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Serenella Sala
Directorate D: Sustainable Resource, Bioeconomy Unit

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Book chapter
Published: 29 April 2021 in Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
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ACS Style

Serenella Sala. Life Cycle Assessment and Evaluation of Solutions Toward Sustainable Development Goals. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2021, 709 -721.

AMA Style

Serenella Sala. Life Cycle Assessment and Evaluation of Solutions Toward Sustainable Development Goals. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 2021; ():709-721.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Serenella Sala. 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment and Evaluation of Solutions Toward Sustainable Development Goals." Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals , no. : 709-721.

Policies and support in relation to lca
Published: 20 April 2021 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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Purpose Life cycle thinking (LCT) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are increasingly considered pivotal concept and method for supporting sustainable transitions. LCA plays a relevant role in decision support, for the ambition of a holistic coverage of environmental dimensions and for the identification of hotspots, possible trade-offs, and burden shifting among life cycle stages or impact categories. These features are also relevant when the decision support is needed in policy domain. With a focus on EU policies, the present study explores the evolution and implementation of life cycle concepts and approaches over three decades. Methods Adopting an historical perspective, a review of current European Union (EU) legal acts and communications explicitly mentioning LCT, LCA, life cycle costing (LCC), and environmental footprint (the European Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint PEF/OEF) is performed, considering the timeframe from 1990 to 2020. The documents are categorised by year and according to their types (e.g. regulations, directives, communications) and based on the covered sectors (e.g. waste, energy, buildings). Documents for which life cycle concepts and approaches had a crucial role are identified, and a shortlist of these legal acts and communications is derived. Results and discussion Over the years, LCT and life cycle approaches have been increasingly mentioned in policy. From the Ecolabel Regulation of 1992, to the Green Deal in 2019, life cycle considerations are of particular interest in the EU. The present work analysed a total of 159 policies and 167 communications. While in some sectors (e.g. products, vehicles, and waste) life cycle concepts and approaches have been adopted with higher levels of prescriptiveness, implementation in other sectors (e.g. food and agriculture) is only at a preliminary stage. Moreover, life cycle (especially LCT) is frequently addressed and cited only as a general concept and in a rather generic manner. Additionally, more stringent and rigorous methods (LCA, PEF/OEF) are commonly cited only in view of future policy developments, even if a more mature interest in lifecycle is evident in recent policies. Conclusion The EU has been a frontrunner in the implementation of LCT/LCA in policies. However, despite a growing trend in this implementation, the development of new stringent and mandatory requirements related to life cycle is still relatively limited. In fact, there are still issues to be solved in the interface between science and policy making (such as verification and market surveillance) to ensure a wider implementation of LCT and LCA.

ACS Style

Serenella Sala; Andrea Martino Amadei; Antoine Beylot; Fulvio Ardente. The evolution of life cycle assessment in European policies over three decades. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2021, 1 -20.

AMA Style

Serenella Sala, Andrea Martino Amadei, Antoine Beylot, Fulvio Ardente. The evolution of life cycle assessment in European policies over three decades. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2021; ():1-20.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Serenella Sala; Andrea Martino Amadei; Antoine Beylot; Fulvio Ardente. 2021. "The evolution of life cycle assessment in European policies over three decades." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment , no. : 1-20.

Lci methodology and databeses
Published: 07 March 2021 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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Purpose The assessment of potential environmental impacts associated to mineral resource use in LCA is a highly debated topic. Most current impact assessment methods consider the extraction of resources as the issue of concern, while their dissipation is an emerging concept. This article proposes an approach to account for mineral resource dissipation in life cycle inventories (LCIs), with application to a case study. Methods The definition of mineral resources is first discussed considering both current main LCA practice and the context of resource dissipation. Secondly, the approach is described: considering a short-term perspective (25 years), any flow of resources to (i) environment, (ii) final waste disposal facilities, and (iii) products-in-use in the technosphere, with the resources not providing any significant function anymore (including due to non-functional recycling), is suggested to be reported as dissipative at the level of unit processes. This approach first requires to map the flows of mineral resources into and out of the unit processes under study (“resource flow analysis”), before identifying the dissipative flows and reporting them in LCI datasets. Results and discussion The approach is applied to analyze the direct dissipation of mineral resources along the primary production of copper, using Ecoinvent (v3.5) datasets. The production of 1 kg of copper cathode generates 0.88 kg of direct dissipative flows of resources (primarily calcium carbonate, copper, and to a lower extent iron), with important contributions of “tailings disposal,” “pyrometallurgy,” and “mining and concentration.” Moreover, this article discusses (i) how the developed approach would change the interpretation of results regarding mineral resources in LCA, (ii) how far some key methodological aspects of this approach (e.g., the temporal perspective) can affect the inventory results (e.g., in the case of the primary production of copper, considering a long-term perspective implies a significant shift in main contributions regarding both unit processes and resource flows), and finally (iii) the issue of new data requirements, in terms of availability and adequacy. Conclusions As demonstrated in the case study, existing LCI datasets and supporting documentation contain at least part of the data and information required to consistently compile the dissipative flows of resources at the unit process level, yet with the need for some complementary data and assessments. This approach may be particularly relevant to better support the development of more resource-efficient techniques or product designs. It is still open how to adapt characterization approaches to account for the impact induced by these resource dissipative flows.

