Revealing the concept of sustainability in life cycle assessment

Biró, Kinga and Szalmáné Csete, Mária (2023) Revealing the concept of sustainability in life cycle assessment. ECOCYCLES, 9 (2). pp. 49-58. ISSN 2416-2140

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Abstract

Life cycle analysis is essential in promoting improvements to mitigate climate change. Climate change impacts can be reduced through mitigation of greenhouse gases and increasing adaptation to the changes to be expected across all sectors. This article aims to examine and characterize the current application of the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). This study is focusing on a systematic review and bibliometric analysis highlighting the concept of sustainability in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Firstly, three types of LCA are presented based on the selected publications that can underpin the different existing trends. This systematic literature review also aimed to examine the LCSA-related publications and introduce the main findings or highlight changes. Secondly, research was conducted using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol. Then, using bibliometric tools, the evolution of the literature and the relationship between the different types of LCSA are discussed. Bibliometric analyses were considered based on the Scopus database and the exported dataset for systematic analyses. The co-authorships, co-occurrences, keywords, and co-citations were analyzed using the VOSviewer software for the period of 2010 and 2022. The results underpinned that the LCSA model can contribute to fostering the way toward a sustainable and climate-oriented transition. Literature analysis has clearly confirmed that LCA research with a sustainability focus is on an evolutionary trajectory. Most of the surveyed LCSA literature is related to environmental sciences (40%), followed by energetics (21%) and social sciences (20%) in almost equal proportions. The economic dimension of sustainability is under-represented in LCSA studies. The LCSA studies described numerous indicators which can contribute to monitoring the three dimensions of sustainable development.

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