Establishing Av Nordic Life Cycle Association

Establishing Av Nordic Life Cycle Association
Author: Michael Hauschild
Publisher: Nordic Council of Ministers
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2009
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9289318392

The project aimed to establish and develop a non-profit organization, the Nordic Life Cycle Association, NorLCA, with the goal of supporting sustainable development through the use of life cycle approaches and methodology. NorLCA is a multidisciplinary platform for Life Cycle Thinking and addresses LCA-specialists, business managers, product developers, environmental managers, sales and marketing managers, researchers, teachers, NGOs, authorities, student, and others with an interest in life cycle thinking, eco-design and sustainable development. The main goal of NorLCA is to facilitate and support a broader and increased use of life cycle related concepts. NorLCA focuses on networking activities and dissemination of information and establisingh easily accessible information and knowledge exchange channels between the formal and informal life cycle networks

Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment
Author: Michael Z. Hauschild
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 1215
Release: 2017-09-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319564757

This book is a uniquely pedagogical while still comprehensive state-of-the-art description of LCA-methodology and its broad range of applications. The five parts of the book conveniently provide: I) the history and context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with its central role as quantitative and scientifically-based tool supporting society’s transitioning towards a sustainable economy; II) all there is to know about LCA methodology illustrated by a red-thread example which evolves as the reader advances; III) a wealth of information on a broad range of LCA applications with dedicated chapters on policy development, prospective LCA, life cycle management, waste, energy, construction and building, nanotechnology, agrifood, transport, and LCA-related concepts such as footprinting, ecolabelling,design for environment, and cradle to cradle. IV) A cookbook giving the reader recipes for all the concrete actions needed to perform an LCA. V) An appendix with an LCA report template, a full example LCA report serving as inspiration for students who write their first LCA report, and a more detailed overview of existing LCIA methods and their similarities and differences.

Beyond GDP

Beyond GDP
Author: Marc Fleurbaey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2013-04-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199346917

In spite of recurrent criticism and an impressive production of alternative indicators by scholars and NGOs, GDP remains the central indicator of countries' success. This book revisits the foundations of indicators of social welfare, and critically examines the four main alternatives to GDP that have been proposed: composite indicators, subjective well-being indexes, capabilities (the underlying philosophy of the Human Development Index), and equivalent incomes. Its provocative thesis is that the problem with GDP is not that it uses a monetary metric but that it focuses on a narrow set of aspects of individual lives. It is actually possible to build an alternative, more comprehensive, monetary indicator that takes income as its first benchmark and adds or subtracts corrections that represent the benefit or cost of non-market aspects of individual lives. Such a measure can respect the values and preferences of the people and give as much weight as they do to the non-market dimensions. A further provocative idea is that, in contrast, most of the currently available alternative indicators, including subjective well-being indexes, are not as respectful of people's values because, like GDP, they are too narrow and give specific weights to the various dimensions of life in a more uniform way, without taking account of the diversity of views on life in the population. The popular attraction that such alternative indicators derive from being non-monetary is therefore based on equivocation. Moreover, it is argued in this book that "greening" GDP and relative indicators is not the proper way to incorporate sustainability concerns. Sustainability involves predicting possible future paths, therefore different indicators than those assessing the current situation. While various indicators have been popular (adjusted net savings, ecological footprint), none of them involves the necessary forecasting effort that a proper evaluation of possible futures requires.

The Modern Hyperinflation Cycle: Some New Empirical Regularities

The Modern Hyperinflation Cycle: Some New Empirical Regularities
Author: Jose Saboin
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 46
Release: 2018-12-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484385381

Using a database of up to 62 variables for 196 countries over 57 years, a hyperinflation cycle has been characterized to propose a broader setting of stylized facts. Beyond the usual facts, the findings in this paper contribute to the literature of modern hyperinflations in that these cycles occur in contexts where there are (i) depressed economic freedoms, (ii) deteriorated socioeconomic conditions and rule of law, as well as (iii) high levels of domestic conflictivity and government instability. Despite social infraestructure factors improve during stabilization, they keep being substantially lower than the respresentative non-hyperinflation country, suggesting an important role for them in the occurrence of modern hypeinflations. Finally, the role of international financial assistance in stabilization was studied, noting that (i) a clear majority of hyperinflation countries used it, further improving their (ii) economic freedoms, and allowing themselves (iii) greater fiscal flexibility and (iv) more exchange rate stability.

Finance & Development, June 1970

Finance & Development, June 1970
Author: International Monetary Fund. External Relations Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 68
Release: 1970-06-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 161635299X

This paper explains how the World Bank carries out its most characteristic activity: the identification, preparation, appraisal, and supervision of projects for economic development. The paper highlights that project lending is intended to ensure that the World Bank funds are invested in sound, productive projects with the purpose of contributing both to the borrowing country’s capacity to repay and to the development of its economy. It is in the coincidence of these two purposes that the Bank’s functions as an international financial institution merge with those that it has increasingly assumed as a development institution.

Finance & Development, June 2020

Finance & Development, June 2020
Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2020-06-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513543660

Finance & Development, June 2020

Resource Efficiency and Climate Change

Resource Efficiency and Climate Change
Author: United Nations
Publisher: UN
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2021-01-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9789211587449

"The International Resource Panel (IRP) was established to provide independent, coherent and authoritative scientific assessments on the use of natural resources and their environmental impacts over the full life cycle. The Panel aims to contribute to a better understanding of how to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation while enhancing well-being. The Secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. IRP assessments demonstrate the opportunities for governments, businesses and wider society to work together to create and implement policies that ultimately lead to sustainable resource management, including through better planning, technological innovation and strategic incentives and investments. Materials are vital to modern society, but their production is an important source of greenhouse gases. Emissions from material production are now comparable to those from agriculture, forestry, and land use change combined, yet they have received much less attention from the climate policy community. The IPR authors propose looking beyond energy efficiency to reduce global carbon footprint. This report was developed by the IRP in response to a request from the Group of 7. It conducts a rigorous assessment of the contribution of material efficiency to GHG abatement strategies. More concretely, it assesses the potential reduction of GHG emissions from material efficiency strategies applied in residential buildings and light duty vehicles, and reviews policies that address these strategies. The IRP modelling results show that increasing material efficiency can help enhance efforts in moving towards the 1.5° C target set by the Paris Agreement." -- Page 4 of cover

Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment

Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment
Author: Jeroen B. Guinée
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 692
Release: 2006-04-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0306480557

Environmental policy aims at the transition to sustainable production and consumption. This is taking place in different ways and at different levels. In cases where businesses are continuously active to improve the environmental performance of their products and activities, the availability of knowledge on environmental impacts is indispensable. The integrated assessment of all environmental impacts from cradle to grave is the basis for many decisions relating to achieving improved products and services. The assessment tool most widely used for this is the environmental Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA. Before you is the new Handbook of LCA replacing the previous edition of 1992. New developments in LCA methodology from all over the world have been discussed and, where possible, included in this new Handbook. Integration of all developments into a new, consistent method has been the main aim for the new Handbook. The thinking on environment and sustainability is, however, quickly evolving so that it is already clear now that this new LCA Handbook does not embrace the very latest developments. Therefore, further revisions will have to take place in the future. A major advantage of this Handbook is that it now also advises which procedures should be followed to achieve adequate, relevant and accepted results. Furthermore, the distinction between detailed and simplified LCA makes this Handbook more broadly applicable, while guidance is provided as to which additional information can be relevant for specialised applications.