ACS Style

Antoine Beylot; Fulvio Ardente; Serenella Sala; Luca Zampori. Mineral resource dissipation in life cycle inventories. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2021, 1 -14.

AMA Style

Antoine Beylot, Fulvio Ardente, Serenella Sala, Luca Zampori. Mineral resource dissipation in life cycle inventories. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2021; ():1-14.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Antoine Beylot; Fulvio Ardente; Serenella Sala; Luca Zampori. 2021. "Mineral resource dissipation in life cycle inventories." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment , no. : 1-14.

Journal article
Published: 01 February 2021 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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National studies on food waste quantification in EU countries present highly discrepant results due to the different quantification approaches adopted. The European Commission has published a delegated act establishing a common methodology and minimum quality requirements for the uniform measurement of food waste generated in Member States. Nevertheless, as EU countries are at different levels of development and implementation of national strategies for food waste quantification, there is a need to develop a harmonized modelling system that enables the estimation of food waste generated by Member States to assess the amounts reported by each country. The aim of this paper is to fulfil this need by presenting two modelling approaches to estimate food waste in EU countries. One approach is based on Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and combines statistical information on the production and trade of food products with food waste coefficients. The other approach is based on the estimation of food waste based on waste statistics. Three EU countries are used to illustrate the two approaches and compare the results obtained thereby. Food waste estimates from waste statistics are generally lower than those obtained using MFA, in particular at the early stages of the food chain. The MFA model presented in this article is the first of its kind developed to estimate food waste across Member States in a consistent way and through time. Crucially, this could support the definition of a baseline and binding targets to reduce food waste across the EU, as announced in the EU Farm to Fork Strategy.

ACS Style

Carla Caldeira; Valeria De Laurentiis; Agneta Ghose; Sara Corrado; Serenella Sala. Grown and thrown: Exploring approaches to estimate food waste in EU countries. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2021, 168, 105426 .

AMA Style

Carla Caldeira, Valeria De Laurentiis, Agneta Ghose, Sara Corrado, Serenella Sala. Grown and thrown: Exploring approaches to estimate food waste in EU countries. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2021; 168 ():105426.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Carla Caldeira; Valeria De Laurentiis; Agneta Ghose; Sara Corrado; Serenella Sala. 2021. "Grown and thrown: Exploring approaches to estimate food waste in EU countries." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 168, no. : 105426.

Conference report
Published: 08 January 2021 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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Alexandra Marques; Marine Robuchon; Stefanie Hellweg; Tim Newbold; Jutta Beher; Sebastian Bekker; Franz Essl; Daniele Ehrlich; Samantha Hill; Martin Jung; Sandra Marquardt; Francesca Rosa; Benedetto Rugani; Andrés F. Suárez-Castro; André P. Silva; David R Williams; Grégoire Dubois; Serenella Sala. A research perspective towards a more complete biodiversity footprint: a report from the World Biodiversity Forum. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2021, 26, 238 -243.

AMA Style

Alexandra Marques, Marine Robuchon, Stefanie Hellweg, Tim Newbold, Jutta Beher, Sebastian Bekker, Franz Essl, Daniele Ehrlich, Samantha Hill, Martin Jung, Sandra Marquardt, Francesca Rosa, Benedetto Rugani, Andrés F. Suárez-Castro, André P. Silva, David R Williams, Grégoire Dubois, Serenella Sala. A research perspective towards a more complete biodiversity footprint: a report from the World Biodiversity Forum. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2021; 26 (2):238-243.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alexandra Marques; Marine Robuchon; Stefanie Hellweg; Tim Newbold; Jutta Beher; Sebastian Bekker; Franz Essl; Daniele Ehrlich; Samantha Hill; Martin Jung; Sandra Marquardt; Francesca Rosa; Benedetto Rugani; Andrés F. Suárez-Castro; André P. Silva; David R Williams; Grégoire Dubois; Serenella Sala. 2021. "A research perspective towards a more complete biodiversity footprint: a report from the World Biodiversity Forum." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 26, no. 2: 238-243.

Erratum
Published: 04 January 2021 in Journal of Environmental Management
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Planetary Boundaries help quantify the environmental sustainability of consumption. We developed LCIA-based planetary boundaries for evaluating the EU consumption. EU consumption occupies a high share of the safe operating space globally available. Planetary boundaries are fundamental to support policy making towards sustainability. LCA-based planetary boundaries show intrinsic uncertainties.

ACS Style

Serenella Sala; Eleonora Crenna; Michela Secchi; Esther Sanyé-Mengual. Corrigendum to “Environmental sustainability of European production and consumption assessed against planetary boundaries”. Journal of Environmental Management 2021, 281, 111904 .

AMA Style

Serenella Sala, Eleonora Crenna, Michela Secchi, Esther Sanyé-Mengual. Corrigendum to “Environmental sustainability of European production and consumption assessed against planetary boundaries”. Journal of Environmental Management. 2021; 281 ():111904.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Serenella Sala; Eleonora Crenna; Michela Secchi; Esther Sanyé-Mengual. 2021. "Corrigendum to “Environmental sustainability of European production and consumption assessed against planetary boundaries”." Journal of Environmental Management 281, no. : 111904.

