支撑资源循环可持续性评价的经济决策工具——生命周期成本分析的发展与应用

对接经济系统和环境系统是支撑循环经济决策的关键,而可持续性评价以及在传统生命周期影响评价（LCA）基础上发展起来的生命周期可持续性评价（LCSA）是重要决策支撑工具.近年来对可持续性评价的关注使得生命周期成本分析（LCC）及其在资源循环决策中的应用得以快速发展.大量研究表明LCC是有效的经济决策支撑工具.但是由于"生命周期成本分析"的其他相关称谓与LCC术语上模糊,以及成本效益分析（CBA）等相关成本评估工具在方法用途上的类似,使得在实际研究中LCC的相关概念混淆甚至错误使用的现象时有发生.针对如上研究背景,本文采用文献研究法和案例分析法,旨在厘清LCC及相关术语的概念和内涵,并为LCC以及LCSA在未来的研究提出实用性建议.首先,通过文献研究回顾了LCC的发展脉络,厘清了在人们对社会和环境问题关注下,LCC逐渐从普通的成本评估发展成为LCSA核心部分的发展路径.同时,使用Citespace对国内和国际2000-2017年LCC相关论文发表情况进行图谱分析,发现和国内相比,国际期刊的LCC相关研究已经从概念探索和企业成本控制发展到了特定领域系统的成本优化研究.进一步,引入"可持续性三支柱"的概念来阐释LCSA的经济、环境、社会三个维度以及它与LCC的关系,然后区分了LCC的类似术语的定义和成本范围,并阐述了与传统CBA方法的差别.在此基础上,以欧盟VEEP项目为案例,从定性和定量两个维度阐释了LCC的分析视角和计算过程.最后,对LCC在中国未来的研究方向提出了具体建议,包括：扩大运用领域,标准化,研究方法间的结合,以及数据库和软件工具的开发.     

Life cycle cost (LCC) as a tool for improving sustainability in the Norwegian fishing fleet

Systems engineering principles in fisheries management may structure and improve the decision-making process. Sustainability in the fishing fleet is comprised of economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Even though the total system value may be constituted by economic factors and technical factors, non-market issues, such as environmental and social issues, have an increasingly important impact on the economic performance of a system or company. Life cycle cost (LCC) is related to the systems engineering process, because economic considerations are very important in the process of creating systems. LCC involves evaluation of all future costs related to the life cycle of a system. The main objective of this article is to discuss the usefulness of LCC as a method to enhance sustainable designs of fishing vessels for ship owners, and to improve the decision-bases for fisheries management.     

Pilot project on sustainability management accounting with the Styrian automobile cluster

The paper is based on a project with the Styrian automobile cluster in Austria and selected member companies. In six companies, the environmental management costs, as well as further costs for health and safety, risk management and other social issues were assessed. Less tangible items and external effects are addressed. Starting with the efforts to assess the financial effects of the sustainability performance indicators provided by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for sustainability reporting, the UN DSD (United Nations Division for Sustainable Development) method for environmental management accounting (EMA) was enlarged by several other cost categories. This paper describes these and the experiences from the pilot projects.The two major cost drivers are the purchase costs of non-product output and the costs related to lost working days because of sick leave and accidents and the overtime pay to make up for these lost working days. The work of the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) department helps to reduce these costs. The cost assessment scheme allows one to better understand the relationships between costs for treatment of undesired effects due to unimplemented protection measures and lost material purchase value in comparison to the prevention costs, which mainly consist of the internal management departments and related external consultants.The assessment of sustainability management costs is of interest for organisations, which already publish a sustainability report and want to more accurately assess the financial effects of such aspects addressed via EMA. It is also useful for small and medium sized companies, which use the assessment as a starting point to shape their (EHS) system. The main benefits are more accurate data and better arguments for investment appraisal or performance indicators as well as improved consistency of information and management systems that should help them to improve their environmental, social and economic performance.     

