Projects at the Life Cycle Assessment research group

-
Cocoa in Numbers - from data to knowledge
Nowadays consumers of cocoa and chocolate products are not only interested in safe high-quality products but also in products which are sustainable and produced under fair ecological and social conditions. The demand for transparency of information on the condition of cultivation, production and trade as well as on ...
-
Climate-KIC Summer School
-
Campus Challenge Sustainability Exchange
It is undisputed that every human being must make his or her contribution if global warming is to be limited to less than 1.5 degrees. However, neither research nor practice is clear about which behavioral patterns are best for each individual. It is also unclear how people are ultimately to get involved. The ...
-
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)
-
Sustainable Food Chain Model
The goal of this project is the development of a model that calculates the environmental impacts of food systems. This is important to evaluate measures that reduce the resource consumption of food systems and avoid food waste. Through various user interfaces with different levels of complexity the model can be ...
-
Extending the lifespan of mobile devices
Extending the service life of smartphones and other Internet-enabled mobile devices could significantly reduce their ecological footprint. In pursuit of this, it will be necessary to develop innovative approaches that are both economically viable and appealing to consumers.
-
Life Cycle Assessment of Tourism in Thailand
The proposed seed project consists of two main parts: In the first part, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to analyze the environmental impact of tourism activities in Thailand. Based on the analysis, practical recommendations for providing these services more sustainably are developed. In the second part, ...
-
Assessment of mineral oil tax relief for synthetic fuels from biological methanation
The debates in 2004-2007 on the tax exemption of fuels from renewable raw materials focused mainly on 1st generation fuels. Consequently, the instruments are also geared to this type of fuel. At that time, however, the legislator made it possible for fuels from renewable energy sources to also benefit from the tax ...
-
Extension of the study on life cycle assessments for alternative substrates to peat
The aim of the research study is to extend the study by Eymann et al. (2015) of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) by selected substrate components and substrate mixtures which, based on defined criteria, have a high potential as peat substitutes. Analogous to the 2015 study, the present research ...
-
The Coffee Blockchain – From Field to Cup
-
Regionalised Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment
The start-up financed project is a research cooperation of the research groups Life Cycle Assessment, Geography of Food and Geoinformatics for the development of a competence focus "Regionalised Agricultural LCA". The feasibility of a regionalised life cycle assessment will be examined with regard to technical and ...
-
TRANSFOOD: IMPROVING SUSTAINABILITY IMPACTS OF TRANSNATIONAL FOOD VALUE CHAINS
Globalisation of the food trade leads to various impacts on the economy, the environment, and society. Emerging economies that have expanded their agricultural trade and have become net agricultural exporters are particularly affected. The proposed research collaboration aims at combining interdisciplinary research ...
-
Green Hospital
Which processes in a hospital are particularly resource-intensive? How can cost-efficiency in hospitals be increased and environmental impact be reduced? How can life cycle innovation be applied in the health care sector in order to increase its sustainability? The Life Cycle Assessment Research Group of the Zurich ...
-
Life Cycle Assessment of various packaging options in the jam production
Hero AG is producing more than 100 different jams in various packaging sizes, whereof Mini-, Midi- and MaxiJars are available. Basically, three packaging options are good solutions: aluminium, glass and plastic. Recently, Hero was confronted with critique, regarding to the use of aluminium Cups, which are ...
-
Environmental Sustainability of Renewable Methane for Mobility
Within this subproject in the framework of the National Research Programm 70 regarding energy turnaround, an environmental sustainability assessement of power-to-gas (PtG) methane will be conducted by applying life cycle assessment methodology. In the PtG technology, hydrogen and carbon dioxide are converted to ...
-
Life Cycle Assessment of the Dismantling of Wind Turbines
There are currently just over 30 large wind turbines in Switzerland, with strong expansion of wind energy in the next few years as part of the Energy Strategy 2050. Wind turbines are designed for a service life of approximately 20 years. The plants are then dismantled and disposed of. There are different views on ...
-
Food for Future
-
SHAREBOX – Secure Management Platform for Shared Process Resources
To pave the way forward for IS as a solution for more efficient processing and energy systems for the process industry, we will develop a secure ICT platform (SHAREBOX) for the flexible management of shared process resources that will provide plant operations and production managers with the robust and reliable ...
-
EAT-IT
Based on long-standing work and a unique market position, Eaternity successfully distributes a solution for managing CO2 transparency covering the entire value added chain, from food product to full menu. This CTI project enables Eaternity to use the results of its groundwork and turn it into an attractive, scalable ...
-
Sustainability assessment of the CO2 methanation value chain: environmental impacts and socio-economic drivers and barriers
This project aims at evaluating the sustainability of the joint project’s “Reduction and reuse of CO2” value chain, i.e. the carbon dioxide methanation value chain – from the production of hydrogen through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting (partner project 2), through the methanation of carbon dioxide from ...