Editorial note
Published: 11 December 2020 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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Andrade EP, de Araújo Nunes AB, de Freitas Alves K, Ugaya CML, da Costa Alencar M, de Lima Santos T, da Silva Barros V, Pastor AV, de Figueirêdo MCB (2020) Water scarcity in Brazil: part 1—regionalization of the AWARE model characterization factors.Int J Life Cycle Assess 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01643-5 Benini L, Sala S (2016) Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of normalization factors to methodological assumptions. Int J Life Cycle Assess 21(2):224–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-1013-5 CAS Article Google Scholar Bergerson J, Cucurachi S, Seager TP (2020) Bringing a life cycle perspective to emerging technology development. J Ind Ecol 24(1):6–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12990 Article Google Scholar Beylot A, Corrado S, Sala S (2020) Environmental impacts of European trade: interpreting results of process-based LCA and environmentally extended input–output analysis towards hotspot identification. Int J Life Cycle Assess 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01649-z Bjoern A, Chandrakumar C, Boulay AM, Doka G, Fang K, Gondran N, Hauschild MZ, Kerkhof A, King H, Margni M, McLaren S, Mueller C, Owsianiak M, Peters G, Roos S, Sala S, Sanding G, Sim S, Vargas-Gonzalez M, Ryberg M (2020) Review of life-cycle based methods for absolute environmental sustainability assessment and their applications. Environ Res Lett 15(8):083001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab89d7 Article Google Scholar Boulay AM, Motoshita M, Pfister S, Bulle C, Muñoz I, Franceschini H, Margni M (2015) Analysis of water use impact assessment methods (part A): evaluation of modeling choices based on a quantitative comparison of scarcity and human health indicators. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20:139–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0814-2 Article Google Scholar Boulay AM, Benini L, Sala S (2020) Marginal and non-marginal approaches in characterization: how context and scale affect the selection of an adequate characterization model. The AWARE model example. Int J Life Cycle Assess 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01680-0 Castellani V, Sala S, Benini L (2017) Hotspots analysis and critical interpretation of food life cycle assessment studies for selecting eco-innovation options and for policy support. J Clean Prod 140:556–568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.078 Article Google Scholar Cellura M, Longo S, Mistretta M (2011) Sensitivity analysis to quantify uncertainty in life cycle assessment: the case study of an Italian tile. Renew Sust Energy Rev 15(9):4697–4705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2011.07.082 Article Google Scholar Corrado S, Castellani V, Zampori L, Sala S (2018) Systematic analysis of secondary life cycle inventories when modelling agricultural production: a case study for arable crops. J Clean Prod 172:3990–4000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.179 Article Google Scholar de Alves Alves K, Andrade EP, Savioli JP, Pastor AV, de Figueirêdo MCB, Ugaya CML (2020) Water scarcity in Brazil: part 2—uncertainty assessment in regionalized characterization factors. Int J Life Cycle Assess 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01739-3 Dekker E, Zijp MC, van de Kamp ME, Temme EHM, van Zelm R (2020) A taste of the new ReCiPe for life cycle assessment: consequences of the updated impact assessment method on food product LCAs. Int J Life Cycle Assess 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01653-3 EC (2013) Commission Recommendation of 9 April 2013 on the use of common methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations, Off J Eur Union. 2013/179/EU. European Commission, Brussels. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013H0179&from=EN. EC (2015) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Better regulation for better results - An EU agenda. COM/2015/0215. European Commission, Brussels. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52015DC0215&from=EN. EC-JRC (2011) ILCD Handbook. Recommendations for life cycle impact assessment in the European context. European Commission-Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. https://doi.org/10.2788/33030 Forin S, Berger M, Finkbeiner M (2020) Comment to Marginal and non-marginal approaches in characterization: how context and scale affect the selection of an adequate characterization factor. The AWARE model example. Int J Life Cycle Assess 25:663–666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01726-3 Article Google Scholar Galatola M, Pant R (2014) Reply to the editorial “Product environmental footprint—breakthrough or breakdown for policy implementation of life cycle assessment?” written by Prof. Finkbeiner (Int J Life Cycle Assess 19(2), 266–271). Int J Life Cycle Assess 19:1356–1360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0740-3 Article Google Scholar Galindro BM, Bey N, Olsen IS, Fries CE, Soares SR (2020) Use of data envelopment analysis to benchmark environmental product declarations—a suggested framework. Int J Life Cycle Assess 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01639-1 Gaudreault C, Samson R, Stuart P (2009) Implications of choices and interpretation in LCA for multi-criteria process design: de-inked pulp capacity and cogeneration at a paper mill case study. J Clean Prod 17(17):1535–1546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.07.003 Article Google Scholar Golsteijn L, Vieira M (2020) Applicability of the European Environmental Footprint (EF) methodology in Southern Mediterranean countries—learnings and recommendations for enabling EF-compliant studies in regions outside of Europe. Int J Life Cycle Assess 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01681-z...

