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Massimo PizzolTrust me, I am green2023-09-01T00:00:00+00:002023-09-01T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2023/09/01/Confidential-LCI-data<p> </p>
<h1 id="a-matter-of-trust">A matter of trust</h1>
<p>There have been some interesting posts in the <a href="https://support.simapro.com/s/article/How-do-I-subscribe-to-the-LCA-discussion-list">Pre mailing list</a> about how to deal with confidentiality when performing LCA studies, expecially in comparative context.</p>
<p>Everybody who does LCA knows this issue. Companies and organisations of all sizes and types are usually reluctant to - or direclty against - sharing publicly the inventory data about their processes and activities. For example the amount of energy or chemicals needed to produce a unit of product. The reason that I hear the most is maintaining <strong>competitive advantage</strong>. They don’t want competitors to know what they do and how.</p>
<p>OK, fair enough.</p>
<p>But. Are these concerns <strong>reasonable or</strong> are producers <strong>magnifying the problem</strong>? Indeed publicly available inventory data on production activities can be a great help for LCA researchers! And for the general public to keep producers accountable for their claims. But do competitors really care about life cycle inventories? How many in the general public will actually take the time to check them in detail? How much valuable and practical is this rather aggregated information for reproducibility? And for process understanding<sup id="fnref:1" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup>? And, in the worse case, for scooping company secrets?</p>
<p>The problem for me starts when organisations concerned with confidentiality are very eager to put their LCA results out in the open. Because I feel that LCA nowadays is unfortunately 10% a tool for process improvement and decision support, and 90% a tool for marketing of decision already been taken.</p>
<p>In cases of comparative assertions, ISO standards require that a panel reviews the LCA and there the common solution is to make the data available for the review panel, often under non-disclosure agreement, and to exclude the confidential data from the final published LCA report. However, for Environmental Product Declarations and other LCA-based reports on product environmental performance, not necessarily comparative, there is AFAIK <strong>no requirement to disclose</strong> any of the underlying data.</p>
<p>This is why I find the confidentiality issue a very <strong>controversial</strong> one. I do understand that producers might have legitimate confidentiality concerns, and a justified need to maintain competitive advantage and to keep details on their process hidden from competitors. But at the same time, if a producer wants to show to the world how “low-impact” they are at producing something, and to compare their product with other products (either directly or indirectly by letting consumers do it), then it seems to me rather <strong>absurd</strong> that they are not willing to share data about said production process.</p>
<p>When the data are not shared, they are basically saying: <em>I am good, trust me</em>.</p>
<p>But <strong>I don’t want to trust</strong>.</p>
<p>So either you want to keep confidentiality, or you want to go public with green claims. <strong>You can’t have your cake and eat it too</strong>… can you? The solution with LCA reviewers having full access to the model and data under non-disclosure agreement is a good starting point. But still a lot of trust is at work here, and it leaves out many cases. A much more <strong>virtuous</strong> approach should be to share at least the minimum amount of data needed to reproduce the results of the model, and ideally more…</p>
<p>The idea that we as a society should allow anybody to publish green claims without providing supporting evidence sounds, in all honesty, quote <strong>bogus</strong> to me.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p><em>Anybody who has tried to reproduce LCA results starting from published data knows what I am talking about - this is a painful process.</em> <a href="#fnref:1" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Massimo PizzolAbout LCA and confidentialityResponding to reviewers2023-08-02T00:00:00+00:002023-08-02T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2023/08/02/Answering-reviewers<p> </p>
<h1 id="repetita-iuvant">Repetita iuvant</h1>
<p>I get to say these things over and over so I thought about writing them here for further use.</p>
<p>You received a review of your paper. You feel the need to burn the world down in anger<sup id="fnref:1" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> but your only viable action is to make a point-by-point response. What to do? Two things.</p>
<h1 id="show-dont-tell">Show, don’t tell</h1>
<p>(First of all. Answer all comments - needless to say but, well….)</p>
<p>For each comment, keep the response <strong>short</strong> and copy-paste the new/revised text under that. Let the new/revised text <strong>speak for itself</strong>.</p>
<p>Don’t argue, don’t discuss with reviewers, this is not a chat, instead let the new/revised text answer their comment.</p>
<p>This is the “Show, don’t tell” approach.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p><strong>Reviewer comment:</strong> <em>The sources for the data mentioned in line 215 are not cited, this is a shortcoming.</em></p>
<p><strong>Good response:</strong> <em>Sources now added (Sect 2.1): “Data on icecream and pizza consumption were retrieved from Rossi et al. 2022 and from Nielsen et al. 2023 respectively.”</em></p>
