IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

Delning handlar om att ge varandra tillgång till underutnyttjade resurser, som saker, ytor, transporter, tid, data eller kompetens. Det kan ske med eller utan vinstsyfte, privat eller kommersiellt och i de flesta fall utan ägarbyte. I Sverige finns en lång tradition och vana av att dela, både i grannskapet med tvättstuga, föreningslokaler och klädbytardagar, och samhälleligt med offentliga rum, kollektivtrafik och allemansrätt. Tilliten mellan människor är en av de högsta i världen enligt SOM-Institutet. Det gör steget att börja dela via nya tjänster och plattformar kortare. Intresset för delningsformer ökar hos invånarna. Det har skett flera normförflyttningar som ger delningsekonomin en skjuts. Att göra saker själv har fått högre status liksom att ta vara på saker. Prylar med en historia har fått ett uppgraderat värde och för allt fler unga är tillgång viktigare än ägande. Det finns ett stort behov hos kommuner av erfarenhets- och kunskapsutbyte kring delningsekonomi. Att inspireras av varandra och få inblick i vilka framgångsfaktorer andra kommuner funnit, hur ekonomiska och juridiska problem lösts och hållbarhetseffekter följts upp. Avfall Sverige och IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet har tagit fram denna vägledning utifrån en kartläggning av vad som görs på kommunnivå, en enkätundersökning med cirka 30 svarande kommuner och intervjuer med åtta av dem. Det finns också en mer detaljerad rapport och en förteckning över delningsinitiativ för den som vill fördjupa sig. Vi hoppas att den ska inspirera och ge handgripliga råd både för de kommuner som är i full gång och de kommuner som just ska börja jobba med delningsekonomi.

För att uppnå de Globala målen i agenda 2030 och Sveriges miljömål behöver vår konsumtion vara hållbar och använda cirkulära resurser så effektivt och länge som möjligt på ett sätt som ryms inom de planetära gränserna och bidrar till välmående. Det handlar om att kommuner, företag och individer gör medvetna val, tar väl hand om, lagar, delar, tillgängliggör och återanvänder det vi har så att vi inte konsumerar mer än vi behöver eller vad planeten kan återskapa. Det handlar också om att skapa förutsättningar för hållbar konsumtion genom hela värdecykeln. Att återanvända och återvinna material, att designa, producera, distribuera och affärsutveckla på ett sätt som gör hållbar konsumtion till norm. Delning är en del av att förändra konsumtionen i en mer hållbar riktning. I Sverige har vi en lång tradition av att dela tvättstugor, badhus, daghem, kollektivtrafik och naturvärden genom allemansrätten. Den vanan kan man bygga vidare på nu när nya former för delning växer fram. Kommunal verksamhet handlar i grunden om att ta hand om gemensamma resurser och kommuner har därför stora möjligheter att stödja att de delas och återanvänds inom kommunens verksamheter genom att till exempel återanvända byggmaterial och inredning eller dela på transportpooler, lokaler eller utrustning mellan verksamheter. Men också genom att erbjuda invånare tillgång till lokaler eller odlingsmark, plattformar för delning av ting, tid eller transporter, eller system för återanvändning av saker. Den digitala utvecklingen har gjort möjligheterna att dela på resurser så mycket större och tillgängligare för fler. Många kommuner har idag tagit initiativ för ökad delning, samtidigt så finns det oklarheter och hinder kring hur delningen ska kunna skalas upp och utvidgas till fler områden. Avfall Sverige och IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet har i samband med denna rapport också tagit fram en vägledning för hur kommunen kan jobba för att öka delningsekonomin inom kommunens verksamheter och mellan kommunen och invånarna: Dela prylar, yta, bil och tid. En vägledning till delningsekonomi i kommunerna.