ACS Style

Serenella Sala; Alexis Laurent; Marisa Vieira; Gert Van Hoof. Implications of LCA and LCIA choices on interpretation of results and on decision support. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2020, 25, 2311 -2314.

AMA Style

Serenella Sala, Alexis Laurent, Marisa Vieira, Gert Van Hoof. Implications of LCA and LCIA choices on interpretation of results and on decision support. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2020; 25 (12):2311-2314.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Serenella Sala; Alexis Laurent; Marisa Vieira; Gert Van Hoof. 2020. "Implications of LCA and LCIA choices on interpretation of results and on decision support." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 25, no. 12: 2311-2314.

Research article
Published: 15 July 2020 in Environmental Science & Technology
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The consumption of materials and products is one of the drivers of biodiversity loss, which in turn affects ecosystem functioning and has worldwide socio-economic consequences worldwide. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a reference methodology for appraising the environmental impacts of products along their value chains. Currently, a generally accepted life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework for assessing biodiversity impacts is lacking. The existing LCIA models present weaknesses in terms of the impact drivers considered, geographical coverage, as well as the indicators and metrics adopted. Sound ecological indicators and metrics need to be integrated in order to better assess the impacts of value chains on biodiversity, on a global, regional, and local scale. This review analyses studies which, using a life cycle perspective, assess the impacts of products’ and services’ value chains on biodiversity. We identify and discuss promising synergies between the studies which look beyond the life cycle context, and apply other biodiversity metrics. Our results highlight that the existing metrics of biodiversity impact assessment in LCA are poor at capturing the complexities of biodiversity. There are operational models at the midpoint level that expand on the assessed dimensions of biodiversity (e.g. ecosystem structure), and the drivers of biodiversity loss (e.g. assessment of species exploitation), but efforts are required to fully include these models in the LCA framework. In the business domain, many initiatives are developing frameworks to assess impacts on biodiversity. Many approaches make use of LCIA methods and input-output databases. However, these are generally coupled with other biodiversity metrics. This shows that the current LCA framework is not yet sufficient to support decision-making based on different sets of biodiversity indicators. Ecosystem accounting may provide important ecological information for both the inventory and the impact assessment stages of LCA, helping to disentangle the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services. Looking beyond the LCA domain can lead us to new ways of advancing the coverage of biodiversity impacts, in a way that increases the relevance of LCA across a wider range of areas. Future work should assess the indicators provided in various policy contexts.

ACS Style

Eleonora Crenna; Alexandra Marques; Alessandra La Notte; Serenella Sala. Biodiversity Assessment of Value Chains: State of the Art and Emerging Challenges. Environmental Science & Technology 2020, 54, 9715 -9728.

AMA Style

Eleonora Crenna, Alexandra Marques, Alessandra La Notte, Serenella Sala. Biodiversity Assessment of Value Chains: State of the Art and Emerging Challenges. Environmental Science & Technology. 2020; 54 (16):9715-9728.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Eleonora Crenna; Alexandra Marques; Alessandra La Notte; Serenella Sala. 2020. "Biodiversity Assessment of Value Chains: State of the Art and Emerging Challenges." Environmental Science & Technology 54, no. 16: 9715-9728.

Journal article
Published: 02 July 2020 in New Biotechnology
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The EU Bioeconomy Strategy, updated in 2018, in its Action Plan pledges an EU-wide, internationally coherent monitoring system to track economic, environmental and social progress towards a sustainable bioeconomy. This paper presents the approach taken by the European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Centre (JRC) to develop such a system. To accomplish this, we capitalise on (1) the experiences of existing indicator frameworks; (2) stakeholder knowledge and expectations; and (3) national experiences and expertise. This approach is taken to ensure coherence with other bioeconomy-related European monitoring frameworks, the usefulness for decision-making and consistency with national and international initiatives to monitor the bioeconomy. We develop a conceptual framework, based on the definition of a sustainable bioeconomy as stated in the Strategy, for a holistic analysis of the trends in the bioeconomy sectors, following the three pillars of sustainability (economy, society and environment). From this conceptual framework, we derive an implementation framework that aims to highlight the synergies and trade-offs across the five objectives of the Bioeconomy Strategy in a coherent way. The EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System will be publicly available on the web platform of the EC Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy.

ACS Style

Nicolas Robert; Jacopo Giuntoli; Rita Araujo; Marios Avraamides; Elisabetta Balzi; José I. Barredo; Bettina Baruth; William Becker; Maria Teresa Borzacchiello; Claudia Bulgheroni; Andrea Camia; Gianluca Fiore; Marco Follador; Patricia Gurria; Alessandra la Notte; Maria Lusser; Luisa Marelli; Robert M’Barek; Claudia Parisi; George Philippidis; Tévécia Ronzon; Serenella Sala; Javier Sanchez Lopez; Sarah Mubareka. Development of a bioeconomy monitoring framework for the European Union: An integrative and collaborative approach. New Biotechnology 2020, 59, 10 -19.

