Life-LCA: Impacts of a German Human Being in the Old Adulthood Stage

David Bossek (), Caroline Rudolph, Vanessa Bach and Matthias Finkbeiner
Additional contact information
David Bossek: Department of Sustainable Engineering, Institute of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Caroline Rudolph: Department of Sustainable Engineering, Institute of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Vanessa Bach: Department of Sustainable Engineering, Institute of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Matthias Finkbeiner: Department of Sustainable Engineering, Institute of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: Life-LCA studies, which assess the environmental impacts of human beings, focused so far on the span from conception to 50 years. This case study extends the analysis to an “old adulthood stage”, including a retirement (65–75 years) and end-of-life phase (75–80 years), thus complementing the assessment gap in the life cycle of a human being. The Life-LCA method is applied to a fictional study object representing an average German adult using mainly secondary data. Over both life phases, impacts result in 1.2 × 10 2 t CO 2 -eq for climate change, 9 × 10 − ⁵ CTUh for human toxicity cancer, 2 × 10 −3 CTUh for human toxicity non-cancer, 1.35 × 10⁰ kg Sb-eq for abiotic depletion for elements, and 1.55 × 10⁰ TJ for fossil fuels. Across all impact categories, “transport” is a hotspot, contributing 41% to GWP, followed by “Energy and water” (39%) and “food” (20%). For abiotic depletion for elements, “Electronics” shows a share of 50%. The “retirement phase” causes a higher environmental impact than the “EoL phase” across all impact categories due to restricted mobility with higher age. A study with primary data collection is suggested to check the plausibility of the results.

Keywords: life cycle assessment (LCA); Life-LCA; old adulthood; sustainable lifestyles; sustainable consumption; carbon footprint; personal environmental footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11447/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11447/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11447-:d:1201124

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().