J. Hurd; René Kleijn; Anthony Y. Ku; Min-Ha Lee; Keisuke Nansai; Philip Nuss; David Peck; Evi Petavratzi; Guido Sonnemann; Ester van der Voet; Patrick A. Wäger; Steven B. Young; Alessandra Hool. Greater circularity leads to lower criticality, and other links between criticality and the circular economy. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 159, 104718 .

AMA Style

Luis Tercero Espinoza, Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Wei-Qiang Chen, Jo Dewulf, Roderick Eggert, James Goddin, Komal Habib, Christian Hagelüken, Alan J. Hurd, René Kleijn, Anthony Y. Ku, Min-Ha Lee, Keisuke Nansai, Philip Nuss, David Peck, Evi Petavratzi, Guido Sonnemann, Ester van der Voet, Patrick A. Wäger, Steven B. Young, Alessandra Hool. Greater circularity leads to lower criticality, and other links between criticality and the circular economy. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 159 ():104718.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luis Tercero Espinoza; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Wei-Qiang Chen; Jo Dewulf; Roderick Eggert; James Goddin; Komal Habib; Christian Hagelüken; Alan J. Hurd; René Kleijn; Anthony Y. Ku; Min-Ha Lee; Keisuke Nansai; Philip Nuss; David Peck; Evi Petavratzi; Guido Sonnemann; Ester van der Voet; Patrick A. Wäger; Steven B. Young; Alessandra Hool. 2020. "Greater circularity leads to lower criticality, and other links between criticality and the circular economy." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 159, no. : 104718.

Journal article
Published: 07 April 2020 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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Global low‐carbon transition demands the development of large‐scale infrastructure, which is sand intensive. Natural sand is widely considered abundant, whereas recent research has pointed out the increasing risk of supply shortage in a number of world regions. In the current research, we examine the implication of future sand demand in the context of low‐carbon infrastructure development. We mapped the projected investments on buildings and low‐carbon infrastructure up to 2030 and estimated the sand intensity of the two types of construction. We translated these investments and sand intensity to country‐specific sand‐demand projections under three economic development scenarios. Our results indicate that China is expected to face the highest sand demand, followed by India, and that should the current sand extraction rates and construction practices be maintained, developing countries will be exposed to a significant supply risk of construction sand. Under the scenario of sustainable growth, developed economies are expected to have a relatively stable sand demand whereas South‐East Asia and Africa will see a rapid increase in their sand demand over the next 15 years. Our results call regional sand supply security into attention in low‐carbon transition planning.

ACS Style

Dimitra Ioannidou; Guido Sonnemann; Sangwon Suh. Do we have enough natural sand for low‐carbon infrastructure? Journal of Industrial Ecology 2020, 24, 1004 -1015.

AMA Style

Dimitra Ioannidou, Guido Sonnemann, Sangwon Suh. Do we have enough natural sand for low‐carbon infrastructure? Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2020; 24 (5):1004-1015.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dimitra Ioannidou; Guido Sonnemann; Sangwon Suh. 2020. "Do we have enough natural sand for low‐carbon infrastructure?" Journal of Industrial Ecology 24, no. 5: 1004-1015.

Review
Published: 16 March 2020 in Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
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Data quality of life cycle inventory background databases should be ensured in order to be useful for life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. However, databases do not always have procedures to evaluate the quality of the datasets in place. The Global Guidance Principles for LCA Databases of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in collaboration with the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) provide, among others, recommendations to enhance data quality through improved documentation and review. Flagship 2a in Phase 3 of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative aimed to enable the practical implementation of these recommendations with the development of review criteria and the testing of these criteria on three national databases. After a Pilot testing phase, this project entered a more mature Road‐testing exercise, of which the results are presented in this paper. The review criteria have been updated and provide more emphasis on goal and scope documentation completeness and include a new cluster of criteria that evaluate the materiality of the dataset. The updated criteria have been applied to national databases of Thailand, Australia, and Chile. All databases would benefit from additional documentation, e.g. on system boundaries, the reference model, sampling procedures, and cut‐off criteria. Furthermore, conducting the review was enabled by extensive documentation and data accessibility in LCA software. Communication of the criteria to the database managers enabled them to anticipate data quality requirements of the global LCA community and improve the datasets in advance. Reviewers sometimes had a different interpretation of the criteria, which suggests that there is room for additional fine‐tuning of the process guidance and exemplification of review criteria. This project has demonstrated that the criteria are applicable to and provide useful feedback for databases with different levels of maturity and contribute to improving quality of LCI data. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

