I regleringsbrevet för 2023 fick Energimyndigheten i uppdrag av regeringen att utreda hur solcellspaneler och vindturbinblad till vindkraftverk i högre utsträckning ska kunna tas om hand på ett giftfritt och cirkulärt sätt i enlighet med avfallshierarkin. Redovisningen av detta regeringsuppdrag, rapporten Från avfall till resurs – Förslag för en mer cirkulär hantering av solcellspaneler och vindturbinblad, ER 2024:11, baseras på denna underlagsrapport som har tagits fram av forskningsinstitutet RISE på uppdrag av Energimyndigheten. Analyser, slutsatser och förslag/rekommendationer som framförs i rapporten är författarnas egna.En fortsatt utbyggnad av fossilfri elproduktion är av stor vikt för att vi ska kunna nå Sveriges energi- och klimatmål. För att utbyggnaden i sig ska vara hållbar är det viktigt att vi redan nu planerar för hur avfallet från dessa elproduktionsanläggningar ska förebyggas, minimeras och sedan hanteras.Det finns redan i dagsläget aktörer som har utvecklat och håller på att utveckla ett flertal olika lösningar för ökad cirkularitet. Dessa möjligheter kan tas tillvara och främjas genom regelbunden kartläggning och genom att arbeta gemensamt inom EU. Genom ett sådant arbete finns det också större möjligheter att etablera industriella värdekedjor i Sverige för hanteringen av avfallet från solcellspaneler och vindturbinblad.En cirkulär hantering av avfall ger ett betydligt mindre avtryck på miljön än det som en linjär hantering ger upphov till. Det är viktigt att de aktörer som tillhandahåller fossilfri elproduktion tar ansvar under hela livscykeln och att det finns goda förutsättningar för aktörerna att göra det.

Miljöförvaltningen inom Malmö stad gav RISE uppdraget att identifiera möjligheter att öka kolsänkorna inom kommungränsen. Syftet med den här rapporten är att sammanställa ett brett underlag för klimatarbete med åtgärder som möjliggör en ökning av de lokala kolsänkorna i Malmö stads geografiska område. Genom att uppskatta olika åtgärders potential för kolinlagring, teknisk mognadsgrad och kostnadseffektivitet från ett klimatperspektiv, samt visa på vilka skalor det går att jobba med dessa åtgärder inom kommunen, avses rapporteringen ge en översikt över vilka satsningar som kan göras för att kolsänkorna ska kunna bidra till Malmö stads miljö- och klimatmål. Forskargruppen från RISE har analyserat 18 olika kategorier som har potential att öka den lokala kolinlagringen inom: • de urbana grönområdena, • den urbana infrastrukturen, bebyggd mark och tillhörande mark • rural markanvändning och • övriga möjligheter. I beräkningarna ingår inte klimatpåverkan från insatser som krävs för att genomföra åtgärderna, till exempel avverkning, uppdrivning och plantering av skogsplantor, transport av timmer och förädling av virke. I rapporten tas inte hänsyn till om en ökad användning av mark i en kategori, minskar markanvändning inom en annan kategori.

Companies are working with life cycle thinking for different purposes such as marketing, purchasing, investments and strategies, with the objective to reduce the environmental impact from their products and services. In recent years, LCT has also been important for public policymaking and in public procurement. Methods for environmental footprinting of products and services have been and are being developed all over the world. In its communication Single Market for Green Products1 (SMGP, April 2013), the European Commission proposed actions to overcome problems on the internal market caused by this proliferation of initiatives. The SMGP established two methods, the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and the Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF) to ensure quality and increase transparency of environmental information and to facilitate comparisons between products’, services’ and organizations’ environmental performance. Swedish Life Cycle Center (SLC) has during the years followed and influenced the Environmental Footprint process, through participation in pilots and in the Technical Advisory Board. SLC provides an arena for industry, authorities, research institutes and universities for Roundtable dialogue on methodology aspects, possible implementation and aspects where we want to influence based on Sweden and Nordic conditions and experiences. This dialogue has resulted in research projects, public seminars, conferences and a national coordination between experts. One of the SLC project, Environmental footprint in Sweden, aims to engage Swedish actors in PEF to better understand how the implementation of PEF as well as related requirements and suggested legislation and directives will affect their work. Case studies are being performed to investigate different methodology aspects from a national perspective, communication learnings and recommendations in order to influence the PEF methodologies. A survey has been performed to identify the current situation for the actual implementation of PEF. Also, EPD and PEF similarities and differences are being investigated, which might lead to increased harmonization.The project will also be strengthening the most important outcomes of PEF; increased knowledge about LCA and products’ environmental impacts and increased collaboration within and between sectors.

