Assessing progress toward sustainability : frameworks, tools and case studies / edited by Carmen Teodosiu, Silvia Fiore, and Almudena Hospido.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Teodosiu, Carmen, editor.

Fiore, Silvia, editor.

Hospido, Almudena, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable development.

Environmental engineering.

sustainable development.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxv, 444 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Elsevier, [2022]

Summary:

"Assessing Progress toward Sustainability: Frameworks, Tools, and Case Studies provides practical frameworks for measuring progress toward sustainability in various areas of production, consumption, services and urban development as they relate to environmental impact. A variety of policies/strategies or frameworks are available at national and international levels. This book presents an integrated approach to sustainability progress measurement by considering both the frameworks and methodological developments of various tools, as well as their implementation in assessing the sustainability of processes, products and services through a global perspective."-- Title details screen.

Contents:

Intro

Assessing Progress towards Sustainability: Frameworks, Tools and Case Studies

Copyright

Contents

Contributors

About the editors

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: An integrated approach to assess the sustainability progress

1. The challenges of sustainable development and sustainability progress

2. The book vision and approach

2.1. Frameworks used to evaluate the sustainability progress

2.2. Assessment tools for sustainability-Methodological issues

2.3. Implementation concepts and case studies

References

Section I: Frameworks for assessing sustainability

Chapter 2: Sustainable development and its goals

1. Introduction

2. The relationships between the SDGs and sustainability

3. Indicators and the perception of scientists on their ability to reach each SDG

4. The lack of a universal scientific model linking the SDGs and sustainability

5. Concluding remarks

Acknowledgments

Chapter 3: Sustainability and the circular economy

1.1. A brief history of sustainability

1.2. Circularity and sustainability

2. Material resource efficiency

2.1. Re-use, remanufacturing, and recycling

2.2. Material reprocessing and energy recovery

3. Structural changes

3.1. Redeployment: Labour in the performance economy

3.2. Socialising business practices: Beyond the profit motive

3.3. Dematerialisation and employment

3.4. Localisation of activities: `Small is beautiful

3.5. Implications for global trade

4. Drivers for a sustainable economy

5. Conclusions

Chapter 4: The food-energy-water nexus approach

2. Important streams of nexus research

2.1. Analytical perspective

2.2. Sector combinations

2.3. Application

3. Defining the `food-energy-water nexus as a framework.

4. Discussion

Chapter 5: The European Green Deal in the global sustainability context

1. A `Decade of Action for sustainability

2. The European Green Deal

3. Sustainability science in support to the European Green Deal

4. Beyond the European Green Deal

4.1. Shapes of green deals

4.2. Green deals in times of economic recovery

4.3. The international dimension of the European Green Deal

Section II: Assessment tools for sustainability- methodological issues

Chapter 6: Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment-based tools

1. What Life Cycle Thinking means: A system approach to sustainability

1.1. The need to cultivate a life cycle perspective

1.2. Life cycle methodologies for sustainability assessment: Understanding tools and criteria

2. Environmental Life Cycle Assessment

2.1. Processes and flows

2.2. A techno-economic network

2.3. The nature-industry boundary

2.4. Life Cycle Impact Assessment

2.5. LCA in practice: Insights and approaches

2.6. Uncertainty and variability

2.7. Optional steps: Normalisation and weighting

2.8. Software and databases

3. Life Cycle Costing

4. Social Life Cycle Assessment

4.1. The S-LCA methodology

4.2. S-LCA databases

4.3. Challenges and developments

5. Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: The integration challenge

6. Conclusions and looking ahead

Chapter 7: Footprint tools

2. Ecological footprint

3. Carbon footprint

4. Water footprint

5. Nitrogen and phosphorous footprints

6. Product environmental footprint (PEF)

7. Other footprint tools

7.1. Energy footprint

7.2. Land footprint

7.3. Material footprint

7.4. Chemical and ozone footprint

7.5. Biodiversity footprint.

7.6. Waste absorption footprint

7.7. Plastic footprint

8. Conclusions

Chapter 8: The combined use of life cycle assessment and data envelopment analysis to analyse the environmental efficiency ...

