RT Conference Proceedings
T1 Assessing impacts to biodiversity and ecosystems: 												Understanding and exploiting synergies between Life Cycle Assessment and Natural Capital Accounting
A1 Cordella, Mauro
A1 Gonzalez-Redin, Julen
A1 Lodeiro, Raul Ugarte
A1 Garcia, David Alvarez
AB All economic activity depends on natural capital, i.e., the stock of both renewable and non-renewable resources (including biodiversity) providing a flow of ecosystem services (ES) to society. However, as also highlighted in the European Green Deal and follow-up policy initiatives of the European Commission, unsustainable practices of production and consumption of human beings have put nature in crisis, which has negative effects on different aspects of human wellbeing as retro-feedback. The need for action is urgent, and this calls for the availability of appropriate methods and tools that can be used to assess and guide the mitigation and reversion of the impacts of human activities on biodiversity and ES. In this context, we describe a conceptual framework that aims to show how Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) can be integrated and used for a more comprehensive understanding of the biodiversity and ES quality footprint, i.e., pressures and impacts, associated with product value chains, organizations and territories. First, an in-depth and separate description of LCA and NCA is provided, including ongoing progress, complexities, and challenges of each field. Second, integration options are presented that could be followed and further developed to link LCA and NCA, thus helping to overcome the shortages of the two fields and providing a more holistic and interdisciplinary approach to address the current environmental crisis.
SN 2212-8271
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK https://hdl.handle.net/11556/3788
UL https://hdl.handle.net/11556/3788
LA eng
NO Cordella , M , Gonzalez-Redin , J , Lodeiro , R U & Garcia , D A 2022 , ' Assessing impacts to biodiversity and ecosystems : Understanding and exploiting synergies between Life Cycle Assessment and Natural Capital Accounting ' , Procedia CIRP , vol. 105 , pp. 134-139 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2022.02.023
NO Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.
DS TECNALIA Publications
RD 26 jul 2024