IVL bidrar med metodutveckling och inventering för analys av olika hållbarhetsindikatorer i projektet Mistra Digital Forest. Denna rapport beskriver det inledande arbetet i Task 3.1. Vi beskriver här en konceptuell metodik för att kunna inkludera flera hållbarhetsteman i livscykelbaserade systemanalysmetoder. En speciell utmaning kopplat till skogsprodukter är att inkludera biologisk mångfald i skogsbruk , så att åtgärder som ger upphov till förbättrat också fås med i bedömningsunderlaget.

This project investigates the potential increasing resource efficiency and reducing environmental impact and how the potential can be achieved for premises, transports and tools. The driving forces and obstacles for sharing have been studied, methodology for sustainability assessments and potential rebound effects have been investigated and ten success factors have been identified for upscaling sharing solutions:

1. Trust. For the sharing platform, the quality of the goods and for other users.
2. Accessibility. Geographically, temporally and in terms of access to systems and spaces.
3. Managed risk. Sharing is associated with risk, which needs to be managed and facilitated by existing regulations and which can be mitigated by commercial insurance.
4. Quality. The quality of the goods and services need to be at least as good as those the consumer would otherwise have bought for them to switch to sharing.
5. Simple and smooth transactions. By making it easier to share than to buy new, the interest in sharing solutions can increase.
6. Visibility. The fact that the knowledge and habit of sharing are so low means that the critical mass of users and objects is still too low.
7. Belonging. In several of the product categories, like transport and space, there is a need to feel that you belong - a sense of ”this is my space”. For sharing to scale up, design, business models and policy need to relate to that need.
8. Negative effects. The ability to limit and manage the negative effects of the sharing economy on conventional companies is an important factor for upscaling.
9. Access to capital is in many cases critical to growth, both to achieve a critical mass and long-term economic sustainability.
10. Regulation. Sharing requires regulations and policy support for better conditions with clear rules and tailor-made policy instruments for sharing.

Several actors play an important role in building sharing potential; the role of the business sector to create new business models and good working conditions, the role of the financial sector to improve the conditions for sharing initiatives to be able to upscale, the role of national decision makers to both regulate and create conditions for sharing and manage the consequences of sharing, the role of the cities to create infrastructure, coordinate and be a driving force in itself to shape the development of sharing so that it contributes to sustainability and the role of research to develop innovative forms of sharing, continue to follow the development of sharing and develop ways to measure effects and prevent rebound effects.

Detta är en kortversion av rapporten från projektet Delningens potential, där vi bedömt potentialen för att delning av transporter, verktyg och yta ökar och samtidigt bidrar till ekonomiska, sociala och miljömässiga vinster. I Sverige finns en lång tradition och vana av att dela på resurser. Delning har potential att ge både ekologiska, sociala och ekonomiska vinster under vissa förutsättningar.

This report is only available in English.

The Roadmap for the Gotland Industrial Symbiosis Park (GISP) is the culmination of the GISP project. IVL was approached by Tillväxt Gotland and Region Gotland with the desire to develop the park based on industrial symbiosis (IS). Industrial symbiosis is a captivating concept that seeks to emulate nature where waste resources or by-products are utilized by other entities. The aim was therefore to identify the most appropriate development strategy to maximise industrial symbiosis, resource efficient production and the sustainability outcomes of the park. The chosen site is 2 km north of Visby, adjacent to the main airport. This document summarises the research project and its findings before outlining a suggested Roadmap for GISP’s development. It also brings together the research reports conducted during the project (Appendices 1-3) that include a literature review, review of regional strengths and opportunities, and a sustainability assessment of potential scenarios. 