1. The importance of eco-efficiency in sustainable development

2. The LCA+DEA method

2.1. DEA matrix construction

2.2. Model orientation

2.3. Returns to scale

2.4. DEA model

2.5. LCA+DEA approaches

3. A brief history of the joint use of LCA+DEA

4. Recent methodological advances in LCA+DEA

4.1. Dealing with undesirable outputs

4.2. Handling uncertainty

4.3. Ranking efficient units: Super-efficiency analysis

5. Advantages and limitations of applying the LCA+DEA method: Future outlook

Chapter 9: Territorial Life Cycle Assessment

2. Main principles of territorial LCA

2.1. Goal and scope definition

System boundaries and territorial responsibility

Functional unit definition

2.2. Life cycle inventory

2.3. Life cycle impact assessment

2.4. Interpretation

3. Overview of applications

3.1. Type A: Bibliometric analysis

Results for the search on `LCA and `urban/city

Results for the search on `LCA and `region

3.2. Type B: Comparative study of the peer-reviewed papers

4. Combinations with other tools

4.1. Territorial metabolism studies

4.2. GIS tools

4.3. Economic modelling

5. Conclusions and perspectives

Chapter 10: Environmental impact and risk assessment

1. EIA concepts, goals, and target audience

2. Environmental impact assessment methodology

2.1. EIA stages

2.2. EIA tools

Rapid impact assessment matrix

Leopolds matrix

Global pollution index

Folchi method

Analytical hierarchy process method

3. Risk assessment methodology.

4. Integrated approach of environmental impact and risk assessments

4.1. EIRA assumptions and methodology

4.2. EIRA index

5. Environmental impact assessment and life cycle assessment

6. Conclusions

Chapter 11: Multi-criteria decision-making

2. Multi-criteria decision-making methods and framework

3. Tools and software

4. Data requirements

5. Scale of analyses and target audience

6. Discussion

7. Conclusion and future research

Section III: Case studies for sustainability assessments

Chapter 12: Life cycle assessment for eco-design in product development

1. Aims

2. State of the art

3. Novelty

4. LCA evaluation of novel organic/inorganic composites

4.1. Material development, synthesis, and testing

4.2. LCA planning: Objectives, system limits, functional units, LCIA methodology

4.3. LCA results and discussion

5. LCA evaluation of novel sorbents obtained from rapeseed waste biomass

5.1. Material development, synthesis, and testing

5.2. LCA planning: Objectives, system limits, functional unit, LCIA methodology

5.3. LCA results and discussion

Chapter 13: Life Cycle Assessment for the design of a pilot recovery plant

4. Case study description

4.1. Goal and scope

Functional unit

System boundaries

Impact categories

4.2. Life cycle inventory

4.3. Life cycle impact assessment and interpretation

Preliminary building design

Energy saving measures

Material alternatives

Structure

External walls

Windows

Thermal insulation

Final design

References.

Chapter 14: LCA and food and personal care products sustainability: Case studies of Thai riceberry rice products

4.2. Methodology

4.3. Results and discussion

4.3.1. LCA results

4.4. Eco-efficiency results

Chapter 15: Environmental and economic sustainability of cocoa production in west sub-Saharan Africa

2.1. Novelty

3. Case study description

3.1. Economic assessment: On production and distribution

3.1.1. Cocoas production and export

3.1.2. Insights from a supply chain analysis

3.2. Environmental sustainability assessment of cocoa production

3.2.1. The land footprint of cocoa

3.2.2. The water footprint of cocoa

Methodological approach

Maps of cocoas water footprint

3.2.3. Implications of the power law relation between yield and water footprint

4. Conclusions

Chapter 16: Environmental assessment of urban water systems: LCA case studies

3. Case studies description

Chapter 17: Environmental sustainability in energy production systems

4. Case studies description

4.1. Wooden biomass-based systems analyzed from a life cycle perspective

4.1.1. Goal and scope definition

4.1.2. Functional unit, system boundaries, and assumptions

4.1.3. Life cycle inventory

4.1.4. Environmental assessment methods

4.1.5. Results and discussion

Assessment of global profile

Comparison with national electricity profile

4.2. Agro-waste based systems analyzed from a life cycle perspective

4.2.1. Goal and scope definition.

4.2.2. Functional unit, system boundaries, and assumptions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on November 19, 2024)

Other Format:

Print version: Teodosiu, Carmen Assessing progress towards sustainability

ISBN:

9780323897990

0323897991

OCLC:

1311237753