A Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment-Based Decision-Analysis Framework

Marwa Hannouf and Getachew Assefa
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Marwa Hannouf: Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Getachew Assefa: Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-22

Abstract: One of the main challenges in using life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is the difficulty of integrating the interrelationships between the three dimensions (environmental, economic and social dimensions) of LCSA results in decision-making toward proposing sustainability improvements for existing product systems. This paper is addressing this challenge by presenting an LCSA-based decision-analysis framework, which is a systematic and structured framework that appraises the pool of potential actions determined based on LCSA results and evaluates their trade-offs to propose potential sustainability solutions. The framework is composed of two parts: (a) LCSA application; (b) decision-analysis approach. The decision analysis part of the framework is built based on some features from previous decision-making approaches and considering the characteristics of LCSA results. The decision-analysis part of the framework, which is the main focus of this study, is divided into five phases to propose and select some recommendations to improve the sustainability performance of product systems. The framework developed is illustrated using results from a previous LCSA case study. The framework can handle the complexity in understanding the interrelationships between the three dimensions of LCSA results, through a structured way of dividing the process into manageable steps. Further work is still needed to apply this framework to a real case study.

Keywords: life cycle sustainability assessment; decision-analysis; sustainability improvements; product systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:3863-:d:177978

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