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Prof. Marzia Traverso
Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering, RWTH Aachen University

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0 life cycle assessment (LCA)
0 sustainability assessment
0 social life cycle assessment
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social life cycle assessment
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Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

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Review
Published: 19 July 2021 in Processes
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This paper reviews actual sustainability assessments in the construction sector to define whether and how a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is applied and interpreted in this sector today. This industry has large shares in global energy (33%), raw material consumption (40%) and solid waste generation (40%). Simultaneously, it drives the economy and provides jobs. The LCSA is a method to identify environmental, social and economic impacts of products/services along their life cycles. The results of this study showed a mismatch between sectoral emissions and the number of LCSA-based impact evaluations. It was found that only 11% of papers reviewed assessed all three sustainability pillars. The economic and especially the social pillars were partly neglected. In Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), 100% made use of Global Warming Potential (GWP) but only 30% assessed more than five indicators in total. In Life Cycle Costing (LCC), there were a variety of costs assessed. Depreciation and lifetime were mainly neglected. We found that 42% made use of Net Present Value (NPV), while over 50% assessed individual indicators. For the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), the focus was on the production stage; even the system boundaries were defined as cradle-to-use and -grave. Future approaches are relevant but there is no need to innovate: a proposal for a LCSA approach is made.

ACS Style

Jana Backes; Marzia Traverso. Application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Construction Sector: A Systematic Literature Review. Processes 2021, 9, 1248 .

AMA Style

Jana Backes, Marzia Traverso. Application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Construction Sector: A Systematic Literature Review. Processes. 2021; 9 (7):1248.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jana Backes; Marzia Traverso. 2021. "Application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment in the Construction Sector: A Systematic Literature Review." Processes 9, no. 7: 1248.

Journal article
Published: 07 July 2021 in Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments
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Among the different renewable energy sources, solar energy shows the highest exploitation potential to satisfy a substantial portion of the worlds’ future energy demand, guaranteeing at the same time lower emissions than conventional energy providers. Much of this potential is usable thanks to Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies, of which the dish-Stirling concentrator is the most efficient. Nevertheless, the production and installation phases of the dish-Stirling technology can have an environmental impact which motivated the assessment of the plant in the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). The present publication evaluated an existing dish-Stirling plant located in Italy with a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. The Life Cycle Assessment resulted in the emission of 35 tons of CO2e. The main drivers of emissions were the electronic components (16%) and the steel used for the structure (37%). Life Cycle Costing resulted in total costs of 308,467€. S-LCA resulted in working seconds for skilled and unskilled workers equal to 1,454,400 s and 1,713,600 s, respectively. The main challenges that were identified for this work were the data availability for all pillars and the comparability between the actual study and the publications already available in the relevant literature.

ACS Style

J.G. Backes; A. D'Amico; N. Pauliks; S. Guarino; M. Traverso; V. Lo Brano. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a dish-Stirling Concentrating Solar Power Plant in the Mediterranean area. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 2021, 47, 101444 .

AMA Style

J.G. Backes, A. D'Amico, N. Pauliks, S. Guarino, M. Traverso, V. Lo Brano. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a dish-Stirling Concentrating Solar Power Plant in the Mediterranean area. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments. 2021; 47 ():101444.

Chicago/Turabian Style

J.G. Backes; A. D'Amico; N. Pauliks; S. Guarino; M. Traverso; V. Lo Brano. 2021. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a dish-Stirling Concentrating Solar Power Plant in the Mediterranean area." Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 47, no. : 101444.

Journal article
Published: 02 June 2021 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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This article explores the application of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) to products or technologies in their earliest developing phase. Indeed, it would be beneficial to have an overview of the social risks generated by novel products and understand what their potential supply chain would be like. To this end, this study presents a S-LCA study for identifying hotspots linked to a novel product: an antimicrobial keyboard cover integrating gold nanoparticles. Firstly, countries which could supply Europe with the input materials required in the system were identified, then by following the S-LCA methodology working hours and working functional hours were estimated. Ultimately, social risks were calculated by combining working functional hours with social risk levels and weights, concerning the relative importance of each category and sub-category. The analysis helped to determine which countries could supply the materials needed and hence become part of the potential supply chain of antimicrobial keyboard covers integrating gold nanoparticles. Furthermore, it led to the identification of main social hotspots linked to each material used. In general, results show that the stakeholders most at risk of adverse social impacts across different sectors and countries are workers. Indeed, they may be affected on both their rights and work conditions, health and safety. The process of gold mining highlights the difference in terms of social risks between more developed countries, such as Australia and Sweden, and developing countries, such as South Africa. The production of chemicals presents a homogeneity in terms of risk hours associated to the considered European countries.

