Threats of land use to the global diversity of vascular plants

Aim: Land use is a main driver of biodiversity loss worldwide. However, quantifying its effects on global plant diversity remains a challenge due to the limited availability of data on the distributions of vascular plant species and their responses to land use. Here, we estimated the global extinction threat of land use to vascular plant species...

How can LCA include prospective elements to assess emerging technologies and system transitions? The 76th LCA Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment, 19 November 2020

This paper summarizes the 76th LCA Discussion Forum end its main fndings. Main issues when addressing emerging technologies identifed were: the lack of primary data, the need for (shared) future background scenarios and (guidlines for) a common methodology. The following recommendations have been derived by the organizers: 1) Specifc foreground...

Measuring the effect of circulair public procurement on government's environmental impact

Governments contribute to the transition toward a circular economy (CE) by using criteria in their procurement processes that trigger the supply of circular products and services, namely circular public procurement (CPP). CPP practices are emerging in Europe. However, the effect of CPP is not yet monitored and hence remains unclear. What is the...

Greenhouse gas benefits from direct chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste

Dealing with heterogeneous plastic waste – i.e., high polymer heterogeneity, additives, and contaminants – and lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from plastic production requires integrated solutions. Here, we quantified current and future GHG footprints of direct chemical conversion of heterogeneous post-consumer plastic waste feedstock to...

Slim èn circulair: hoe innovaties in de maakindustrie bijdragen aan een lagere footprint

Potential carbon footprint reduction for reclaimed asphalt pavement innovations: Lca methodology, best available technology, and near-future reduction potential

Learning from circular economy relevant modelling approaches

Tijd voor duurzame zonne-energie: zonnestroom van hernieuwbaar naar duurzaam

Met het licht van de zon bereikt ons dagelijks een hoeveelheid energie die veel groter is dan we als mensheid nodig hebben. Toch gebruiken we nog heel veel energie uit fossiele brandstoffen. Door verbranding winnen we uit steenkool, olie en gas de zonne-energie die miljoenen jaren geleden in de bodem is vastgelegd. Maar daarbij verbranden we ook...

Globale raming effecten van acties uit het Uitvoeringsprogramma CE

Dit rapport is tot stand gekomen in het kader van het Werkprogramma Monitoring en Sturing Circulaire Economie 2019-2023. Dit werkprogramma is een samenwerkingsverband van het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS), Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen Leiden (CML), het Centraal Planbureau (CPB), het RIVM, RVO.nl, Rijkswaterstaat en TNO onder...

A systematic approach to assess the environmental impact of emerging technologies: A case study for the GHG footprint of CIGS solar photovoltaic laminate

Estimating the environmental impact of emerging technologies at different stages of developmentis uncertain but necessary to guide investment, research, and development. Here, we propose asystematic procedure to assess the future impacts of emerging technologies. In the technologydevelopment stage (technology readiness level < 9), the...

Following-up on opportunities for a circular economy: better data for robust policy making.

Future European shale gas life-cycle GHG emissions for electric power generation in comparison to other fossil fuels

The carbon footprint of shale gas combusted in Europe was estimated from nine European shale gas plays as potential production regions. Greenhouse gas emission sources during shale gas production, such as fugitives from hydraulic fracturing or combustion emissions from horizontal drilling, were added to emissions occurring for conventional gas...

Are recycled and low temperature asphalt mixture more sustainable

Innovations are necessary to achieve reduction of both CO2 emissions and use of fossil materi-als during construction and maintenance of roads. To enable selection of promising innovations and to facili-tate material selection in green procurement, quantitative tools to assess both life cycle costs and environmen-tal impacts are used. In this...

Economic, environmental and social cost-benefit analysis of road construction works

Resource Footprints are Good Proxies of Environmental Damage

Environmental footprints are increasingly used to quantify and compare environmental impacts of for example products, technologies, households, or nations. This has resulted in a multitude of footprint indicators, ranging from relatively simple measures of resource use (water, energy, materials) to integrated measures of eventual damage (for...

Circular Amsterdam. A vision and action agenda for the city and metropolitan area

Removing nitrogen from wastewater with side stream anammox: What are the trade-offs between environmental impacts?

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is a novel way to reduce nitrogen in ammonium rich wastewater. Although aquatic eutrophication will certainly be reduced, it is unknown how other environmental impacts may change by including anammox in the treatment of wastewater. Here, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to assess the environmental...