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Sustainability
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Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Footprinting
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Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Footprinting

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 12753

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Zenon Foltynowicz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Quality Science, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Al. Niepodleglości 10, PL 61-875 Poznan, Poland
Interests: industrial ecology; product ecology; ecological product quality; circular economy and sustainability; LCA; standardization: member of the Technical Committee nr 270 Environmental management of the Polish Standardization Committee since 1996; translation of the ISO standards series 14000, comments on new standards, ISO standards related to packaging, nanomaterials, circular economy and new economy, author of papers devoted to standards and standardization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna Lewandowska

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Poznan University of Economics and Business, Institute of Management, al. Niepodleglości 10, PL 61-875 Poznan, Poland
Interests: life cycle assessment; eco-design; environmental footprint

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Life cycle thinking and lifecycle tools have been present for many years in science, research, public policy, and business. However, probably never before has such a massive effort been made to boost the use of LC tools in European Union policy and business. Eco-design, lifecycle assessment, and the environmental footprint of products and organizations have become key players in a circular economy context. This changing reality brings vital questions: how can we effectively use eco-design and LCA in organizational environmental management systems? How can we measure and communicate the environmental lifecycle performance of products and technologies? How can we include circularity in inventory modeling and impact assessment? Are consumers ready to accept sustainable lifestyles and to make daily decisions based on lifecycle-based information? The environmental footprint of products and organizations—is it a game changer and an awaited “cook-book” for practitioners or only a new initiative which may complicate LCA reality?

Our intention is to make this Special Issue of Sustainability a discussion forum where various experience and points of view can be presented. We invite Authors to exchange results of research on lifecycle tools, eco-design, environmental footprinting, and their role in the circular economy. Let us look for answers to the above questions together.

Prof. Dr. Zenon Foltynowicz
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna Lewandowska
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Lifecycle assessment
  • Environmental footprinting
  • Eco-design
  • Environmental performance
  • Circular economy
  • LCA from a Sustainability perspective

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 1350 KiB  
Article
Carbon Footprint of Surgical Masks Made in Taranto to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Diffusion: A Preliminary Assessment
by Pasquale Giungato, Roberto Leonardo Rana, Nicole Nitti, Cosima Cavallari and Caterina Tricase
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6296; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116296 - 2 Jun 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4299
Abstract
The international outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 infection has put pressure on governments to find immediate solutions to the shortage of surgical masks and other protective equipment. To allow textile manufacturers producing surgical masks to avoid usual restrictions imposed on personal-protective-equipment producers, the Italian [...] Read more.
The international outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 infection has put pressure on governments to find immediate solutions to the shortage of surgical masks and other protective equipment. To allow textile manufacturers producing surgical masks to avoid usual restrictions imposed on personal-protective-equipment producers, the Italian government issued a ministerial decree that was followed by technical guidelines provided by several universities. Starting from a hypothetical composition and design, we calculated the carbon footprint of surgical masks manufactured following technical guidelines, with the city of Taranto hosting the production facility. Results show that the production of textile sheets composing the masks and their disposal were the main contributors to emissions, followed by packaging and transportation. A strategy of reuse based on laundry operation was modelled, and the balance between disposal strategy and reuse with the laundry operation (which has environmental issues due to detergents and water use) was in favor of the second option. To reduce the carbon footprint, a minimized textiles area (by smart shaping) and reuse strategies result in the best options. Further reduction may be achieved by building up a recycling chain of disposed masks, activated by municipalities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Footprinting)
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22 pages, 5271 KiB  
Article
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Using Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing in Circular Building Design: A Case Study for Wall Partitioning Systems in the Circular Retrofit Lab
by Neethi Rajagopalan, Stijn Brancart, Sofie De Regel, Anne Paduart, Niels De Temmerman and Wim Debacker
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5124; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095124 - 3 May 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4252
Abstract
The Circular Economy (CE) paradigm has been gaining momentum. However, the tools and methods used to design, measure and implement circularity are not immediately suitable for decision making and practice by key stakeholders. This article details a qualitative and a quantitative method to [...] Read more.
The Circular Economy (CE) paradigm has been gaining momentum. However, the tools and methods used to design, measure and implement circularity are not immediately suitable for decision making and practice by key stakeholders. This article details a qualitative and a quantitative method to evaluate characteristics such as circularity, adaptability and reuse of building elements amongst others in order to provide decision-makers, such as building clients, architects, investors and policy makers, an objective way to assess the benefits and constraints of circular buildings and elements. The study implements the method in the case study, the Circular Retrofit Lab in Belgium, and uses a multi-criteria decision approach to evaluate qualitative parameters and life cycle assessment and life cycle costing to quantitatively evaluate the circular solutions proposed in this study. As such, the paper shows how a multi-criteria decision approach can be applied to evaluate circular building solutions in the context of practical architectural projects, in this case assessing the suitability of three interior wall systems for applications with different turnover rates. The study shows that the overall performance of the evaluated wall systems varies largely from one expected user scenario to the other. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Footprinting)
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15 pages, 1255 KiB  
Article
Implementation of Life Cycle Based Tools in the Circular Economy Context—Case Study of Plastic Waste
by Katarzyna Joachimiak-Lechman, Dawid Garstecki, Marcin Konopczyński and Anna Lewandowska
Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 9938; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239938 - 27 Nov 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3208
Abstract
This article describes research done within the CIRCE2020 project, implemented under the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE 2014–2020 Programme. The main aim is to present the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) carried out for a recycling plant in [...] Read more.
This article describes research done within the CIRCE2020 project, implemented under the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE 2014–2020 Programme. The main aim is to present the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) carried out for a recycling plant in Wielkopolska. From the LCA perspective, the analyzed recycling plant performs two functions; therefore, two research approaches were adopted: from the final waste management perspective (Approach 1) and from the production of secondary products (Approach 2). From the first perspective, the total environmental impact for the reference flow (215.140 kg of multi-material waste) was 552.32 Pt. When focused on the second perspective, the environmental impact for the production of plastic boards (3.073 boards) reached 659.58 Pt. The difference in the obtained values results from the fact that the second analysis, besides waste processing, included additionally the generation of raw materials corrected by the quality factor. The total production cost of boards made of multi-material waste was PLN 165,957.23. Energy consumption is the main cost-generating element of production and also the most important environmental hot spot. To increase environmental efficiency and reduce costs, the use of technology allowing for the reduction of energy demand should be considered first. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Footprinting)
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