ACS Style

Martina Pucciarelli; Marzia Traverso; Paola Lettieri. Social hotspots life cycle assessment: A case study on social risks of an antimicrobial keyboard cover. Journal of Cleaner Production 2021, 311, 127787 .

AMA Style

Martina Pucciarelli, Marzia Traverso, Paola Lettieri. Social hotspots life cycle assessment: A case study on social risks of an antimicrobial keyboard cover. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2021; 311 ():127787.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Martina Pucciarelli; Marzia Traverso; Paola Lettieri. 2021. "Social hotspots life cycle assessment: A case study on social risks of an antimicrobial keyboard cover." Journal of Cleaner Production 311, no. : 127787.

Journal article
Published: 29 May 2021 in Sustainability
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This study aims to examine the feasibility of using environmental product declarations (EPDs) as a data source for life-cycle assessment (LCA) in two sustainable building assessment schemes–the pilot version of the European framework Level(s) and the German system DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen). An EPD is a standardized and third-party certified label to communicate product-specific environmental data based on LCA. Some green building rating systems consider it a robust LCA data source and encourage its use over generic data. This work evaluates the environmental profile of the envelope of an office building in the context of level(s) and DGNB adopting EPD as a data source. The results indicate that the EPDs did not cover the mandatory scope of the schemes. Furthermore, there was a lack of EPDs appropriate to the geographical context of the case study, leading to the adoption of EPDs of products from places other than the building site and an overestimation of the environmental impacts of transportation. Moreover, the need for EPDs considering suitable and comprehensive scenarios as well as life-cycle stages beyond the product stage is highlighted. This gap, in fact, hinders the performance of a complete LCA within the analyzed building assessment schemes when relying solely on EPDs as a data source. With this paper, we wish to encourage the further development of EPDs related to the integration of more life-cycle modules and more comprehensive scenarios, considering the direction of the latest amendment of the ISO 15804 for EPDs of construction products.

ACS Style

Pamela Del Rosario; Elisabetta Palumbo; Marzia Traverso. Environmental Product Declarations as Data Source for the Environmental Assessment of Buildings in the Context of Level(s) and DGNB: How Feasible Is Their Adoption? Sustainability 2021, 13, 6143 .

AMA Style

Pamela Del Rosario, Elisabetta Palumbo, Marzia Traverso. Environmental Product Declarations as Data Source for the Environmental Assessment of Buildings in the Context of Level(s) and DGNB: How Feasible Is Their Adoption? Sustainability. 2021; 13 (11):6143.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pamela Del Rosario; Elisabetta Palumbo; Marzia Traverso. 2021. "Environmental Product Declarations as Data Source for the Environmental Assessment of Buildings in the Context of Level(s) and DGNB: How Feasible Is Their Adoption?" Sustainability 13, no. 11: 6143.

Editorial
Published: 09 April 2021 in Resources
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The generation and management of waste are gaining increasing attention worldwide as two main focuses of the environmental strategies and policies developed to date at the European level

ACS Style

Carlo Ingrao; Claudia Arcidiacono; Valentina Siracusa; Monia Niero; Marzia Traverso. Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis of Resource Recovery from Waste Management Systems in a Circular Economy Perspective Key Findings from This Special Issue. Resources 2021, 10, 32 .

AMA Style

Carlo Ingrao, Claudia Arcidiacono, Valentina Siracusa, Monia Niero, Marzia Traverso. Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis of Resource Recovery from Waste Management Systems in a Circular Economy Perspective Key Findings from This Special Issue. Resources. 2021; 10 (4):32.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Carlo Ingrao; Claudia Arcidiacono; Valentina Siracusa; Monia Niero; Marzia Traverso. 2021. "Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis of Resource Recovery from Waste Management Systems in a Circular Economy Perspective Key Findings from This Special Issue." Resources 10, no. 4: 32.

Journal article
Published: 19 March 2021 in Sustainability
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The current dependency on steel within modern society causes major environmental pollution, a result of the product’s life cycle phases. Unfortunately, very little data regarding single steel production processes have been found in literature. Therefore, a detailed analysis of impacts categorized in terms of relevance cannot be conducted. In this study, a complete life cycle assessment of steel production in an integrated German steel plant of thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG, including an assessment of emissions from the blast furnace, the basic oxygen furnace, and casting rolling, is carried out. The functional unit is set to 1 kg hot-rolled coil, and the system boundaries are defined as cradle-to-gate. This study models the individual process steps and the resulting emitters using the software GaBi. Total emissions could be distributed into direct, upstream, and by-product emissions, where the biggest impacts in terms of direct emissions from single processes are from the power plant (48% global warming potential (GWP)), the blast furnace (22% GWP), and the sinter plant (79% photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP)). The summarized upstream processes have the largest share in the impact categories acidification potential (AP; 69%) and abiotic depletion potential fossil (ADPf; 110%). The results, including data verification, furthermore show the future significance of the supply chain in the necessary reduction that could be achieved.

