This report covers a preliminary life cycle assessment (LCA) on imitation leather made from hemp fiber (hemp leather) and a comparison to bovine leather, to examine whether hemp leather is an environmentally sustainable alternative. The bovine leather industry is responsible for heavy chemical use and emissions, detrimental effects to the environment as well as to human health. The United Nations (UN) and other organizations call for immediate action against the animal product industry sector to greatly reduce emissions and protect the environment. Hemp is a versatile plant that can be used for many things, including paper, composites, textiles, food and medicine, and is probably a suitable material for imitation leather. The hemp plant requires little inputs, grows fast and without pesticides, has positive effects on the environment and can be cultivated on every inhabited continent. The preliminary LCA was based on a patent describing the manufacturing process of hemp leather completed with data from literature and a few assumptions made. LCA-results for bovine leather were collected from literature and the two leather fabrics were then compared. The comparison showed that hemp leather is superior to bovine leather in all compared categories except for water consumption and hazardous waste. Bovine leather had 99% more energy use, 78% higher acidification potential (AP), 99,9% higher eutrophication potential (EP) and 83% higher global warming potential (GWP) than hemp leather. The large water consumption in the manufacturing phase of hemp leather is possible to be explained by over dimensioning of inputs. The report concludes that hemp leather would be the environmentally and ethically admirable choice between the two leathers and that more research on more modern methods of manufacturing it should be performed. / Denna rapport omfattar en preliminär livscykelanalys (LCA) på syntetiskt läder gjort av hampfiber (hampläder) och en jämförelse med nötskinn, för att undersöka om hampläder är ett miljövänligt alternativ. Nötskinnsindustrin är ansvarig för stor kemikalieanvändning och tunga utsläpp, skadlig inverkan på miljö samt människors hälsa. Förenta nationerna och andra organisationer fordrar till omedelbar handling mot djurindustrisektorn för att drastiskt minska utsläpp och skydda miljön. Hampa är en mångsidig växt som kan användas inom många olika applikationer, såsom till papper, kompositer, textiler, mat och medicin, och är förmodligen ett passande material till imitationsläder. Hampan behöver liten mängd tillförd energi, växer fort och utan bekämpningsmedel, har positiva effekter på miljön och kan odlas på alla bebodda kontinenter. Den preliminära LCA:n är baserad på ett patent beskrivande hampläders produktionsprocess, kompletterat med data från litteratur samt några antaganden. LCA-resultat från nötskinnsproduktion samlades från litteratur och resultaten från de två lädertyperna jämfördes sedan. Jämförelsen visade att hampläder är överlägset nötskinn i alla jämförda kategorier utom vattenkonsumtion och farligt avfall. Nötskinn har 99% högre energianvändning, 78% högre försurningspotential (AP), 99,9% högre övergödningspotential (EP) och 83% högre potential till global uppvärmning (GWP) än hampläder, enligt resultaten. Hampläders produktionsprocess stora vattenkonsumtion kan troligtvis förklaras av en överdimensionering av indata. Denna rapport drar slutsatsen att hampläder skulle vara det mest miljövänliga och etiskt försvarbara valet mellan de två lädertyperna och att modernare produktionsmetoder för hampläder bör studeras.

The required estimation of performances of a building cannot be limited to its energy efficiency anymore. Environmental issues are rising concerns into national policies. However, information about construction products is still segmented into several distinct databases: the construction company gathered data for its design process into private pricing databases while environmental declarations from manufacturers are available in a public database. The interconnection of the different information about the same product is difficult because of the difference of data formatting and representation. The objective of this project was to provide first tools to facilitate this interconnection between the design process of the company and environmental data, considering incoming requirements from the new thermal regulation of 2020. This led to the creation of a SQL environmental database, based on environmental declarations, more adapted for statistical analysis than a document-based database. Specific data management functions were also developed to homogenise unit representation and to spot product performances for the purpose of multi-criteria analysis of products Finally, an estimation of the distinctiveness of products through a selection of key words was tested. The comparison of lists of words provided good performances for their classification into a limited number of lots. But it is not sufficient to identify items that can be related to the same construction product. So further works is needed into the creation of a semantic metric model of construction vocabulary.

