Life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmentally extended input output analysis (EEIOA) are two widely used approaches to assess the environmental impacts of products and services with the aim of providing decision support. Here, we compare carbon footprint (CF) results for products and services in the ecoinvent 3.4 cut-off and the hybrid version of EXIOBASE. While we find that there is good agreement for certain sectors, more than half of the matched products differ by more than a factor 2. Best fits are observed in the energy, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors, although deviations are substantial for renewable energy. Poorer fits are observed for waste treatment and mining sectors. Both databases have a limited differentiation in the service sector. Differences can, to some degree, be explained by methodological differences, such as system boundaries and approaches used to resolve multi-functionality, and data differences. The common finding that, due to incomplete economic coverage (truncation error), LCA-based CFs should be lower than EEIOA-based CFs, could not be confirmed. The comparison of CFs from LCA and EEIOA databases can provide additional insights into the uncertainties of CF results, which is important knowledge when guiding decision makers. An approach that uses the coefficient of variation to identify strategic database improvement potentials is also presented and highlights several product groups that could deserve additional attention in both databases. Further strategic database improvements are crucial to reduce uncertainties and increase the robustness of decision support that the industrial ecology community can provide for the economic transformations ahead of us.
A.P. Moeller Maersk is taking a stand to move the company towards a more ambitious corporate climate commitment. This has led to a top rating by the Climate Corporate Responsibility Monitor in February 2022 for the integrity of the Maersk net zero pledge.
Maersk is one of the biggest players in the global logistics market. We work with Maersk in their quest to reduce the impacts from their hard-to-abate transport business, with the explicit goal of helping Maersk push the entire market toward greener modes of operation.
2.-0 LCA consultants provide science-based support on:
Read more here on Maersk’s own pages on climate change
This report is carried out by Michele De Rosa and Jannick Schmidt (2-0 LCA, Denmark) for United Plantations Berhad (Teluk Intan, Malaysia). The study includes data collection and calculation of LCA results for United Plantations Berhad’s palm oil production 2004-2021. The study was undertaken during the period January to February 2022.
The current report updates the results of a series of previous studies, to include also the most recent 2021 results, and it summarises the main findings of a detailed life cycle assessment report of palm oil production at United Plantations in the period 2004-2021.
This report is carried out by Jannick Schmidt and Michele De Rosa (2.-0 LCA consultants, Denmark) for United Plantations Berhad (Teluk Intan, Malaysia). The study includes data collection and calculation of LCA results for United Plantations Berhad’s palm oil production 2004-2020. The study was undertaken during the period January to March 2021.
The current report updates the results of a series of previous studies, in order to include also the most recent 2020 results, and it summarises the main findings of a detailed life cycle assessment report of palm oil production at United Plantations in the period 2004-2020.
The project will provide a globally unique tool for quantitative assessment of the climate effects of decision alternatives, popularly speaking a ‘climate footprint generator’, as well as a mechanism to ensure its continued updating. The project addresses a lack of updated, detailed, globally complete, valid, and trustworthy LCA data. The project expands the level of detail, coverage, and applicability of the currently most advanced hybrid input-output database (EXIOBASE 3).
Read more about the project, the work packages, and the project partners at the project page at Aalborg University (DCEA).
Publication from the project: Input-output modelling for household activity-level environmental footprints: a systematic literature review.
Løgismose Meyers is a Danish Food Group with a goal of contributing to heightening the Danish food culture. Through the two companies Løgismose and Meyers, the food group is active in both producing quality foods, offering culinary courses, consulting and education. Furthermore, they offer their customers culinary experiences in good and healthy meals ranging from ready-made meals to venues and catering.
This project covers the product portfolio of Løgismose Meyers in 2018 and 2019, with a main focus on GHG emissions. The LCA performed follows the ISO standards on LCA: ISO 14040 (2006) and ISO 14044 (2006), but with the exception that the study has not undergone a third-party critical review.
This project follows the procedure defined by the ISO standards, where the assessment is divided into four phases: Definition of goal and scope, Life cycle inventory (LCI), Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), Life cycle interpretation.