Environmental decision making in multi-stakeholder contexts: applicability of life cycle thinking in development planning and implementation

According to the targets set for sustainability, integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs is one of the main goals for development projects. A major challenge in the development field is cross-sectoral integrated planning and achieving multi-stakeholder consensus for collaborative joint projects, especially when sustainability is a goal. This increases the complexity of the multi-stakeholder interaction in decision making and requires enhanced mechanisms for stakeholder participation, coordination, and commitment beyond narrow self-interest. A critical aspect in the decision making process is to enable stakeholders to not only interpret and make decisions based on expert judgments, but also to appropriately involve the relevant parties in the research and decision making process. Therefore, scientific analyses in multi-stakeholder contexts have to be more transparent, participatory, and stakeholder-based in order to provide useful information to assist responsible decision making.This paper presents an outline of a stakeholder-based life cycle assessment approach that can be used to support sustainable decision making in multi-stakeholder contexts. The framework is discussed and compared to other common methods used to support environmental decision making in development projects. We argue that the fundamental concept of life cycle thinking can be effectively used to incorporate stakeholders in the research and decision making process, which can lead to more comprehensive, yet achievable assessments in collaboration with stakeholders. Life cycle thinking is not just a way to examine environmental impacts of activities, but also a way to comprehend and visualize a broader set of upstream and downstream consequences of decisions in development planning and implementation. A life cycle framework including the mapping of stakeholder involvement at each activity in upstream and downstream stages would give stakeholders a holistic view that they otherwise may not have.     

Advanced process systems design technology for pollution prevention and waste treatment

The paper presents a generic process synthesis and optimisation tool suitable to take up applications in the design of waste treatment systems and in pollution prevention. The main component of the technology is a generalized process synthesis representation for simultaneous consideration of reaction and separation in multiphase systems that is amenable for stochastic optimisation. The flexibility of the representation allows applications to overall process synthesis problems as well as to decomposed reactor, reactive separation and mass exchange network design problems. Applications of the synthesis framework to waste water treatments processes using activated sludge and to natural gas sweetening in hybrid membrane-adsorption processes are presented. The paper highlights the use of the systematic technology in environmental systems design and shows how novel designs of improved performance as well as optimal design knowledge can be revealed using the systematic design framework. Context abstract: Environmental process systems for waste treatment and pollution prevention become increasingly complicated to design. There is a strong need for technology that provides systematic decision support to the process synthesis team in order to enable the timely selection of processes that operate close to the performance limits of the system under consideration. Conventional, optimisation-based process design technology is severely limited by the number of design decisions they can support simultaneously as well as by the increasingly complex process models required for the meaningful mathematical representation of environmental process systems. We have devised an optimisation-based process design methodology for integrated reaction and separation systems that overcomes major limitations of existing tools. This paper illustrates the use of this technology to provide systematic decision-support to the environmental process systems designer.     

Analysis of internally recurring unit processes in life cycle assessment

In a life cycle assessment (LCA) study, the identification and quantification of the inputs and outputs of unit processes or gate-to-gate modules are essential. In general, however, many chemical industries are composed of very complex systems with internally recurring unit processes where the upstream input to a unit process may include the downstream output from a latter unit process. Therefore, it is rather difficult to identify and quantify the inputs/outputs for those internally recurring unit processes, respectively, for life cycle inventory analysis purposes.In this study, several calculation methods which are applicable to complex systems with internally recurring unit processes are proposed as follows: (1) Determination of the inputs/outputs associated with each unit process by using simultaneous equations. In this proposal, any parameter linked to an upstream process is treated as a ‘variable’ and the set of other parameters is considered to be a ‘constant’. (2) Determination of the inputs/outputs by using appropriate cut-off criteria based on the cumulative total mass contribution. (3) Determination of the inputs/outputs by using appropriate cut-off criteria based on the number of occurrences of an individual recurring set of unit processes.The results from these methodologies are analyzed using a hypothetical example and an actual case from the petrochemical industry. These methods enhance the reliability and consideration of on-site information in recurring unit processes. In particular, the determination of the inputs/outputs associated with each unit process by using simultaneous equations does not add assumptions regarding cut-off criteria selection and provides the advantages of time conservation, consistency and affinity to on-site consideration.     

Tools and concepts for sustainable development,how do they relate to a general framework for sustainable development,and to each other?

We present a general framework to plan for sustainability and then relate it to some well-known tools for sustainable development. This framework follows from principles for how a system is constituted (ecological and social principles), and contains principles for a favorable outcome for the system (sustainability), as well as principles for the process to reach this outcome (sustainable development). The principles for sustainability define the favorable outcome and direct problem-solving upstream towards problemsources. A program of activities is then constructed by backcasting from defined outcomes to the current problems. This is followed by “metrics”, i.e. various concepts for measuring and monitoring the activities. Most concepts and tools for sustainable development function as metrics, for instance life cycle assessment (LCA), ecological footprinting (EF), and Factor X. An environmental management system (EMS), like ISO 14001 or EMAS, is an administrative vehicle that should systematically align a firm's specific outcomes, activities and metrics with a general framework for sustainability. From a strategic point of view, metrics should measure alignment of activities with the principles contained in a framework for sustainability. A framework is not an alternative to concepts and tools for metrics. We need them all, because they represent different interrelated levels of strategic planning.     