Wool is often being marketed as sustainable. However, when looking at LCA studies, results can be significantly different from one study to another and wool sometimes shows higher impacts than other fabrics. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this thesis aims at understanding the key environmental impacts of wool production and assessing the influence of main methodological choices on wool LCA results. In particular, the choice of the scope, allocation method and further considerations on water consumption and land use indicators have a great significance on the results of the studies. In order to provide with a fair representation of wool environmental impacts, the whole life-cycle should be taken into account, and methodological choices, such as the scope definition and allocation methods are to be clearly stated. The current tools that are the most widely used in the textile industry to rank fibres according to their sustainability performance are not suitable for wool due to unresolved methodological issues. Indeed, the impact categories that are taken into account in those tools are disadvantageous for wool compared to other alternative fibres, especially regarding water consumption and land use. This thesis also explores the construction of a single score based on the eco-costs of environmental impacts as a more suitable option to build a representative tool.

Purpose – the climate issue is one of the most important political issues, both in Sweden and globally. Achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030 sustainability goals requires efforts to slow down global warming. In Sweden, the construction and real estate sector accounts for over 20 percent of domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, industrial buildings are not covered by the new law on climate declaration that came into force on January 1, 2022. This study investigates what is required for more industrial buildings to be built in wood and what factors form the basis for decisions on material selection in the frame. It also examines how companies in the industry work towards a transition to more climate-smart construction. Method – the study's objective is achieved through interviews with actors with different roles in the building construction process. The eight actors are developers, building contractors and project managers with different levels of experience and knowledge. The study has a qualitative focus as the purpose of the questions is to understand the connections and causes of how the choice of frame material for an industrial building is made. Result – there is most knowledge and experience in constructing steel-framed industrial buildings. There is a positive attitude and desire to build industrial buildings with timber frames where cost is the most decisive factor in the choice of frame material. The wooden frame must also have the same functional requirements as a steel frame, be delivered and assembled in about the same time. There is also a belief in the future that timber frames in industrial buildings will increase, mostly due to the need for a smaller carbon footprint. Discussion – the most decisive factor in the choice of frame material turned out to be the cost, similarities can be found in the theories. Environment and sustainability is something that most respondents bring up as an important factor and advantage regarding wood as a material. Despite this, a few of the respondents see these advantages as so great that they choose wood for the frame over steel. However, theories show that companies with innovative and developed sustainability plans can benefit from low operating costs but also from being seen as more attractive on the market. All respondents consider themselves to have enough knowledge to build industrial buildings in wood, which is contradicted by the theories, as a lack of knowledge about wood construction is seen as one of the decisive factors why more buildings are not built in wood today. Sammanfattning Syfte – klimatfrågan är en av de viktigaste politiska frågorna, både i Sverige och globalt. För att nå klimatmålen i Parisavtalet och hållbarhetsmålen Agenda 2030 krävs insatser och åtgärder för att bromsa den globala uppvärmningen. I Sverige står bygg- och fastighetssektorn för över 20 procent av inhemska utsläpp av växthusgaser. Trots detta omfattas inte industribyggnader av den nya lagen om klimatdeklaration som trädde i kraft 1 januari 2022. I denna studie utreds vad som krävs för att fler industribyggnader ska kunna byggas i trä samt vilka faktorer som ligger till grund för beslut kring materialval i stommen. Det undersöks även hur företag i branschen arbetar för en omställning mot mer klimatsmart byggande.   Metod – studiens mål uppnås genom intervjuer med aktörer inom byggsektorn med olika roller i processen när en byggnad ska uppföras. De åtta aktörerna är beställare, byggentreprenörer och projektledare med olika nivå av erfarenhet och kunskap. Studien har en kvalitativ inriktning då avsikten med frågeställningarna är att förstå samband och orsaker till hur valet av stommaterial till en industribyggnad går till. Resultat – det finns mest kunskap och erfarenhet att bygga industribyggnader med stålstommar. Det finns en positiv inställning och önskan om att bygga industribyggnader med trästommar där kostnad är den mest avgörande faktorn vid valet av stommaterial. Trästommen måste också kunna uppfylla samma funktionskrav som en stålstomme, samt levereras och monteras på ungefär samma tid. Det finns också en framtidstro att trästommar i industribyggnation kommer att öka, mest på grund av behovet av ett mindre klimatavtryck. Diskussion – den mest avgörande faktorn vid val av stommaterial visade sig vara kostnad, något som går att hitta likheter med i det teoretiska ramverket. Miljö och hållbarhet är något som de flesta respondenter tar upp som en viktig faktor och fördel rörande trä som stommaterial. Trots detta är det bara ett fåtal som ser dessa fördelar som tillräckliga för att välja trä till stommen före stål. Teorier visar dock att företag med innovativa och utvecklade hållbarhetsplaner får fördelar med lägre driftskostnader och i att bli mer attraktiva på marknaden. Alla respondenter anser sig besitta tillräckligt med kunskap för att bygga industribyggnader i trä, detta motsägs i teorierna då brist på kunskap om träbyggnation ses om en av de avgörande faktorerna till varför det inte byggs mer i trä idag.