The role of cities and their stakeholders in creating a sustainable low carbon society is becoming increasingly critical. Cities and their supply chains are responsible for almost 80% of the global energy consumption and over 60% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). It is expected that 70% of the global population will be living in urban areas by 2050. However, in general cities still quantify and report only their production-based GHG emissions and fail to account for their supply chains. There has been much less focus on the GHG emissions associated with consumption in cities, including household and government consumption. This paper compares the production-based GHG accounting method with the consumption-based method for ten European cities. This is performed for a base year (2010) and two divergent future scenarios for 2050, a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and a post carbon (PC 2050) scenario. The PC2050 scenario was created by city stakeholders in the framework of the European research project POCACITO in (2014–2016). Consumption-based emissions are calculated using the EXIOBASE multi-regional input-output model. Compared to 2010, both BAU and PC2050 scenarios show significant decreases for production-based emissions, falling 31% and 68% respectively. However, during this period consumption-based emissions increase for eight cities, rising 33% and 35% respectively. This occurs despite the modelled improvements in global production efficiency for 2050 and the significant production-based reductions under the PC2050 scenarios. The increase in consumption-based emissions is primarily linked to rising GDP and a corresponding increase in spending and consumption, which override the local and global efficiency improvements. Hence the results highlight a notable disparity between the traditional focus on production-based accounting and consumption-based accounting. This suggests that future city actions should extend their focus on addressing the impact of consumption in addition to local energy production and emissions. It also suggests that city stakeholders are generally underestimating the impact of consumption and the responses required.

The Circular Economy (CE) concept is receiving increasing global attention and has captivated many disciplines, from sustainability through to business and economics. There is currently a strong drive by companies, academics and governments alike to implement the CE. Numerous “circularity indicators” have emerged that measure material flow or recirculated value of a system (e.g. product or nation). However, if its implementation is to improve environmental performance of society, the action must be based on scientific evidence and quantification or it may risk driving “circularity for circularity's sake”. This paper, therefore, aims to review the recent circular economy literature that focuses on assessing the environmental implications of circularity of products and services. To do this we divide the system levels into micro (product level), meso (industrial estate/symbiosis) and macro (national or city level). A scoping literature review explores the assessment methods and indicators at each level. The results suggest that few studies compare circularity indicators with environmental performance or link the circularity indicators between society levels (e.g. the micro and macro-levels). However, adequate tools exist at each level (e.g. life cycle assessment (LCA) at the micro-level and multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis at the macro-level) to provide the ability to adequately assess and track the CE performance if placed within a suitable framework. The challenge to connect the micro and macro-levels remains. This would help understand the link between changes at the micro-level at the macro-level, and the environmental consequences. At the meso-level, industrial symbiosis continues to grow in potential, but there is a need for further research on the assessment of its contribution to environmental improvement. In addition, there is limited understanding of the use phase. For example, national monitoring programmes do not have indicators on stocks of materials or the extent of the circular economy processes (such as the reuse economy, maintenance and spare parts) which already contribute to the CE. The societal needs/functions framework offers a promising meso-level link to bridge the micro and macro-levels for assessment, monitoring and setting thresholds.

The most widely used definition of the Circular Economy (CE), that of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, distinguishes between technical and biological cycles. However, when addressing renewable (bio-based) materials it places a strong emphasis on their biodegradability. In doing so it tends to overlook the contribution that renewable feedstock and reuse and recycling of renewable materials can have on improving circularity and environmental performance.

This report therefore aims to highlight the role and benefits of responsibly sourced renewable materials in products of the CE’s technical cycle. Renewable material and resources used in the technical cycle link the concepts of bioeconomy and CE. It is argued that given the importance of both concepts in the transition to a sustainable society, it is crucial that neither strategy ends up in the shadow of the other. The contribution of renewable materials to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is also discussed with focus on goals 8, 12, 13 and 15.

The report emphasises that the ongoing benefits and contribution of renewable materials to the technical cycle of the CE concept requires increased recognition for the following reasons: o Reuse and recycling of renewable materials within the technical cycle is environmentally beneficial. o There are inherent environmental benefits of renewable based products compared to fossil-based ones. o Renewable/bio-based materials are already used, reused and recycled in the technical cycle. o The potential of technological and societal innovations for new applications of renewables and increased cyclic use of renewables can be further emphasized.