<p><strong>Bad response:</strong> <em>We disagree this is a shortcoming because the data sources are explained in previous paragraphs and we think this level of detail is sufficient. As explained previously in the paper we took data about eating icecream from the paper of Rossi et al. 2022 and the data about eating pizza are from the report of Nielsen et al. 2023 and these are the best sources we could find and we also think they are the most reliable. Therefore we believe the lack of citation in this section can not be considered a shortcoming.</em> …it is bad because: yawning long, no section mentioned, no change mentioned, a lot of irrelevant arguing - really, who cares about your rants?</p>
<h1 id="keep-the-right-state-of-mind">Keep the right state of mind</h1>
<blockquote>
<p><em>“You will know [the good response to the reviewer?] when you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” — Yoda</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, a bit of <strong>cheap zen attitude</strong> helps a lot when writing your response.</p>
<p>Don’t argue with reviewers. <strong>This is not a discussion.</strong> Every time you argue you weaken your position. This is not a tennish match. There is no ball to throw on the other side to make a point.</p>
<p>In this sense it helps sometimes to think that you are writing <strong>to the editor</strong>, not to the reviewers (it helps to avoid arguing). You are writing to the editor <strong>to show what you have done</strong>, not to the reviewer to offer explainations or clarifications.</p>
<p>Sometimes I hear that people feel “attacked” by reviewers. Don’t let the reviewer get to your nerves. “Attacks” are irrelevant.</p>
<p>Was a <strong>specific revision</strong> required? Has the paper been revised <strong>accordingly</strong>? <strong>That’s all that counts.</strong></p>
<p>Just write what revision has been done and where (show don’t tell, see above). As good old Dante Alighieri says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>“Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa”.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<h1 id="the-line-in-the-sand">The line in the sand</h1>
<p>Of course, there are situations where one should forget everything I wrote above and go nuclear.</p>
<p>Personal offenses, implicit or suggested accusations of misconduct without evidence, denigrating, sexists or patronizing comments, etc.</p>
<p><strong>Zero tolerance</strong> for this stuff. Write to the editor that you don’t want to deal with anything like that and offer no answer than that to the reviewer’s comment.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p>For a short period of my academic life, I used to first write a draft response document with very furious answers to the comments received, to let the anger out. Or the frustration, I guess. Then I would let the document “rest” for one day or two. Then read it again, cancel everything, and start over. This is a very stupid approach, don’t use it. <a href="#fnref:1" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Massimo PizzolThings I repeat oftenGreen tech - green growth?2022-11-11T00:00:00+00:002022-11-11T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2022/11/11/Green-tech-green-growth<p> </p>
<h1 id="it-takes-ages">It takes ages</h1>
<p>I have been waiting to write about this article for SO long time: <a href="https://link-springer-com.zorac.aub.aau.dk/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-08313-6_8"><em>Green Tech for Green Growth? Insights from Nordic Environmental Innovation</em></a> recently published together with <a href="https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/mikael-skou-andersen(d6eb07fd-3020-4801-9beb-04c0cc0f0914).html">Prof. Mikael Skou Andersen</a> from Aarhus Univ., Dep. Environmental Sciences.</p>
<h1 id="nowagg">NOWAGG</h1>
<p>First, this is the result of the work done under the <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/en/projects/new-nordic-ways-to-green-growth">NOWAGG project</a> that run between 2017-19. Yes, it took a long time to publish results, but better late than never.</p>
<p>In this study we started from a simple premise: achieving a “green growth” means relying <strong>a lot</strong> on technological solutions to decouple growth and emissions — but evidence shows that bringing new “green” technologies to the market is actually not so easy…🤔</p>
<p><em>(parenthesis: we used “green technology” to refer to a technology that is considered environmentally friendly based on its production process or supply chain. We chose it to match the “green growth” terminology and among various synonymous (“environmental technology,” “green tech” and “cleantech”, “environment-related technologies”))</em></p>
<p>So <strong>why</strong> the journey of many green technologies from their early conception to their large-scale adoption and upscaling remains <strong>a serious challenge</strong>? We wanted to find out.</p>
<p>There has been entire books on the topic of tech innovation and development, but we wanted an ampirical study on the nordics. Because the nordic countries are often taken as <strong>leaders in environmental innovation</strong> - so…it would be interesting to see what happens there.</p>
<h1 id="patents">Patents</h1>
<p>We used a <strong>mixed-methods approach</strong>: quantiative (patent analysis) and qualitative (interviews). I was not used to any of those so…it wasn’t easy.</p>
<p>Why the <strong>patents</strong>? Because it’s a proxy for innovation, and it’s realtively good data. Very organized, very structured, realtively easy to retrieve (after you learn some SQL…)</p>
