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Overview and methodology: Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3

About: The article was published on 2013-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 803 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Guideline & Data quality.

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: With version 3, the ecoinvent database substantially expands the goals and scopes of LCA studies it can support, and the new system models allow new, different studies to be performed.
Abstract: Purpose Good background data are an important requirement in LCA. Practitioners generally make use of LCI databases for such data, and the ecoinvent database is the largest transparent unit-process LCI database worldwide. Since its first release in 2003, it has been continuously updated, and version 3 was published in 2013. The release of version 3 introduced several significant methodological and technological improvements, besides a large number of new and updated datasets. The aim was to expand the content of the database, set the foundation for a truly global database, support regionalized LCIA, offer multiple system models, allow for easier integration of data from different regions, and reduce maintenance efforts. This article describes the methodological developments.

2,696 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 2018-Science
TL;DR: Cumulatively, the findings support an approach where producers monitor their own impacts, flexibly meet environmental targets by choosing from multiple practices, and communicate their impacts to consumers.
Abstract: Food’s environmental impacts are created by millions of diverse producers. To identify solutions that are effective under this heterogeneity, we consolidated data covering five environmental indicators; 38,700 farms; and 1600 processors, packaging types, and retailers. Impact can vary 50-fold among producers of the same product, creating substantial mitigation opportunities. However, mitigation is complicated by trade-offs, multiple ways for producers to achieve low impacts, and interactions throughout the supply chain. Producers have limits on how far they can reduce impacts. Most strikingly, impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change. Cumulatively, our findings support an approach where producers monitor their own impacts, flexibly meet environmental targets by choosing from multiple practices, and communicate their impacts to consumers.

2,353 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper presents the latest developments realized with EXIOBASE 3-a time series of EE MRIO tables ranging from 1995 to 2011 for 44 countries (28 EU member plus 16 major economies) and five rest of the world regions.
Abstract: Environmentally extended multiregional input-output (EE MRIO) tables have emerged as a key framework to provide a comprehensive description of the global economy and analyze its effects on the environment. Of the available EE MRIO databases, EXIOBASE stands out as a database compatible with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) with a high sectorial detail matched with multiple social and environmental satellite accounts. In this paper, we present the latest developments realized with EXIOBASE 3—a time series of EE MRIO tables ranging from 1995 to 2011 for 44 countries (28 EU member plus 16 major economies) and five rest of the world regions. EXIOBASE 3 builds upon the previous versions of EXIOBASE by using rectangular supply-use tables (SUTs) in a 163 industry by 200 products classification as the main building blocks. In order to capture structural changes, economic developments, as reported by national statistical agencies, were imposed on the available, disaggregated SUTs from EXIOBASE 2. These initial estimates were further refined by incorporating detailed data on energy, agricultural production, resource extraction, and bilateral trade. EXIOBASE 3 inherits the high level of environmental stressor detail from its precursor, with further improvement in the level of detail for resource extraction. To account for the expansion of the European Union (EU), EXIOBASE 3 was developed with the full EU28 country set (including the new member state Croatia). EXIOBASE 3 provides a unique tool for analyzing the dynamics of environmental pressures of economic activities over time.

471 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a lifecycle assessment (LCA)-based approach has been applied to a basket of products, selected as being representative of EU consumption, and a highly disaggregated inventory model was developed based on a modular approach, and built using statistical data.

349 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a guideline to build methods for land use impact assessment in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is based on a number of assumptions: Discrete land use types are sufficient for an assessment of land use impacts; ecosystem quality remains constant over time of occupation; time and area of occupation are substitutable; transformation time is negligible; regeneration is linear and independent from land use history and landscape configuration; biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services are independent; the ecological impact is linearly increasing with the intervention; and there is no interaction between land use and other drivers
Abstract: As a consequence of the multi-functionality of land, the impact assessment of land use in Life Cycle Impact Assessment requires the modelling of several impact pathways covering biodiversity and ecosystem services. To provide consistency amongst these separate impact pathways, general principles for their modelling are provided in this paper. These are refinements to the principles that have already been proposed in publications by the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. In particular, this paper addresses the calculation of land use interventions and land use impacts, the issue of impact reversibility, the spatial and temporal distribution of such impacts and the assessment of absolute or relative ecosystem quality changes. Based on this, we propose a guideline to build methods for land use impact assessment in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Recommendations are given for the development of new characterization models and for which a series of key elements should explicitly be stated, such as the modelled land use impact pathways, the land use/cover typology covered, the level of biogeographical differentiation used for the characterization factors, the reference land use situation used and if relative or absolute quality changes are used to calculate land use impacts. Moreover, for an application of the characterisation factors (CFs) in an LCA study, data collection should be transparent with respect to the data input required from the land use inventory and the regeneration times. Indications on how generic CFs can be used for the background system as well as how spatial-based CFs can be calculated for the foreground system in a specific LCA study and how land use change is to be allocated should be detailed. Finally, it becomes necessary to justify the modelling period for which land use impacts of land transformation and occupation are calculated and how uncertainty is accounted for. The presented guideline is based on a number of assumptions: Discrete land use types are sufficient for an assessment of land use impacts; ecosystem quality remains constant over time of occupation; time and area of occupation are substitutable; transformation time is negligible; regeneration is linear and independent from land use history and landscape configuration; biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services are independent; the ecological impact is linearly increasing with the intervention; and there is no interaction between land use and other drivers such as climate change. These assumptions might influence the results of land use Life Cycle Impact Assessment and need to be critically reflected. In this and the other papers of the special issue, we presented the principles and recommendations for the calculation of land use impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services on a global scale. In the framework of LCA, they are mainly used for the assessment of land use impacts in the background system. The main areas for further development are the link to regional ecological models running in the foreground system, relative weighting of the ecosystem services midpoints and indirect land use.

