In environmental systems analysis tools like Life Cycle Assessment, strategic environmental assessment, cost–benefit analysis and environmental management systems, results need to be presented in a comprehensible way to make alternatives easily comparable. One way of doing this is to aggregate results to a manageable set by using weighting methods. In this paper, we explore how weighting methods are used in some selected Environmental Systems Analysis Tools (ESATs), and suggest possible developments of their use. We examine the differences in current use patterns, discuss the reasons for and implications of such differences, and investigate whether observed differences in use are necessary. The result of our survey shows that weighting and valuation is broadly used in the examined ESATs. The use of weighting/valuation methods is different in different tools, but these differences are not always related to the application; rather, they are related to traditions and views on valuation and weighting. Also, although the requirements on the weights/values may differ between tools, there are intersections where they coincide. Monetary weights, using either endpoint or midpoint methods, are found to be useful in all the selected tools. Furthermore, the inventory shows that that there is a common need for generic sets of weights. There is a need for further research focusing on the development of consistent value sets derived with a wide range of methods. In parallel to the development of weighting methods it is important with critical evaluations of the weighting sets with regard to scientific quality, consistency and data gaps.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) developments have been differentiated as self-organized, facilitated, and planned. This article introduces a tool, Looplocal, which has been built with objectives to support the strategic facilitation of IS. Looplocal is a visualization tool built to assist in 1) Simplifying the identification of regions susceptible to new industrial symbiosis facilitation activities 2) Enabling proactive and targeted marketing of potential exchanges to key actors in specific regions and 3) Assisting facilitators to assess the various strategies and consequential engagement and analysis methodologies suitable for additional IS development in specific regions. The tool compares industrial symbiosis data and estimated regional material and energy flows (on a facility level) to identify potential IS transfer information along with key stakeholder and network data. The authors have performed a proof of concept run of this tool on Sweden. In its early stages of application the method has given results seen as useful for identifying regions susceptible to the investment of symbiosis facilitators' time and resources. The material focus and customization possibilities for the tool show potential for a spectrum of potential facilitators: from waste management companies to national or regional authorities. In conjunction with long term business models, such a tool might be utilized throughout an adaptive chain of facilitation activities and aims.

In this study, we explored why urine recycling systems have failed to gain wide-scale expansion despite their high potential for food and fertilizer security. Additionally, we examined the future perception of urine recycling in Sweden and Switzerland, as these two countries are at the forefront of technological advancement. Along with identifying barriers, we also proposed pathways for overcoming those barriers and achieving the upscale. The analysis was conducted using the technological innovation (TIS) approach, which is technology-focused, i.e., revolves around emerging technologies. Additionally, the study provides a methodological contribution to the innovation systems research by employing the Delphi method in conjunction with urine recycling experts to enforce transparency and prevent bias in the analysis. For urine recycling to overcome its current challenges, actors must work collectively. There needs to be a combination of top-down and bottom-up efforts to achieve the upscaling pathways. Lobbying and knowledge provision are necessary to adjust the current regulatory framework in a manner that provides public and private incentives. For urine recycling to diffuse and break into the mainstream market, we must move beyond enthusiasts, innovators, and niche markets into the mass market (ordinary people); dedicated service providers can facilitate this process. Pilot projects have been found integral to urine recycling upscaling. Future work could conduct life cycle assessments on existing pilot projects to understand the environmental and economic performance of urine recycling systems when scaled up.

The present study investigates the impact of board characteristics on environmentally friendly production. The current research uses secondary data extracted from the Refinitiv Eikon database. The data is extracted from the database for a sample of 8094 corporates from 2 continents, Asia and Europe, from 2016 to 2021. Panel data analysis with fixed effect models is used to estimate the results. The findings reveal that board size, independence, and industry expertise significantly impact environmentally friendly production. The results also indicate that board diversity correlates positively with environmentally friendly production in European corporates but negatively in Asian corporates. Findings show that the moderating role of environmental teams has a greater interaction effect with board characteristics in Europe than in Asia. Finally, the results also show that higher environmental performance and environmental, social, and governance scores lead to higher levels of environmentally friendly production. The study has valuable insights and implications for board members, practitioners, academicians, and policymakers. Further, the study contributes to the strand literature by investigating the role of environmental teams on the relationship between board characteristics and environmentally friendly production. The findings are supported by agency, legitimacy, and stakeholder theories, which contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between board characteristics and environmentally friendly production. The evidence about this issue is still unknown and critical, particularly in the context of developing countries where there is a lack of regulatory enforcement related to environmental, social, and governance disclosures.

Cement production contributes to extensive CO₂ emissions. However, the climate impact can vary significantly between different production systems and different types of cement products. The market is dominated by ordinary Portland cement, which is based on primary raw materials and commonly associated with combustion of vast amounts of fossil fuels. Therefore, the production of Portland cement can be described as a rather linear process. But there are alternative options, for example, involving large amounts of industrial byproducts and renewable energy which are more cyclic and thus can be characterized as relatively “synergistic”.

The main purpose of this article is to study how relevant the leading ideas of industrial symbiosis are for the cement industry based on a quantitative comparison of the CO₂ emissions from different cement production systems and products, both existing and hypothetical. This has been done by studying a group of three cement plants in Germany, denoted as ClusterWest, and the production of cement clinker and three selected cement products. Based on this analysis and literature, it is discussed to what extent industrial symbiosis options can lead to reduced CO₂ emissions, for Cluster West and the cement industry in general.

Utilizing a simplified LCA model (“cradle to gate”), it was shown that the CO₂ emissions from Cluster West declined by 45% over the period 1997e2009, per tonne of average cement. This was mainly due to a large share of blended cement, i.e., incorporation of byproducts from local industries as supplementary cementitious materials. For producers of Portland cement to radically reduce the climate impact it is necessary to engage with new actors and find fruitful cooperation regarding byproducts, renewable energy and waste heat. Such a development is very much in line with the key ideas of industrial ecology and industrial symbiosis, meaning that it appears highly relevant for the cement industry to move further in this direction. From a climate perspective, it is essential that actors influencing the cement market acknowledge the big difference between different types of cement, where an enlarged share of blended cement products (substituting clinker with byproducts such as slag and fly ash) offers a great scope for future reduction of CO₂ emissions.

Do standardised environmental management systems (EMS) lead to improved environmental performance? This depends on to what extent these systems lead to changes in important flows of material and energy, which for manufacturing companies, in turn, mean that the product development process is important. Consequently, it appears vital to investigate the connection between EMS and ‘Design for the Environment’ (DFE), i.e. the connection between these management systems and concepts that deal with environmental issues in product development.

This paper presents product-oriented environmental management systems (POEMS), including characteristics of existing models, experiences from projects where these models have been tested and experiences concerning the product connection in ‘normal’ EMS. It includes a discussion of important factors influencing to what extent DFE activities are integrated into EMS and/or the outcome of such integration.

