DUGi

Contribution of the European Chemical Industry to the Planetary Boundaries

http://dugi.udg.edu/item/http:@@@@hdl.handle.net@@10256@@21961

As environmental degradation and resource depletion accelerate worldwide risking the stability of the planet and undermining its capacity to maintain its current state (the only geologic epoch able to favour human development), mechanisms for the analysis and enhancement of the sustainability level of human activities are becoming increasingly relevant. Acknowledging the challenge posed by the need for a shift towards a greener future of the European chemical industry, this study assessed the degree of disturbance chemical plants operating with current practices exert on the main environmental processes regulating the Earth’s functions through the PB-LCIA framework. This methodology allows to combine Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with the Planetary Boundaries (PBs). The former is a tool capable of identifying the impacts associated with the different stages of the life-cycle of a system based on its exchanges with the environment (called Life Cycle Inventories or LCIs). Meanwhile, the latter is a framework developed by Rockström et al. (2009) which quantifies the resilience of the principal environmental processes in order to avoid human action to exceed the ecologic carrying capacity of the planet (i.e., the maximum rate of pollution and resource harvesting environments are capable to sustainably support). This framework has been, and still is, gaining interest not only from the scientific community but also from businesses, policymakers, and investors (Lucas et al., 2020). As proved in this work, it allows to portray the severity of the environmental damage caused by the assessed activities and size improvement actions, as well as providing a complete priority assessment (Ryberg et al., 2018). A production-based study of the sustainability level of the chemical industry was developed taking a cradle-to-gate approach, where not only impacts derived from the strict in-plant production but also those related to the obtention of feedstocks, energy, and the treatment of wastes, are included