För att minska utsläppen av växthusgaser från bygg- och fastighetssektorn i Sverige finns ett intresse föratt införa krav på klimatdeklarering vid större renoveringsprojekt. Kunskapen om klimatpåverkan frånrenoveringsprojekt är dock inte lika god som för nybyggnation och syftet med detta examensarbete harvarit att bidra med kunskap inom detta ämnesområde. Klimatberäkningar har genomförts för fyrasvenska renoveringsprojekt med målet att beräkna deras potentiella klimatpåverkan samt hur dennaklimatpåverkan kan antas förändras till följd av tre typer av åtgärder; ökad användning avbyggprodukter med lägre klimatavtryck, återvinning av rivningsavfall samt återbruk av existerandebyggprodukter. Beräkningsmetoden har utgått från Boverkets beräkningsmetodik för klimatdeklareringvid nybyggnation samt de europeiska standarderna EN15978 och EN15804. Beräkningarna i dettaexamensarbete har inkluderat emissioner av växthusgaser från materialtillverkning, transport ochbyggspill av nytt material (modul A) samt rivning och hantering av existerande material i byggnaden(modul C). Utöver det har den potentiella mängden sluppen emission av växthusgaser som sker utanförprojektet, till följd av återvinning och återbruk, även beräknats (modul D). Klimatpåverkan från de fyraprojekten beräknades vara 35–184 kg CO2e/m2 renoverad bruttoarea. Minskningar i klimatpåverkan tillföljd av annorlunda produktval var 3–32 kg CO2e/m2 renoverad bruttoarea, och minskningarna fråninternt återbruk av existerande byggprodukter beräknades vara 10–24 kg CO2e/m2 renoveradbruttoarea. Mängden sluppna emissioner utanför projektet beräknades vara som störst då enkombination av externt återbruk och återvinning skedde och var då 15–72 kg CO2e/m2 renoveradbruttoarea. Signifikanta minskningar i klimatpåverkan antas då kunna åstadkommas genom cirkuläraarbetssätt samt annorlunda produktval. Vidare antyder resultaten att denna beräkningsmetodikuppmuntrar till en hög återvinningsgrad av metaller men ej av material såsom betong, glas, gips ochwellpapp. Att redovisa klimatpåverkan från rivning och avfallshantering antas inte heller uppmana tillökat återbruk i någon större utsträckning då denna utsläppsmängd inte förändrades avsevärt till följdav sådana åtgärder. / In order to reduce the greenhouse gas emission from the Swedish construction and real estate sector,there is an interest for introducing mandatory requirements for climate declarations for certainrefurbishment projects. However, the climate impact from Swedish refurbishment projects have notbeen studied as extensively as the impact from new construction, and the purpose of this master thesisproject has therefore been to contribute with knowledge and data to this field of study. As part of thisthesis work, climate calculations have been performed using information from four actualrefurbishment projects with the aim of assessing their climate impact, as well as how this impact changesas a result of certain actions. Three types of actions have been studied: an increased usage of productswith a lower climate impact, an increase in the recycling rate of demolition waste, and reuse of certainexisting products. The calculation methodology is largely based on the methodology specified by theSwedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning for climate declarations for new buildingsand the European standards EN15978 and EN15804. The calculations include greenhouse gas emissionsfrom manufacturing, transportation, and on-site waste of new materials (module A) as well asdemolition and waste treatment of existing materials (module C). Additionally, the assumed amount ofavoided emissions attained beyond the projects system boundaries, as a result of recycling and reuse,was also calculated (module D). The climate impact from the four projects was calculated to be 35-184kg CO2e/m2 renovated GFA. Reductions in climate impact from choosing more sustainable productswere calculated to be 3-32 kg CO2e/m2 renovated GFA, and reductions from internal reuse werecalculated as being 10-24 kg CO2e/m2 