ACS Style

Jana Backes; Julian Suer; Nils Pauliks; Sabrina Neugebauer; Marzia Traverso. Life Cycle Assessment of an Integrated Steel Mill Using Primary Manufacturing Data: Actual Environmental Profile. Sustainability 2021, 13, 3443 .

AMA Style

Jana Backes, Julian Suer, Nils Pauliks, Sabrina Neugebauer, Marzia Traverso. Life Cycle Assessment of an Integrated Steel Mill Using Primary Manufacturing Data: Actual Environmental Profile. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (6):3443.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jana Backes; Julian Suer; Nils Pauliks; Sabrina Neugebauer; Marzia Traverso. 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of an Integrated Steel Mill Using Primary Manufacturing Data: Actual Environmental Profile." Sustainability 13, no. 6: 3443.

Journal article
Published: 26 January 2021 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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The growing popularity of electric and hybrid vehicles has led to a sudden increase in demand for batteries needed for their construction. The increasing quantity of batteries produced and placed on the market involves important criticalities related to the consumption of some critical raw materials, such as rare earths (REEs), and the end-of-life disposal. In this scenario, the possibility of recycling and the development of a circular economy model can play a fundamental role, reducing critical issues related to the depletion of REEs. This study aims to assess the circularity potential of REEs in the vehicle batteries industry, investigating the potential of a closed-loop recycling system in the European context. In this analysis, the study was conducted in two different phases: 1) A literature review, for establishing the knowledge required for modeling a proper circular economy system, including commercial recycling processes, industrial applications, market trends, European policies and recycling targets; and 2) Basing on the state-of-art framework derived from the literature review, the final assessment of the circularity potential of REEs over a time horizon of thirty years and the discussion of possible benefits related to the considered circular economy system. As a result, a closed-loop recycling system is modeled and the final assessment of the circularity potential shows how: 1) The current recovery technology, along with appropriate recycling policies, is able to reduce the future demand of REEs as early as from 2025; 2) High collection and recovery rates allow to contrast uncertainties in REEs supply chain; and 3) The recovery of REEs is a key process to ensure the economic sustainability of the entire recycling process. These results provide the evidence that an appropriate circular economy system for vehicle battery industry can lead to benefits not only in terms of supply risk reduction but also in relation to the preservation of natural resources, implying one step further towards a sustainable mobility.

ACS Style

Luca Silvestri; Antonio Forcina; Cecilia Silvestri; Marzia Traverso. Circularity potential of rare earths for sustainable mobility: Recent developments, challenges and future prospects. Journal of Cleaner Production 2021, 292, 126089 .

AMA Style

Luca Silvestri, Antonio Forcina, Cecilia Silvestri, Marzia Traverso. Circularity potential of rare earths for sustainable mobility: Recent developments, challenges and future prospects. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2021; 292 ():126089.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luca Silvestri; Antonio Forcina; Cecilia Silvestri; Marzia Traverso. 2021. "Circularity potential of rare earths for sustainable mobility: Recent developments, challenges and future prospects." Journal of Cleaner Production 292, no. : 126089.

Journal article
Published: 26 January 2021 in Sustainability
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Decisions in social sustainability assessment of mobility services often pose a multi-criteria decision-making issue, as trade-offs can occur between multiple alternatives and a participatory process should be used. Thus, the goal of this research is to support decision-making through determining weightings for different criteria and indicators for social sustainability assessment of mobility services. For the weighting process, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was used. A participatory analysis was chosen to identify those weightings. In total, 48 experts in the field of sustainable urban mobility were questioned from three different groups: academic institutions, city authorities, and mobility service providers in order to analyze differences and similarities between these groups. While some indicators resulted in clear prioritization, other indicators revealed large differences between the expert groups. For the majority of indicators, the weighting results were similar for all three groups of experts. Consequently, the results provide clear guidance for decision-makers in the field of sustainable urban mobility.

ACS Style

Katharina Gompf; Marzia Traverso; Jörg Hetterich. Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Introduce Weights to Social Life Cycle Assessment of Mobility Services. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1258 .