ACS Style

Guido Sonnemann; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Anne Asselin; Nongnuch Poolsawad; Jitti Mungkalasiri; Tim Grant; Cristobal Loyola; Bruce Vigon. Updating and Road‐testing Life Cycle Inventory Data Review Criteria: Toward Global Consensus and Guidance On Data Quality Assessment. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 2020, 16, 517 -524.

AMA Style

Guido Sonnemann, Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Anne Asselin, Nongnuch Poolsawad, Jitti Mungkalasiri, Tim Grant, Cristobal Loyola, Bruce Vigon. Updating and Road‐testing Life Cycle Inventory Data Review Criteria: Toward Global Consensus and Guidance On Data Quality Assessment. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management. 2020; 16 (4):517-524.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Guido Sonnemann; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Anne Asselin; Nongnuch Poolsawad; Jitti Mungkalasiri; Tim Grant; Cristobal Loyola; Bruce Vigon. 2020. "Updating and Road‐testing Life Cycle Inventory Data Review Criteria: Toward Global Consensus and Guidance On Data Quality Assessment." Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 16, no. 4: 517-524.

Lcia of impacts on human health and ecosystems
Published: 11 February 2020 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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Purpose Assessing impacts of abiotic resource use has been a topic of persistent debate among life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method developers and a source of confusion for life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners considering the different interpretations of the safeguard subject for mineral resources and the resulting variety of LCIA methods to choose from. Based on the review and assessment of 27 existing LCIA methods, accomplished in the first part of this paper series (Sonderegger et al. 2020), this paper provides recommendations regarding the application-dependent use of existing methods and areas for future method development. Method Within the “global guidance for LCIA indicators and methods” project of the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment, 62 members of the “task force mineral resources” representing different stakeholders discussed the strengths and limitations of existing LCIA methods and developed initial conclusions. These were used by a subgroup of eight members at the Pellston Workshop® held in Valencia, Spain, to derive recommendations on the application-dependent use and future development of impact assessment methods. Results and discussion First, the safeguard subject for mineral resources within the area of protection (AoP) natural resources was defined. Subsequently, seven key questions regarding the consequences of mineral resource use were formulated, grouped into “inside-out” related questions (i.e., current resource use leading to changes in opportunities for future users to use resources) and “outside-in” related questions (i.e., potential restrictions of resource availability for current resource users). Existing LCIA methods were assigned to these questions, and seven methods (ADPultimate reserves, SOPURR, LIME2endpoint, CEENE, ADPeconomic reserves, ESSENZ, and GeoPolRisk) are recommended for use in current LCA studies at different levels of recommendation. All 27 identified LCIA methods were tested on an LCA case study of an electric vehicle, and yielded divergent results due to their modeling of impact mechanisms that address different questions related to mineral resource use. Besides method-specific recommendations, we recommend that all methods increase the number of minerals covered, regularly update their characterization factors, and consider the inclusion of secondary resources and anthropogenic stocks. Furthermore, the concept of dissipative resource use should be defined and integrated in future method developments. Conclusion In an international consensus-finding process, the current challenges of assessing impacts of resource use in LCA have been addressed by defining the safeguard subject for mineral resources, formulating key questions related to this safeguard subject, recommending existing LCIA methods in relation to these questions, and highlighting areas for future method development.