renovated GFA. The amount of avoided emissions beyond thesystem boundaries attained its highest value when both external reuse and extensive recycling wasimplemented and was calculated as being 15-72 kg CO2e/m2 renovated GFA. These results suggest thatsignificant reductions in climate impact can be attained through increased circularity and by choosingmore sustainable products. Furthermore, the results suggest that this method of calculating climateimpacts promotes a high recycling rate for metals but not for materials such as concrete, glass, gypsum ,and cardboard. The inclusion of climate impacts from demolition and recycling seemingly gives littleincentive for reuse of existing materials since those impacts change relatively little as a result of reuse.

Since last few decades, the increased pressure from the environmental issues of natural resource depletion, global warming and air pollution have posed a great challenge worldwide. Among all the industrial fields, bridge infrastructures and their belonged construction sector contribute to a wide range of energy and raw materials consumptions, which is responsible for the most significant pollutions. However, current bridges are mainly designed by the criterion of economic, technique, and safety standards, while their correlated environmental burdens have unfortunately rarely been considered. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method has been verified as a systematic tool, which enables the fully assessment and complete comparison for the environmental impact among different bridge options through a life cycle manner. The study presented in this thesis is focused on railway bridges, as the LCA implementation is under great expectations to set a new design criterion, to optimize the structural design towards the environmental sustainability, and to assist the decision-making among design proposals. This thesis consists of two parts: an extended summary and three appended papers. Part one gives an overview introduction that serves as a supplementary description for this research work. It outlines the background theory, current development status, the LCA implementation into the railway bridges, as well as the developed excel-based LCA tool. Part two, includes three appended papers which provides a more detailed theoretical review of the current literatures and knowledge associated with bridge LCA, by highlighting the great challenging issues. A systematic flowchart is presented both in Paper I and Paper II for how to model and assess the bridge life cycle, together by coping with the structural components and associated emissions. This flowchart is further illustrated on a case study of the Banafjäl Bridge in Sweden, which has been extensively analyzed by two LCA methods: CML 2001 method and streamlined quantitative approach. The obtained results can be contributed as an analytical reference for other similar bridges. Based on the theoretical review and analytical results from case studies, it has been found that the environmental profile of a bridge is dominated by the selected structural type, which affects the life cycle scenarios holistically and thus further influences the environmental performance. However, the environmental profile of the structure is though very case specific; one cannot draw a general conclusion for a certain type of bridge without performing the LCA study. The case study has found that the impact of material manufacture phase is mostly identified significant among the whole life cycle. The availability of the inventory data and project information are appeared as the major problem in the bridge LCA study. Moreover, lack of standardized guideline, criteria and input information is another key issue. A criterion is needed to illustrate what are the qualified limits of a bridge to fulfill the environmental requirements. Therefore, the development of LCA for railway bridges still needs further collaborative efforts from government, industry and research institutes. / QC 20120227

No description available.

