Evaluation of Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods for biotic production, and their applicability for assessing the use of land-based biotic resources: Master's thesis

This master’s thesis was assigned by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The aim of this study was to examine the different Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods measuring biotic production that are applicable on land-based biotic resources. The thesis was a part of an international ORIENTING project developing methodology for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LSCA) of products. Biotic resources, closely related to biotic production, are not included in the current international recommendations for LCIA and the goal of this study was to find out the most applicable method to be recommended to LCA.

In this thesis evaluation of LCIA methods was carried out with a literature review. Various terms are used to indicate biotic production, in addition to biotic production, e.g., renewability, availability, and depletion. Criteria to evaluate selected methods were developed considering the usability of the indicator and the ability to measure biotic production. As a result of the evaluation, two methods scored the highest points and were interpret as the most robust methods. Study of Taelman et al. (2016) measures production through solar exergy and Teixeira et al. (2021) uses Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) as an indicator for biotic production.

When the consumption of renewable and biotic resources increases, land use impacts like biotic production need to be better accounted within LCA. Further research is suggested on the two highest ranked methods. Also, the usability of SOC as an indicator for biotic production is recommended to be further examined.