At the 74th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), twelve researchers shared their experiences on how decision-makers can use life cycle–based approaches to boost sustainable decisions, which life cycle–based approaches are best suited to reveal opportunities and risks for sustainability within different economic sectors, and which instruments are most useful for combining environmental, economic and societal aims.
In an interactive session, the 60 participants from academia, consultancy, industry, and public authorities exchanged their experiences on how life cycle–based approaches can support the transition towards a sustainable economy. The results show that complexity, data availability, lack of priority, and cost were identified as major obstacles for mainstreaming life cycle thinking in the economy (see Fig. 1). In order to support life cycle thinking by various stakeholders in the economy, life cycle–based decision support needs to be transparent and easily understandable. Simplifying tools and approaches to model complex systems, as well as providing a wide range of data sources have the potential to overcome obstacles for mainstreaming life cycle thinking in our economy. Decision makers in economy need to be made aware that they can make an important contribution to more life cycle thinking by setting priorities and making resources and data available.
As Bastien Girod emphasized in his keynote speech, embodied emissions and LCA are becoming increasingly relevant, and products will increasingly include information about their footprint. It is expected that policies will take embodied emissions and LCA more and more into account. Brand-specific LCA can be an incentive for change within supply chains.
Analysis of sustainability hotspots was considered to be particularly helpful to support decision-makers in making more sustainable decisions (see Fig. 2). For example, sustainability hotspots based on LCA were used for the identification of best practises in the context of the “Green Hospital” project presented by Karen Muir. Additionally, Tobias Welz presented how a hotspot analysis can be used to derive environmental and social hotspots along the supply chain at sector level and then translate them into quantitative approaches for monitoring sustainability performance in public procurement.
In addition to analysing sustainability hotspots, eco-design and circular economy were perceived as most useful in helping decision makers to choose more sustainable options. For example, new practical indicators developed within the NRP73, such as the retained environmental value (REV) presented by Haupt and Hellweg (2019) or the resource pressure indicator presented by Desing et al. (2020, 2021) can support decision makers during the design phase to reach environmental sustainability in a circular economy. Furthermore, life cycle–based approaches related to communication, benchmarking, and simplification were considered by the participants as key for decision-making that supports the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.
With regard to the question which instruments the participants have used to combine environmental, economic, and societal sustainability aspects, they responded diversely with a broad range from monetization or system models, over combined labelling, or transparent reporting up to economy for the common good, or life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). The range of different answers to this question revealed that there is not yet a consensus on how to integrate environmental, economic, and societal sustainability among the LCA community that reflects practical experience.
One approach to integrate different sustainability dimensions applied within the NRP73 is the combination of the eco-efficiency framework with data envelopment analysis as presented by Dario Pedolin in the session dedicated to food production and consumption. Ashley Green showed an approach how to integrate nutritional, health, and environmental sustainability dimensions in the context of food. Marleen Jattke presented how to select economically viable business models which have environmental benefits and are socially accepted to incentivize more sustainable consumption. To monitor sustainability performance in public procurement, Tobias Welz chose an approach to integrate environmental and social hotspots along supply chains.
Regarding life cycle–based approaches that best reveal risks and opportunities of products and services, the conference participants reported hotspot analysis, sensitivity, and scenario analysis, as well as the critical discussion of the results.
The 74th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) revealed the important role of life cycle assessment and other life cycle–based approaches in guiding and monitoring transformation towards a sustainable economy.