AMA Style

Katharina Gompf, Marzia Traverso, Jörg Hetterich. Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Introduce Weights to Social Life Cycle Assessment of Mobility Services. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (3):1258.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Katharina Gompf; Marzia Traverso; Jörg Hetterich. 2021. "Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Introduce Weights to Social Life Cycle Assessment of Mobility Services." Sustainability 13, no. 3: 1258.

Journal article
Published: 02 December 2020 in Energies
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This paper proposes an innovative approach to classify the losses related to photovoltaic (PV) systems, through the use of thermographic non-destructive tests (TNDTs) supported by artificial intelligence techniques. Low electricity production in PV systems can be caused by an efficiency decrease in PV modules due to abnormal operating conditions such as failures or malfunctions. The most common performance decreases are due to the presence of dirt on the surface of the module, the impact of which depends on many parameters and conditions, and can be identified through the use of the TNDTs. The proposed approach allows one to automatically classify the thermographic images from the convolutional neural network (CNN) of the system, achieving an accuracy of 98% in tests that last a couple of minutes. This approach, compared to approaches in literature, offers numerous advantages, including speed of execution, speed of diagnosis, reduced costs, reduction in electricity production losses.

ACS Style

Giovanni Cipriani; Antonino D’Amico; Stefania Guarino; Donatella Manno; Marzia Traverso; Vincenzo Di Dio. Convolutional Neural Network for Dust and Hotspot Classification in PV Modules. Energies 2020, 13, 6357 .

AMA Style

Giovanni Cipriani, Antonino D’Amico, Stefania Guarino, Donatella Manno, Marzia Traverso, Vincenzo Di Dio. Convolutional Neural Network for Dust and Hotspot Classification in PV Modules. Energies. 2020; 13 (23):6357.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Giovanni Cipriani; Antonino D’Amico; Stefania Guarino; Donatella Manno; Marzia Traverso; Vincenzo Di Dio. 2020. "Convolutional Neural Network for Dust and Hotspot Classification in PV Modules." Energies 13, no. 23: 6357.

Societal lca
Published: 31 August 2020 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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This paper takes a critical review of the UNEP/SETAC (2009) Guidelines for social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) of products. This paper, therefore, poses the question: how can the future version(s) of the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines address the challenges associated with implementing case studies in the S-LCA? A systematic mapping review to investigate case studies in the S-LCA has been carried out in which the S-LCA was applied in order to analyse the application of the stages of the methodology. We appraise 58 case studies published between 2009 and 2019 in peer-reviewed international journals and analysed the trends and contributions in relation to the practice of the S-LCA. More published papers were collected between July 2018 and June 2019 (because of the publication of a Special Issue on the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment in March 2018), and critically reviewed to identify key patterns and insights from the case studies. It was found that only 47% of the subcategories specified by the current UNEP/SETAC Guidelines are implemented in the case studies examined. Our review suggests four main initiatives that future S-LCA Guidelines should consider. Firstly, there is a need to encourage case studies that focus on the social impacts of “consumers” and “value chain actors” to understand better the opportunities for enhancing social sustainability considerations of marginalised stakeholder groups. Secondly, indicators cannot be homogenised across all sectors and disciplines, and the relevance of each indicator needs to be localised and justified in respective studies. Thirdly, there is a need for a robust theoretical orientation in the S-LCA—one that is more inclusive and flexible—to improve on contextual relevance in future case studies. Lastly, the revised Guidelines should aspire to provide more clarity on justifying the context and choice of functional units in S-LCA studies. The insights developed in this study are useful for practitioners and scholars involved in the S-LCA. The revision of the Guidelines can ensure that the S-LCA in future case studies can better create opportunities for improving the well-being of all stakeholders. It is instructive that both local contextualisation of indicators and establishing stakeholder concerns through participatory approaches will facilitate an improved understanding of the social impact assessment of products and their potentially positive and negative impacts along their life cycle. Addressing the challenges with the current Guidelines will ultimately strengthen the S-LCA by improving an understanding of relevant indicators, thus allowing for an improvement in social conditions for all stakeholders.

ACS Style

Olubukola Tokede; Marzia Traverso. Implementing the guidelines for social life cycle assessment: past, present, and future. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2020, 1 -20.

AMA Style

Olubukola Tokede, Marzia Traverso. Implementing the guidelines for social life cycle assessment: past, present, and future. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2020; ():1-20.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Olubukola Tokede; Marzia Traverso. 2020. "Implementing the guidelines for social life cycle assessment: past, present, and future." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment , no. : 1-20.