Most of the research institutes that during the last years merged to create RISE Research Institutes of Sweden had previously developed unique ways of delivering LCA competence, services and data to Swedish industry and public sector. Thereby RISE holds a unique position to establish itself as a leader in the LCA field, in practical application areas such as lifestyle and sustainability analyses, scenario simulation and modeling, service innovation, and policy recommendations at different system levels. To put this in effect, the competence groups of the former separate institutes need to establish synergetic collaboration and operational infrastructure of knowledge, internal standards, and data sharing, as well as concerted LCA offerings. Recognizing the general explosion of interest for environmental assessments, such as carbon footprints, from industry, public sector and consumers, RISE now focuses its capacity to manage different types and formats of life cycle data for internal use as well as for customer offerings. The goal is to increase availability of the life cycle competence connected to RISE’s technical breadth, to provide synergized competence in support of sustainable transition to industry and society. During 2020 the first step towards this goal resulted in an internal shared view of RISE’s LCA offerings and common fundamental and flexible data documentation principles for all different life cycle data within RISE’s different life cycle competence groups. This is an achievement, considering that formats for data presentations within RISE ranges from aggregated carbon footprint results of per kg of products to ILCD European Product Environmental Footprints. During 2021 the RISE effort is dedicated to formation of a solid platform for generic life cycle data sharing, through common internal data exchange formats and interfaces towards customers, as well as a long-term governance, maintenance and competence supply for the synergetic collaboration.

In order to demonstrate the sustainability of the novel process for the production of TMPi that will benefit the environment and human health, a number of different analysis were performed within the EU Life project TRIALKYL, such as the health assessment for hazardous materials and environmental impact assessment based on life cycle assessment.The objective of this Socio-Economic Analysis (SEA) is to determine whether the benefits of continuing using a continuous tertiary amine (TEA) process for the production of TMPi outweighs the risks to human health and the environment. The purpose is also to compare the risks and benefits of the two alternative TMPi production processes.In this SEA study, the existing TEA production process is compared with the new TRIALKYL process for the production of TMP. The current evaluation is based on laboratory data and design of the pilot line, while the final evaluation will be based on industrial data on pilot line.

Socio-economic analysis (SEA) is a methodology developed for chemical risk management and decision making derived from tools like the Cost benefit analysis, or the Multi-criteria analysis by the OECD 2002 and 2006 [3,4]. Since the latest ECHA guideline for SEA in 2011 [1], a number of studies have been performed, while seldom with a life cycle perspective and seldom on production processes.This socio-economic analysis is based on an earlier Life cycle assessment on the production process of trimethyl phosphite (TMPi) [6]. Besides economic, health, environmental and social impacts, this socio-economic analysis is also including the risk of fire/explosion and life lost.Trialkyl phosphites are important intermediates in the chemical industry in a large variety of applications, including crop protection, flame-retardants and plastics production. Among the existing technologies for the production process of TMP there are the tertiary amine process (TEA) and the transesterification process. Among the new innovative technologies, there are the TRYALKYL process, part of this comparison and the EU Life project TRIALKYL in 2014 [2].