Comparison of sustainability issues in two sensitive areas of China

After 30 years of economic reform since opening to the outside world in 1978, China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased by 150% over the past 15 years. The sustainability of such intense economic activity has been questioned from the perspectives of the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability. In this study, we assessed the spatial and temporal trends in sustainable development in two sensitive agricultural areas of China: Dezhou district, a well-developed region, and Guyuan district, an underdeveloped region. We used the pressure–state–response (PSR) model and a participatory approach that involved local experts to select and evaluate 27 area-specific indicators, then calculated changes in their values from 1985 to 2002. We aggregated these indicators into dimension- and PSR-specific indices to assess the sustainability of development in both regions. There two regions differed greatly in sustainability, but the current status of sustainable development raises concerns in both areas, especially from the perspective of balancing the three dimensions of sustainability. In 2002, Dezhou district performed well economically, with an index value of 0.78 (where 1.0 = sustainable), followed by environmental and social sustainability (both with index values of 0.48). All three indices have increased since 1985 (by 0.17, 0.25, and 0.13, respectively). In Guyuan district, environmental sustainability was highest (with an index value of 0.73), followed by economic and social sustainability (values of 0.55 and 0.37, respectively), but economic sustainability has decreased by 0.04 since 1985, whereas environmental and social sustainability increased by 0.18 and 0.12, respectively. To promote sustainable regional development, development priorities should be determined by considering both the regional and temporal variation in the three sustainability indices.     

多晶硅光伏组件生产可持续性评价

分别采用了全生命周期评价软件、全生命周期成本法、社会性指数评价法,对我国多晶硅光伏组件生产阶段的环境影响、经济性和社会性影响进行了定量评估.结果表明:多晶硅生产、多晶硅电池片生产、电池组装3个阶段的环境影响相对较大,其中多晶硅生产阶段对气候变化的贡献率在50%以上.经济成本分析显示,原料和劳动力的成本占总成本的70%以上.多晶硅电池片生产阶段的成本在光伏组件生产过程的5个阶段中所占的比重最大.社会性影响分析结果显示,在光伏组件生产中,劳动岗位增加的贡献指数值为0.72,劳动力就业贡献较大,而生产能力提高的贡献指数值仅为0.18,显示生产能力提高的贡献较小.研究显示,为提高多晶硅光伏组件的可持续性,在生产过程中需寻找清洁能源、寻找环保替代材料以降低环境影响;积极鼓励支持企业进行技术研发创新,着力提高电池转换效率以降低生产成本;通过市场良性竞争提高多晶硅光伏行业的社会贡献.      

A methodology for the life cycle and sustainability analysis of manufacturing processes

Life cycle assessment is emerging as a powerful tool in the evaluation of the environmental impact of manufacturing processes. This paper describes a general methodology for the life cycle analysis of manufacturing processes taking into account the flexibility and decision-making potential of knowledge base systems. Emphasis is placed on on-site waste minimisation and associated sustainability characteristics in relation to environmental impact assessment and process improvement. The ensuing software model is applied with some success to an initial study of pulp and paper manufacture.     

Experiences of and views on third-party assurance of corporate environmental and sustainability reports

This study explores the development of environmental and sustainability reporting in Sweden and the dynamics behind the corporate decision to introduce, or not to introduce, third-party assurance of voluntary reports. The results are based on interviews with 28 Swedish companies, an analysis of corporate environmental/sustainability/annual reports as well as interviews with assurance providers. Between 1990 and 2003, the number of corporate voluntary reports increased and by 2003 approximately one-third of the reports were subject to third-party assurance. In general, the assured companies were positive in regards to the perceived benefits from third-party assurance, e.g. guidance on how to develop efficient internal reporting systems and increased credibility for published data. The companies without assurance were hesitant to adopt the concept. Their main arguments included the high cost of assurance and the lack of evidence that third-party assurance would result in enhanced credibility. According to the companies, the driving forces for the future development of assurance practices will most probably consist of a combination of proactive approaches from leading companies, generally accepted reporting guidelines and assurance methods, increased pressure from stakeholders and the general acceptance that third-party assurance creates benefits for the company and its stakeholders. In conclusion, this study calls for more attention to be paid towards establishing possible links between methods for third-party assurance and increased credibility for corporate environmental or sustainability reports.     