The primary message is that the field of CE should recognise more fully, in its approach and communication, that sustainability can be increased through the utilisation of renewables in the technical cycle. A major contribution is the reduction of climate change impacts, whilst other environmental impacts may require closer scrutiny depending on individual product circumstances. Finally, the bioeconomy and the CE are mutually supportive concepts, but this needs to be communicated more effectively to policy makers and a wider public, in order to facilitate the transition to a sustainable society.

Environmental pollution, resource scarcity, and freshwater shortage are critical world challenges facing humanity. Process industry produces large amounts of brine, a waste water with a high salinity level and often critical raw materials. This study applies the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) to quantify societal benefits and risks in developing brine treatment systems. S-LCA is implemented for hotspot and site-specific levels on four case studies of the Zero Brine project. Hotspot analysis focused on the major commodities. Social Hotspot Database was used as source for data and endpoint indicators. In addition, site-specific analysis regarded the social performance of the case studies companies; interviews and questionnaires were performed with representatives of the four case studies. The collected data were converted to scores with subcategory assessment method and performance reference points. The results show that for all case studies “Labor rights and decent work” and “Health and safety” indicators result in the largest impacts due to imports of commodities from developing countries. Site-specific results show that the overall social sustainability performance of the case study companies is at a good level. The only potential areas for improvement are the “Occupational accidents” and “Contribution to the local community”. The former are minimally higher for silica plant and higher for coal mine in relation to these sectors average accidents rates. Furthermore, the coal mine company can contribute more to the local community and reduce conflicts concerning environmental impacts at the city level. Common identified hotspots among the case studies are: China, India and Congo. Reducing imports from these countries will significantly improve the societal performance of the brine systems.

The circular economy is billed as a solution to increase economic growth while reducing environmental impact. It is argued that retaining the value of products, components and materials by fostering the “inner loops”, such as reuse, refurbishment and remanufacturing, increases the resource-efficiency. However, published environmental assessments estimating the actual impact of these so-called circular outcomes are inconclusive. This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review of previous environmental assessments on circular products and circular business models, focusing on the tighter technical loops including reuse, refurbishment, and remanufacturing. Mapping reveals factors that influence the environmental impact of circular products and other aspects that should be incorporated in environmental assessments. Even though 239 papers were identified that discuss the environmental impact of circular products and/or circular business models, the far majority only considers a traditional product in a traditional sales model that is remanufactured and compares the impacts of remanufacturing with manufacturing new products. While it is important to quantify the impacts of remanufacturing, it is remarkable that product design strategies for circular economy (e.g. design for remanufacturing, upgradability, modularity) and product-service systems or other types of circular business models are usually not considered in the LCA studies. A lack of studies of products with so-called circular designs that are utilized within circular business models is apparent. In addition, many assessments are static analyses and limited consideration is given to future increases in the share of renewable energy. One can thus question how well the available environmental assessments quantify actual circular products/offerings and the environmental performance gains they could provide in a circular economy. The results show that there is an urgent need for more LCAs done in a way that better captures the potential benefits and deficiencies of circular products. Only then will it be possible to make robust claims about the environmental sustainability of circular products and circular business models and finally circular economy in total.

Cities and urban areas are critical nodes of societal resource flows, responsible for both global and local sustainability implications. They are complex systems and understanding the implications of potential actions by cities is critical for progress towards sustainability. In this paper the future implications of sustainability strategies are assessed for 10 European cities by comparing two scenarios for 2050: a business-as-usual (BAU) and a post-carbon/sustainability scenario (PC2050) (generated by city stakeholders). The effects of the scenarios are assessed using a mixed methodology: a semi-quantitative sustainability indicator analysis, energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (both production-based and consumption-based accounting (PBA and CBA)), land-use spatial modelling, and cost–benefit analysis. The paper highlights the clear benefits of PC2050 with improved sustainability indicator results, reduced land sprawl (which averages 16% in BAU) and positive cost–benefit results. Nonetheless, inequality and segregation are a common concern. In addition, whilst PBA indicates a significant decrease (average decrease from 4.7 to 1.3 tCO2eq per capita) CBA demonstrates rising overall emissions from an average of 11 to 14.8 tCO2eq per capita. This is linked to rising affluence and consumption trends despite local improvements in GHG emissions, which highlights a need for cities to address consumption-based emissions.