The socio-economic analysis SEA includes mainly economic, health, environmental and social impacts in accordance to the latest ECHA guidelines for SEA.The results of the SEA analysis are economic benefits and risk presented as scenarios, such as the “non-use scenario” for the Trialkyl production process and the “applied for use scenario” for the TEA production process. The socio-economic benefits and risks/costs associated with the continued use of the TEA based process are summarised in key parameters including risk of fire/explosion and life lost presented in table 1. Further details can be found in the project report [5].The benefits of this continued use of the TEA based process are the costs which can be avoided when not adopting the Trialkyl process alternative. These benefits are estimated to be approximatively €7 082 420 and the cost of cost of continued use to be €20 Mill.Comparing the benefits and the costs it is evident that EU society benefits significantly from the shift to the Trialkyl process over the period considered.

In conclusion, the socio-economic analysis based on life cycle perspective are useful for the health and environmental assessment and beneficial for the understanding of chemical risk management and decision making. So far, the results have shown that despite the cost of a new production plant, the EU society benefits significantly from the shift to the Trialkyl process due to the improved benefits within human health and the environment.

[1] ECHA (2011). Guidance on the preparation of socio-economic analysis as part of an application for authorization. European Chemical Agency, ECHA, Finland.

[2] EU Life project TRIALKYL. 2014. LIFE-TRIALKYL - An innovative and sustainable continuous process for the development of high quality trimethyl phosphite. EU LIFE Program - Environment and Resource Efficiency (LIFE14/ENV/IT/000346).

[3] OECD. 2002. Technical Guidance Document on the use of Socio-Economic Analysis in Chemical Risk Management Decision Making, OECD 2002.

[4] OECD. 2006. Cost-Benefit Analysis, OECD 2006.

[5] Stahl S, Brunklaus B, Lorentzon K. 2017. Socio-economic impact scenarios report: analysis of an innovative and sustainable continuous process for the production of high quality trimethyl phosphite. EU Life Report, Action C2 (Draft version 07/2017, Final will be available on www.life-trialkyl.eu).

[6] Stahl S, Berlin J, Brunklaus B. 2017. LCA of an innovative and sustainable contious process for the development of high quality Trimethyl Phosphite. EU Life Report, Action C1 (Draft version 09/2017, Final will be available on www.life-trialkyl.eu).

Purpose: To describe a more sustainable food sector, a supply chain approach is needed. Changing a supply chain inevitably means that various attributes of the product and its system will change. This project assumed this challenge and delivered detailed descriptions, life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluations, and consequence assessments of the supply chains of six commodities, i.e., milk, cheese, beef, pork, chicken, and bread, from a Swedish region. This paper presents results for the pork supply chain. Methods: In the project setup, experts on production along supply chains designed three scenarios for environmentally improved systems. These scenarios, i.e., the ecosystem, plant nutrients, and climate scenarios, were intended to address different clusters of environmental goals. The next step was to challenge these scenarios by considering their possible consequences for products and systems from the food safety, sensory quality, animal welfare, consumer appreciation, and (for primary production only) cost perspectives. This led to changes in production system design to prevent negative consequences. The final supply chains were quantified using LCA and were again assessed from the three perspectives. Results and discussion: The scenario design approach worked well, thoroughly and credibly describing the production systems. Assessment of consequences bolstered the credibility and quality of the systems and results. The LCA of pig production and smoked ham identified large potentials for improvement by implementing available knowledge: global warming potential (GWP) could be reduced 21–54 % and marine eutrophication by 14–45 %. The main reason for these improvements was improved productivity (approaching the best producers’ current performance), though dedicated measures were also important, resulting in increased nitrogen efficiency, more varied crop rotations for crop production and better production management, and improved animal health and manure management for animal production. Reduced post-farm wastage contributed as did reduced emissions from fertilizer production. Conclusions: The working approach applied was successful in integrating LCA research with food system production expertise to deliver results relevant to supply chain decision-makers. The consequence assessments brought considerable value to the project, giving its results greater credibility. By introducing constraints in the form of “no negative consequences and no increased costs,” the work was “guided” so that the scenario design avoided being hampered by too many opportunities.