ACS Style

Markus Berger; Thomas Sonderegger; Rodrigo Alvarenga; Vanessa Bach; Alexander Cimprich; Jo Dewulf; Rolf Frischknecht; Jeroen Guinée; Christoph Helbig; Tom Huppertz; Olivier Jolliet; Masaharu Motoshita; Stephen Northey; Claudia A. Peña; Benedetto Rugani; Abdelhadi Sahnoune; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Rita Schulze; Guido Sonnemann; Alicia Valero; Bo P. Weidema; Steven B. Young. Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment: part II – recommendations on application-dependent use of existing methods and on future method development needs. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2020, 25, 798 -813.

AMA Style

Markus Berger, Thomas Sonderegger, Rodrigo Alvarenga, Vanessa Bach, Alexander Cimprich, Jo Dewulf, Rolf Frischknecht, Jeroen Guinée, Christoph Helbig, Tom Huppertz, Olivier Jolliet, Masaharu Motoshita, Stephen Northey, Claudia A. Peña, Benedetto Rugani, Abdelhadi Sahnoune, Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Rita Schulze, Guido Sonnemann, Alicia Valero, Bo P. Weidema, Steven B. Young. Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment: part II – recommendations on application-dependent use of existing methods and on future method development needs. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2020; 25 (4):798-813.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Markus Berger; Thomas Sonderegger; Rodrigo Alvarenga; Vanessa Bach; Alexander Cimprich; Jo Dewulf; Rolf Frischknecht; Jeroen Guinée; Christoph Helbig; Tom Huppertz; Olivier Jolliet; Masaharu Motoshita; Stephen Northey; Claudia A. Peña; Benedetto Rugani; Abdelhadi Sahnoune; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Rita Schulze; Guido Sonnemann; Alicia Valero; Bo P. Weidema; Steven B. Young. 2020. "Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment: part II – recommendations on application-dependent use of existing methods and on future method development needs." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 25, no. 4: 798-813.

Review
Published: 04 February 2020 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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ACS Style

Thomas Sonderegger; Markus Berger; Rodrigo Alvarenga; Vanessa Bach; Alexander Cimprich; Jo Dewulf; Rolf Frischknecht; Jeroen Guinée; Christoph Helbig; Tom Huppertz; Olivier Jolliet; Masaharu Motoshita; Stephen Northey; Benedetto Rugani; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Rita Schulze; Guido Sonnemann; Alicia Valero; Bo P. Weidema; Steven B. Young. Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment—part I: a critical review of existing methods. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2020, 25, 784 -797.

AMA Style

Thomas Sonderegger, Markus Berger, Rodrigo Alvarenga, Vanessa Bach, Alexander Cimprich, Jo Dewulf, Rolf Frischknecht, Jeroen Guinée, Christoph Helbig, Tom Huppertz, Olivier Jolliet, Masaharu Motoshita, Stephen Northey, Benedetto Rugani, Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Rita Schulze, Guido Sonnemann, Alicia Valero, Bo P. Weidema, Steven B. Young. Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment—part I: a critical review of existing methods. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2020; 25 (4):784-797.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Thomas Sonderegger; Markus Berger; Rodrigo Alvarenga; Vanessa Bach; Alexander Cimprich; Jo Dewulf; Rolf Frischknecht; Jeroen Guinée; Christoph Helbig; Tom Huppertz; Olivier Jolliet; Masaharu Motoshita; Stephen Northey; Benedetto Rugani; Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Rita Schulze; Guido Sonnemann; Alicia Valero; Bo P. Weidema; Steven B. Young. 2020. "Mineral resources in life cycle impact assessment—part I: a critical review of existing methods." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 25, no. 4: 784-797.

Journal article
Published: 01 February 2020 in Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health
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ACS Style

Israel Ruiz-Salmón; María Margallo; Jara Laso; Pedro Villanueva-Rey; Dolores Mariño; Paula Quinteiro; Ana Cláudia Dias; Maria Leonor Nunes; António Marques; Gumersindo Feijoo; María Teresa Moreira; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann; Andrew Morse; Ronan Cooney; Eoghan Clifford; Neil Rowan; Diego Méndez-Paz; Xesús Iglesias-Parga; Clémentine Anglada; Jean-Christophe Martin; A Irabien; Rubén Aldaco. Addressing challenges and opportunities of the European seafood sector under a circular economy framework. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health 2020, 13, 101 -106.