337 citations


Cites methods from "Overview and methodology: Data qual..."

  • ...…we recommend to develop a pedigree matrix similar to what was presented in Ecoinvent 2.0 (Frischknecht and Jungbluth 2007, p. 45) and Ecoinvent 3.0 (Weidema et al. 2011, p. 83) to assess the reliability of the data and the models behind specific characterisation factors, the completeness of the…...

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a formal procedure for data quality management in life cycle inventory is described, and five independent data quality indicators are suggested as necessary and sufficient to describe those aspects of data quality which influence the reliability of the result.

795 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The GLOBIO3 model has been developed to assess human-induced changes in biodiversity, in the past, present, and future at regional and global scales as mentioned in this paper, which is built on simple cause-effect relationships between environmental drivers and biodiversity impacts, based on state-of-the-art knowledge.
Abstract: The GLOBIO3 model has been developed to assess human-induced changes in biodiversity, in the past, present, and future at regional and global scales The model is built on simple cause-effect relationships between environmental drivers and biodiversity impacts, based on state-of-the-art knowledge The mean abundance of original species relative to their abundance in undisturbed ecosystems (MSA) is used as the indicator for biodiversity Changes in drivers are derived from the IMAGE 24 model Drivers considered are land-cover change, land-use intensity, fragmentation, climate change, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, and infrastructure development GLOBIO3 addresses (i) the impacts of environmental drivers on MSA and their relative importance; (ii) expected trends under various future scenarios; and (iii) the likely effects of various policy response options GLOBIO3 has been used successfully in several integrated regional and global assessments Three different global-scale policy options have been evaluated on their potential to reduce MSA loss These options are: climate-change mitigation through expanded use of bio-energy, an increase in plantation forestry, and an increase in protected areas We conclude that MSA loss is likely to continue during the coming decades Plantation forestry may help to reduce the rate of loss, whereas climate-change mitigation through the extensive use of bioenergy crops will, in fact, increase this rate of loss The protection of 20% of all large ecosystems leads to a small reduction in the rate of loss, provided that protection is effective and that currently degraded protected areas are restored

489 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that in prospective life-cycle assessments, co-product allocation can always be avoided by system expansion, and that all the different co-products situations can be covered by the same theoretical model and the same practical procedure.
Abstract: In a life-cycle assessment (LCA) involving only one of several products from the same process, how are the resource consumption and the emissions associated with this process to be partitioned and distributed over these co-products? This is the central question in co-product allocation, which has been one of the most controversial issues in the development of the methodology for life-cycle assessment, as it may significantly influence or even determine the result of the assessments In this article, it is shown that in prospective life-cycle assessments, co-product allocation can always be avoided by system expansion Through a number of examples, it is demonstrated how system expansion is performed, with special emphasis on issues that earlier have been a focus of the allocation debate, such as joint production (eg, of chlorine and sodium hydroxide, zinc and heavy metals, and electricity and heat), the handling of “near-to-waste” by-products, processes simultaneously supplying services to multiple product systems, and credits for material recycling and downcycling It is shown that all the different co-product situations can be covered by the same theoretical model and the same practical procedure, and that it is also possible to include the traditional co-product allocation as a special case of the presented procedure The uncertainty aspects of the presented procedure are discussed A comparison is made with the procedure of ISO 14041, “Life-cycle assessment—Goal and scope definition and inventory analysis,” the international standard

351 citations

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: The Danish Environmental Protection Agency will, when opportunity offers, publish reports and contributions relating to environmental research and development projects financed via the Danish EPA as discussed by the authors, however, publication does not signify that the contents of the reports necessarily reflect the views of the DanishEPA.
Abstract: The Danish Environmental Protection Agency will, when opportunity offers, publish reports and contributions relating to environmental research and development projects financed via the Danish EPA. Please note that publication does not signify that the contents of the reports necessarily reflect the views of the Danish EPA. The reports are, however, published because the Danish EPA finds that the studies represent a valuable contribution to the debate on environmental policy in Denmark.

318 citations