A Simplified Environmental Assessment Methodology for Research Projects as an Alternative to Life-Cycle Assessment

• DOI: 10.1177/1070496519867435
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Alex Nurse,Andy Plater,Matt Fulton
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

A Simplified

Environmental Assessment

Methodology for Research

Projects as an Alternative

to Life-Cycle Assessment

Matt Fulton

1

, Alex Nurse

1

, and Andy Plater

1

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises and research institutes engaged on eco-innovative

research projects are often required to account for environmental benefits of new

products, processes, or services. This article describes an environmental assessment

methodology for calculating auditable environmental benefits, highl ighting case

studies as examples. It addresses the challenges involved in conducting assessments

of products that have yet to be commercialized by taking into account the quality

and confidence of the data and enabling nonexperts to engage with the process

to a well-informed level. The method draws on the most pertinent and accessible

information to develop a reliable overview of the reportable outputs while mini-

mizing the resource and expertise required by measuring only the change in

circumstance. The process is flexible enough to cater to projects from a range of

sectors, with different expertise levels, but in-depth enough to be considered

an acceptable quantification of environmental outputs by rigid external reporting

requirements.

Keywords

CO

2

reductions, eco-innovation, environmental claims, environmental outputs,

greenhouse gas reduction targets, knowledge exchange, knowledge transfer,

life-cycle analysis, simplified life-cycle analysis, SME research collaborations

Journal of Environment &

Development

2019, Vol. 28(4) 339–365

!The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/1070496519867435

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1

School of Environmental Science, University of Liverpool, UK

Corresponding Author:

Matt Fulton, School of Environmental Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZT, UK.

Email: mfulton@liv.ac.uk

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for more than 99.9% of busi-

nesses in Europe and 99.7% of all companies in the United States, with estimates

from 45% to 60% of all CO

2

emissions produced from their business activity

(Vickers, Vaze, Corr, Kasparova, & Lyon, 2009). At the same time, their activity

also accounts for a signif‌icant proportion of new or improved products, pro-

cesses, and services developed with the primary intention of delivering traceable

environmental outcomes (Hansen & Grosse-Dunker, 2013). Despite their sig-

nif‌icance in being able to deliver a ‘‘low carbon’’ economy, SMEs represent a

large but often underresearched constituent of the business community, with

much existing research on environmental impact focusing on larger f‌irms

(Revell & Rutherfoord, 2003). Acknowledging this, higher education institutions

and funding bodies that drive research are increasingly recognizing the role that

small- and medium-sized businesses play in delivering eco-innovation and are

actively supporting industry-focused programs to ref‌lect this (Department for

Business, Innovation and Skills, 2014). In addition, the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (2018) report on the impact of global warming reinforces the

need for all avenues of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction to be employed, includ-

ing technological innovation, driven by policy instruments. This is supported to

some extent in the United Kingdom through the Clean Growth Strategy

(Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 2017), def‌ining

clean growth as achieving economic growth while cutting carbon emissions.

This recognition coincides with the rise of sustainability as a central theme

within the calls of many major funding bodies. For example, under current

guidelines, expenditure by European-funded projects must be eligible in terms

of the Operational Programme (Land Use Consultants, 2014), the relevant

European Commission Regulations and the National Eligibility Rules, with

environmental sustainability being a cross-cutting theme for all the English

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programs (Department for

Communities and Local Government, 2009). Similarly, for schemes in the

United Kingdom and Europe, funding instruments such as Innovate UK,

Horizon 2020 (H2020), and INTERREG either operate funding calls for specif‌ic

sustainable themes or place a substantial emphasis on the environmental impacts

of research projects. For example, more than £500 million of England’s 2014–

2020 ERDF funding period is allocated toward projects supporting a shift

toward a low carbon economy (Department for Communities and Local

Government, 2014). All projects receiving this fund must monitor and report

estimated GHG reductions, with a total target reduction in CO

2

equivalent

GHGs of more than 1.2 million tonnes over the 6-year funding period.

Benef‌iciaries of the funding include SMEs, universities, and the public sector,

with individual projects ranging from around £500 k to £5 million. Employing

full International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or alternative stand-

ards in all these projects would be impractical, yet there is no agreed method-

ology to quantify or estimate reductions.

340 Journal of Environment & Development 28(4)