AMA Style

Nicolas Robert, Jacopo Giuntoli, Rita Araujo, Marios Avraamides, Elisabetta Balzi, José I. Barredo, Bettina Baruth, William Becker, Maria Teresa Borzacchiello, Claudia Bulgheroni, Andrea Camia, Gianluca Fiore, Marco Follador, Patricia Gurria, Alessandra la Notte, Maria Lusser, Luisa Marelli, Robert M’Barek, Claudia Parisi, George Philippidis, Tévécia Ronzon, Serenella Sala, Javier Sanchez Lopez, Sarah Mubareka. Development of a bioeconomy monitoring framework for the European Union: An integrative and collaborative approach. New Biotechnology. 2020; 59 ():10-19.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nicolas Robert; Jacopo Giuntoli; Rita Araujo; Marios Avraamides; Elisabetta Balzi; José I. Barredo; Bettina Baruth; William Becker; Maria Teresa Borzacchiello; Claudia Bulgheroni; Andrea Camia; Gianluca Fiore; Marco Follador; Patricia Gurria; Alessandra la Notte; Maria Lusser; Luisa Marelli; Robert M’Barek; Claudia Parisi; George Philippidis; Tévécia Ronzon; Serenella Sala; Javier Sanchez Lopez; Sarah Mubareka. 2020. "Development of a bioeconomy monitoring framework for the European Union: An integrative and collaborative approach." New Biotechnology 59, no. : 10-19.

Journal article
Published: 16 June 2020 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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As a result of the growing awareness of the need to prevent food waste, several initiatives have been launched in the last few years to reduce food waste generated across the food supply chain. However, the evaluation of food waste prevention interventions is still at an early stage of development and appropriate methods to assess their effectiveness are missing, hampering the identification of best practices amongst existing initiatives and the prioritisation of those that are most promising. To address such needs and provide a common approach to consistently assess the performance of food waste prevention initiatives, the European Commission Joint Research Centre has developed an evaluation framework for food waste prevention actions. The framework supports the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste, which has been established to identify best practices and share knowledge on food waste prevention initiatives. Additionally, a food waste prevention calculator, based on life cycle thinking, has been developed to support such an evaluation by a consistent assessment of the environmental and economic benefits of such initiatives, and the identification of potential trade-offs at early design stages. The main goal of this paper is to present the evaluation framework and the calculator developed, critically discussing how future initiatives should be designed, monitored and reported, to ensure sufficient and relevant data is made available to enable their proper assessment. Crucially, this would enable practitioners and decision makers to evaluate the success of existing initiatives and give priority to the implementation of the best performing ones.

ACS Style

Valeria De Laurentiis; Carla Caldeira; Serenella Sala. No time to waste: assessing the performance of food waste prevention actions. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 161, 104946 .

AMA Style

Valeria De Laurentiis, Carla Caldeira, Serenella Sala. No time to waste: assessing the performance of food waste prevention actions. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 161 ():104946.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Valeria De Laurentiis; Carla Caldeira; Serenella Sala. 2020. "No time to waste: assessing the performance of food waste prevention actions." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 161, no. : 104946.

Journal article
Published: 31 May 2020 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is a lively field of research, and data and models are continuously improved in terms of impact pathways covered, reliability, and spatial detail. However, many of these advancements are scattered throughout the scientific literature, making it difficult for practitioners to apply the new models. Here, we present the LC‐IMPACT method that provides characterization factors at the damage level for 11 impact categories related to three areas of protection (human health, ecosystem quality, natural resources). Human health damage is quantified as disability adjusted life years, damage to ecosystem quality as global species extinction equivalents (based on potentially disappeared fraction of species), and damage to mineral resources as kilogram of extra ore extracted. Seven of the impact categories include spatial differentiation at various levels of spatial scale. The influence of value choices related to the time horizon and the level of scientific evidence of the impacts considered is quantified with four distinct sets of characterization factors. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method with an illustrative life cycle assessment example of different fuel options in Europe (petrol or biofuel). Differences between generic and regionalized impacts vary up to two orders of magnitude for some of the selected impact categories, highlighting the importance of spatial detail in LCIA. This article met the requirements for a gold – gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

ACS Style

Francesca Verones; Stefanie Hellweg; Assumpció Antón; Ligia B. Azevedo; Abhishek Chaudhary; Nuno Cosme; Stefano Cucurachi; Laura De Baan; Yan Dong; Peter Fantke; Laura Golsteijn; Michael Hauschild; Reinout Heijungs; Olivier Jolliet; Ronnie Juraske; Henrik Larsen; Alexis Laurent; Christopher L. Mutel; Manuele Margni; Montserrat Núñez; Mikolaj Owsianiak; Stephan Pfister; Tommie Ponsioen; Philipp Preiss; Ralph K. Rosenbaum; Pierre‐Olivier Roy; Serenella Sala; Zoran Steinmann; Rosalie Van Zelm; Rita Van Dingenen; Marisa Vieira; Mark A. J. Huijbregts. LC‐IMPACT: A regionalized life cycle damage assessment method. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2020, 24, 1201 -1219.