Competitive gaming, commonly known as E-sports, have become widely popular the past few years. Simultaneously the interest to watch these players compete has become apparent, not least through the viewing of the events that draw the attention of millions of people. However what is still often overlooked is the environmental impact which these events contribute to. Within the field of environmental research, E-sports is a frugally studied domain. This study therefore aims to create a foundation for calculating the environmental and climate impact from an E-sports event, specifically in regard to CS:GO. The guidelines for this calculation are based on the LCA methodology. The main question for this paper therefore reads: How can 1) system function, 2) functional unit and 3) system boundaries be chosen in order to calculate the environmental and climate impact from PGL Major Stockholm 2021? In order to find out how to answer this question, two people with expertise within the field were interviewed. The analysis of the results from the interviews showed that exposure was the primary function of several different scenarios of the system. For that reason the system function was decided as audience capacity. The functional unit was defined as Holding one 13-day event in CS:GO. The majority of what occurs within the arena was included in the system boundaries along with flights, electricity consumption and water consumption from the hotels. To facilitate further calculations of the categories included in the system boundaries we also presented estimations of environmental and climate impact. These were on flights, transportation to and from the event, and gaming computers.Through the interviews we gained great insight regarding the organizing of smaller events, specifically Svenska Elitserien CS:GO. This insight could help close the existing knowledge gap surrounding the environmental impact of E-sports as it creates a stepping stone for future research. / Tävlande i datorspel, även kallat E-sport, har under de senaste åren vuxit i popularitet med stormsteg. Intresset att titta på dessa tävlingar har visat sig starkt, inte minst genom de event som drar uppmärksamheten från miljontals människor. Vad som ännu ofta glöms bort är dock den miljöpåverkan ett sådant event orsakar. Inom hållbarhetsforskning är E-sport ett sparsamt studerat område. Denna studie riktar sig därför till att lägga grunden för en beräkning av miljö- och klimatpåverkan från ett E-sportevent, specifikt inom CS:GO. Riktlinjerna för denna beräkning har baseras på metodiken för LCA. Problemformuleringen för denna studie blev således: Hur kan 1) systemfunktion, 2) funktionell enhet och 3) systemgränser väljas som underlag för att beräkna miljö- och klimatpåverkan av PGL Major Stockholm 2021? För att ta reda på hur denna fråga ska besvaras har två intervjuer utförts med personer som har expertis inom området. Analysen av resultatet från intervjuerna visade att exponering var den primära funktionen för många olika scenarion inom systemet. Av den anledningen valdes systemfunktion till publikkapacitet. Funktionell enhet definierades till Arrangering av ett 13-dagars event i CS:GO. Majoriteten av vad som sker i arenan inkluderades i systemgränserna, flygresor och el- och vattenförbrukning från hotell likaså. För att underlätta vidare beräkningar av det som inkluderades i systemgränserna presenterade vi även estimeringar av värden på miljö-och klimatpåverkan från flygresor, transport till och från arenan samt speldatorer. Från intervjuerna fick vi stor insikt kring anordning av mindre event, specifikt Svenska Elitserien CS:GO. Denna inblick kan bidra till att minska det kunskapsglapp som finns gällande E-sportens miljöpåverkan då det möjliggör en grund för vidare forskning.