污染场地风险管控可持续评价指标体系构建及关键影响因素分析

以可持续发展理论和风险管理理念为基本原则的污染场地可持续风险管控已成为当前国际社会场地管理的重要决策问题和研究前沿热点,为明确影响污染场地风险管控可持续发展能力的决定性因素,基于国内外污染场地可持续风险管控相关文献的系统调研,构建契合我国场地管理背景的区域污染场地风险管控可持续评价体系,通过指标综合权重计算判定影响风险管控可持续发展能力的关键因子.结果表明,区域尺度上可能影响我国污染场地风险管控可持续性的指标多达44个,涵盖环境、社会、经济和技术这4个维度,单指标影响程度为0.26%～5.01%(平均值2.27%).潜在风险和温室气体排放(环境指标)、健康与安全和公众参与(社会指标)、管控成本和环保投资(经济指标)、修复周期和修复效果(技术指标)是影响我国污染场地风险管控可持续发展的重要因子,影响程度为1.89%～5.01%(平均值3.58%).具有较强政策敏感性的指标,包括考核指标、投融资创新、名录管理、能力建设、安全利用和制度建设等,对风险管控可持续性已经产生1.18%～3.48%的正向影响,随着政策制度的深入落实与全面地域推广,其对风险管控可持续发展的助力效应将更加明显.     

Assessing alternative aquaculture technologies: life cycle assessment of salmonid culture systems in Canada

This study employed life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify and compare the potential environmental impacts of culturing salmonids in a conventional marine net-pen system with those of three reportedly environmentally-friendly alternatives; a marine floating bag system; a land-based saltwater flow-through system; and a land-based freshwater recirculating system. Results of the study indicate that while the use of these closed-containment systems may reduce the local ecological impacts typically associated with net-pen salmon farming, the increase in material and energy demands associated with their use may result in significantly increased contributions to several environmental impacts of global concern, including global warming, non-renewable resource depletion, and acidification. It is recommended that these unanticipated impacts be carefully considered in further assessments of the sustainability of closed-containment systems and in ongoing efforts to develop and employ these technologies on a larger scale.     

秸秆压块与燃煤供热系统生命周期环境排放对比研究

为证明采用秸秆压块燃料替代煤炭进行供热的可持续性,对秸秆压块和燃煤供热系统的生命周期环境排放进行了对比分析.基于我国2012年投入产出表,构建了投入产出生命周期评价(IO-LCA)和过程生命周期评价(PLCA)相结合的混合生命周期评价(Hybrid-LCA)模型,核算了玉米秸秆压块和燃煤供热系统供应1 GJ热的生命周期CO2、SO2、NOx和PM2.5排放.结果显示,秸秆压块供热系统的生命周期CO2排放量为7 kg·GJ-1热,比燃煤供热排放减少121 kg.此外,秸秆压块供热系统比燃煤供热系统可以分别减少SO2排放98%、NOx排放76%和PM2.5排放58%.控制原料水分,通过减少原料收集和能源转化过程中的耗损,减少能源转化过程的电力消耗以及控制原料收集半径等可以有效改进秸秆压块供热系统环境表现.     

公众的主动型环保行为决策研究及发展探讨

自愿承担环保行为所产生相关成本的主动型环保行为对环境问题的长期持续改善有着重要意义。从主动型环保行为决策的内涵出发,根据现有研究的价值观、认知过程两大研究方向,分别就个体规范和环境自我认同,社会维度和时间维度介绍两种研究方向下的主动型环保行为决策研究现状,运用行为决策的研究方法,分析主动型环保行为决策的现有研究局限,亦希望为探索主动型环保行为决策的普适性决策理论拓展方向。     