Journal article
Published: 26 August 2020 in Sustainability
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The construction sector plays an important role in moving towards a low-carbon economy. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is considered one of the most effective methods of analytically evaluating environmental profiles and an efficient tool for calculating the environmental impacts in building design-oriented methodologies, such as building information modelling (BIM). At early design stages, generic LCA databases are used to conduct the life cycle inventory (LCI), while detailed stages require more detailed data, such as environmental product declarations (EPDs), namely documents that provide accurate results and precise analyses based on LCA. Limitations are recognized when using EPDs in BIM elements at different levels of development (LOD) in the design stages, especially related to the data consistency and system boundaries of the LCA. This paper presents a method of achieving accurate LCA results, that helps with decision-making and provides support in the selection of building products and materials. The method is validated by its application in the structural concrete of an office building located in Germany. The method defines a safety factor adopted for embodied impacts (“cradle-to-gate”), based on EPD results to predict the environmental impact of BIM elements at different LODs. The results obtained show that by integrating the method to conduct the LCA, the range of errors and possible inconsistencies in the LCA results can be reduced.

ACS Style

Elisabetta Palumbo; Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer; Carmen Llatas; Marzia Traverso. How to Obtain Accurate Environmental Impacts at Early Design Stages in BIM When Using Environmental Product Declaration. A Method to Support Decision-Making. Sustainability 2020, 12, 6927 .

AMA Style

Elisabetta Palumbo, Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer, Carmen Llatas, Marzia Traverso. How to Obtain Accurate Environmental Impacts at Early Design Stages in BIM When Using Environmental Product Declaration. A Method to Support Decision-Making. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (17):6927.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Elisabetta Palumbo; Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer; Carmen Llatas; Marzia Traverso. 2020. "How to Obtain Accurate Environmental Impacts at Early Design Stages in BIM When Using Environmental Product Declaration. A Method to Support Decision-Making." Sustainability 12, no. 17: 6927.

Journal article
Published: 20 September 2019 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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Scientific conferences are a widely established and a highly important and an indispensable component for knowledge sharing, networking activities, scientific debate etc. What is usually ignored is the resource demand of such an event, putting an enormous burden on the environment. For almost two decades now, there has been an increasing demand for mitigation of environmental impacts of scientific conferences. In the field of sustainability science hardly any measures have been taken as only one out of ten sustainability conferences promoted action to reduce environmental impacts. A comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has not been carried out for all phases of a conference. This study therefore strives to conduct a comprehensive LCA of a scientific conference held on sustainability topics. The assessment includes three main parts: 1) preparation of the conference, 2) conference execution, and 3) further pre-/post-conference activities (participants´ travel associated with the conference). The functional unit is defined as: Holding one 3-day international academic conference on sustainability topics. The results display that travel activities of participants dominantly contribute to the overall environmental impact. Further relevant phases are catering, hotel overnight stays as well as environmental burdens associated with the conference venue. It was found that the conference under consideration leaves a carbon footprint of 455 tonnes of CO2 eq., equivalent to an average of 0.57 tonnes per participant. A scenario analysis displayed that changes towards train travelling, vegetarian meals and reduction of conference materials can significantly better the environmental profile of a conference. Further measures of environmental optimization could be identified, e.g. digital meetings. It is however unlikely that those will totally replace physical meetings. The social benefits of direct personal and globally-oriented exchange can probably not be outweighed by environmental savings. Future conference planning should thus relate the sustainability benefits with the detrimental impacts.

ACS Style

Sabrina Neugebauer; Maren Bolz; Rose Mankaa; Marzia Traverso. How sustainable are sustainability conferences? – Comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment of an international conference series in Europe. Journal of Cleaner Production 2019, 242, 118516 .

AMA Style

Sabrina Neugebauer, Maren Bolz, Rose Mankaa, Marzia Traverso. How sustainable are sustainability conferences? – Comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment of an international conference series in Europe. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2019; 242 ():118516.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sabrina Neugebauer; Maren Bolz; Rose Mankaa; Marzia Traverso. 2019. "How sustainable are sustainability conferences? – Comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment of an international conference series in Europe." Journal of Cleaner Production 242, no. : 118516.

Conference paper
Published: 06 September 2019 in IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
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The literature shows a lack of environmental indicators able to support the transition from a sustainable to a smart city framework, since the priority area "built environment" is indeed more comprehensively addressed by urban sustainability assessment systems (13%), than by smart city frameworks (4%) [12]. As "smaller cities inside a larger agglomerate" [19], urban districts play a key role in defining effective and innovative paths toward a smarter city, but defining a sustainable urban district is not straightforward, and even less is capturing the induced impacts due to interactions between individual buildings and their surround urban setting [23]. The adoption of a quantitative method for evaluation, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), emerges as an essential step for this purpose [24]. This article explores the application of a streamlined LCA on the urban district main issues (buildings, energy, water and waste), referring to an urban retrofitting intervention of Bolognina neighbourhood. A set of mitigation strategies developed by an interdisciplinary research group (joining researcher team from the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna and Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering of the RWTH Aachen University) provides the reference framework for the application deepened within the article. This work is a first application of LCA to a case study but it not includes a comprehensive sustainability framework yet, further activities are planned to finalize the analysis, e.g. taking account of social dimension by applying Social Life Cycle Assessment.