There are many motives for integrating the two concepts. Firstly, DFE thinking might enrich EMS by contributing with a life-cycle perspective. If EMS encompassed products' life cycles to a greater extent, they would be a better complement to the often facility-oriented legal requirements and authority control. Secondly, EMS might remove the pilot project character of DFE activities and lead to continuous improvement. Thirdly, integration could lead to successful co-operation, both internally and externally. However, existing studies show that there is a mixed picture concerning the extent ‘normal’ EMS currently encompass products.

For standardized environmental management systems (EMS) to be environmentally effective tools, they should affect important environmental aspects related to flows of materials and energy, which for manufacturing companies are closely connected to their products. This paper presents how external environmental auditors interpret and apply important product-related requirements of ISO 14001 at manufacturing companies in Sweden.

The results indicate that the link between EMS and products is rather weak. Products are seldom regarded as significant environmental aspects and are therefore not within the main scope of many EMS, which are mainly focused on sites. However, all of the interviewed auditors require that some kind of environmental considerations be incorporated into product development, but these considerations are to large extent site oriented; how they are prioritized in relation to other factors such as economics and other customer priorities appears to be up to the companies.

The paper includes some recommendations to strengthen the role of products within the framework of standardized EMS.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a versatile manure management approach that can combine waste treatment, energy generation and nutrient recovery, thus playing a central role in circular economy. The AD process is highly influenced by manure composition which, depending on the source, may contain high loads recalcitrant materials (e.g., lignocellulosic and fibers) or lead to the formation of toxic compounds (e.g., NH₃), decreasing the energetic potential of the waste and requiring specific pretreatments to increase its degradability and biogas production. Although there are distinctions in the chemical composition of manure according to animal diets, different manure sources are usually grouped together, leading to a suboptimal performance of both the pretreatment and the AD process. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of 54 studies to evaluate the effects of different pretreatments on different manure types and their effect on methane (CH₄) yield and we estimated the energy potential if the appropriate pretreatment is applied to largest manure producing countries. The results showed that chemical and/or biological pretreatments were more effective for omnivore manure (e.g., swine, chicken), while physical and a combination of chemical and physical pretreatments negatively affected CH₄ production. Physical and/or chemical pretreatments had a positive effect on CH₄ yield from herbivore manure (e. g., cattle, horses), while biological pretreatments had a negative effect. The application of the adequate pretreatment can more than double the energy recovered from manure, allowing for an important substitution of fossil fuels, while decreasing operational costs and environmental risks and ultimately improving profitability. The development of pretreatment technologies and their application are strongly related to public policies for sustainable manure management and biogas use and production.

There is a large untapped potential for improved energy efficiency in various sectors of the economy. Governmental industrial energy audit programs subsidizing the companies to conduct an energy audit are the most common policy in trying to overcome the energy efficiency gap. Evaluation studies have been carried out to gain knowledge about the success of a completed energy audit policy program. The evaluations were made in different ways and in addition focused on different performance indicators and used different ways of categorizing data. In this article, a literature review has been made of five evaluation studies from different energy audit programs, where the problems of the present incomparability between programs due to differences are discussed. The policy implication of this paper is that new energy audit policy programs must distinguish a harmonized way of categorizing data, both regarding energy efficiency measures and energy end-use. Further, a proposition for a standard for how to evaluate energy audit policy programs is suggested. Conclusions from this study are that important elements, such as the free-rider effect and harmonized energy end-use data, should be defined and included in evaluation studies. A harmonized standard for evaluating audit programs is not least needed within the EU, where member states are obliged to launch audit programs for large enterprises, and preferably also for small and medium-sized enterprises. This paper serves as an important contribution for the development of such a standard in further research. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improved energy efficiency among industrial companies is recognized as a key effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. In this context, benchmarking industrial energy efficiency plays an important part in increasing industrial companies awareness of their energy efficiency potential. A method for calculating an energy efficiency index is proposed in this paper. The energy efficiency index is used to benchmark the energy performance of industrial small and medium-sized companies support and production processes. This enables the possibility to compare the energy performance of single energy end-use processes. This papers proposed energy efficiency index is applied to energy data from 11 sawmills that participated in the Swedish national energy audit program. The index values were compared with each sawmills energy saving potential, as stated in the energy audits. One conclusion is that the energy efficiency index is suitable as an energy strategy tool in industrial energy management and could be used both by industrial SMEs and by governmental agencies with an auditing role. However, it does require a harmonized categorization of energy end-use processes as well as quality assured energy data. Given this, a national energy end-use database could be created to facilitate the calculation of an energy efficiency index. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Circular economy is one of the sustainable development strategies that proponents of sustainability are pushing for firms to embrace. Nonetheless knowledge on the effect of circular economy practices on firm performance is patchy especially from developing economies perspective, and generally information of circular economy practices and their effects on firm performance remains fragmented. Hence, this study provides a comprehensive framework of various circular economy practices and their effects on firm performance. In doing so, we systematically identified and validated various circular economy practices and their effects with the aid of circular economy experts. This study provides a holistic perspective of the effect of the various circular economy practices from literature and industry. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to methodically structure the various circular economy practices and their effects in an extensive model, termed as "circular economy practices and their effects model" (CEPEM). The study does not only furnish practitioners with comprehensive knowledge on various circular economy practices but also gives them the diverse effects of adopting and implementing specific circular economy practices in their operations. For scholars, the study highlights the status quo and provides directions for further research on circular economy practices and their effects.

Major societal changes which challenge societal functions and actors activities are needed to enhance sustainable development. Thus sustainable transitions research emphasizes co-evolutionary approaches involving a multitude of actors including the business sector, the government, and academia. Academic research can catalyse sustainable transitions by critically analyse current societal trends to develop and disseminate new knowledge. At research conferences, researchers and practitioners meet to network and discuss recent research findings providing arenas for testing and evaluating ideas to enhance sustainable transitions. This however requires some modifications of the standard design of a research conference. Here we report learning outcomes from experimenting at the 18th international Greening of Industry Network conference during 21-24 October 2012 in Linkoping, Sweden. The conference was a combination of a traditional conference structure with different interactive elements such as sustainability jam-sessions to discuss future challenges of six companies and clusters of companies at their site. The intention of doing so was to enhance learning outcomes both for visiting conference delegates and among actors in the host region. This was perceived by the participants as an innovative approach fostering both problem solving and creation of new ideas. Four out of the six companies continued dialogues about sustainable production fields or bio-refineries with Linkoping University. In addition we introduce and summarize research findings presented at the conference which were further developed into research articles. The essence of these articles covers sustainable industry management; cleaner production; industrial ecology; cooperation between industry, governments and academics; dissemination of concepts and technologies; methods and tools for modelling and measuring of industrial symbiosis, CO2 performance and eco-efficiency.

