Can Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) be a tool for Environmental Justice?
Executive Summary | Fall 2024 | Professor Konstantine Rountos
The presentation reflects a survey of Life Cycle Assessment literature. It outlines key findings pertaining to data methods, assessment approaches, and policy recommendations. Reach out for the full executive summary.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Alejandrino C, Mercante I, Bovea MD. 2021. Life cycle sustainability assessment: Lessons learned from case studies. Environ Impact Assess Rev. 87:106517. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106517.
Chau CK, Leung TM, Ng WY. 2015. A review on Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Energy Assessment and Life Cycle Carbon Emissions Assessment on buildings. Appl Energy. 143:395–413. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.023.
Dewulf J, Benini L, Mancini L, Sala S, Blengini G, Ardente F, Recchioni M, Maes J, Pant R, Pennington D. 2015 Jul 24. Rethinking the Area of Protection ‘Natural Resources’ in Life Cycle Assessment. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b00734. [accessed 2024 Nov 13]. https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC91975.
Environment UN. 2009 Jun 3. Guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products | UNEP - UN Environment Programme. [accessed 2024 Nov 13]. https://www.unep.org/resources/report/guidelines-social-life-cycle-assessment-products.
Fortier M-OP, Teron L, Reames TG, Munardy DT, Sullivan BM. 2019. Introduction to evaluating energy justice across the life cycle: A social life cycle assessment approach. Appl Energy. 236:211–219. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.11.022.
Grubert E. 2018. Rigor in social life cycle assessment: improving the scientific grounding of SLCA. Int J Life Cycle Assess. 23(3):481–491. doi:10.1007/s11367-016-1117-6.
Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Organisations 2020. CIRAIG. [accessed 2024 Nov 25]. https://ciraig.org/index.php/project/guidelines-for-social-life-cycle-assessment-of-products-and-organisations-2020/.
MacPherson 11
Guinée JB, Heijungs R, Huppes G, Zamagni A, Masoni P, Buonamici R, Ekvall T, Rydberg T. 2011. Life cycle assessment: past, present, and future. Environ Sci Technol. 45(1):90–96. doi:10.1021/es101316v.
Impact Categories (LCA) - Overview. Ecochain. [accessed 2024 Nov 12]. https://ecochain.com/blog/impact-categories-lca/.
Jordan AB, Rodriguez DS, Bennett JA, Sale K, Gilhooley C. 2024. Quantifying air quality co-benefits to industrial decarbonization: the local Air Emissions Tracking Atlas. Front Public Health. 12:1394678. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1394678.
Kundu V. 2021 Oct 12. Life Cycle Assessment Explained. STiCH. [accessed 2024 Dec 6]. https://stich.culturalheritage.org/life-cycle-assessment-explained/.
LCIA: the ReCiPe model | RIVM. [accessed 2024 Nov 13]. https://www.rivm.nl/en/life-cycle-assessment-lca/recipe.
Lehmann A, Zschieschang E, Traverso M, Finkbeiner M, Schebek L. 2013. Social aspects for sustainability assessment of technologies-challenges for social life cycle assessment (SLCA). Int J Life Cycle Assess. 18(8):1581–1592. doi:10.1007/s11367-013-0594-0.
Making LCA results count. 2021 Jul 28. PRé Sustainability. [accessed 2024 Nov 8]. https://pre-sustainability.com/articles/consider-your-audience-when-doing-lca/.
Mowrey H. 2019 Mar 21. Embodied Carbon and Climate Justice. Habitable. [accessed 2024 Oct 14]. https://habitablefuture.org/resources/embodied-carbon-and-climate-justiceconfluence-or-conflict/.
Office of Public Affairs | Justice Department Launches Comprehensive Environmental Justice Strategy | United States Department of Justice. 2022 May 5. [accessed 2024 Oct 14]. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-launches-comprehensive-environmental-justice-strategy.
MacPherson 12
Open IO Canada - Estimate environmental impacts. CIRAIG. [accessed 2024 Nov 25]. https://ciraig.org/index.php/project/open-io-canada/.
Oulu M. 2015. The unequal exchange of Dutch cheese and Kenyan roses: Introducing and testing an LCA-based methodology for estimating ecologically unequal exchange. Ecological Economics. 119:372–383. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.09.022.
Reitinger C, Dumke M, Barosevcic M, Hillerbrand R. 2011. A conceptual framework for impact assessment within SLCA. Int J Life Cycle Assess. 16(4):380–388. doi:10.1007/s11367-011-0265-y.
Saxe S, Guven G, Pereira L, Arrigoni A, Opher T, Roy A, Arceo A, Von Raesfeld SS, Duhamel M, McCabe B, et al. 2020. Taxonomy of uncertainty in environmental life cycle assessment of infrastructure projects. Environ Res Lett. 15(8):083003. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab85f8.
Sovacool BK, Turnheim B, Hook A, Brock A, Martiskainen M. 2021. Dispossessed by decarbonisation: Reducing vulnerability, injustice, and inequality in the lived experience of low-carbon pathways. World Dev. 137:105116. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105116.
Sun Z, Tukker A, Behrens P. 2019. Going Global to Local: Connecting Top-Down Accounting and Local Impacts, A Methodological Review of Spatially Explicit Input-Output Approaches. Environ Sci Technol. 53(3):1048–1062. doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b03148.
US EPA O. 2015 Sep 2. Framework for the Assessment of Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing. [accessed 2024 Oct 14]. https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/framework-assessment-environmental-performance-standards-and-ecolabels-federal.
US EPA O. 2023 Sep 15. What is Embodied Carbon? [accessed 2024 Oct 14]. https://www.epa.gov/greenerproducts/what-embodied-carbon.