ACS Style

E Palumbo; Marzia Traverso; E Antonini; A Boeri. Towards a sustainable district: a streamlined Life cycle assessment applied to an Italian urban district. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 2019, 323, 012095 .

AMA Style

E Palumbo, Marzia Traverso, E Antonini, A Boeri. Towards a sustainable district: a streamlined Life cycle assessment applied to an Italian urban district. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 2019; 323 (1):012095.

Chicago/Turabian Style

E Palumbo; Marzia Traverso; E Antonini; A Boeri. 2019. "Towards a sustainable district: a streamlined Life cycle assessment applied to an Italian urban district." IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 323, no. 1: 012095.

Journal article
Published: 11 August 2019 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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Approximately 40% of the European energy consumption and a large proportion of environmental impacts are related to the building sector. However, the selection of adequate and correct designs can provide considerable energy savings and reduce environmental impacts. To achieve this objective, a simultaneous energy and environmental assessment of a building's life cycle is necessary. To date, the resolution of this complex problem is entrusted to numerous software and calculation algorithms that are often complex to use. They involve long diagnosis phases and are characterised by the lack of a common language. Despite the efforts by the scientific community in the building sector, there is no simple and reliable tool that simultaneously solves the energy and environmental balance of buildings. In this work, the authors address this challenge by proposing the application of an Artificial Neural Network. Due to the high reliability of learning algorithms in the resolution of complex and non-linear problems, it was possible to simultaneously solve two different but strongly dependent aspects after a deep training phase. In previous researches, the authors applied several topologies of neural networks, which were trained on a large and representative database and developed for the Italian building stock. The database, characterised by several building models simulated in different climatic conditions, collects 29 inputs (13 energy data and 16 environmental data) and provides 7 outputs, 1 for heating energy demand and 6 of the most used indicators in life cycle assessment of buildings. A statistical analysis of the results confirmed that the proposed method is appropriate to achieve the goal of the study. The best artificial neural network for each output presented low Root Mean Square Error, Mean Absolute Error lower than 5%, and determination coefficient close to 1. The excellent results confirmed that this methodology can be extended in any context and to any condition (other countries and building stocks). Furthermore, the implementation of this solution algorithm in a software program can enable the development of a suitable decision support tool, which is simple, reliable, and easy to use even for a non-expert user. The possibility to use an instrument to predict a building's performance in its design and planning phase, represent an important result to support decision-making processes toward more sustainable choices.

ACS Style

A. D'Amico; G. Ciulla; M. Traverso; V. Lo Brano; E. Palumbo. Artificial Neural Networks to assess energy and environmental performance of buildings: An Italian case study. Journal of Cleaner Production 2019, 239, 117993 .

AMA Style

A. D'Amico, G. Ciulla, M. Traverso, V. Lo Brano, E. Palumbo. Artificial Neural Networks to assess energy and environmental performance of buildings: An Italian case study. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2019; 239 ():117993.

Chicago/Turabian Style

A. D'Amico; G. Ciulla; M. Traverso; V. Lo Brano; E. Palumbo. 2019. "Artificial Neural Networks to assess energy and environmental performance of buildings: An Italian case study." Journal of Cleaner Production 239, no. : 117993.

Journal article
Published: 06 April 2019 in Energy
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A reliable preliminary forecast of heating energy demand of a building by using a detailed dynamic simulation software typically requires an in-depth knowledge of the thermal balance, several input data and a very skilled user. The authors will describe how to use Artificial Neural Networks to predict the demand for thermal energy linked to the winter climatization of non-residential buildings. To train the neural network it was necessary to develop an accurate energy database that represents the basis of the training of a specific Artificial Neural Networks. Data came from detailed dynamic simulations performed in the TRNSYS environment. The models were built according to the standards and laws of building energy requirements in seven different European countries, for 3 cities in each country and with 13 different shape factors, obtaining 2184 detailed dynamic simulations of non-residential buildings designed with high energy performances. The authors identified the best ANN topology developing a tool for determining, both quickly and simply, the heating energy demand of a non-residential building, knowing only 12 well-known thermo-physical parameters and without any computational cost or knowledge of the thermal balance. The reliability of this approach is demonstrated by the low standard deviation less than 5 kWh/(m2·year).