Industrial ecology is a label under which many linkages between production and consumption processes are grouped. This article is based on a social science approach, ranging from organisational learning to the analysis of industrial districts, in reflection to the techno-economic approach of the developments in the industrial ecology projects ‘INES 1994–1997 and INES Mainport 1999–2002’ in the Rotterdam harbour and industry complex. In relation to the growing attention for regional types of industrial ecology, the article aims to provide a useful social science analytical framework for investigating regional industrial ecology, and to develop a prescriptive approach that can stimulate such industrial ecology. Regional industrial ecological systems meet with static and dynamic issues as a result of specific system boundaries of their decision-making levels. The analytical framework provides insight into these issues through a focus on three phases of (regional) industrial ecology, the production of collective goods, and governance mechanisms. We find that the INES Mainport project is still in the first phase of industrial ecology. To go beyond this phase, the Rotterdam harbour and industry region faces the limits of system boundaries of the decision-making levels within the regional management.

This paper describes the first four years' experiences with Erasmus University's “International Off-Campus PhD Programme on Cleaner Production, Cleaner Products, Industrial Ecology and Sustainability.” The proposal for this innovative, off-campus programme was made in 1992, in response to expanding needs for providing environmental professionals the opportunity to continue their employment and to simultaneously work toward fulfilling the requirements of a PhD.

After receiving approval and initial financial support from the Board of Deans of Erasmus University, the first INTENSIVE (INTENSIVE is the term used to describe the annual, two-week long training programme within which the new PhD candidates, as well as those who have been in the programme for a year or more, meet to learn more about the rapidly evolving areas addressed by the programme and to report on progress made in each candidate's PhD thesis research. The Erasmus faculty and invited supportive co-advisors and other visiting scholars contribute to the scholarly input and candidate guidance.) of the new International PhD Programme was held in October 1995. Since then the programme has expanded and progressed. As of the academic year 1998/1999, twenty-one PhD candidates from eleven countries in five continents were actively pursuing their PhD research and thesis development within the Programme. Six new candidates were admitted during the November 1999 INTENSIVE.

This article opens briefly with the recent discussions about the effectiveness of pollution prevention. As pollution prevention and cleaner production are important elements of industrial ecology, the different definitions and approaches of industrial ecology as a term also need clarity. The major part of this article reflects the first results of the cleaner production and industrial ecology concepts, applied in an industrial ecosystem project (INES) in the Rotterdam harbour area. In this industrial area with many refineries and (petro)chemical facilities, the possibilities for companies to reuse waste streams, by-products and energy from each other was researched. The project was initiated by an industrial association. Sixty-nine members of the industrial association joined the INES project and provided confidential information about their resources, products and waste streams to the research team. Based on this information, 15 projects were designed. The selected three projects for further feasibility studies showed the potency to reduce the use of energy, water and bio sludge significantly.

With respect to the philosophy of the preventive approach, the bottom line has often been illustrated with the saying: ‘…a gram of prevention is better than a kilogram of cure…’ But you cannot manage a problem that you do not know. In case of cleaner production, the approach is not to solve the problem but to prevent it. This is a deduction in two ways. Firstly, a new problem has to be present in order to be recognised, also for prevention. Secondly, the problem that has to be prevented is connected to the life-cycle of the capital and technology investments in production processes, products and services. A dilemma for new concepts in general is that pilot studies never meet the full conditions that are needed. When the obstacles of routines are overcome, often the momentum for fully conditioned approaches is passed and watered-down definitions and applications are introduced.

Empirical research has revealed that, despite the positive results of many Cleaner Production case studies, in practice relatively little spontaneous spreading of the application of Cleaner Production approaches occurs. A new paradigm must replace the one used over the past 25 years of environmental protection activities, which focused upon carrying on the 'normal' ways of production and adding 'cleaning' technologies later, as needed. In many companies, this 'normal' practice still goes on today, while the new Cleaner Production awareness, which demands new practices and a new paradigm, has not been accepted by them or by most government officials. This paper reflects on the developments in Cleaner Production and Products research within the past few years.

Currently there is an attention in research and practise on entrepreneurial ecosystems, and how these, often using incubators, could support sustainable development through new firm start-ups. Despite the popularity of incubators in the literature and practise, few studies have focused on sustainable incubators in general or, more specifically, on processes that ensure a steady flow of tenants. Thus, this paper investigates how sustainable incubators ensures their inflow of tenants, how they organize their activities and whether the incubator environment affect tenant recruitment. A case study approach analysing the sustainability oriented incubator Green Garage Berlin have been used to generate an understanding of selection and recruitment processes as well the influence of external environments. The results show that regional and inter-regional co-operation, together with a well-planned, structured pre-incubation process, are requirements for securing an inflow of tenants to sustainable incubators. Incubator reputation and sufficient long term funding is also a key to success. A good practice case as Green Garage cannot simply be replicated, but require openness to continue the learning process and adapting the knowledge to be transferred to local conditions.

This research is motivated by the challenges a ventilator remanufacturer encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic: (i) three refurbishing steps, namely, disassembling, sterilising, and reconditioning, which reduce the yield rates of reused components and thus complicating the remanufacturing process, are required to satisfy the compulsory hygienic regulations; and (ii) the lead time to procuring new components become rather variable because of the paralysed global logistics, thereby prolonging the remanufacturing time. To minimise the total remanufacturing costs, mathematical models are built to derive the optimal remanufacturing lead time analyt-ically for one-and two-component cases and numerical studies are conducted to investigate the behaviour of the remanufacturing process. Four managerial insights are provided to improve the remanufacturing performance: (i) The minimum relative entropy method could approximate the optimal remanufacturing lead time with higher precision because the remanufacturing time might be multi-modal distributed. (ii) Increasing the yield rates at all refurbishing steps could shorten the remanufacturing lead time but does not lower the total cost necessarily. (iii) Investment in reducing the refurbishing lead times might not be economically efficient, whereas shortening the procurement lead time could lower the cost dramatically. (iv) Stock-based strategy for the components with low holding cost could help simplify the remanufacturing process and save the multi-skilled labour cost.

This literature review puts forward a comparison between the traditional seller, usually represented by classic Industrial Organization (IO) models, and system providers, which are illustrated by Product Service System (PSS) models. A multidisciplinary systematic literature review, that compares PSS and IO models, is conducted, and ends up in to define PSS as a technology. It highlights the differences and similarities between classic IO and classic PSS and evaluate the weakness and strengths of different models. In total, 148 articles from different disciplines have been investigated, and a different understanding of PSS is provided. A new IO framework, that considers classic sellers and PSSs providers, is established to preserve PSS specificities and stress the role of policy maker and competition for PSSs expansion.

