Sustainability Assessment

The research of the Sustainability Assessment Group is based in particular on the methodological approaches of life cycle assessment, material flow analysis and scenario analysis.

Key aspects

  • Low carbon technologies
  • Resource efficiency in production/digitization
  • Raw materials for the energy transition
  • Bioeconomy

In several current projects on resource efficiency in production/digitization, we deal with life cycle-based analyses of the energy and material resources used in industrial production processes and production networks. The investigation of resource efficiency is also the focus of research projects on low carbon technologies. Here, future energy technologies are analyzed in terms of the energy and material resources used (critical raw materials) and their environmental impact on the producer and user side. Furthermore, we are involved in research projects on the recording and evaluation of raw material deposits in the construction sector as a contribution to urban mining, as well as in ecological evaluation and the development of energy-efficient solutions for future residential quarter concepts. In the context of the study of resource consumption, we are also involved in research projects on the sustainability assessment of water infrastructures and support decision-making in the area of saving the resource water as well as the study of different material flows such as phosphorus and nitrogen through life cycle-based analyses.

Skills

Material and substance flow analysis (MFA/SFA) is a method from systems analysis regarding the collection, description, and assessment of material flows either between the human economy and the natural environment or within the economic system. Areas of research can be chemical compounds or elements (SFA), but also materials, products, or groups of products (MFA). MFA/SFA can be complemented by energy flows, resulting in a combined material-energy flow analysis. The method MFA/SFA is described in the literature and is based on scientific mass balances for processes and systems.

Systems that can be investigated include the entire economy, sectors and regions, but also organizational systems like companies. The combination of MFA with scenarios – called “dynamic MFA” – can be used to analyze future developments. Of interest is the future development of inventories (e.g., the inventory of buildings) but also of flows (e.g., the future amounts of wastes coming from tearing down buildings). For MFA/SFA, the Material Flow Management and Resource Economy chair uses STAN software, but also develops proprietary mathematical descriptions based on spread sheet programs or mathematical software such as Matlab.

The life cycle assessment (LCA) is described in the international standard DIN ISO 14040/14044. It serves to analyze the entire environmental impact of a product or a service throughout its complete life cycle. This life cycle includes the consumption of resources and the emissions from the production of raw materials to the production of the product itself, the product's usage over its lifetime down to the waste material treatment, recycling, and final disposal, i.e., from the cradle to the grave. In addition to the assessment of the environmental impact via LCA, the economic and social aspects can also be investigated (life cycle costing, social life cycle assessment).

The Material Flow Management and Resource Economy department has profound expertise in performing LCA and using various software tools, data bases, and specific methodical approaches. We are currently using the open source software OpenLCA (http://www.openlca.org/ ), which enables demanding modeling, but can also be used for education. With regard to databases, the department possesses licenses for the Swiss ecoinvent database and can also access further international and domestic databases. Data sets from LCAs prepared at the department are documented in a database that is configured in accordance with international standards and is compatible with other databases via the exchange formats ELCD and EcoSpold. The department makes expertise available for companion studies of new processes and products during their phase of technological development. Above all, LCAs can be done according to the requirements of the European platform for LCA (http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/assessment/), a prerequisite for European research projects in the 7th Framework Program.

Scenario analyses are today indispensable for conducting prospective studies of future developments. They illustrate different paths of development – “potential futures” – and make it possible to analyze the pre-requisites for achieving certain objectives or the consequences of actions, such as in the energy sector. Scenarios are formulated as the input parameters for mathematical models, which permit certain output parameters to be calculated.

“A scenario is a generally comprehensible description of a potential situation in the future, which is based upon a complex grid of factors. Moreover, a scenario can encompass the representation of a development leading from the present to this situation.” Working on scenarios thus requires a profound understanding of a certain area and the multiple variables influencing it. Moreover, in many cases estimates for unknown or future parameters have to be made. To obtain this information, the department can conduct an extensive and systematic search of the literature, accessing electronic libraries and journals. Current research projects also employ the methods of empirical social research, mainly expert interviews, but also online surveys in the framework of Delphi analyses. Based on the principle of using scenarios as descriptions of multiple futures, the results are used to produce a set of scenarios, which are integrated into the modeling of current projects. The department uses existing models, such as LandSHIFT, the land-use model of Kassel University (http://www.usf.uni-kassel.de/cesr/index.php?option=com_project&task=view_detail&agid=27&lang=en), but also develops proprietary models, e.g. a merit order model to investigate the effects of substitution in the area of power supply.

The environmental sciences use GIS to acquire, analyze, and present geographic data. Within the Material Flow Management and Resource Economy chair, multiple applications of GIS are being used for research and project work. Via GIS, data concerning, e.g., species, climate, and road grids can be stored, analyzed, or compiled to form thematic maps. Moreover, GIS can be used for data management, beginning with the acquisition, to prospective development, up to the integration into geo-data infrastructures, e.g., building data.

GIS constitutes a crucial base component for multiple different tasks due to its geographical data and its capabilities for visualizing and analyzing. The department uses GIS in combination with modeling software (e.g., LandSHIFT) but also for regionalized LCA studies and scenario analyses. The Material Flow Management and Resource Economy department uses GIS licenses as part of the EsriCampusBundle of the TU Darmstadt.