ACS Style

G. Ciulla; A. D'Amico; V. Lo Brano; M. Traverso. Application of optimized artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the heating energy demand of non-residential buildings at European level. Energy 2019, 176, 380 -391.

AMA Style

G. Ciulla, A. D'Amico, V. Lo Brano, M. Traverso. Application of optimized artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the heating energy demand of non-residential buildings at European level. Energy. 2019; 176 ():380-391.

Chicago/Turabian Style

G. Ciulla; A. D'Amico; V. Lo Brano; M. Traverso. 2019. "Application of optimized artificial intelligence algorithm to evaluate the heating energy demand of non-residential buildings at European level." Energy 176, no. : 380-391.

Journal article
Published: 28 January 2019 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
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The main goal of this special issue is to further the understanding of how to integrate life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methods and tools in the urban planning process. It is a relatively new and interdisciplinary topic that supports the integration of life cycle assessment techniques and expertise in urban planning and designing procedures such as strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Starting with life cycle thinking, the integration of the environmental life cycle assessment, and also its implementation to assess economic (life cycle costing), and social impacts (social life cycle assessment) with other planning and designing methods and tools to the urban context have been analyzed and implemented in some case studies. Examples of planning and designing methods considered are urban metabolism, strategic environmental assessment, and multi-criteria decision analysis. Ten contributions draw a clear picture on the current state of the art and present gaps and further developments necessary to build a complete and harmonized framework. It is evident that the variability of methodology and expertise involved in this multidisciplinary approach is very high, and that it is very important to support its further implementation to cover the current gaps. An interdisciplinary and harmonized framework and further implementation in three dimensions of sustainability are two examples of desirable future developments that were identified.

ACS Style

Giuseppe Ioppolo; Marzia Traverso; Matthias Finkbeiner. Preface—a new paradigm for life cycle thinking: exploring sustainability in urban development scenarios. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2019, 24, 1169 -1173.

AMA Style

Giuseppe Ioppolo, Marzia Traverso, Matthias Finkbeiner. Preface—a new paradigm for life cycle thinking: exploring sustainability in urban development scenarios. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2019; 24 (7):1169-1173.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Giuseppe Ioppolo; Marzia Traverso; Matthias Finkbeiner. 2019. "Preface—a new paradigm for life cycle thinking: exploring sustainability in urban development scenarios." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 24, no. 7: 1169-1173.

Conference paper
Published: 12 December 2018 in E3S Web of Conferences
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S-LCA is defined by the guidelines established by the 2009 UNEP/SETAC, as "a technique for assessing social (real or potential) impacts with the aim of evaluating the socio-economic aspects of the products and their potential impacts, positive and negative, along their life cycle, including the extraction and processing of raw materials, production, distribution, use, reuse, maintenance, recycling and final disposal"[1]. In addition, the S-LCA follows the same structure presented in the ISO 14040-14044 (2006) standards for the Life cycle assessment method[2][3]. The number of case studies that emerge from the literature show that this tool is a significant success among the scientific community and industrial sector. Based on a systematic review of the literature conducted on the case studies reported in the literature between 2013-2017 based on 48 case studies, we have been carried out and mapped some productive sectors such as the agri-food sector, automotive, metal and textile. This analysis has made it possible to highlight how, especially in the last 2 years, the application to the practical cases of the S-LCA methodology has been increased, as well as the number of integrated use of the two environmental LCA and S-LCA instruments, allowing so the application also to SMEs.

ACS Style

Maria C. Lucchetti; Gabriella Arcese; Marzia Traverso; Chiara Montauti. S-LCA applications: a case studies analysis. E3S Web of Conferences 2018, 74, 10009 .

AMA Style

Maria C. Lucchetti, Gabriella Arcese, Marzia Traverso, Chiara Montauti. S-LCA applications: a case studies analysis. E3S Web of Conferences. 2018; 74 ():10009.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Maria C. Lucchetti; Gabriella Arcese; Marzia Traverso; Chiara Montauti. 2018. "S-LCA applications: a case studies analysis." E3S Web of Conferences 74, no. : 10009.