This paper provides new understanding on how intermediary actors support the adoption of renewable electricity technology. While intermediaries complement each other in different phases of the process, there are also gaps and overlaps in the support that they provide. Results indicate that there is a great need of improving the communication among intermediaries and of a higher level of coordination among the tasks performed. Fostering the widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies is one of the most important drivers to limit the irreversible consequences of global warming that the world is facing today. However, the process of adopting such innovations is often complex and challenging. Previous studies have recognized the crucial role of intermediaries in facilitating the adoption process. Yet, little is known about how different intermediaries support the various adoption process phases, which intermediary type does what, and whether there are support gaps or overlaps among them. The authors of this paper contribute to previous research on innovation adoption and innovation intermediaries based upon research on the adoption context of renewable energy technologies in Sweden. They gathered secondary data and semi-structured interviews with nineteen intermediaries who support the adoption process of renewable energy technologies. The finding of this paper has implications on policy design, with regard, to how intermediaries can better perform in a technology diffusion context and to how intermediaries can be coordinated to provide better services during the different phases of the adoption process. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Municipalities play an important role in the development of sustainable societies, particularly by way of public procurement. Within this area, municipal governments can significantly impact the environment by placing environment-conscious demands on the products and services purchased. At the same time, municipalities are largely responsible when it comes to decreasing the fastest growing source of CO₂ emissions in urban areas: road transport. Yet, while much has been done to curb the environmental impact of passenger transport, freight transport seems to have been nearly forgotten. Some Swedish municipalities have set a good example by coordinating the distribution of goods to their facilities and by separating the purchases of goods from those of distribution services. Although municipalities claim that cooperation and knowledge dissemination are central to developing sustainability management, it remains unclear how such should be applied to coordinated urban freight distribution. This paper thus aims to describe and analyse activities in Swedish municipalities' developmental processes of promoting the coordinated freight distribution of goods, in order to identify which activities of knowledge dissemination and collaboration should be prioritised. Empirical data were gathered from interviews, the Internet, and brochures for initiatives taken by Swedish municipalities. Results indicate that the initiatives demonstrate several similarities and differences, as well as provide examples of how knowledge can be integrated into municipal organisation. Above all, results indicate a need for increased collaboration among actors to make freight transport in Swedish cities more efficient, as well as that increased knowledge transfer can help municipalities to overcome several of their weaknesses.

Industrial ecology initiatives have in common the fact that they cross company boundaries, necessitating the coordination of the activities of several economic actors. This article focusses on this coordination problem. Based on organizational sociological concepts, four types ofindustrial ecology activities are distinguished. Each has its own characteristic coordination problem. From this typology, conclusions are drawn concerning the way in which industrial ecology initiatives can, and should, be stimulated.

Electric vehicles seem to offer a great potential for sustainable transport development. The Swedish pioneer project GreenCharge Southeast is designed as a cooperative action research approach that aims to explore a roadmap for a fossil-free transport system by 2030 with a focus on electric vehicles. In the first paper of this tandem publication, the authors propose a new generic process model embedding the Framework of Strategic Sustainable Development. The purpose of applying it in an action-research mode as described in this paper was twofold: (i) to develop a vision for sustainable regional transport and a coarse roadmap towards that vision, and, while doing so, (ii) get additional empirical experiences to inform the development of the new generic process model. Experts from many sectors and organizations involved in the GreenCharge project provided vital information and reviewed all planning perspectives presented in Paper 1 in two sequential multi-stakeholder seminars. The results include a sustainable vision for electric vehicle systems in southeast Sweden within a sustainable regional transport system within a sustainable global society, as well as an initial development plan towards such a vision for the transport sector. The vision is framed by the universal sustainability principles, and the development plan is informed by the strategic guidelines, of the above-mentioned framework. Among other things, the vision and plan imply a shift to renewable energy and a more optimized use of areas and thus a new type of spatial planning. For example, the vision and plan implies a lower built-in demand for transport, more integrated traffic modes, and more multi-functional use of areas for energy and transport infrastructures, for example. Some inherent benefits of electric vehicles are highlighted in the vision and plan, including near-zero local emissions and flexibility as regards primary energy sources. The vision and plan also imply improved governance for more effective cross-sector collaboration to ensure coordinated development within the transport sector and between the transportation sector and other relevant sectors. Meanwhile, the new generic process model was refined and is ready to be applied and further tested in the GreenCharge project and in other projects within the transport sector as well as other sectors. The study confirmed that the new generic process model suggested in support of sustainable transport system and community development is helpful for giving diverse stakeholders, with various specialties and perspectives, a way of working that is goal-oriented and builds on effective, iterative learning loops and co-creation.

In the field of Ecodesign, in which the answers to the questions of “why”, “what”, and “how” have been largely studied in the past, the lack of implementation in industry remains an issue. The literature lacks insights into the “how” question combined with “who” for ecodesign implementation. The aim of this paper is to propose a concept for a knowledge holder, called a lifecycle engineer, with specific knowledge that can support a team or organization in the ecodesign process for its more effective implementation. This is achieved first by a literature review using a set of constructs derived from theories of engineering design and transdisciplinary research. Second, by consulting the results from the literature review and the proposal of a lifecycle engineer, through semi-structured interviews, with practitioners from the manufacturing sector. The analysis of the semi-structured interviews shows that the relevant knowledge includes lifecycle analysis, materials and their selection, energy efficiency, legislation, and management. This knowledge was complemented by skills that practitioners thought of as relevant for effective implementation. Moreover, the proposal of a lifecycle engineer, according to most practitioners, was found to be useful. The advantages of a lifecycle engineer include having more focus on ecodesign and the availability of information and staff to drive changes. Caveats include clear benefits against investment for the company, especially for smaller ones, and enough tasks for full-time employment.

The Swedish iron and steel industry is focused on the production of advanced steel grades and accounts for about 5% of the countrys final energy consumption. Energy efficiency is according to the European Commission a key element for the transition towards a resource-efficient economy. We investigated four aspects that are associated with the adoption of cost-effective energy conservation measures: barriers, drivers, energy management practices and energy services. We used questionnaires and follow-up telephone interviews to collect data from members of the Swedish steel association. The heterogeneous observations implied a classification into steel producers and downstream actors. For testing the significance, the Mann Whitney U test was used. The most important barriers were internal economic and behavioural barriers. Energy service companies, in particular third-party financing, played a minor role. In contrast, high importance was attached to energy management as the most important drivers originated from within the company. Energy management practices showed that steel companies are actively engaged in the topic, but need to raise its prioritisation and awareness within the organisation. When sound energy management practices are included, the participants assessed the cost-effective energy conservation potential to be 9.7%, which was 2.4% higher than the potential for solely adopting cost-effective technologies.

Limited literature provides concrete, theory-based methods for quantifying the effects of sharing capital. This paper describes the potential contribution of portfolio theory to quantify the effects and optimize the employment of capital (human, tangible, financial, and service employing capital) in a theoretical and quantitative manner in the context of sustainability. Insights illustrate how portfolio principles can yield benefits, including the fulfillment of needs using fewer resources, consistent with sustainability. In particular, “pooling” assets to meet uncertain demands from different users of an asset pool may yield benefit from diversification effects. Suggests future research avenues such as the management of high-value, critical-value, and expiring resources to support sustainability.

