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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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:

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Factor:

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Factor:

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Factor:

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Factor:

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Factor:

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Sum

Reference diaper

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Woodi diaper

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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?