Sustainability (Impact) Assessment- for Assessing and Guiding in Research
Magdalena SvanströmAssociate Professor, Chemical Environmental Science
Director, Chalmers Learning Centre
Rational• There is a need for methods that can assess the
sustainability of different technologies or options (not only environmental performance as in life cycle assessments, LCAs)
• Sustainability assessment needs input from different knowledge areas and stakeholders
• Sustainability assessment can guide technological development
• Sustainability assessment can be part of a learning process that improves the assessment itself and also builds competence in individuals and organizations (education for sustainable development, ESD)
• With a starting point in LCA methodology, and adding experiences from ESD work, …
LCA – Life Cycle Assessment
• Well-known methodology – international standards
• Most suitable for existing technologies with existing data on processes and the larger system
The Life Cycle Environmental Impact
Raw materialacquisition
Processes
Transports
Transports
Manufacturing
Use
Wastemanagement
Transports
Resources
Emissions
Waste
LCA methodology
Definition of Goal and
Scope
Inventory Analysis
Impact Assessment
Inter-pretation
Procedures,System boundaries, Purpose
Data on input and output for the system
ClassificationCharacterizationValuation
Problems?• Normally, LCAs are performed by LCA experts,
providing results needed by other groups• Transparency is often a requirement, but it is still
very difficult to understand if results are relevant and what they mean
• If you are in early phases of technology development, you normally don’t know what the system looks like and you don’t have any data
• And if you want to address the full range of potential sustainability implications, you need a broader assessment
Ethanol from corn?
A holistic perspective is also important!
Sustainability (Impact) Assessment
• Some frameworks for broader assessment exist – rely mostly on an expanded LCA methodology
• They almost always rely on predetermined sets of indicators – not on a case-specific description of sustainability challenges
• Stakeholder involvement is often low or non-existent
• Results are often even less transparent than most LCA studies
Example: The BASF methods
Example: The BASF SeeBalance method
Example: The BASF SeeBalance method
Example: The BASF SeeBalance method
How can we make sustainability assessment something that:
• provides relevant and useful results, understandable by all?
• can guide technical development, also in early development phases?
• leads to learning that will both boost the assessment process and have spin-off effects in parallell and future development efforts?
By stakeholder involvement and by using the sustainability assessment to also achieve education for sustainable development (ESD)
Commonalities in desired learning outcomes in ESD
• Systemic thinking, holistic view• Integration of different perspectives• Problem-solving, critical and creative thinking,
communication skills• Participatory decision-making, life-long
learning, commitment for active participation, self-discipline
in order to become an effective change agent!“Learning outcomes for sustainable development in higher education”, Magdalena Svanström,
Francisco Lozano-G and Debra Rowe, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(3), 339-351, 2008
To understand the opportunities and challenges in the complex system
The engineer
Economic systems
Human needs
Human behaviour
Societal structures
Natural systems Technical systems
Technology
Complexity – systemic thinking
Problem-solving
Critical thinking
Creative thinking
Different perspectives
Communication and cooperation
Commitment
Analysis of industry needs of engineering competences in sustainable development
- A comparison to the education at Chalmers University of TechnologyMaster Thesis in Industrial Ecology; Andreas Hanning, Anna Priem Abelsson
Text analysis
Text analysisStudent questionnaire
Focus group
Interviews(16 companies)
Alumni questionnaire
AB Volvo, ABB, Akzo NobelDHL, Electrolux, E.ONEricsson, Hifab, HusqvarnaIKEA, Scania, SkanskaSKF, Sweco, Vattenfall, ÅF
Some conclusions:Industry:• Sustainability is not something only for experts
–All engineers need a comprehensive basic understanding of sustainability issues.
–All engineers need a systems perspective, not only those working directly with sustainability issues.
–All engineers should be aware of the underlying reasons as to why sustainability issues are important in the business world.
Students:• This is prioritized and understood best by students that have
SD embedded into their programs, not only single separate courses
• Especially, the (company) economic (and social) perspective of sustainability is lacking
Guiding development in research using sustainability assessment –
methodology under development
• Different stakeholders need to be involved in selecting indicators, in providing input and in interpreting results
• All communication should focus not only on receiving input but also on achieving learning – important to reach many actors that may influence development
Goal and Scope
Inventory Analysis
Impact Assessment
Interpretation, visualization
Define system boundaries, Select indicators
Data/information on sustainability impacts
Multi-criteriaanalysis
Define sustainability
Stakeholder involvement in all stepsMany loops throughout the project
Learning what is important in driving and how to manouver and manage the vehicle
Deciding on the target, the direction and the route together
Visualising the performance for important parameters - dashboard
Empowered drivers
WooDi
Environment Social Economy Environment Social Economy
Sustainability profiles (fictitious)
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?
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Material development
Sustainability assessment
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Sustainability assessment within the Woodi project (the wood based diaper)
Literature studies provide input to discussions
Multicriteria analysisAspect:______Factor:
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Aspect:______Factor:
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Aspect:______Factor:
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Aspect:______Factor:
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Aspect:______Factor:
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Aspect:______Factor:
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Sum
Reference diaper
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
Woodi diaper
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
__ x __=___
Example: Last results communicated
”No, that is too low, the use of incontinence diapers is much higher!””Oh, I thought population was decreasing and therefore also the need for diapers!””Good, competition from Asia and Europe is decreasing the need for simple fibre products””Hey, this is almost all our forests – and pulp is really only a by-product of timber production!””But what happens when we also get an increased need of bioenergy and biomaterials?””And what about food production globally? Can we really look at the use of just the Södra forest without considering global demands and trends?”
Some lessons learned• Time – a restricted resource - discussions and learning
takes time• Make their time feel useful - always bring something
useful - make sure that there is an exchange of information
• Confidentiality – always a problem when companies, perhaps even competing companies, are involved
• Company image – companies that have high sustainability ranking are the most vulnerable
• Make sure that you understand company goals, culture, knowledge levels, earlier experiences etc.
Guiding development in research using sustainability assessment- Some current projects
LMATERIALS
ENERGYCHEMICALS
WooDi–The Wood-Based Diaper
LIGNIMATCH - Lignin from wood
WOOD-LIFE –More durable coated and glued wood products
ECOBUILD –Ecoefficient and innovative wood-based materials
Tech
nolo
gy d
evel
opm
ent
Susta
inability a
ssessm
ent
Learning
“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat, seventh secretary-general of the UN, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize
see eesd10.org
BACK-CASTING1. Criteria for sustainability2. Today’s situation in relation to these3. Solutions; future possibilities (that fulfill the criteria)4. Strategies for getting there – steps needed
SCENARIO PLANNING5. Test robustness of solutions and strategies• Identify factors that might be really important for your strategies
and solutions• Put in graph: Impact vs Predictability.• Pick the ones with highest impact - most predictable ones are
trends in all scenarios. Two (unrelated) with low predictability become critical factors.
• Describe extremes of the critical factors.• Make four scenarios using ”trends” in all and different ”critical
factor” extremes.• Test your solutions and strategies against the four scenarios -
Which work well in all scenarios? What can be changed in order to make the strategies and solutions more robust?
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