In order to enable industrial symbiosis (IS) as an approach for regional sustainable development, it is important that stakeholders involved in facilitating symbiotic exchanges can measure and comprehend the potential benefits and impacts. However, previous assessments have been sporadic and limited to only a few indicators, primarily focused only on existing IS examples or networks and very few have examined potential developments.

This study expands the assessment of IS networks by reviewing the environmental and socioeconomic implications of an emerging network on the west coast of Sweden using life cycle assessment and socioeconomic assessments to illustrate the implications for the firms of the network and regional sustainability. The results suggest that the IS network has the potential to make a positive contribution to the environmental performance of the industries and the socioeconomic status of the region. Of key importance is the potential to cascade the use of nutrients and avoid large eutrophication impacts to the neighboring sea in addition to the large greenhouse gas emissions reductions by avoiding and replacing conventional processes and products.

The socioeconomic assessment illustrated that the IS network could make a substantial contribution to the region for job creation, revenues, local skills base, research and innovation and regional identity. The results provide insights on the potential of industrial symbiosis for regional sustainable development, which may be important for decision makers, firms involved in the network and municipalities, nationally and internationally to advance local efforts with facilitating industrial symbiosis and to understand how these networks can be assessed.

The buildings sector is a major consumer of energy and resources throughout the entire life cycle of the buildings (materials sourcing, design, manufacturing, distribution, consumption, disposal) with corresponding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The contribution of the sector is therefore key to achieving ambitious climate targets. In particular, to maintain global warming below target of 1.5 °C, a carbon dioxide emissions reduction of 9 Gt is required just from the global building sector (Wang et al, 2018). This will need to be achieved by a reduction in energy consumption and decarbonization of electricity production. Equally substantial reductions are required from the other life cycle phases: materials production, construction and demolition phases, which are typically accounted as changes in the industrial sector. The improvement of resource flows through a Circular Economy (CE) approach that includes reducing, reusing, recycling and recovering materials and products, facilitates a decoupling of growth from resource consumption (Kalmykova et al, 2018). This can provide clear advantages from an environmental perspective, contributing to Sustainable Development Goals and to climate change mitigation. However, the literature has identified that despite a global trend of improved operational performance, there are rising “embodied” emissions from processing and manufacturing of building materials. Industrial recycling and energy recovery are the most common practices, even when reuse is believed to have higher economic and environmental value (Eberhardt et al, 2019). The Sharing Economy (SE), offers several opportunities for the building sector by promoting reuse, enabling shared ownership, access or use to increase the utilization rate of products and systems (e.g. shared accommodation, social spaces, offices or tools). Recent literature clearly highlights for the building sector the urgent need for a range of actions across the life cycle such as reduced operational and embodied impacts, as well as strategies to increase alignment of goals and action from numerous stakeholders along the value chain (Röck et al, 2020). This needs to be implemented with specific reference to people, cultures and norms in which the strategies are deployed. The pressure on the sector to embrace its role as provider of critical climate mitigation solutions, is expected to increase. There are however few explicit links to sustainable development and climate mitigation, and little common ground for the variety of analytical approaches and tools. The main aim of the CE in the literature is considered to be economic prosperity, followed by environmental quality; its impact on social equity and future generations is rarely mentioned. Circular and shared economy imply the adoption of cleaner production patterns, an increase of producers’ and consumers’ responsibility and awareness, the use of renewable technologies and materials as well as the adoption of suitable policies. It applies to different systems levels from the macro (neighborhood, city, region, nation and beyond) to the micro level (consumer, product, company). It requires the engagement of all actors in society and their capacity to create and exchange transformative patterns. In all, transition to the era of circular and shared economy aligned with climate goals requires more knowledge on the necessary changes in household’s behavior, design practices, construction and de-construction methods, business models and legal frameworks (Laurenti et al, 2019). This Virtual Special Issue (VSI) calls for new research contributions on mitigation potentials from the Circular and Sharing Economy in the buildings sector worldwide.

