According to the IEA Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2019, one of the main industry sectors causing environmental impacts is the construction sector. Hence, construction materials from renewable resources are expected to have a large potential to decrease these impacts. In this study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted for four different insulation materials from renewable feedstock: insulation made from pasture grass, seaweed, reed, and recycled jute fibres. Additionally, the effects on land use change were evaluated for pasture grass insulation using the LANCA^® methodology. To put the LCA results in relation to those of non-renewable resources, a comparison of standardized LCA values for conventional insulation materials is presented. In general, the renewable insulation materials show fewer environmental impacts than their conventional counterparts. In particular, these materials have advantages regarding greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate change. Of the analyzed materials, seaweed showed the overall lowest emissions. It can be concluded that insulation materials from non-mineral, non-fossil, and non-wooden resources are still fairly niche in terms of market share, but they have extraordinary potential in decreasing the environmental impacts of construction ventures.

Lamb meat production provides vital landscape-management and ecosystem services; however, ruminant farming produces a considerable share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. To measure and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the intensification of livestock farming, an integrative analysis was conducted in this study by combining environmental impact analysis and animal welfare assessment. This approach is the first of its kind and is the innovative aspect of this paper. The methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) entails the holistic analysis of various impact categories and the associated emission quantities of products, services, and resources over their life cycle, including resource extraction and processing, production processes, transport, usage, and the end of life. The outlines of LCA are standardized in DIN EN ISO 14040/14044. To assess the environmental impacts of the production of lamb meat in northern Italy, two case studies were undertaken using the LCA software GaBi. The analysis is based on primary data from two sheep-breeding systems (semi-extensive and semi-intensive in alpine and continental bioregions, respectively) combined with inventory data from the GaBi database and data from the literature. The assessment was conducted for the functional unit of 1 kg of lamb meat and focuses on the impact categories global warming potential, acidification potential, and eutrophication potential. For an overall evaluation of the supply chain, we have also considered a parameter indicating animal welfare, in keeping with consumer concerns, employing an analysis of chronic stress as shown by cortisol accumulation. The goal is to derive models and recommendations for an efficient, more sustainable use of resources without compromising animal welfare, meat quality, and competitiveness. The aim of this study is to provide a standard for individualized sustainability analyses for European lamb production systems in the future. From the LCA perspective, the more intensive case-study farm showed a lower impact in global impact factors and a higher impact in local impact categories in comparison with the more extensively run farm that was studied. From the animal welfare perspective, lower amounts of the stress hormone cortisol were found on the extensively managed case-study farm.