Speaker
Description
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) has evolved to a powerful framework to assess products and services holistically. However, from the different types of analysis the practitioner ends up with a multitude of indicator results. Many LCSA practitioners have attempted to achieve an integrated assessment by applying Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods to the individual LCSA results. Nevertheless, recent literature reviews indicate LCSA practitioners only adopt what is either most convenient or replicate previous studies without reflecting what certain methodological choices entail. To close this gap in this work we show how several methodological choices made in LCSA can be translated to correct MCDA implementation. For example, if you get (semi-)qualitative indicator results from social LCA these should not be aggregated with a strictly compensatory aggregation method like additive weighted sum.
To illustrate this approach, we present a case study on the LCSA of hydrogen production in Europe. The premise is that a European investor aims to produce electricity grid-based hydrogen, but as sustainable as possible. A preliminary screening identified Spain, Austria and Germany as potential production locations. Due to the use of electricity from the grid part-load behavior of the electrolyzers is not an issue and the currently least expensive electrolyzer technology, namely alkaline water electrolyzers, is used. To identify the most sustainable production location the LCSA results are aggregated using PROMETHEE II which ensures with its non-compensatory nature a strong sustainability point of view where critical environmental or social deficits cannot be easily traded off by economic gains. For the implementation the software tool HELDA is used.
One of the identified challenges of integrating stakeholders, in this case study investors, in the decision process is to meaningfully pre-aggregate the individual indicator results in order to prevent cognitive overload. This case study offers a reproducible blueprint for robust LCSA-MCDA integration.
| Keywords | Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment; Hydrogen; Sustainability; PROMETHEE |
|---|---|
| Participation in the SNSF Early-Stage Researcher Support and Award Scheme | I am submitting a regular presentation but do not wish to participate in the scheme. |