Developments in the field of life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting over 25 years
In the past 25 years, ESU-services has conducted more than 400 projects in the field of life cycle assessment. In several areas, team members of ESU-services performed pioneering work or are involved in large projects with industrial partners:
ecoinvent is the international harmonized LCI database developed in Switzerland: Research institutes in the ETH-domain have harmonized and updated their LCA databases and created a national, web-based database for public use. ESU-services has lead the project ecoinvent 2000. We investigated about 900 out of 4000 unit processes in ecoinvent data v2.0 (e.g. for photovoltaics and bioenergy) and provided much more data until today.
Labelling of green energy: in co-operation with the Association for Environmentally Friendly Energy (VUE). ESU-services contributes to the "naturemade star" labelling scheme. We have developed the LCA criterion and carried out the LCA of energy (electricity, heat, cooling and methane) from renewable energy sources such as biogas, wood, or heat pumps. Excel key parameter models developed in this project allow a simplified calculation of LCA results.
ESU-services investigated the feasibility for providing Environmental Product Information (EPI) for the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. Here we proposed a concept for an environmental etiquette that can be used for developing a green economy and for showing the total environmental footprint of consumer products in the supply chain.
Update of the Swiss ecological scarcity method (Umweltbelastungspunkte 2006). With the help of the project management, industrial partners and experts from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), we were able to substantially improve the applicability and flexibility of the methodological concept and to update the impact factors to the actual state of the environment and environmental legislation. Furthermore, the method has been extended with some additional key environmental impacts.
LCA of biofuels. ESU-services was the project leader for a project about the environmental impacts of biofuels. This project was one of the first starting the worldwide reflection on the current biofuel boom. Results from this project form the basis for the national legislation on tax reduction for biofuels.
Renewable Fuels for Advanced Powertrains (RENEW): Integrated Project in the 6th framework program including major European automobile manufacturers (DaimlerChrysler, Renault, Volkswagen, Volvo). Funded by the European commission with an EC financial contribution of 10 Mio. EUR. ESU-services acts as the central data manager and is responsible for the LCA of all technologies developed in the course of the project. The LCA has been reviewed according to ISO 14040ff.
Embodied greenhouse gas emissions of Switzerland: The national greenhouse gas inventory prepared according to the guidelines of the Climate Convention only takes domestic emissions into account. To obtain a realistic picture of Switzerland's contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, the emissions originating outside her national boundaries – so-called 'embodied' emissions – have been quantified in a systematic way for a first time.
Indicators for monitoring environmental impacts of food consumption: The environmental impacts of food consumption patterns vary from country to country and depend on many different influence factors. ESU-services has prepared an overview of different methods for the OECD Environment Directorate, Project on Sustainable Consumption, that can be used to evaluate these impacts. Also it identified possible indicators for monitoring the impacts of food consumption patterns