Journal article
Published: 12 September 2018 in Bioresource Technology Reports
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This study simulated the effect of time on bioenergy production from dairy manure and associated variation in energy demand and GHG emission in Ohio and Hawaii. Increasing the residence-time (RT) decreases the bioenergy-production in a nonlinear-fashion, for both the states (Ohio and Hawaii). Using the main scenario in Hawaii, the highest bioenergy production for 30 days RT was 11.2 × 104 GJ. Life-cycle-assessment of produced bioenergy showed that energy requirement and GHG emission of the produced-bioenergy (GJ) varied from 0.65 to 0.67 and 28–35 kg CO2/GJ bioenergy respectively. Year-round bioenergy production through main scenario was more advantageous with respect to bioenergy production and GHG emission. Decreasing nitrogen concentration for algal biomass production increased the bioenergy production significantly with a reduced energy demand and marginally increased GHG emission. Hence, the LCA model predicted that running a biorefinery for short residence time, and using diluted waste, could provide bioenergy with reduced energy requirement and GHG-emission.

ACS Style

Raja Chowdhury; Jhuma Sadhukhan; Marzia Traverso; Patricia L. Keen. Effects of residence time on life cycle assessment of bioenergy production from dairy manure. Bioresource Technology Reports 2018, 4, 57 -65.

AMA Style

Raja Chowdhury, Jhuma Sadhukhan, Marzia Traverso, Patricia L. Keen. Effects of residence time on life cycle assessment of bioenergy production from dairy manure. Bioresource Technology Reports. 2018; 4 ():57-65.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Raja Chowdhury; Jhuma Sadhukhan; Marzia Traverso; Patricia L. Keen. 2018. "Effects of residence time on life cycle assessment of bioenergy production from dairy manure." Bioresource Technology Reports 4, no. : 57-65.

Journal article
Published: 01 August 2018 in Energy Procedia
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The approach on which the in force Community eco-label scheme of marble relies (EU Decision 607/2009) is questioned, as a contribution to the on-going revision process of the associated ecological criteria. An alternative approach able to provide a more realistic image of the marble producing site’s energy and environmental performances is also argued. The proposed approach considers the marble production in terms not only of life cycle phases (as the Decision does) but of unit operations and/or machineries (as the typical assessment methodologies of production processes do). An application of this proposal on a marble producing site located in Sicily.

ACS Style

Cinzia Capitano; Giorgia Peri; Carmelo Raimondi; Gianfranco Rizzo; Marzia Traverso. Energy and environmental analysis of marble productive sites: “by phases” and “by single process” combined approach. Energy Procedia 2018, 148, 1183 -1190.

AMA Style

Cinzia Capitano, Giorgia Peri, Carmelo Raimondi, Gianfranco Rizzo, Marzia Traverso. Energy and environmental analysis of marble productive sites: “by phases” and “by single process” combined approach. Energy Procedia. 2018; 148 ():1183-1190.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Cinzia Capitano; Giorgia Peri; Carmelo Raimondi; Gianfranco Rizzo; Marzia Traverso. 2018. "Energy and environmental analysis of marble productive sites: “by phases” and “by single process” combined approach." Energy Procedia 148, no. : 1183-1190.

Chapter
Published: 04 July 2018 in Designing Sustainable Technologies, Products and Policies
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This paper aims to explore the topic of monetisation of environmental and social aspects. The content is issued from a discussion panel held in Luxembourg during the LCM2017 conference. It first explores historical and methodological aspects. The recommendations are made for companies who intend to monetise their impacts. Three industrial companies presented their contribution on their day to day use of monetisation. The key conclusions are twofold. In one hand, many challenges remain. The implementation is still not always feasible for all issues and an iterative approach is highly recommended. New methods on social LCA show a growing interest on this topic from various parties. ISO standards work is progressing and will support companies and government in their use of monetisation. From the company point of view, monetisation is a bridge between environmental and social assessment, and economic evaluation, while it provides a common unified unit (money). By using a common unit for financial and non-financial aspects, monetization allows the direct comparison of different aspects and therewith a more informed materiality assessment. By looking at impacts, a new perspective on current and future business risks and opportunities is provided. A better understanding of interdependencies enables more informed decision making. The monetary language is a door opener to access new stakeholder groups such as finance and accounting to raise awareness for sustainability.

ACS Style

Stéphane Morel; Marzia Traverso; Philipp Preiss. Discussion Panel—Assessment of Externalities: Monetisation and Social LCA. Designing Sustainable Technologies, Products and Policies 2018, 391 -396.

AMA Style

Stéphane Morel, Marzia Traverso, Philipp Preiss. Discussion Panel—Assessment of Externalities: Monetisation and Social LCA. Designing Sustainable Technologies, Products and Policies. 2018; ():391-396.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Stéphane Morel; Marzia Traverso; Philipp Preiss. 2018. "Discussion Panel—Assessment of Externalities: Monetisation and Social LCA." Designing Sustainable Technologies, Products and Policies , no. : 391-396.