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LCIA framework and cross-cutting issues guidance within the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.

ABSTRACT: Increasing needs for decision support and advances in scientific knowledge within life cycle assessment (LCA) led to substantial efforts to provide global guidance on environmental life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) indicators under the auspices of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. As part of these efforts, a dedicated task force focused on addressing several LCIA cross-cutting issues as aspects spanning several impact categories, including spatiotemporal aspects, reference states, normalization and weighting, and uncertainty assessment. Here, findings of the cross-cutting issues task force are presented along with an update of the existing UNEP-SETAC LCIA emission-to-damage framework. Specific recommendations are provided with respect to metrics for human health (Disability Adjusted Life Years, DALY) and ecosystem quality (Potentially Disappeared Fraction of species, PDF). Additionally, we stress the importance of transparent reporting of characterization models, reference states, and assumptions, in order to facilitate cross-comparison between chosen methods and indicators. We recommend developing spatially regionalized characterization models, whenever the nature of impacts shows spatial variability and related spatial data are available. Standard formats should be used for reporting spatially differentiated models, and choices regarding spatiotemporal scales should be clearly communicated. For normalization, we recommend using external normalization references. Over the next two years, the task force will continue its effort with a focus on providing guidance for LCA practitioners on how to use the UNEP-SETAC LCIA framework as well as for method developers on how to consistently extend and further improve this framework.

SUBMITTER: Verones F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7252522 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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LCIA framework and cross-cutting issues guidance within the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.

Verones Francesca F Bare Jane J Bulle Cécile C Frischknecht Rolf R Hauschild Michael M Hellweg Stefanie S Henderson Andrew A Jolliet Olivier O Laurent Alexis A Liao Xun X Lindner Jan Paul JP de Souza Danielle Maia DM Michelsen Ottar O Patouillard Laure L Pfister Stephan S Posthuma Leo L Prado Valentina V Ridoutt Brad B Rosenbaum Ralph K RK Sala Serenella S Ugaya Cassia C Vieira Marisa M Fantke Peter P

Journal of cleaner production 20170901

Increasing needs for decision support and advances in scientific knowledge within life cycle assessment (LCA) led to substantial efforts to provide global guidance on environmental life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) indicators under the auspices of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. As part of these efforts, a dedicated task force focused on addressing several LCIA cross-cutting issues as aspects spanning several impact categories, including spatiotemporal aspects, reference states, normaliz ...[more]

PMID: 32461713

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Project description:BackgroundAlmost 20 million children under one year of age did not receive basic vaccines in 2019, and most of these children lived in low- and middle-income countries. Implementation research has been recognized as an emerging area that is critical to strengthen the implementation of interventions proven to be effective. As a component of strengthening implementation, WHO has called for greater embedding of research within decision-making processes. One strategy to facilitate the embedding of research is to engage decision-makers as Principal Investigators of the research. Since 2015, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research within the WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund have supported decision-maker led research by partnering with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in an initiative called "Decision-Maker Led Implementation Research". This synthesis paper describes the cross-cutting lessons from the initiative to further understand and develop future use of the decision-maker led strategy.MethodsThis study used qualitative methods of data collection, including a document review and in-depth interviews with decision-makers and researchers engaged in the initiative. Document extraction and thematic content analysis were applied. The individual project was the unit of analysis and the results were summarized across projects.ResultsResearch teams from 11 of the 14 projects participated in this study, for an overall response rate of 78.6%. Most projects were carried out in countries in Africa and conducted at the sub-state or sub-district level. Seven enablers and five barriers to the process of conducting the studies or bringing about changes were identified. Key enablers were the relevance, acceptability, and integration of the research, while key barriers included unclear results, limited planning and support, and the limited role of a single study in informing changes to strengthen implementation.ConclusionsDecision-maker led research is a promising strategy to facilitate the embedding of research into decision-making processes and contribute to greater use of research to strengthen implementation of proven-effective interventions, such as immunization. We identified several lessons for consideration in the future design and use of the decision-maker led strategy.

Project description:PurposeThis study seeks to provide a framework for integrating animal welfare as a fourth pillar into a life cycle sustainability assessment and presents three alternative animal welfare indicators.MethodsAnimal welfare is assessed during farm life and during slaughter. The indicators differ in how they value premature death. All three consider (1) the life quality of an animal such as space allowance, (2) the slaughter age either as life duration or life fraction, and (3) the number of animals affected for providing a product unit, e.g. 1 Mcal. One of the indicators additionally takes into account a moral value denoting their intelligence and self-awareness. The framework allows for comparisons across studies and products and for applications at large spatial scales. To illustrate the framework, eight products were analysed and compared: beef, pork, poultry, milk, eggs, salmon, shrimps, and, as a novel protein source, insects.Results and discussionInsects are granted to live longer fractions of their normal life spans, and their life quality is less compromised due to a lower assumed sentience. Still, they perform worst according to all three indicators, as their small body sizes only yield low product quantities. Therefore, we discourage from eating insects. In contrast, milk is the product that reduces animal welfare the least according to two of the three indicators and it performs relatively better than other animal products in most categories. The difference in animal welfare is mostly larger for different animal products than for different production systems of the same product. This implies that, besides less consumption of animal-based products, a shift to other animal products can significantly improve animal welfare.ConclusionsWhile the animal welfare assessment is simplified, it allows for a direct integration into life cycle sustainability assessment. There is a trade-off between applicability and indicator complexity, but even a simple estimate of animal welfare is much better than ignoring the issue, as is the common practice in life cycle sustainability assessments. Future research should be directed towards elaborating the life quality criterion and extending the product coverage.

Project description:The primary outcome of heat acclimation is increased thermotolerance, which stems from enhancement of innate cytoprotective pathways. These pathways produce "ON CALL" molecules that can combat stressors to which the body has never been exposed, via cross-tolerance mechanisms (heat acclimation-mediated cross-tolerance-HACT). The foundation of HACT lies in the sharing of generic stress signaling, combined with tissue/organ- specific protective responses. HACT becomes apparent when acclimatory homeostasis is achieved, lasts for several weeks, and has a memory. HACT differs from other forms of temporal protective mechanisms activated by exposure to lower "doses" of the stressor, which induce adaptation to higher "doses" of the same/different stressor; e.g., preconditioning, hormesis. These terms have been adopted by biochemists, toxicologists, and physiologists to describe the rapid cellular strategies ensuring homeostasis. HACT employs two major protective avenues: constitutive injury attenuation and abrupt post-insult release of help signals enhanced by acclimation. To date, the injury-attenuating features seen in all organs studied include fast-responding, enlarged cytoprotective reserves with HSPs, anti-oxidative, anti-apoptotic molecules, and HIF-1α nuclear and mitochondrial target gene products. Using cardiac ischemia and brain hypoxia models as a guide to the broader framework of phenotypic plasticity, HACT is enabled by a metabolic shift induced by HIF-1α and there are less injuries caused by Ca+2 overload, via channel or complex-protein remodeling, or decreased channel abundance. Epigenetic markers such as post-translational histone modification and altered levels of chromatin modifiers during acclimation and its decline suggest that dynamic epigenetic mechanisms controlling gene expression induce HACT and acclimation memory, to enable the rapid return of the protected phenotype. In this review the link between in vivo physiological evidence and the associated cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to HACT and its difference from short-acting cross-tolerance strategies will be discussed.

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LCIA framework and cross-cutting issues guidance within the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.

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LCIA framework and cross-cutting issues guidance within the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.

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