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Browsing by Subject "LCA"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Data and visualizations of air quality impacts of conventional and alternative light-duty transportation in the United States
    (2014-11-25) Tessum, Christopher W; Hill, Jason D; Marshall, Julian D; julian@umn.edu; Marshall, Julian D.
    This is the supporting information for an article entitled "Life cycle air quality impacts of conventional and alternative light-duty transportation in the United States", published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1406853111). The study assesses the life cycle air quality impacts on human health of 10 alternatives to conventional gasoline vehicles, including vehicles powered by diesel, natural gas, ethanol, and electricity. This supporting information is comprised of 1) A Microsoft Excel file containing emissions amounts disaggregated by life cycle stage for each scenario; 2) maps of ground-level concentrations of 13 different air pollutants attributable to each scenario; and 3) videos showing temporal variation in ground-level fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) concentrations attributable to each scenario. The data here were generated using state-of-the-science air pollutant emission and transport models.
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    Energy and material footprints of construction materials to inform resource and energy efficiency policy in India
    (2017-05) Leon, Mauricio
    Manufacturing of construction materials constitutes one of the most natural resource and energy intensive human activities. In industrialized countries, the construction sector represents around 50% of the whole flow of materials (Wiedmann et al., 2015). India is demanding a large volume of construction materials while the economy grows and the country becomes more industrialized and urbanized. Policies that promote resource and energy efficiency of construction materials could help lower the environmental impact of construction. However, it is essential to have metrics that allow for tracking the performance of policies. A bottom-up methodology with an existing industrial dataset for India was used to estimate the material and energy footprint of manufacturing three of the most important construction materials: cement, steel and aluminum. The study provides additional quantitative metrics regarding energy, materials, and labor intensity. This approach could benefit other developing countries that lack top-down input/output models. The analysis shows evidence of waste reutilization and electricity cogeneration at construction materials factories in India.
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    Improving Sustainability Management Decisions with Modified Life Cycle Assessment Methods
    (2016-12) Pelton, Rylie
    Across the globe, organizations and institutions have publicly committed to reducing the environmental impacts associated with their operations. Despite these commitments, progress in integrating sustainability measurement information into core business processes and decision criteria has been limited. To avoid many of the ecological tipping points that society currently faces, it is essential that sustainability measurement systems and decision support tools are improved to be more practically incorporated into business operations and decisions. This dissertation explores the specific sustainability challenges and information gaps that are faced by core business operations in three separate case studies, thereby expanding the sustainability operations management literature in the areas of environmentally preferable procurement, sustainable manufacturing, and green supply chain management. Modified life cycle assessment (LCA) methods are demonstrated in the methodological designs of the respective case studies, which help reduce the complexity of environmental information and the costs of assessment, and increase the specificity to organizations by considering spatial and temporal aspects of operations. Altogether, methods enable optimal management options and trade-offs to be identified, priorities to be set, and increases overall understanding of and ability to manage risks. These elements greatly enhance the actionability of sustainability information to organizational decision makers, helping to lower the barriers for integrating into core organizational processes for reducing the environmental burden of production and consumption systems.