<p>So we got data for all the patents submitted in 2000–2017 in the five Nordic countries: Denmark🇩🇰, Finland🇫🇮, Iceland🇮🇸, Norway🇳🇴, and Sweden🇸🇪 and selected the “green” ones based on an existing classificaiton (<a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/environment/measuring-environmental-innovation-using-patent-data_5js009kf48xw-en">Haščič & Migotto, 2015</a>).</p>
<p>Below the result:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here green patents classified according to technological domains (data from EPO). <br />- increasing steadily since 2000 (after 2015 the decrease is due to delays in reporting).<br />- but country-specific tech development pattern (strongholds or preferred areas) <a href="https://t.co/TtwseAsjMy">pic.twitter.com/TtwseAsjMy</a></p>— Massimo Pizzol 🇺🇦 (@m_outreach) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_outreach/status/1590069600041177092?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Green patents classified according to technological domains (data from <a href="https://www.epo.org/">EPO</a>) are</p>
<ul>
<li>increasing steadily since 2000 (after 2015 the decrease is due to delays in reporting).</li>
<li>But Nordic countries displays a different pattern in terms of type of technologies patented suggesting country-specific strongholds or preferred areas of green technology development.</li>
</ul>
<p>So far so good, we get the <strong>big picture</strong>: a lot of green tech developm,ent going on in all countries, with country specific differences in the type of techs developed. But we don’t know the details of this story.</p>
<p>So we went qualitative.</p>
<h1 id="interviews">Interviews.</h1>
<p>Conveniently, patent data include names of inventors… It’s a gigantic phoenbook…but without phone numbers 🙁 So we found the mails/phone numbers of about 200 inventors. Contacted them. Interviewed more than 40.</p>
<p>What did we ask? In simple terms, to <strong>tell us a story</strong> of their technology, what went well, what went wrong, and why. Then we made a qualitative content analysis to summarize findings.</p>
<p>And again:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And here the result, we were able to find a structure that fits basically all stories and described the "life cycle" or "journey" of a green tech from conception to market. 7 steps influenced by 4 factors: Organisation, Funding, Technology, Market. <a href="https://t.co/rPfK0fUbKG">pic.twitter.com/rPfK0fUbKG</a></p>— Massimo Pizzol 🇺🇦 (@m_outreach) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_outreach/status/1590069623256657920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>We were able to find a <strong>structure</strong> that fits basically all stories and described the “life cycle” or “journey” of a green tech from conception to market. Seven steps influenced by four factors: <strong>Organisation, Funding, Technology, Market</strong>.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, this scheme fits previous theories about innovation and the different steps in technology development (there are several models in the literature about this). So what is the new stuff here?</p>
<h1 id="the-new-stuff">The new stuff</h1>
<p>Is that we have now <strong>a pretty good picture</strong> of what is happening in the Nordics when it comes to green tech development. And all the juicy details are in the paper and I can’t possibly summarize here. Some key points.</p>
<p>The process of environmental innovation is <strong>complex</strong>. One does not just…bring a green idea to market. This journey is complicated by several obstacles, technological, organisational, economic, poltical.</p>
<p>If you think technology is going to save us, you have to arm yourself with patience. Green tech development takes <strong>long</strong> time. The scales are <strong>huge</strong>. The money is <strong>scarce</strong>. The failure rate <strong>high</strong>.</p>
<h1 id="peculiar-green-tech-development-issues">Peculiar green tech development issues:</h1>
<p>☑️Funding: a lot of research money but when it comes to upscaling…the costs are orders of magnitude higher and —there is no money (<strong>valley of death</strong> issue for greeen tech).</p>
<p>☑️“catch 22” problem or <strong>“chicken-and-egg”</strong> 🐓🥚problem: investors want to see the green techn at work in real scale before investing, but funding is required precisely to proof that the techn can work at large scale (because pilot and industrial are hugely dfifferent)</p>
<p>☑️What is <strong>scale up</strong> for green tech? From building many large plants of relatively low-tech machinery operating on huge amounts of material (biomass valorisation) to mass-produice high-tech components with high degree of automation (fuel cells)</p>
<p>☑️Policy, it’s tricky. Sometimes policies that try to favour one type of green tech innovation prevent another. E.g. incentives for biofuels <strong>do not help</strong> developing high-value products from biomass.</p>
<p>☑️Investors: when it comes to green technology are risk-averse and keen to ensure stable market conditions in the long term, which is only rarely achieved. They want <strong>policy to make the market stable</strong>…and secure…</p>
<p>☑️(True story) To get the funding many responded one needs “the right guy” or “the guy who is good at getting money”. Forget about green tech as just engineers, this is a <strong>business</strong> issue just as much.</p>