Coverage of the project in the Danish newspaper Børsen (in Danish)
Consumers are increasingly demanding products containing palm oil produced without harm to the environment. The industry response to this demand has been the creation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the development of a certification system to ensure sustainable palm oil production. However, currently there is no scientific evidence of the benefit gained through the RSPO certification schema. This paper quantifies the environmental impacts of RSPO certified and non-certified through a detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of 1 kg of RBD palm oil to factory gate, produced in Indonesia and Malaysia in 2016, to identify potential benefits and trade-offs of RSPO certification. The ISO 14040/14044 compliant LCA is carried out following both a consequential and an attributional LCA approach. The inventory model presents a high level of detail. Primary inventory data describing the certified production system are obtained from RSPO assessment reports, covering 73% (634 estates) of the certified estate, including 111 smallholders, and 58% (165 oil mills) of the certified mills. Data for the total industrial production are drawn from national statistics and scientific literature. The non-certified flows are derived by subtracting the certified flows from the total industry flows. The consequential results show that RSPO certified oil reduces GHG emission by 35% compared to non-certified i.e. 3.41 (2.61–4.48) kg CO2 eq./kg for certified vs 5.34 (3.34–8.16) kg CO2 eq./kg for non-certified. Based on a thorough data quality assessment and uncertainty analysis, this result is deemed sufficiently robust and thus conclusive. Certified production achieves the largest GHG emissions reduction because of higher yields, i.e. less land use per unit of product, less oil palm cultivated on peat soil and higher share of palm oil mill effluents treated with biogas capture technologies. We also found that nature occupation is reduced by 20% in certified production while respiratory inorganic is slightly higher (3%) in certified production, due to the larger use of fertilisers. For other impact categories, results are associated with a larger uncertainty and therefore shall be considered as indicative. Similar results are found in attributional modelling.
As part of the local project 'Det Cirkulære Nordjylland' an inventory is made of North Jutland's total resource flows and environmental impacts. The inventory includes both a socio-economic analysis, mass flow analysis and an inventory of total environmental impacts. In addition, a number of possible, concrete measures for changes in existing mass flows are identified, as inputs to the strategy for a circular approach in North Jutland. The calculation is made from both a production and a consumption perspective.
The production perspective includes a statement of the total material and energy inputs to, as well as product and waste outputs from all companies (both private and public) in North Jutland. In addition, the total environmental impacts from company 'purchases' (materials, energy, services, etc.), direct emissions from the companies, and treatment of the companies' waste are calculated. Environmental impacts are shown as greenhouse gas emissions as well as a selection of other environmental impact categories, eg particulate pollution, biodiversity, nutrient load, etc.
The consumption perspective includes a statement of the total material and energy inputs to, as well as waste outputs from, the citizens of North Jutland. In addition, the same environmental impacts as for companies are calculated for the citizens' total consumption of goods, energy, services, public services and waste treatment services.
The final project report is here (in Danish):Cirkulær Økonomi i Nordjylland – opgørelse af massestrømme og LCA resultater.
Consumers as well as professional players in the grocery and catering industry are increasingly demanding information on the climate footprint of the foods they buy or sell. From the fall of 2020, consumers as well as professional players in the grocery and catering industry will be able to gather knowledge and inspiration in "The Large Climate Database". The project consists of a professional dialogue phase during the spring of 2020, preparation of a climate database of more than 500 foodstuffs, and publishing and dissemination of the database in Danish and English at the end of 2020. "The Large Climate Database" will be a central tool that can be used, for example, as a basis for a simplified climate labeling system, climate-adjusted recipes, apps for calculating a purchase's climate footprint, school curriculums, upgrading kitchen staff, information campaigns and much more.
Visit the database: https://denstoreklimadatabase.dk/
For more information visit Concito's press-release, public service tv channel and
podcast for the Climate Podcast - by the newspaper Information (all in Danish).
See small video presentation of the project (15 minutes, in English):