Byggsektorn står ansvarig för en stor andel av Sveriges totala miljöpåverkan. En metod som kan bidra till att byggsektorn utvecklas inom miljöarbete är livscykelanalys (LCA) som används för att redovisa en produkts miljöpåverkan över hela dess livscykel. Fördelen med att använda LCA är att det kan bidra till kompetensutveckling som i sin tur kan påverka och minska byggsektorns miljöpåverkan. Med hjälp av LCA kan en produkts miljöpåverkan redovisas i olika kategorier utefter dess livscykel, från råvaruutvinning till avfallshantering. Fönsterföretaget Maximalfönster i Åshammar har ett intresse samt ambition att genomföra livscykelanalyser och miljövarudeklarationer på produkter ur deras sortiment. Denna studie syftar till att kartlägga livscykler för två aluminiumfönster ur Maximalfönsters sortiment och framställa livscykelanalyser för respektive fönster. Med syfte att undersöka vilket fönster som har minst negativ påverkan på miljön. Den främsta skillnaden mellan fönsterna i studien är att det ena fönstret innehåller en återbrukad komponent medan det andra fönstret endast består av nyproducerade komponenter. En hypotes är att det fönster som innehåller en återbrukad karm även är det fönster med minst påverkan på miljön.  Information om fönsterna har samlats in i den mån den funnits tillgänglig. Information har främst tagits från Maximalfönster och deras produktion. När information inte funnits tillgänglig från Maximalfönster eller från någon av deras leverantörer har den i stället tagits från databaser alternativt att uppskattningar gjorts.  I studien har olika miljöpåverkanskategorier undersökts med hjälp av LCA och dessa har varit global uppvärmning, försurning och övergödning. Resultatet har varierat mellan de olika kategorierna samt mellan fönsterna. Generellt har glaset, transporterna och emballaget störst miljöpåverkan i de olika miljöpåverkanskategorier. Resultatet visar att produktionen mest bidrar till den globala uppvärmningen samt att skillnaderna generellt är små mellan fönsterna. / The construction industry is responsible for a large proportion of Sweden's total environmental impact. One method that can contribute to the construction industry's development in environmental work is life cycle analysis (LCA), which is used to report a product's environmental impact over its entire life cycle. The advantage of using LCA in the construction industry is that it can contribute to development of skills which in turn can affect and reduce the sector's environmental impact. With the help of LCA, a product's environmental impact can be reported in different categories according to its life cycle, from the production of materials to recycling. The window manufacturing company Maximalfönster in Åshammar has an interest and ambition to implement LCA and EPD in the product range. This study aims to map the life cycles for two different aluminum windows from the assortment of Maximalfönster and produce LCA for each window. This is to investigate which window has the least negative impact on the environment. The main difference between the windows in the study is that one window contains reused components while the other only consists of newly produced components. One hypothesis is that the window that contains reused components should be the window with the least impact on the environment. Information about the windows has been collected to the extent that it has been available. Information has mainly been taken from Maximalfönster and their production. When information has not been available from Maximalfönster or any of their suppliers, it has instead been taken from databases or estimates have been made. In the study, different environmental impact categories have been investigated with the help of LCA and these have been global warming, acidification, and eutrophication. The result has varied between the different categories and between the windows. In general, glass, transport and packaging have the greatest environmental impact in all categories. The results shows that the production contributes most to global warming and also that the differences are small between the windows.

Consumption continues to grow, while warnings persist about the fact that more isbeing consumed than the Earth is capable of yielding. This growth in consumption isclearly exemplified in the textile industry, which doubled global fibre productionbetween the years 2000 and 2020, while the population growth was 27% (The WorldBank, 2022). The textile industry is not limited to fashion; it has a wide range ofapplications and sources. However, all materials and industries come with their ownenvironmental challenges, such as land use, water consumption and chemical release,which all have an impact on nature. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method used tomeasure and compare these challenges between products. One of the resources that ismeasured is biodiversity, which is affected by land use. Various models to measurethese effects have been developed by researchers such as Lindeijer (2000), Milá i Canalset al. (2007) and Koellner &amp; Scholz (2008).This study aims to evaluate the effects on the land's ability to reproduce itself bycomparing the plants that can produce two common textile fibres from two types ofland: cotton from agricultural land and viscose from forestry land. The study analysesthe resources required and determines which fibre is the most sustainable in terms ofresource extraction in land, water and chemical use.Two LCA methods were chosen. The primary method is based on data selected by theauthor through literature studies, conversations and statistics, termed the ExplorativeLCA. The second method, the benchmark method, utilized a standardized databaseLCA provided by Ecoinvent, ReCePi and Simapro named Database LCA. The resultsobtained from the two methods stated significant and unexpected differences,encouraging the need for a more in-depth analysis to understand the reasons behindthem.According to the Exploratory LCA the results of the thesis and research questionsindicate that cotton is the preferable fibre compared to viscose. Conversely, theDatabase LCA presents the opposite findings. The results of the method analysisindicate that the integration of different plant cycles was not taken into account. Thisfinding leads the author to strongly recommend to further investigate this limitation / <p>2023-10-11</p>