A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Costa, D.
Data de Publicação: 2019
Outros Autores: Quinteiro, P., Dias, A. C.
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/29094
Resumo: The life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is a tool to assess sustainability from a life cycle perspective, which has been receiving increased attention over the years. This work presents a systematic review of the current application of LCSA, presenting the foundations, main methods, current operationalization state, and major challenges to its broad implementation. The review protocol considered the search of keywords in Scopus and Web of Science databases. The search has considered the literature published or in the press until December 2018, resulting in the selection of 144 articles written in English. Of those, 71 articles operationalize LCSA in real case studies, while the remaining consist of review, viewpoint, and methodological development articles. This review demonstrates that the use of LCSA has been increasing in recent years. Today, the most applied approach is to consider LCSA as the sum of life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment because it is built on the methodologies that already exist and are under continuous development. However, the lack of harmonization of the methodology is a central challenge to its operationalization. Therefore, LCSA still requires further improvement in, among others, definition of coherent system boundaries, the development of robust databases to allow the assessment of economic and social perspectives, definition of impact categories that allow comparability between studies, development of impact assessment methods, development of methods to carry out uncertainty analysis, and communication strategies. Besides, further case studies should be developed to support the improvement of the methodology and a better understanding of the interaction of the environmental, economic, and social aspects.
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spelling A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issuesLife cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)Life cycle assessment (LCA)Life cycle costing (LCC)Social life cycle assessment (SLCA)Systematic reviewThe life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is a tool to assess sustainability from a life cycle perspective, which has been receiving increased attention over the years. This work presents a systematic review of the current application of LCSA, presenting the foundations, main methods, current operationalization state, and major challenges to its broad implementation. The review protocol considered the search of keywords in Scopus and Web of Science databases. The search has considered the literature published or in the press until December 2018, resulting in the selection of 144 articles written in English. Of those, 71 articles operationalize LCSA in real case studies, while the remaining consist of review, viewpoint, and methodological development articles. This review demonstrates that the use of LCSA has been increasing in recent years. Today, the most applied approach is to consider LCSA as the sum of life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment because it is built on the methodologies that already exist and are under continuous development. However, the lack of harmonization of the methodology is a central challenge to its operationalization. Therefore, LCSA still requires further improvement in, among others, definition of coherent system boundaries, the development of robust databases to allow the assessment of economic and social perspectives, definition of impact categories that allow comparability between studies, development of impact assessment methods, development of methods to carry out uncertainty analysis, and communication strategies. Besides, further case studies should be developed to support the improvement of the methodology and a better understanding of the interaction of the environmental, economic, and social aspects.Elsevier2020-08-21T14:41:17Z2021-10-10T00:00:00Z2019-10-10T00:00:00Z2019-10-10info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10773/29094eng0048-969710.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.435Costa, D.Quinteiro, P.Dias, A. C.info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2024-02-22T11:56:17Zoai:ria.ua.pt:10773/29094Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-20T03:01:30.872813Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
title A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
spellingShingle A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
Costa, D.
Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)
Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Life cycle costing (LCC)
Social life cycle assessment (SLCA)
Systematic review
title_short A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
title_full A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
title_fullStr A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
title_full_unstemmed A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
title_sort A systematic review of life cycle sustainability assessment: current state, methodological challenges, and implementation issues
author Costa, D.
author_facet Costa, D.
Quinteiro, P.
Dias, A. C.
author_role author
author2 Quinteiro, P.
Dias, A. C.
author2_role author
author
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Costa, D.
Quinteiro, P.
Dias, A. C.
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)
Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Life cycle costing (LCC)
Social life cycle assessment (SLCA)
Systematic review
topic Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)
Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Life cycle costing (LCC)
Social life cycle assessment (SLCA)
Systematic review
description The life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is a tool to assess sustainability from a life cycle perspective, which has been receiving increased attention over the years. This work presents a systematic review of the current application of LCSA, presenting the foundations, main methods, current operationalization state, and major challenges to its broad implementation. The review protocol considered the search of keywords in Scopus and Web of Science databases. The search has considered the literature published or in the press until December 2018, resulting in the selection of 144 articles written in English. Of those, 71 articles operationalize LCSA in real case studies, while the remaining consist of review, viewpoint, and methodological development articles. This review demonstrates that the use of LCSA has been increasing in recent years. Today, the most applied approach is to consider LCSA as the sum of life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment because it is built on the methodologies that already exist and are under continuous development. However, the lack of harmonization of the methodology is a central challenge to its operationalization. Therefore, LCSA still requires further improvement in, among others, definition of coherent system boundaries, the development of robust databases to allow the assessment of economic and social perspectives, definition of impact categories that allow comparability between studies, development of impact assessment methods, development of methods to carry out uncertainty analysis, and communication strategies. Besides, further case studies should be developed to support the improvement of the methodology and a better understanding of the interaction of the environmental, economic, and social aspects.
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019-10-10T00:00:00Z
2019-10-10
2020-08-21T14:41:17Z
2021-10-10T00:00:00Z
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10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.435
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dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
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