To save lives and reduce suffering of victims, the focus of this paper is to design the strategies of relief distribution regarding beneficiary perspective on sustainability. This problem is formulated as a multi objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model to maximize the lowest victims perceived satisfaction, and minimize respectively the largest deviation on victims perceived satisfaction for all demand points and sub-phases. Then, genetic algorithm is proposed to solve this mathematical model. To validate the proposed methodologies, a case study from Wenchuan earthquake is illustrated. Computational results demonstrate genetic algorithm here can achieve the trade-off between solution quality and computation time for relief distribution with the concern of sustainability. Furthermore, it indicates that the methodology provides the tools for decision-makers to optimize the structure of relief distribution network and inventory, as well as alleviate the suffering of victims. Increasingly, this paper expects to not only validate the proposed model and method, but also highlight the importance and urge of considering beneficiary perspective on sustainability into relief distribution problem. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A safe and effective medical waste transport network is beneficial to control the COVID-19 pandemic and at least decelerate the spread of novel coronavirus. Seldom studies concentrated on a two-phase COVID-19 medical waste transport in the presence of multi-type vehicle selection, sustainability, and infection probability, which is the focus of this paper. This paper aims to identify the priority of sustainable objectives and observe the impacts of multi-phase and infection probability on the results. Thus, such a problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming model to minimise total potential infection risks, minimise total environmental risks, and maximise total economic benefits. Then, a hybrid solution strategy is designed, incorporating a lexicographic optimisation approach and a linear weighted sum method. A real-world case study from Chongqing is used to illustrate this methodology. Results indicate that the solution strategy guides a good COVID-19 medical waste transport scheme within 1 min. The priority of sustainable objectives is society, economy, and environment in the first and second phases because the total Gap of case No.35 is 3.20%. A decentralised decision mode is preferred to design a COVID-19 medical waste transport network at the province level. Whatever the infection probability is, infection risk is the most critical concern in the COVID-19 medical waste clean-up activities. Environmental and economic sustainability performance also should be considered when infection probability is more than a certain threshold.

Functional sales is a business model that has steadily seen increased use. This article features, from a life cycle perspective and in a novel way, its legal, environmental, and economic implications. Functional sales has been highlighted to have the potential for promoting the use of more resource-efficient technologies, which may have a positive impact on the provided solution’s environmental and economic performance. However, there are, to our knowledge, few articles published regarding the legal aspects of functional sales and still no laws regulating this type of business model, which can pose barriers to implementing functional sales. Functional sales is in uncharted territory in the legal sphere, and the lack of legal regulation can only, to a certain extent, be overcome by a contract. A contract must consider the relationship to be long-term, and evaluation is important.

In this paper, two different techniques for acquiring lighting representing product sales and functional sales are compared. The case for functional sales is based on the legal foundation of an existing public procurement, while the case for product sales is a likely alternative for lighting purposes. The study shows that there is a trade-off between environmental consequence and economic benefit and that qualitative aspects can be difficult to include in the contract and evaluation.

The conclusion is that the ordinary purchase is supported by long-established rules and regulations so that such a legal transaction (acquisition) is quite conventional and uneventful. However, if the business model changes without a proper legal foundation, the parties of such contracts will find themselves in a legal wilderness, where the outcome of civil litigations is unpredictable. There are ways to circumvent these difficulties, which is demonstrated in this article, as well as the principal advantages of functional sales.

This article presents a concept for creating arenas where expertise from certain branches of industry can interact with sustainability professionals and researchers to address and solve sustainability challenges. The concept Sustainability Jam Session (SJS) builds upon the idea of conducting creative meetings between professionals in “jam sessions,” similar to those associated primarily with music and improvisation. Approaches such as these have been used in the IT sector over the past decades, but this is the first attempt to apply it in the area of sustainability. SJS's were tested at the 2012 Greening of Industry Network Conference (GIN2012) and here we report our experiences from arranging six SJS's at the conference.

A typical process of an SJS includes a preparatory phase, the actual jam, and documentation and follow up. The preparatory phase mainly involves identifying hosts and topics to be addressed at the SJS, followed by attracting participants. The jam is started by an introduction of the topics, a technical visit (if appropriate), and a problem-solving workshop, ending with a wrap-up reporting. Thorough documentation is necessary for following up the results of the SJS and preparing for implementation of the identified solutions.

We conclude that skill, structure, setting, and surrender of control, as well as finding “red and hot” topics for the jams are the key factors for successful SJS's.

Based on our experiences from GIN2012, we recommend other research conferences in the sustainability field use SJS's if the intention is to boost the interaction between the conference and the host region or non-academic organizations in general. We also suggest that a similar approach can be used in regional development for creating an infrastructure for learning and transformation towards sustainability and initiatives for open innovation.

The relationship between environmental management practices (EMPs) and company performance hasrecently been debated in literature and is of interest for both industrial managers and political decisionmakers.This paper investigates the relationship between EMPs and firm performance in manufacturingcompanies in Sweden, China and India. With the content analysis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)reports and financial reports of sample companies, the levels of EMPs and the companies’ financialperformances were coded. Further statistical assessment was conducted in order to identify patterns andcorrelations. The results indicate that only selected EMPs have been employed differently in threedifferent countries. Most EMPs clearly do not have a positive correlation with the financial performance;i.e. employing EMPs does not necessarily improve the economic consequence of companies. Nevertheless,a number of EMPs do have a strong correlation with improving innovation performance in variouscompanies. It is also interesting to note that a negative correlation exists between the Environmentalstandard for suppliers and Sales growth. This is possibly due to increasing operational costs and a delay inmarket acceptance. This research illustrates the possibility of using standard environmental data fromGRI reports as a resource for future studies of EMPs. In order to improve long-term financial performance,this study also suggests that innovation should gain a substantial amount of attention when EMPsare employed.

In this study, we aim to explore the role of the involvement of suppliers while firms execute sustainable initiatives. We have based the entire study on a survey covering 101 Swedish manufacturers. The structural equation models of partial least squares are adopted to analyse their responses, examining the relationship among the constructs, stakeholders influence, sustainable practices, sustainable performance, and supplier involvement. We find that, in the firms, the effects of stakeholder influence on the sustainable practices is both significant and positive; the sustainable practices of sampled firms are to a great extent facilitating the sustainable performance. In addition, intensely participating in the initiatives related to environmental protection (e.g., cleaner production) by the suppliers, helps reinforce the relationship of sustainable practice and sustainable performance in the firms, however the moderating effects of suppliers involvement in economic and social activities is not significant. This has significant implications to firms decision regarding where to invest in sustainability. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

This paper explores consumer green consumption practices and considers a set of factors, including cognitive and behavioural level constructs, that influence green consumption. The paper primarily aims to predict the green purchase intention and classify a consumer as a green or non-green consumer. A total of 310 responses were collected and analyzed using machine Learning techniques like Decision Tree, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, XGBoost, K-Nearest Neighbour, and Support Vector Machine, and the models were validated using different performance metrics. The paper reveals that the main driving factors for a consumer to consider greener options are green self-identification, followed by environmental knowledge, environmental consciousness, and the impact of social media. The current work will allow better product development and the targeting and positioning of green products/services offerings to customers already classified by the system.

