A comparison of methods for integrating biodiversity in life cycle assessment: a case study on the Swedish diet
(2024) MVEK12 20241Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
- Abstract
- The main drivers of the alarming biodiversity decline are land use and land use change, primarily due to agriculture. It is therefore important to assess the impact on biodiversity caused by production of food and to do so, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method widely used. Since the UNEP-SETAC provisionally recommended the method by Chaudhary et al. (2015, updated 2018) for impact assessments on land use, multiple methods have been developed. This project aims to map and compare different methods for integrating biodiversity in LCA. The results showed that the choice of impact assessment method matters significantly, with Chaudhary and Brooks (2018) deviating the most in absolute values as well as in terms of correlations. This study... (More)
- The main drivers of the alarming biodiversity decline are land use and land use change, primarily due to agriculture. It is therefore important to assess the impact on biodiversity caused by production of food and to do so, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method widely used. Since the UNEP-SETAC provisionally recommended the method by Chaudhary et al. (2015, updated 2018) for impact assessments on land use, multiple methods have been developed. This project aims to map and compare different methods for integrating biodiversity in LCA. The results showed that the choice of impact assessment method matters significantly, with Chaudhary and Brooks (2018) deviating the most in absolute values as well as in terms of correlations. This study showed that the parameter influencing the results the most is the taxa aggregation formula, but other parameters also contribute to the variance. The case study showed consensus on some hotspot products in the Swedish diet but indicated slight relative differences in impacts between countries of origin and product groups. Further recommendations for method developers include providing more transparent documentation as well as a more in-depth sensitivity analysis on the parameters. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- Biodiversity is declining globally because of land use and land use change, where chief part is due agriculture. To make food consumtion choices that minimizes biodiversity impacts, it is important to assess the impact of different types of land use and to do so, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method often used. In this study, three LCA methods for characterizing land use impacts was studied. The result showed that the methods vary in both absolute and relative terms, with Chaudhary and Brooks (2018) differing significantly from the other methods. The parameter influencing the result the most is the formula for converting characterization factors for each species group into one. Recommendations include to further analyse how much the... (More)
- Biodiversity is declining globally because of land use and land use change, where chief part is due agriculture. To make food consumtion choices that minimizes biodiversity impacts, it is important to assess the impact of different types of land use and to do so, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method often used. In this study, three LCA methods for characterizing land use impacts was studied. The result showed that the methods vary in both absolute and relative terms, with Chaudhary and Brooks (2018) differing significantly from the other methods. The parameter influencing the result the most is the formula for converting characterization factors for each species group into one. Recommendations include to further analyse how much the different parameters of the methods influence the calculated biodiversity score and elaborate the documentation of methodological choices. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9164419
- author
- Jansson, Lisa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- alternative title
- En jämförelse av metoder för att integrera biologisk mångfald i livscykelanalys: en fallstudie av svensk kost
- course
- MVEK12 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Biodiversity, Life cycle assessment, LCA, characterization factor, impact assessment, method, diet, food, land use, land occupation
- language
- English
- id
- 9164419
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-18 14:36:18
- date last changed
- 2024-06-18 14:36:18
@misc{9164419,
abstract = {{The main drivers of the alarming biodiversity decline are land use and land use change, primarily due to agriculture. It is therefore important to assess the impact on biodiversity caused by production of food and to do so, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method widely used. Since the UNEP-SETAC provisionally recommended the method by Chaudhary et al. (2015, updated 2018) for impact assessments on land use, multiple methods have been developed. This project aims to map and compare different methods for integrating biodiversity in LCA. The results showed that the choice of impact assessment method matters significantly, with Chaudhary and Brooks (2018) deviating the most in absolute values as well as in terms of correlations. This study showed that the parameter influencing the results the most is the taxa aggregation formula, but other parameters also contribute to the variance. The case study showed consensus on some hotspot products in the Swedish diet but indicated slight relative differences in impacts between countries of origin and product groups. Further recommendations for method developers include providing more transparent documentation as well as a more in-depth sensitivity analysis on the parameters.}},
author = {{Jansson, Lisa}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{A comparison of methods for integrating biodiversity in life cycle assessment: a case study on the Swedish diet}},
year = {{2024}},
}