AMA Style

Francesca Verones, Stefanie Hellweg, Assumpció Antón, Ligia B. Azevedo, Abhishek Chaudhary, Nuno Cosme, Stefano Cucurachi, Laura De Baan, Yan Dong, Peter Fantke, Laura Golsteijn, Michael Hauschild, Reinout Heijungs, Olivier Jolliet, Ronnie Juraske, Henrik Larsen, Alexis Laurent, Christopher L. Mutel, Manuele Margni, Montserrat Núñez, Mikolaj Owsianiak, Stephan Pfister, Tommie Ponsioen, Philipp Preiss, Ralph K. Rosenbaum, Pierre‐Olivier Roy, Serenella Sala, Zoran Steinmann, Rosalie Van Zelm, Rita Van Dingenen, Marisa Vieira, Mark A. J. Huijbregts. LC‐IMPACT: A regionalized life cycle damage assessment method. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2020; 24 (6):1201-1219.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Francesca Verones; Stefanie Hellweg; Assumpció Antón; Ligia B. Azevedo; Abhishek Chaudhary; Nuno Cosme; Stefano Cucurachi; Laura De Baan; Yan Dong; Peter Fantke; Laura Golsteijn; Michael Hauschild; Reinout Heijungs; Olivier Jolliet; Ronnie Juraske; Henrik Larsen; Alexis Laurent; Christopher L. Mutel; Manuele Margni; Montserrat Núñez; Mikolaj Owsianiak; Stephan Pfister; Tommie Ponsioen; Philipp Preiss; Ralph K. Rosenbaum; Pierre‐Olivier Roy; Serenella Sala; Zoran Steinmann; Rosalie Van Zelm; Rita Van Dingenen; Marisa Vieira; Mark A. J. Huijbregts. 2020. "LC‐IMPACT: A regionalized life cycle damage assessment method." Journal of Industrial Ecology 24, no. 6: 1201-1219.

Review
Published: 23 May 2020 in Bioresource Technology
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The need to increase circularity of industrial systems to address limited resources availability and climate change has triggered the development of the food waste biorefinery concept. However, for the development of future sustainable industrial processes focused on the valorisation of food waste, critical aspects such as (i) the technical feasibility of the processes at industrial scale, (ii) the analysis of their techno-economic potential, including available quantities of waste, and (iii) a life cycle-based environmental assessment of benefits and burdens need to be considered. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of food waste valorisation pathways and to analyse to which extent these aspects have been considered in the literature. Although a plethora of food waste valorisation pathways exist, they are mainly developed at lab-scale. Further research is necessary to assess upscaled performance, feedstock security, and economic and environmental assessment of food waste valorisation processes.

ACS Style

Carla Caldeira; Anestis Vlysidis; Gianluca Fiore; Valeria De Laurentiis; Giuseppe Vignali; Serenella Sala. Sustainability of food waste biorefinery: A review on valorisation pathways, techno-economic constraints, and environmental assessment. Bioresource Technology 2020, 312, 123575 .

AMA Style

Carla Caldeira, Anestis Vlysidis, Gianluca Fiore, Valeria De Laurentiis, Giuseppe Vignali, Serenella Sala. Sustainability of food waste biorefinery: A review on valorisation pathways, techno-economic constraints, and environmental assessment. Bioresource Technology. 2020; 312 ():123575.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Carla Caldeira; Anestis Vlysidis; Gianluca Fiore; Valeria De Laurentiis; Giuseppe Vignali; Serenella Sala. 2020. "Sustainability of food waste biorefinery: A review on valorisation pathways, techno-economic constraints, and environmental assessment." Bioresource Technology 312, no. : 123575.

Journal article
Published: 23 May 2020 in Journal of Environmental Management
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The planetary boundaries (PBs) represent a well-known concept, which helps identify whether production and consumption systems are environmentally sustainable in absolute terms, namely compared to the Earth's ecological limits and carrying capacity. In this study, the impacts of production and consumption of the European Union in 2010 were assessed by means of life cycle assessment (LCA)-based indicators and compared with the PBs. Five different perspectives were adopted for assessing the impacts: a production perspective (EU Domestic Footprint) and four distinct consumption perspectives, resulting from alternative modelling approaches including both top-down (input-output LCA) and bottom-up (process-based LCA). Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results were assessed against LCIA-based PBs, which adapted the PBs framework to the LCIA indicators and metrics of the Environmental Footprint method (EF). Global environmental impacts transgressed several LCIA-based PBs. When assessing the overall environmental impacts of EU consumption compared to the global LCIA-based PBs, impacts of EU consumption related to climate change, particulate matter, land use and mineral resources were close or already transgressed the global boundaries. The EU, with less than 10% of the world population, was close to transgress the global ecological limits. Moreover, when downscaling the global PBs and comparing the impacts per capita for an average EU citizen and a global one, the LCIA-PBs were significantly transgressed in many impact categories. The results are affected by uncertainty mainly due to: (a) the intrinsic uncertainties of the different LCA modelling approaches and indicators; (b) the uncertainties in estimating LCIA-based PBs, due to the difficulties in identifying limits for the Earth's processes and referring them to LCIA metrics. The results may anyway be used to define benchmarks and policy targets to ensure that consumption and production in Europe remains within safe ecological boundaries, as well as to understand the magnitude of the effort needed to reduce the impacts.

ACS Style

Serenella Sala; Eleonora Crenna; Michela Secchi; Esther Sanyé-Mengual. Environmental sustainability of European production and consumption assessed against planetary boundaries. Journal of Environmental Management 2020, 269, 110686 .