基于空间数据挖掘的区域危险废物决策支持设计研究

区域危险废物环境管理与风险控制是涉及到危险废物特性、环境、经济和社会等多因素的复杂过程,对资源环境的可持续发展和人体健康都至关重要。空间数据挖掘技术在传统数据挖掘的基础上增加空间维尺度,能够实现从空间数据库和非空间数据库中提取危险废物产生、转移、处置和管理过程中隐含的空间模式与特征。文章在传统的危险废物环境管理和风险控制方法的基础上,构建了区域危险废物空间数据挖掘的指标体系,并设计了一种基于空间数据挖掘技术的区域危险废物决策支持系统框架。该框架由数据层、数据挖掘层和显示层组成,为区域危险废物管理和决策提供了直观的、科学的和高效的支持,提供了一种新颖可行的思路和方法提高危险废物的环境管理和风险控制水平,具有一定的理论和现实意义。     

Decision support in disinfection technologies for treated wastewater reuse

The environmental and social impact derived from treated wastewater reuse is an intrinsically complex multidimensional process, which involves multiple criteria and multiple stakeholders. This paper presents the use of multicriteria decision through the TOPSIS method, applied to six different methodologies concerning the disinfection of treated wastewater before reusing. Results have shown that the best disinfection technique for treated wastewater has been chlorination with 4 ppm, if this water is to be destined to an urban, agricultural or industrial use, due to a large weight given to cost and environmental criteria. Conversely, in recreational and environmental uses, the alternative of ultraviolet light disinfection was the chosen alternative. Economic criteria showed priority in the most entrepreneurial uses of the water, although social and political cost had a greater weight in the case of environmental or recreational uses. The inclusion of environmental and social assessment in the disinfection technique decision support clearly provides a cleaner and more sustainable production.     

Application of the Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System for Developing Countries (SIRSDEC) to a case study

A large amount of international public and private not-for-profit organizations strives to enhance the conditions of less developed economies under the flagship of sustainability throughout a wide range of infrastructure projects. However, the results are uncertain. Sustainable development in poorer countries requires effective frameworks to ensure the balanced consideration of social, economic and environmental dimensions. This paper discusses the application of the Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System for Developing Countries (SIRSDEC) to a mining infrastructure project located in Peru, in order to validate the methodology developed for this framework. The opinions returned from a questionnaire addressed to international experts according to the pairwise comparison scale of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method were processed to obtain the weights of the elements forming the decision-making tree of SIRSDEC. The Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment (MIVES) was introduced to assess infrastructure projects through the definition of value functions for each sustainability indicator, which enables the integration of variables measured in different units into a standardized value index. The weights obtained for SIRSDEC reflected the balance of the three pillars of sustainability, with a slight predominance of the social dimension. The case study highlighted the contribution of the new system to identify key sustainability issues which were omitted in the original project and posed several actions to improve community’s perception and facilitate the development of the project.     

Envisioning sustainability three-dimensionally

Sustainability has arisen as an alternative to the dominant socio-economic paradigm (DSP). However, it is still a difficult concept for many to fully understand. To help to communicate it and make it more tangible visual representations have been used. Three of the most used, and critiqued, sustainability representations are: (1) a Venn diagram, i.e. three circles that inter-connect, where the resulting overlap that represents sustainability can be misleading; (2) three concentric circles, the inner circle representing economic aspects, the middle social aspects, and the outer environmental aspects; and (3) the Planning Hexagon, showing the relationships among economy, environment, the individual, group norms, technical skills, and legal and planning systems. Each has been useful in helping to engage the general public and raising sustainability awareness. However, they all suffer from being highly anthropocentric, compartmentalised, and lacking completeness and continuity. These drawbacks have reduced their acceptance and use by more advanced sustainability scholars, researchers and practitioners. This paper presents an innovative attempt to represent sustainability in three dimensions which show the complex and dynamic equilibria among economic, environmental and social aspects, and the short-, long- and longer-term perspectives.     

Cross-cultural education for sustainability: development of an introduction to sustainability course

This paper reports on Ball State University's activities in the area of education for sustainability and current activities to develop an Internet-based Introduction to Sustainability course. As the course will be Internet-based, it will mesh well with and can serve as the introductory course in the sustainability curriculum of Ball State University Land Design Institute's international network of Sustainability Consortia, and can be used in sustainability education programs within the context of other international partnerships. This course will serve as a foundation for that effort and for a broader curriculum that can be delivered across cultures. Ball State University's Clustered Minors in Environmentally Sustainable Practices utilizes three courses to address the social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainability: environmental ethics; ecology; and environmental economics. The intention is to compose a course comprising elements from all three dimensions. The course will include Internet content and assignments and will exploit the emerging ability for Internet-based teleconferencing for real-time interactions among students and faculty at diverse international sites.