Denna analys berör textil som konsumeras inom Sverige. Produktion, återvinning och återanvändning sker till stor del utomlands och miljöeffekterna sker också i stor grad utanför Sveriges gränser. Målet är att visa på miljöskadekostnader kopplat till nuvarande textilhantering i Sverige samt effekterna då föreslagna styrmedel implementeras. Målet är dessutom att visa på miljöpåverkan från återanvändning och återvinning av textil. Som funktionell enhet används den totala svenska konsumtionen av textil år 2010, eller 132 000 ton textil. Skillnaden i miljöskadekostnad mellan nuvarande system och styrmedelsfallet med franska antaganden är i storleksordningen 1-7 miljarder SEK. Ökad återanvändning och återvinning leder till tydligt minskade totala miljöskadekostnader oavsett monetäriseringsmetod. Spannet mellan resultaten för EPS och EcoTax02 visar att miljöskadekostnaderna varierar kraftigt beroende på vilken miljöpåverkan som anses viktigast, men att de i båda fallen visar på en positiv utveckling med föreslagna åtgärder. Återanvändningen ger en större miljöeffekt än återvinning trots optimerad återvinning i grundfallet. Det finns dock stora osäkerheter både i hur stor andel ny textil som undviks genom återanvändning och hur den framtida prestandan för återvinning ser ut. De miljöskadekostnader som beräknats är troligen underskattade då effekter av vattenanvändning och toxiska utsläpp ej kvantifieras på ett tillförlitligt sätt i LCA-metodiken.

This report presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) case study of a mobile phone. The work is part of the POLICIA project where the overarching goal is to combine LCA and an economic-based model (POLICA CE model) into an integrated assessment. The aim of this model is to identify market failures and quantify policy effects of efficient combinations along the entire life cycle.

The objective of the phone case study work is to enable the impact assessment of the LCA, to be incorporated into the POLICIA CE-model, so that environmental impacts of policies can be directly modelled and optimised. To achieve this, linear and circular variants of products were assessed to identify the components and life cycle stages that influence the environmental impact.  

The materials and part production stages of the life cycle contribute most to the environmental impact, for all studied impact categories. Specifically, it is the integrated circuit and other electronic components that contribute most. This is turn implies that circular business models aimed at prolonging life or decreasing use of these components can provide the largest impact reductions. 

This report presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) case study of a motorboat. The work is part of the POLICIA project where the overarching goal is to combine LCA and an economic-based model (POLICA CE model) into an integrated assessment. The aim of this model is to identify market failures and quantify policy effects of efficient combinations along the entire life cycle.

The objective of the motorboat case study work is to enable the impact assessment of the LCA, to be incorporated into the POLICIA CE-model, so that environmental impacts of policies can be directly modelled and optimised. To achieve this, linear and circular variants of products were assessed to identify the key factors and life cycle stages that influence the environmental impact.  

It was found that the use phase dominated the linear version of the life cycle for all studied impact categories, due to the use of fossil fuels and anti-fouling paint. It is shown that circular business models aimed at boat electrification can provide the largest impact reductions. Whilst fossil fuels remain the primary source of boat propulsion, prolonging the boat’s life, or focussing on recycling of boat materials, will not provide a significant reduction in environmental impact. This is because the use phase and its associated pollution of water and air dominates the boat’s life cycle.