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Review: life-cycle assessment, water footprinting, and carbon footprinting in Portugal

  • COMMENTARY AND DISCUSSION ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

A review of readily available quantitative environmental data was conducted in order to determine the state of sustainability reporting and identify possible future research areas in Portugal.

Methods

Internet searches of articles written in English and published between 2001 and 2015 were conducted using the keywords “life-cycle assessment,” “LCA,” “water footprint,” “carbon footprint,” and “Portugal.” Additionally, reports from the Global Reporting Initiative (2015 only) were included in the search.

Results and discussion

It was found that 79% of reports found were published in the period 2011–2015. Several reports were found for the forestry, paper and pulp, food and beverage, energy and electricity, waste management, and automotive industries, while no reports were found for the textile, footwear and clothing, and base metal and mineral industries. As such, these are industries on which future studies might focus. No reports found were published by governmental organizations, although it is thought that expanding the search to include Portuguese language results would yields more results. The majority (68%) of companies reporting to the GRI adhered to the relevant guidelines.

Conclusions

A total of 72 reports were found (41 LCAs, water- or carbon footprints, and 31 GRI reports). It is unclear if there are other reports that may be restricted to “hidden” datasets or company specific archives. The aim of this report was to highlight those that were available to a non-specialist or international audiences trying to gain a greater understanding of the LCA space in Portugal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Nicholas W. Burman, Joel Croft, Shaun Engelbrecht, A. O. Ladenika, O. S. MacGregor, Mpho Maepa, Michael Oluwatosin Bodunrin & Kevin G. Harding

  2. Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit (IMWaRU), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Nicholas W. Burman, Mpho Maepa & Kevin G. Harding

  3. Centre in Water Research and Development (CiWaRD), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Nicholas W. Burman, Mpho Maepa & Kevin G. Harding

  4. NRF/DST Chair: Sustainable Process Engineering Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Joel Croft & Shaun Engelbrecht

  5. DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials, African Materials Science and Engineering Network, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    O. S. MacGregor & Michael Oluwatosin Bodunrin

  6. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure, PMB 704, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

    Michael Oluwatosin Bodunrin

Authors
  1. Nicholas W. Burman
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  2. Joel Croft
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  3. Shaun Engelbrecht
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  4. A. O. Ladenika
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  5. O. S. MacGregor
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  6. Mpho Maepa
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  7. Michael Oluwatosin Bodunrin
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  8. Kevin G. Harding
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin G. Harding.

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Responsible editor: Mary Ann Curran

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Burman, N.W., Croft, J., Engelbrecht, S. et al. Review: life-cycle assessment, water footprinting, and carbon footprinting in Portugal. Int J Life Cycle Assess 23, 1693–1700 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1483-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1483-3

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