A life cycle impact assessment methodology based on planetary boundaries

Planetary boundaries can be understood as limits for the Earth’s tolerance towards environmental impacts in the form of, for example, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and the release of nitrogen and phosphorous. This project aims at making planetary boundaries useful to the environmental management within companies. This will happen by developing a method that quantifies environmental impacts of a company in the language of planetary boundaries. The method will allow companies to identify the largest potentials for reducing environmental impacts and to understand what types of impacts (e.g. water use or climate change) that should be of priority in a given case. The partner organisation is expected to benefit by gaining insights on the science behind the method to be developed and by applying the method on their own case study and exploring how the results can be used for internal environmental management and stakeholder (costumers, etc.) communication.

Faculty Supervisor:

Manuele Margni

Student:

Anders Bjorn

Partner:

Unilever Canada Inc

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Consumer goods

University:

Polytechnique Montréal