Biogas solutions offer many advantages to improve sustainable development, but there is still untapped potential in its environmental performance. During biogas upgrading, CO2 is separated from the gas to deliver a flow with high methane concentration and thus high energy content. In this practice, CO2 is commonly emitted to the atmosphere without contributing to a net addition of climate gases because of its biological origin, being a missed opportunity for carbon capture. In this paper, CO2 valorization is an option that has been evaluated using a qualitative and quantitative approach, taking Sweden as an example. Results showed that around 140 kt of CO2 can potentially be captured and utilized from biogas upgrading, which can significantly increase in future scenarios. If CO2 were turned into methane using power-to-gas technology, an additional 35% of biogas could be produced in the short term, meaning up to additional 0.7 TWh in 2020. By 2050, around 600 to 1600 kt of CO2 could be available, depending on how well the biogas production develops and how much of the biogas is upgraded, resulting in up to 6.2 TWh of biomethane. The qualitative assessment suggested that only minor modifications in the upgrading process are required for this practice. Biogas actors are interested in getting involved in valorization projects that enhance their circular business and avoid carbon lock-in mainly to improve the environmental performance of biomethane. Moreover, the application of CO2 valorization requires collaboration with different actors to integrate current CO2 demand or innovative transformation technologies.

In Vietnam, the middle class is expected to grow from 12 million to 33 million people between 2012 and 2020. The growth causes an increase as well as a shift in consumption. Products that were not accessible or affordable before will become increasingly so, such as cars, dishwashers, meat products and air-conditioning. In urban areas the changes are most prominent and so are the side effects: increased amounts of waste, smog, pollution and use of fossil energy or pesticides.

The main objective of this study was to identify sustainable behaviour that followed or did not follow from the intervention project GetGreen Vietnam. 604 urban middle class consumers participated in a series of sustainable consumption trainings. Before, during and after the trainings, quantitative and qualitative data was collected on 90 sustainable actions.

64% of the participants self-reported to be engaged in a sustainable action before the intervention and this percentage increased to 80% after. The group environment and activity-based meetings of GetGreen Vietnam project (GGVN) were critical for the success of the intervention. Participants reported that before GGVN certain actions were already habitual as a money saving strategy (e.g. sparse electricity use or food leftovers re-use) or due to past scarcity (e.g. sparse water use). Many participants reported the intention to buy sustainable products but fewer participants took action to do so.

A powerful strategy toward more sustainable consumption in Vietnam can be to create more group-based activities around the themes of energy and shopping for food. A twofold approach is needed that both installs new sustainable consumption patterns and keeps old habits rooted in daily rituals. Role models should set an example for the young population and consumers and (Vietnamese) producers should be better connected to increase mutual trust and transparency.

In developing countries, coal power plants still play a major role in the power sector and they are considered as a major emission source of air pollution. Strict regulations have compelled the coal power plants to improve environmental performance by reducing carbon emissions and the emission of pollutants. However, due to cost disadvantages, the coal power plants often lack motivation to internalize environmental externalities through investing in green technology. This situation raises a question: is there any alternative to reduce pollutants in operations economically? With a focus on service supply as well as a consideration of government policies, this paper develops a model to investigate the opportunity of outsourcing a pollutant-reduction service to meet the environmental constraint. The service supply chain consists of a coal power plant (end user) and a pollutant-reduction service provider, with the former outsourcing the service to the latter. We study the policy for improving the profit of this service supply chain whereas the benefit allotment is adjusted through outsourcing price negotiation between the two partners. The results show that the green service outsourcing price is interrelated with the government incentive policy which defines the shares of the two partners. Our key contribution lies in integrating the complex factors affecting the supply chain collaboration such as green service, financial feasibility, environmental constraint, government policies, outsourcing price negotiation, and profit sharing. Our research findings have the following implications; considering environmental externalities, the government should motivate the collaboration between supply chain partners; the economic scale of output and sales price subsidy of electricity generation are the primary factors affecting the price of outsourcing green service and, consequently, the allotment of supply chain profits. The study results indicate the collaboration is potentially effective in improving environmental performance. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper evaluates the effects on profitability of biofuel production if biofuel producers would sell the waste heat from the production to a local district heating system. All analyses have been performed considering four different technology cases for biofuel production. Two technology cases include ethanol production which is followed by by-production of raw biogas. This biogas can be upgraded and sold as biofuel (the first technology case) or directly used for combined heat and power production (the second technology case). The third and the fourth technology cases are Fischer-Tropsch diesel and dimethyl ether production plants based on biomass gasification. Two different district heating price levels and two different future energy market scenarios were considered. The sensitivity analyses of the discount rate were performed as well.

In the case of energy market conditions, the profitability depends above all on the price ratio between biomass (used as the feedstock for biofuel production) and crude oil (used as the feedstock for fossil diesel and gasoline production). The reason for this is that the gate biofuel prices (the prices on which the biofuel would be sold) were calculated assuming that the final prices at the filling stations are the same as the prices of the replaced fossil fuel. The price ratios between biomass and district heating, and between biomass and electricity, also have an influence on the profitability, since higher district heating and electricity prices lead to higher revenues from the heat/electricity by-produced.

Due to high biofuel (ethanol + biogas) efficiency, the ethanol production plant which produces upgraded biogas has the lowest biofuel production costs. Those costs would be lower than the biofuel gate prices even if the support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources were not included. If the raw biogas that is by-produced would instead be used directly for combined heat and power production, the revenues from the electricity and heat would increase, but at the same time the biofuel efficiency would be lower, which would lead to higher production costs. On the other hand, due to the fact that it has the highest heat efficiency compared to the other technologies, the ethanol production in this plant shows a high sensitivity to the district heating price level, and the economic benefit from introducing such a plant into a district heating system is most obvious. Assuming a low discount rate (6%), the introduction of such a plant into a district heating system would lead to between 28% and 52% (depending on the district heating price level and energy market scenario) lower biofuel production costs. Due to the lower revenues from the heat and electricity co-produced, and higher capital investments compared to the ethanol production plants, Fischer-Tropsch diesel and dimethyl ether productions are shown to be profitable only if high support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included.

The results also show that an increase of the discount rate from 6% to 10% does not have a significant influence on the biofuel production costs. Depending on the biofuel production plant, and on the energy market and district heating conditions, when the discount rate increases from 6% to 10%, the biofuel production costs increase within a range from 2.2% to 6.8%.

Biofuel production through polygeneration with heat as one of the by-products implies a possibility for cooperation between transport and district heating sectors by introducing large-scale biofuel production into district heating systems. The cooperation may have effects on both the biofuel production costs and the district heating production costs. This paper is the second part of the study that investigates those effects. The biofuel production costs evaluation, considering heat and electricity as by-products, was performed in the first part of the study. In this second part of the study, an evaluation of how such cooperation would influence the district heating production costs using Stockholm's district heating system as a case study was performed. The plants introduced in the district heating system were chosen depending on the future development of the transport sector. In order to perform sensitivity analyses of different energy market conditions, two energy market scenarios were applied.