AMA Style

Israel Ruiz-Salmón, María Margallo, Jara Laso, Pedro Villanueva-Rey, Dolores Mariño, Paula Quinteiro, Ana Cláudia Dias, Maria Leonor Nunes, António Marques, Gumersindo Feijoo, María Teresa Moreira, Philippe Loubet, Guido Sonnemann, Andrew Morse, Ronan Cooney, Eoghan Clifford, Neil Rowan, Diego Méndez-Paz, Xesús Iglesias-Parga, Clémentine Anglada, Jean-Christophe Martin, A Irabien, Rubén Aldaco. Addressing challenges and opportunities of the European seafood sector under a circular economy framework. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health. 2020; 13 ():101-106.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Israel Ruiz-Salmón; María Margallo; Jara Laso; Pedro Villanueva-Rey; Dolores Mariño; Paula Quinteiro; Ana Cláudia Dias; Maria Leonor Nunes; António Marques; Gumersindo Feijoo; María Teresa Moreira; Philippe Loubet; Guido Sonnemann; Andrew Morse; Ronan Cooney; Eoghan Clifford; Neil Rowan; Diego Méndez-Paz; Xesús Iglesias-Parga; Clémentine Anglada; Jean-Christophe Martin; A Irabien; Rubén Aldaco. 2020. "Addressing challenges and opportunities of the European seafood sector under a circular economy framework." Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health 13, no. : 101-106.

Review article
Published: 27 January 2020 in Acta Astronautica
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The space industry generates pressures on the environment and strives towards more sustainable activities. Several actors of or related to the European space industry, such as ArianeGroup or and the European Space Agency (ESA), have identified the life cycle assessment methodology (LCA) as the most appropriate methodology to measure and then support the reduction of their environmental impact. While the use of the LCA is being established within the sector, only a limited number of peer-reviewed publications are available. Most of the documents released by the stakeholders can be considered to be grey literature. As the topic has not been properly discussed in the literature, there is an opportunity to bring the initiatives carried out by the space sector in recent years to the public domain. Thus, the present work aims to provide a comprehensive overview of past and present studies following the LCA framework. The review compiles 11 papers, conferences proceedings or technical reports that address the development of the LCA framework and good practices in the sector and 27 documents dedicated to LCA studies. On the one hand, the results highlight the emergence of a common framework regarding LCA practice in Europe. On the other hand, the analysed LCA case studies show a highly heterogeneous goal and scope definition. In this review, research needs and methodological challenges are identified and discussed. Finally, recommendations on how to implement and develop the use of LCA within the space industry are given in view of designing more sustainable space systems and associated missions.

ACS Style

Thibaut Maury; Philippe Loubet; Sara Morales Serrano; Aurélie Gallice; Guido Sonnemann. Application of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) within the space sector: A state of the art. Acta Astronautica 2020, 170, 122 -135.

AMA Style

Thibaut Maury, Philippe Loubet, Sara Morales Serrano, Aurélie Gallice, Guido Sonnemann. Application of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) within the space sector: A state of the art. Acta Astronautica. 2020; 170 ():122-135.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Thibaut Maury; Philippe Loubet; Sara Morales Serrano; Aurélie Gallice; Guido Sonnemann. 2020. "Application of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) within the space sector: A state of the art." Acta Astronautica 170, no. : 122-135.