AMA Style

Serenella Sala, Eleonora Crenna, Michela Secchi, Esther Sanyé-Mengual. Environmental sustainability of European production and consumption assessed against planetary boundaries. Journal of Environmental Management. 2020; 269 ():110686.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Serenella Sala; Eleonora Crenna; Michela Secchi; Esther Sanyé-Mengual. 2020. "Environmental sustainability of European production and consumption assessed against planetary boundaries." Journal of Environmental Management 269, no. : 110686.

Journal article
Published: 20 May 2020 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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Life cycle interpretation is the fourth and last phase of life cycle assessment (LCA). Being a “pivot” phase linking all other phases and the conclusions and recommendations from an LCA study, it represents a challenging task for practitioners, who miss harmonized guidelines that are sufficiently complete, detailed, and practical to conduct its different steps effectively. Here, we aim to bridge this gap. We review available literature describing the life cycle interpretation phase, including standards, LCA books, technical reports, and relevant scientific literature. On this basis, we evaluate and clarify the definition and purposes of the interpretation phase and propose an array of methods supporting its conduct in LCA practice. The five steps of interpretation defined in ISO 14040–44 are proposed to be reorganized around a framework that offers a more pragmatic approach to interpretation. It orders the steps as follows: (i) completeness check, (ii) consistency check, (iii) sensitivity check, (iv) identification of significant issues, and (v) conclusions, limitations, and recommendations. We provide toolboxes, consisting of methods and procedures supporting the analyses, computations, points to evaluate or check, and reflective processes for each of these steps. All methods are succinctly discussed with relevant referencing for further details of their applications. This proposed framework, substantiated with the large variety of methods, is envisioned to help LCA practitioners increase the relevance of their interpretation and the soundness of their conclusions and recommendations. It is a first step toward a more comprehensive and harmonized LCA practice to improve the reliability and credibility of LCA studies.

ACS Style

Alexis Laurent; Bo P. Weidema; Jane Bare; Xun Liao; Danielle Maia de Souza; Massimo Pizzol; Serenella Sala; Hanna Schreiber; Nils Thonemann; Francesca Verones. Methodological review and detailed guidance for the life cycle interpretation phase. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2020, 24, 986 -1003.

AMA Style

Alexis Laurent, Bo P. Weidema, Jane Bare, Xun Liao, Danielle Maia de Souza, Massimo Pizzol, Serenella Sala, Hanna Schreiber, Nils Thonemann, Francesca Verones. Methodological review and detailed guidance for the life cycle interpretation phase. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2020; 24 (5):986-1003.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alexis Laurent; Bo P. Weidema; Jane Bare; Xun Liao; Danielle Maia de Souza; Massimo Pizzol; Serenella Sala; Hanna Schreiber; Nils Thonemann; Francesca Verones. 2020. "Methodological review and detailed guidance for the life cycle interpretation phase." Journal of Industrial Ecology 24, no. 5: 986-1003.

Journal article
Published: 12 May 2020 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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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).

ACS Style

Roland Hischier; Francesca Reale; Valentina Castellani; Serenella Sala. Environmental impacts of household appliances in Europe and scenarios for their impact reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production 2020, 267, 121952 .

AMA Style

Roland Hischier, Francesca Reale, Valentina Castellani, Serenella Sala. Environmental impacts of household appliances in Europe and scenarios for their impact reduction. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2020; 267 ():121952.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Roland Hischier; Francesca Reale; Valentina Castellani; Serenella Sala. 2020. "Environmental impacts of household appliances in Europe and scenarios for their impact reduction." Journal of Cleaner Production 267, no. : 121952.

Journal article
Published: 11 May 2020 in Global Food Security
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Ensuring global food security is one of the challenges of our society. Nitrogen availability is key for food production, while contributing to different environmental impacts. This paper aims firstly to assess nitrogen flows and to highlight hotspots of inefficient use of nitrogen along the European food chain, excluding primary production. Secondly, it aims to analyse the potential for reducing the identified inefficiencies and increase nitrogen circularity. A baseline and three scenarios-reflecting waste targets reported in EU legislation and technological improvements- are analysed. Results highlighted a potential to reduce reactive nitrogen emissions up to more than 45%. However, this would imply the conversion of reactive nitrogen in molecular nitrogen, such as urea, before re-entering in the food chain. Techniques to harvest reactive nitrogen directly from urine and wastewater are considered promising to increase nitrogen use efficiency along the food chain.

ACS Style

Sara Corrado; Carla Caldeira; Gema Carmona-Garcia; Ina Körner; Adrian Leip; Serenella Sala. Unveiling the potential for an efficient use of nitrogen along the food supply and consumption chain. Global Food Security 2020, 25, 100368 .

AMA Style

Sara Corrado, Carla Caldeira, Gema Carmona-Garcia, Ina Körner, Adrian Leip, Serenella Sala. Unveiling the potential for an efficient use of nitrogen along the food supply and consumption chain. Global Food Security. 2020; 25 ():100368.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sara Corrado; Carla Caldeira; Gema Carmona-Garcia; Ina Körner; Adrian Leip; Serenella Sala. 2020. "Unveiling the potential for an efficient use of nitrogen along the food supply and consumption chain." Global Food Security 25, no. : 100368.