Despite the higher revenues from the sale of by-products, due to the capital intense investments required, the introduction of large-scale biofuel production into the district heating system does not guarantee economic benefits. Profitability is highly dependent on the types of biofuel production plants and energy market scenarios. The results show that large-scale biogas and ethanol production may lead to a significant reduction in the district heating production costs in both energy market scenarios, especially if support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included. If the total biomass capacity of the biofuel production plants introduced into the district heating system is 900 MW, the district heating production costs would be negative and the whole public transport sector and more than 50% of the private cars in the region could be run on the ethanol and biogas produced. The profitability is shown to be lower if the raw biogas that is by-produced in the biofuel production plants is used for combined and power production instead of being sold as transportation fuel; however, this strategy may still result in profitability if the support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included. Investments in Fischer–Tropsch diesel and dimethyl ether production are competitive to the investments in combined and power production only if high support for transportation fuel produced from renewable energy sources is included.

In this study, cooperation between Stockholm's transport and district heating sectors is analysed. The cooperation concerns the integration of biofuel polygeneration production. A MODEST optimisation model framework is used, assuming various energy market and transport sector scenarios for the year 2030. The scenarios with biofuel production and increased biofuel use in the region are compared with reference scenarios where all new plants introduced into the district heating sector are combined heat and power plants, and the share of biofuel used in the transport sector is the same as today. The results show that the cooperation implies an opportunity to reduce fossil fuel consumption in the sectors by between 20% and 65%, depending on energy market conditions and assumed transport sector scenarios. If we consider biomass an unlimited resource, the potential for greenhouse gas emissions reduction is significant. However, considering that biomass is a limited resource, the increase of biomass use in the district heating system may lead to a decrease of biomass use in other energy systems. The potential for reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions is thus highly dependent on the alternative use of biomass. If this alternative is used for co-firing in coal condensing power plants, biomass use in combined heat and power plants would be more desirable than biofuel production through polygeneration. On the other hand, if this alternative is used for traditional biofuel production (without co-production of heat and electricity), the benefits of biofuel production through polygeneration from a greenhouse gas emissions perspective is superior. However, if carbon capture and storage technology is applied on the biofuel polygeneration plants, the introduction of large-scale biofuel production into the district heating system would result in a reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions independent of the assumed alternative use of biomass.

A majority of previous studies on environmental problems caused by waste generation have focused on waste disposal issues without fully highlighting the primary reasons behind the problems. As a consequence, efforts to reduce these problems are usually directed towards the stakeholders that provide waste treatment and disposal instead of the stakeholders that contribute to waste generation. In order to detect connections between different problems of sustainability and to suggest measures which may contribute to their solutions, this study provides a simplified overview of the mechanisms behind waste generation and management. The results from the study show that the only way to eliminate problems of sustainability is to apply an upstream approach by dealing with the primary problems which occur in the early stages of the system (e.g. overconsumption of products, as well as use of finite resources, toxic materials, and non-recyclable materials). By dealing with these problems, the emergence of secondary problems would be prevented. Thereby, stakeholders who have the highest possibility to contribute to the sustainable development of the waste generation and management are the stakeholders from the origin of the products life cycles, such as product developers, manufacturing companies, product users and policy makers. Different trade-off situations such as contradictions between economics, recyclability, energy efficiency, make it even harder to deal with issues of sustainability related to the system and to detect the stakeholders who may contribute to the development. One of the main conclusions from this study is that when transforming society towards a circular economy, the traditional view of separate systems for production and waste management must be changed. In order to refer to all problems of sustainability and also cover the top steps of the waste hierarchy, life cycle assessment of waste management should include manufacture and use of products ending up as waste. Waste entering the waste management system with "zero burden", by releasing the previous actors of the waste life cycle from any responsibility related to the environment (i.e. by shifting the total environmental burden into the waste management system), does not capture the problems with waste generation. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global demand for food, including rising consumption of meat and dairy products, is increasing pressure on the environment and natural resources, often in locations distant from points of consumption. To identify and quantify consumer driven impacts and the components of the supply chain where sustainability interventions will be most effective, spatially explicit consumption-linked indicators that encompass environmental risks are required. Large amounts of phosphorus fertilizers are used in Brazilian soybean cultivation, which potentially cause eutrophication and impact freshwater species. We use a sub-national trade model to develop a spatially explicit approach for assessing commodity-driven phosphorus fertilizer use and its potential impact on biodiversity linked to four key consumers. The use of phosphorus for embedded consumption per capita of Brazilian soybean in China, the EU, the UK, and Sweden are estimated at municipal level and combined with metrics that influence losses of phosphorus to create a normalised relative risk index. The relative risk index is presented in geospatial visualisations to explore geographical patterns of risk to freshwater biodiversity and make the link between consumer and producer countries less obscure. The results indicate high phosphorus-linked species risk in municipalities within Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, and Goiás. Sweden and the UK generate the highest relative risk and the geographical patterns of risk differ between the investigated consuming countries, showing that smaller countries can have relatively large impacts at a spatially explicit scale. In the Amazon biome, risk of nutrient losses and biodiversity are relatively high, creating concerns as soybean production is expanding into the area. The results and methodological approach can contribute to understanding of accountability, agency, and increased transparency for the governance of global supply chains, necessary for enabling transformations towards sustainable food systems.

About 60% of plastic packaging in Sweden ends up in mixed municipal solid waste (MSW), which is incinerated with energy recovery. This status quo presents a missed opportunity to meet ambitious recycling targets. This study aims to provide a detailed characterization of plastic packaging in mixed MSW to assess its potential for recycling and its significance in improving the overall recycling rate. A case study involving a Swedish city was conducted wherein a sample of 5500 kg of mixed MSW from 920 households was characterized. From the 31% recycling rate, improvement of up to 59% can be achieved by diverting this misplaced plastic packaging into the existing recycling system. An additional 9% increase remains challenging to achieve due to the occurrence of non-recyclable attributes like black and multilayer packaging. The highlighted key enabler is the combination of correct household waste separation behavior and the establishment of mechanical sorting facilities to recover plastic waste from mixed MSW. These recycling potentials and associated challenges are discussed in the context of Sweden's ongoing efforts across the plastic packaging value chain. Furthermore, the importance of extended waste characterization is emphasized as a tool for identifying recycling potentials and monitoring the effectiveness of measures in enhancing circularity and resource-efficiency. 

In this article, the development of biogas for transport in the municipality of Linköping, Sweden, is studied in order to contribute to a better understanding of the conditions for socio-technical transitions towards sustainability. Linköping municipality, 1976 [kommunfullmäktige] Motion om utredning angående eldrivna fordon. Dnr 1976.278. Using concepts from multi-level perspectives and socio-technical perspectives on system builders, the study focuses on three time periods: During the first time period (1976–1994), a niche for biogas developed amongst dedicated actors in small networks representing energy and public transport within the municipality. That is, biogas was entirely connected to the vision of a ‘green’ public transport. Second, between the years of 1994 and 2001, the biogas producing company acted as a system builder and initiated a large-scale biogas production through close cooperation in networks with other actors. As a result, biogas reached a phase of technological maturity and also gained some support from national investment programs. Finally, from 2001 the expansion of biogas became clearer as the biogas production spread into a regional arena but also reached for new customers, like personal cars. Unforeseen spin-offs like the formation of new private companies and development of research were important results of the transition. Thereby, the transition is a move towards a new socio-technical regime. A conclusion from the study is that the development of biogas was highly influenced by national support and pressure, but was mainly driven by local actors – system builders – that could steer the processes and had endurance as well as capability to mobilize resources in order to fulfill their purposes.