Review
Published: 23 January 2020 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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The assessment of the criticality of raw materials allows the identification of the likelihood of a supply disruption of a material and the vulnerability of a system (e.g. a national economy, technology, or company) to this disruption. Inconclusive outcomes of various studies suggest that criticality assessments would benefit from the identification of best practices. To prepare the field for such guidance, this paper aims to clarify the mechanisms that affect methodological choices which influence the results of a study. This is achieved via literature review and round table discussions among international experts. The paper demonstrates that criticality studies are divergent in the system under study, the anticipated risk, the purpose of the study, and material selection. These differences in goal and scope naturally result in different choices regarding indicator selection, the required level of aggregation as well as the subsequent choice of aggregation method, and the need for a threshold value. However, this link is often weak, which suggests a lack of understanding of cause-and-effect mechanisms of indicators and outcomes. Data availability is a key factor that limits the evaluation of criticality. Furthermore, data quality, including both data uncertainty and data representativeness, is rarely addressed in the interpretation and communication of results. Clear guidance in the formulation of goals and scopes of criticality studies, the selection of adequate indicators and aggregation methods, and the interpretation of the outcomes, are important initial steps in improving the quality of criticality assessments.

ACS Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Alessandra Hool; Gian Andrea Blengini; Wei-Qiang Chen; Jo Dewulf; Roderick Eggert; Layla van Ellen; Roland Gauss; James Goddin; Komal Habib; Christian Hagelüken; Atsufumi Hirohata; Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink; Jan Kosmol; Maïté Le Gleuher; Milan Grohol; Anthony Ku; Min-Ha Lee; Gang Liu; Keisuke Nansai; Philip Nuss; David Peck; Armin Reller; Guido Sonnemann; Luis Tercero; Andrea Thorenz; Patrick A. Wäger. A review of methods and data to determine raw material criticality. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 155, 104617 .

AMA Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Alessandra Hool, Gian Andrea Blengini, Wei-Qiang Chen, Jo Dewulf, Roderick Eggert, Layla van Ellen, Roland Gauss, James Goddin, Komal Habib, Christian Hagelüken, Atsufumi Hirohata, Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink, Jan Kosmol, Maïté Le Gleuher, Milan Grohol, Anthony Ku, Min-Ha Lee, Gang Liu, Keisuke Nansai, Philip Nuss, David Peck, Armin Reller, Guido Sonnemann, Luis Tercero, Andrea Thorenz, Patrick A. Wäger. A review of methods and data to determine raw material criticality. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 155 ():104617.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Alessandra Hool; Gian Andrea Blengini; Wei-Qiang Chen; Jo Dewulf; Roderick Eggert; Layla van Ellen; Roland Gauss; James Goddin; Komal Habib; Christian Hagelüken; Atsufumi Hirohata; Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink; Jan Kosmol; Maïté Le Gleuher; Milan Grohol; Anthony Ku; Min-Ha Lee; Gang Liu; Keisuke Nansai; Philip Nuss; David Peck; Armin Reller; Guido Sonnemann; Luis Tercero; Andrea Thorenz; Patrick A. Wäger. 2020. "A review of methods and data to determine raw material criticality." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 155, no. : 104617.

Review article
Published: 27 November 2019 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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The wine industry is facing two major environmental challenges: consumers are increasingly aware of the impacts of wine making, and production is jeopardized by environmental changes such as global warming. Therefore, there is a growing need to measure and minimize the environmental footprint of the sector. Life cycle assessment has already proven its worth in evaluating the environmental impacts and hotspots of bottled wine production. However, the methodological discrepancies in the LCA conducted do not allow conclusions regarding the most sustainable production systems or the most significant impacts for the sector. Moreover, LCA application in the field remains scarce due to the complexity of the method and the lack of readability of its results. In this study, 10 LCA papers corresponding to 17 different products were reviewed. Methodological discrepancies have been reduced through harmonization of the functional unit, the life cycle inventory and the life cycle impact assessment method, enabling provision of a range of results for different impact categories, as well as comparisons between different wines. The LCI elements that drive the results have been identified. This can be useful to simplify the data collection and the comparability of the products in this sector. Impact clusters (indicators that follow the same behaviour and are driven by the same LCI elements) have been proposed. Three clusters of impacts ((i) climate change, fossil depletion and particulate matter formation; (ii) terrestrial ecotoxicity; (iii) agricultural land occupation) are responsible for more than 90% of the single score. Nonetheless, the proposed harmonization procedure has limitations, and no conclusion can be made on the most sustainable products due to the remaining discrepancies in the system boundaries.