Book chapter
Published: 31 March 2020 in Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
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ACS Style

Carla Caldeira; Sara Corrado; Liz Goodwin; Serenella Sala. Global Food Waste. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2020, 269 -280.

AMA Style

Carla Caldeira, Sara Corrado, Liz Goodwin, Serenella Sala. Global Food Waste. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 2020; ():269-280.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Carla Caldeira; Sara Corrado; Liz Goodwin; Serenella Sala. 2020. "Global Food Waste." Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals , no. : 269-280.

Journal article
Published: 13 March 2020 in Environment International
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Agricultural pesticides are key contributors to pollinator decline worldwide. However, methods for quantifying impacts associated with pollinator exposure to pesticides are currently missing in comparative risk screening, chemical substitution and prioritization, and life cycle impact assessment methods. To address this gap, we developed a method for quantifying pesticide field exposure and ecotoxicity effects of honey bees as most economically important pollinator species worldwide. We defined bee intake and dermal contact fractions representing respectively oral and dermal exposure per unit mass applied, and tested our model on two pesticides applied to oilseed rape. Our results show that exposure varies between types of forager bees, with highest dermal contact fraction of 59 ppm in nectar foragers for lambda-cyhalothrin (insecticide), and highest oral intake fractions of 32 and 190 ppm in nectar foragers for boscalid (fungicide) and lambda-cyhalothrin, respectively. Hive oral exposure is up to 115 times higher than forager oral exposure. Combining exposure with effect estimates yields impacts, which are three orders of magnitude higher for the insecticide. Overall, nectar foragers are the most affected forager type for both pesticides, dominated by oral exposure. Our framework constitutes an important step toward integrating pollinator impacts in chemical substitution and life cycle impact assessment, and should be expanded to cover all relevant pesticide-crop combinations.

ACS Style

Eleonora Crenna; Olivier Jolliet; Elena Collina; Serenella Sala; Peter Fantke. Characterizing honey bee exposure and effects from pesticides for chemical prioritization and life cycle assessment. Environment International 2020, 138, 105642 .

AMA Style

Eleonora Crenna, Olivier Jolliet, Elena Collina, Serenella Sala, Peter Fantke. Characterizing honey bee exposure and effects from pesticides for chemical prioritization and life cycle assessment. Environment International. 2020; 138 ():105642.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Eleonora Crenna; Olivier Jolliet; Elena Collina; Serenella Sala; Peter Fantke. 2020. "Characterizing honey bee exposure and effects from pesticides for chemical prioritization and life cycle assessment." Environment International 138, no. : 105642.

Journal article
Published: 28 February 2020 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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The concept of resources or materials dissipation after their use in the technosphere has been increasingly considered in life-cycle based studies, applying Substance and Material Flow Analysis (SFA and MFA), Input-Output Analysis, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, there is currently no common understanding of what a dissipative flow is. This article first reviews 45 publications to describe the status of resource dissipation in life-cycle based studies, discussing how resource dissipation is usually defined, which temporal perspective is considered, which compartments of dissipation are distinguished, and which approaches (including the implementation of parameters) are considered to assess resource dissipation in a system. Moreover, this article proposes a comprehensive definition of resource dissipation, building from the literature review and focusing on abiotic resources. It then discusses this definition with respect to its potential implementation in LCA considering today’s existing Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets and best practices. Overall it shows that the LCA framework may be well suited to assess abiotic resource dissipation. In particular i) the compartments of dissipation usually considered in the literature are covered in LCA, and ii) LCI databases could be a source of information to be further used to quantify a set of flows defined as “dissipative”, as commonly considered in SFA/MFA studies. However, major challenges are still faced before any potential routine implementation in LCA. The article accordingly discusses the potential way forward in the short-term (development and test of possible approaches), mid-term (towards satisfactory robustness, and consensus) and long-term (large-scale changes of LCI databases).

ACS Style

Antoine Beylot; Fulvio Ardente; Serenella Sala; Luca Zampori. Accounting for the dissipation of abiotic resources in LCA: Status, key challenges and potential way forward. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 157, 104748 .

AMA Style

Antoine Beylot, Fulvio Ardente, Serenella Sala, Luca Zampori. Accounting for the dissipation of abiotic resources in LCA: Status, key challenges and potential way forward. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 157 ():104748.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Antoine Beylot; Fulvio Ardente; Serenella Sala; Luca Zampori. 2020. "Accounting for the dissipation of abiotic resources in LCA: Status, key challenges and potential way forward." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 157, no. : 104748.

Reference work
Published: 05 November 2019 in Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
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ACS Style

Serenella Sala. Life Cycle Assessment and Evaluation of Solutions Towards Sustainable Development Goals. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2019, 1 -13.

AMA Style

Serenella Sala. Life Cycle Assessment and Evaluation of Solutions Towards Sustainable Development Goals. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 2019; ():1-13.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Serenella Sala. 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment and Evaluation of Solutions Towards Sustainable Development Goals." Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals , no. : 1-13.