Cement production is among the largest anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) and there is considerable pressure on the cement industry to reduce these emissions. In the effort to reduce CO2 emissions, there is a need for methods to systematically identify, classify and assess different improvement measures, to increase the knowledge about different options and prioritize between them. For this purpose a framework for assessment has been developed, inspired by common approaches within the fields of environmental systems analysis and industrial symbiosis. The aim is to apply a broad systems perspective and through the use of multiple criteria related to technologies and organization strategies facilitate informed decision-making regarding different CO2 performance measures in the cement industry.

The integrated assessment framework consists of two parts: a generic and a case-specific part. It is applied to a cement production cluster in Germany called Cluster West, consisting of three cement plants owned by CEMEX. The framework can be used in different ways. It can be used as a tool to perform literature reviews and categorize the state-of-the-art knowledge about options to improve the CO2 performance. It can also be used to assess options for the cement industry in general as well as for individual plants.

This paper describes the assessment framework, the ideas behind it, its components and the process of carrying out the assessment. The first part provides a structured overview of the options for improvement for the cement industry in general, while the second part is a case-specific application for Cluster West, providing information about the feasibility for different categories of measures that can reduce the CO2 emissions. The overall impression from the project is that the framework was successfully established and, when applied, facilitated strategic discussions and decision-making. Such frameworks can be utilized to systematically assess hundreds of different measures and identify the ones most feasible and applicable for implementation, within the cement industry but also possibly in other sectors. The results demonstrated that even in a relatively synergistic and efficient production system, like Cluster West, there are opportunities for improvement, especially if options beyond “production efficiency” are considered.

Cement is a vital and commonly used construction material that requires large amounts of resources and the manufacture of which causes significant environmental impact. However, there are many different types of cement products, roughly ranging from traditional products with rather linear resource flows to more synergistic alternatives where industrial byproducts are utilized to a large extent. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies indicate the synergistic products are favorable from an environmental perspective.

In co-operation with the global cement producing company CEMEX a research project has been carried out to contribute to a better understanding of the CO₂ performance of different ways of producing cement, and different cement products. The focus has been on Cluster West, which is a cement production cluster consisting of three plants in Germany.

This paper is the first in a series of three, all of which are included in this special issue. It has two main aims. The first is to carry out an attributional LCA and compare three different cement products produced in both linear and synergistic production setups. This has been done for cradle to gate, focusing on CO₂-eq emissions for Cluster West. The second aim of this part is to develop and test a simplified LCA model for this production cluster, with the intention to be able to compare different versions of the production system based on the information of a few parameters.

The attributional LCA showed that cement products that contain a large proportion of byproducts, in this case, ground granulated blast furnace slag from the iron and steel industry, had the lowest unit emissions of CO₂-eq. The difference between the lowest emission product (CEM III/B) and the highest (CEM I) was about 66% per tonne. A simplified LCA model based on six key performance indicators, instead of approximately 50 parameters for the attributional LCA, was established. It showed that Cluster West currently emits about 45% less CO₂-eq per tonne of average product compared to 1997. The simplified LCA model can be used effectively to model future changes of both plants and products (which is further discussed in part II and part III).

Biogas production through anaerobic digestion is an integral part of the transition toward a biobased and circular economy and its expansion is foreseen in many parts of the world as well as in Europe. In Sweden, a governmental inquiry suggested biogas production to be increased from about 2 TWh today to 7 TWh by 2030. This rapid expansion would require installation of several new biogas plants across the country. However, the location of biogas plants can greatly affect its business performance and there are several geographic and socio-political factors that would limit the choice of location. Through dialogue with existing biogas producing companies and a few other related actors, we identified 12 factors that are commonly considered in the site-selection of biogas plants in Sweden or are considered to be important in the years to come. These factors are grouped into those related to supply and demand (feedstock supply, biogas demand, digestate demand, and carbon dioxide demand), infrastructure and synergies (available infrastructure, adjacent existing industries), land-use and zoning (nearby housing, zoning, and historic preservation sites), and socio-political context (political strategies and goals, organizational capability, and local social acceptance). We discuss how these factors can be used under rapidly transforming conditions in Sweden through different site-selection logics and highlight the importance of spatially explicit analysis for individual or coordinated decision making in future. Our method of enquiry and analysis, and to a certain degree the factors, can be also relevant for other countries, particularly in Europe. This study paves the way for more in-depth investigation of the question of site-selection of biogas plants in Sweden; both in the direction of detailed analysis at the local level, or screening analysis on the regional or national level for improved coordinated actions.

The depletion of natural resources, climate change and energy security are some of today's societal challenges. One way to address these is through anaerobic digestion of food waste, which provides multiple benefits such as waste treatment, nutrient recycling and renewable energy, such as biogas. Biogas solutions tend to vary, so to gain a holistic understanding of their pros and cons there is a need to use a common analytical approach and simultaneously consider several issues. This study has analysed the climate impact, primary energy use, nutrient recycling potential, and resource cost of producing biogas from food waste in three Swedish biogas plants with different setups. In addition, several scenarios representing changes in the existing systems were analysed. The study aims to provide insights into factors that affect the performance of biogas production from food waste. The method applied is based on life cycle analysis and key performance indicators (KPIs), which were used to compare and analyse the performance of the biogas systems. The analysis synthesises a large amount of information about the performance of these systems and their sub-systems. Despite significant differences between the studied cases, all led to the production of biomethane with a low climate impact (62–80% less climate impact in grCO2eq/MJ compared with the fossil reference), low non-renewable primary energy use (16–31% MJ per MJ delivered biomethane), and significant nutrient recovery (e.g., 52–86% of phosphorus content of food waste was delivered as biofertilizer). In addition to the collection system, the efficiency of pretreatment, the choice of energy system (e.g., for heating the biogas plant), and a suitable digestate treatment were found to be among the main factors that influence the overall performance of these systems.

Swedish municipalities have traditionally had significant powers and played a major role in implementing national energy strategies. This paper describes the factors influencing development of municipal climate and energy plans in five Swedish municipalities and assesses the relevance and importance of these factors from theoretical and practical perspectives. The questions raised in the paper are: what are the characteristics of municipal climate and energy planning processes in the five municipalities, do these municipalities include stakeholders in the process, if so how, and do the stakeholders influence the content of strategies? Results suggest that a number of factors influence the development of municipal climate and energy strategies and their content. These include the importance of a clear, shared vision and engaged politicians; the size and organisational structure of the municipality and its willingness and capability to act; the organisation of the process and extent to which stakeholders not only have been involved but also felt included; the need for clarity about financial aspects, such as planned financing of implementation; and the need for greater clarity concerning selection of targets and their relevance to global climate and energy trends. The study and its results may be used to inform policy-makers on the national and local levels about factors influencing municipal energy planning and also contribute to a discussion on benefits and problems of involving stakeholders and citizens in the strategic work to reduce climate impacts and energy consumption.