ACS Style

Marc Jourdaine; Philippe Loubet; Stéphane Trebucq; Guido Sonnemann. A detailed quantitative comparison of the life cycle assessment of bottled wines using an original harmonization procedure. Journal of Cleaner Production 2019, 250, 119472 .

AMA Style

Marc Jourdaine, Philippe Loubet, Stéphane Trebucq, Guido Sonnemann. A detailed quantitative comparison of the life cycle assessment of bottled wines using an original harmonization procedure. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2019; 250 ():119472.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marc Jourdaine; Philippe Loubet; Stéphane Trebucq; Guido Sonnemann. 2019. "A detailed quantitative comparison of the life cycle assessment of bottled wines using an original harmonization procedure." Journal of Cleaner Production 250, no. : 119472.

Review
Published: 09 November 2019 in Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X
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The assessment of the criticality of raw materials allows the identification of the likelihood of a supply disruption of a material and the vulnerability of a system (e.g. a national economy, technology, or company) to this disruption. Inconclusive outcomes of various studies suggest that criticality assessments would benefit from the identification of best practices. To prepare the field for such guidance, this paper aims to clarify the mechanisms that affect methodological choices which influence the results of a study. This is achieved via literature review and round table discussions among international experts. The paper demonstrates that criticality studies are divergent in the system under study, the anticipated risk, the purpose of the study, and material selection. These differences in goal and scope naturally result in different choices regarding indicator selection, the required level of aggregation as well as the subsequent choice of aggregation method, and the need for a threshold value. However, this link is often weak, which suggests a lack of understanding of cause-and-effect mechanisms of indicators and outcomes. Data availability is a key factor that limits the evaluation of criticality. Furthermore, data quality, including both data uncertainty and data representativeness, is rarely addressed in the interpretation and communication of results. Clear guidance in the formulation of goals and scopes of criticality studies, the selection of adequate indicators and aggregation methods, and the interpretation of the outcomes, are important initial steps in improving the quality of criticality assessments.

ACS Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Alessandra Hool; Gian Andrea Blengini; Wei-Qiang Chen; Jo Dewulf; Roderick Eggert; Layla Van Ellen; Roland Gauss; James Goddin; Komal Habib; Christian Hagelüken; Atsufumi Hirohata; Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink; Jan Kosmol; Maïté Le Gleuher; Milan Grohol; Anthony Ku; Min-Ha Lee; Gang Liu; Keisuke Nansai; Philip Nuss; David Peck; Armin Reller; Guido Sonnemann; Luis Tercero; Andrea Thorenz; Patrick A. Wäger. A review of methods and data to determine raw material criticality. Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X 2019, 100023 .

AMA Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Alessandra Hool, Gian Andrea Blengini, Wei-Qiang Chen, Jo Dewulf, Roderick Eggert, Layla Van Ellen, Roland Gauss, James Goddin, Komal Habib, Christian Hagelüken, Atsufumi Hirohata, Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink, Jan Kosmol, Maïté Le Gleuher, Milan Grohol, Anthony Ku, Min-Ha Lee, Gang Liu, Keisuke Nansai, Philip Nuss, David Peck, Armin Reller, Guido Sonnemann, Luis Tercero, Andrea Thorenz, Patrick A. Wäger. A review of methods and data to determine raw material criticality. Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X. 2019; ():100023.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dieuwertje Schrijvers; Alessandra Hool; Gian Andrea Blengini; Wei-Qiang Chen; Jo Dewulf; Roderick Eggert; Layla Van Ellen; Roland Gauss; James Goddin; Komal Habib; Christian Hagelüken; Atsufumi Hirohata; Margarethe Hofmann-Amtenbrink; Jan Kosmol; Maïté Le Gleuher; Milan Grohol; Anthony Ku; Min-Ha Lee; Gang Liu; Keisuke Nansai; Philip Nuss; David Peck; Armin Reller; Guido Sonnemann; Luis Tercero; Andrea Thorenz; Patrick A. Wäger. 2019. "A review of methods and data to determine raw material criticality." Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X , no. : 100023.