Industrial Ecology Blogs (Page 2)

The Legacy Footprint of Capital

by Ranran Wang and Edgar Hertwich Manufactured capital assets, such as buildings, machinery, and transport equipment, play a pivotal role in driving economic development and human progress. Yet, a common misconception pins greenhouse gas emissions and resource extractions mainly on short-term consumption. New research published in the Proceedings of the

Atlantis-ERC

Lead authorship for upcoming IPBES report

Francesca Verones was selected as lead author for the upcoming IPBES report on Biodiversity and business. This report aims to provide an assessment of the impacts, as well as the dependence, that businesses and biodiversity have. The goal is to identify methods and indicators with which these impacts can be

Why we love culture service of marine ecosystems?

Who would say no to a ticket leading to a holiday by the coast? Just imagine the gentle sea breeze, relaxing sunset, carefree seabirds: what a wonderful destination! Covering more than 70% of global surface, marine ecosystems do not only support us with provision service, but also provide culture service

Carbon Footprint of Metals

We have a new paper out titled Decomposition Analysis of the Carbon Footprint of Primary Metals. Here is my attempt at explaining why you should care, what you should know, and what you can take away from it. Why should you care? Metals are omnipresent in our society and crucial

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Group retreat and midterm evaluations of two ATLANTIS PhDs

From 12-14 April 2023 the entire Industrial Ecology Programme went on a group retreat to Oppdal, approximately two hours away from Trondheim. Apart from team building and social activities, the aim was to hold the midterm evaluations of 8 PhD students of the Industrial Ecology Programme, among them Fei Song

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Plastics: some history, benefits and challenges

Polymers have transformed our lives. We have been benefiting from them since approximately 1600 BC when natural rubber was first discovered[1]. A polymer is a material that consists of many repeated smaller subunits known as monomers. The way these monomers are arranged results in the formation of different kinds

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COP15 to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity: Quick history and relation to ATLANTIS

Global biodiversity has declined rapidly in the past decades, the WWF’s Living Planet Report of 2022 stated that wildlife populations declined on average 69% since 1970. In light of this issue, the 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) was

CONSENSE

CONSENCE on the move!

In 2022, the CONSENCE project was on the move. Literally! As the global coronavirus pandemic eased (-ish), came the first opportunity to attend conferences and share some of our first results! The first stop was the 32nd annual European meeting of SETAC (the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) [1]

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Research stay with the Center for Marine Debris Research

During the fall semester of 2022, Marthe Høiberg got the opportunity to do a research stay with the Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR) on Oahu, Hawai'i. The research center is part of Hawai'i Pacific University (HPU) and they conduct interdisciplinary research on plastic pollution in

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ATLANTIS at the EcoBalance 2022

EcoBalance is a conference held in Japan every second year since 1994, it has a strong focus on LCA and its application in industries. This year, the 15th EcoBalance, was hosted in Fukuoka, and themed ´Shifting Paradigms with Life Cycle Thinking´. Two members from the ATLANTIS project, me (Fei Song)

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82nd Swiss LCA discussion forum on addressing the issue of plastic pollution: status quo and the way forward

The ATLANTIS team organized the 82nd Swiss LCA discussion forum

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Participation at the 7th International Marine Debris Conference (7IMDC)

Naiara Casagrande, who is affiliated with ATLANTIS, attended the 7th International Marine Debris Conference (7IMDC) with a group of research from NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal. The conference took place from the 18th to the 23rd of September 2022 in Busan, Republic of Korea. This was the first to be

LCIA group

Marine plastic pollution in Trondheims neighbourhood

When thinking about marine plastic litter, which has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, many people may think first about piles of waste in Africa or Asia. However, the pollution can be closer than you think. As the crow flies it is less than 100 km from Trondheim

Socio-Economic Metabolism

Sharing our research at the 14th ISIE SEM conference

On the 19-21 September, the Socioeconomic metabolism (SEM) section of the International Society of Industrial Ecology (ISIE) organized the 14th ISIE SEM conference in Vienna. Co-organized by the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), the University of Natural Resources and Life Science, Vienna (BOKU) and TU Wien (TU), the

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Research visit in Hawaii

Francesca Verones spent July and August 2022 on Oahu and Big Island, Hawaii for a research visit to continue working on the issues of how plastic pollution is affecting the marine ecosystem. She focused especially on how plastic and invasive species are perceived to impact important marine ecosystem services in

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Early career ocean scientists at conference in St. Johns, Canada

In July, Marthe Høiberg had the pleasure to attend the fourth ICES/PICES Early Career Scientist Conference, taking place in St. Johns on Newfoundland, Canada. As revealed by the name, this is a conference dedicated to giving a platform to young researchers and encourage their involvement specifically in the management

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ATLANTIS at the Copenhagen SETAC conference

Several members of the ATLANTIS project attended the SETAC Europe 32nd annual meeting in Copenhagen this year. We presented our recent progress in the development of characterisation factors for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and the MarINvaders toolkit and database, meanwhile we were inspired by other researchers and met associates

Two IndEcol professors appointed to International panels

IndEcol is proud to share the latest appointments of professors Francesco Cherubini and Edgar Hertwich to two new International panels positions. With their scientific expertise, they are going to contribute to climate related projects, as described below. Norwegian SciTech News also featured Industrial Ecology on their relevant article. See more

environmental footprints explorer

Green growth now

Summary: Concerned about economic growth, China and India weakened the COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact. Our research suggests decarbonization and growth are independent processes. Delaying one to achieve the other is unnecessary and a wasteful detour. Nobody in the rich world can blame developing countries for wishing to improve their economic

environmental footprints explorer

How dematerialization could cut hard-to-abate emissions by a third, or more

The production of materials causes a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing the use of materials through a more intense utilization of products such as homes or cars, or the construction of lighter and smaller products, will also reduce the energy needed to provide services such as shelter and

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New publication: Global distribution of potential impact hotspots for marine plastic debris entanglement

An important component of the ATLANTIS project is the development of global models for impacts of plastic debris on marine ecosystems, in accordance with the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework. As a means towards achieving this goal, we have developed an indicator of potential macroplastic entanglement impact levels, which

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A new framework to model marine plastic litter impacts in LCIA models

Although marine plastic pollution is a well-recognized and highly visible problem, impact models for most of the main impacts from plastic litter are still lacking within Life Cycle Assessment. To coordinate research progress, and to ensure that the impacts are modelled in a harmonized way, Woods et al. developed a

Buildings

Green and cool? Office buildings in hot countries

Why are hot countries important for the building sector? What are the greenhouse gas emissions associated with office buildings? And finally, how can we decrease them?

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PhD candidate: human impacts on marine ecosystem service

Humans have been utilizing oceans for centuries, yet little is know about the impacts raised by anthropogenic stressors. This PhD program is about to develop models quantifying human's impacts, especially invasive species and marine plastic debris, on ecosystem services within the LCIA framework.

environmental footprints explorer

Climate protection and development in the Global South

Nobody is as affected by the damaging forces of climate change as underdeveloped countries, but these countries face a paradox as they try to mitigate their CO2 emissions. Improving the lives of their citizens will increase the demand for energy and materials — which in turn will make climate change worse.