<p>..and much more. <a href="https://link-springer-com.zorac.aub.aau.dk/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-08313-6_8">Here a link to the paper</a><sup id="fnref:1" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> . More details there. Enjoy</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Yeah, I know, the paper is paywalled….Send a request <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360243965_Green_tech_for_green_growth_Insights_from_Nordic_environmental_innovation">here on Researchgate</a> or <a href="mailto:massimo@plan.aau.dk">write me</a> and I will happily send a copy of it. <a href="#fnref:1" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Massimo PizzolA Nordic innovation paperClimate change is already here2022-09-08T00:00:00+00:002022-09-08T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2022/09/08/What-we-have-already-lost<p> </p>
<p><em><a href="https://nordjyske.dk/">Nordjyske</a> is a Danish newspaper and prints every week an opinion piece via a “relay” where one author reccommends another, etc. I was invited and this below is a translation of what I wrote there, with links added. <a href="https://moutreach.science/assets/Nordjyske290822.pdf">Here the original article</a> if you read Danish.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<h1 id="a-couple-of-weeks-ago">A couple of weeks ago</h1>
<p>I was chairing a session about <strong>climate change</strong> at the <a href="https://www.bio.aau.dk/havforsker">Havforskermøde</a>, a scientific conference that was organized by Prof. <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/da/persons/111337">Niels Madsen</a> and others at our premises in Aalborg university <sup id="fnref:1" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup>.</p>
<p>It was a very mixed session, that is different from the more specialized ones (on <a href="https://moutreach.science/2022/05/20/SETAC-2022-report.html">LCA</a>) that I usually attend, but it was a very touching one – I am going to explain a bit why.</p>
<p>There was a presentation where a <a href="https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/en/persons/paula-canal-verg%C3%A9s/publications/">researcher</a> showed how much the sea level rise is <strong>already erasing coastal area</strong> in Denmark, and how much of coastal area will be lost, erased, and transformed in the next 100 years. Some popular Danish beaches will disappear completely, some unique Danish coastal ecosystems will also disappear. 100 years, it’s not a log time when you must make decisions about which coast areas to protect and preserve, and which to lose, and then build infrastructure like dams for this protection.</p>
<p><a href="https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/persons/colin-andrew-stedmon">Another researcher</a> showed clearly how huge, <strong>colossal amounts of water are warming up</strong> in areas of the arctic, at an alarming speed. What is particularly impressive is the size of these water masses, which is massive. Imagine how much heat you need to warm the entire sea between Iceland and Greenland.</p>
<p>I have also seen another <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/da/persons/145757/publications/">researcher</a> giving a more “exotic” presentation about <strong>sea turtles</strong> in Australia. Sea turtles are amphibians, and their sex at birth is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are conserved under the sand. When the sand where they nest gets warmer, because of warming climate, more female turtles are born. The researchers were fining imbalances so serious that some populations of turtles had more than 90% female individuals. There are hardly any males left in these turtle population. Researchers were able to prove that these imbalances had been going on for the last thirty years, and getting more and more pronounced, and to correlate very well these changes in the sex ratios with data about warming climate.</p>
<p>And then another <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/da/persons/117464/publications/">researcher</a> reporting a series of first-hand witnesses of <strong>fishermen in Greenland</strong> who told the scientists how the sea is changing in front of their own eyes. In their lifetime, fish species that used to be there are not there anymore, or have moved north, and new species have arrived that are typical or warm waters and were never or rarely seen before. This makes fishing much more challenging and sometimes impossible and affects severely the livelihoods of the Greenlandic fishermen and their families.</p>
<p>And finally there were presentations by my close colleagues about how the <strong>fishery itself contributes with CO2 emissions</strong> to the changing climate. The harder it is to find fish, the more fuels consumed, the more carbon is emitted, the more climate changes, the more difficult it is to fish…it’s a <strong>vicious cycle</strong>.</p>
<p>One presentation after the other showed the dramatic impact that human-driven climate change is <strong>already</strong> having on our society and on the ecosystem.</p>
<h1 id="there-are-people">There are people</h1>
<p>like me and you behind these studies that every day are confronted with the harsh reality of how much our climate is changing and how devastating the effects are already being and how more devastating they will be.</p>
<p>I can imagine them sitting in their offices, in front of the computer, plotting the data for the first time, looking at these graphs and trends, the hard evidence. The inevitability. <strong>What do they do when they see these data?</strong> Do they cry? Bang their head on the desk? Or are they just used to it, indifferent as a self-defense mechanism? There is a sort of weird resignation in their eyes when you ask them…<em>so what now?</em> in the corridor after the session. They shrug their shoulders in a gesture of impotence…like they have lost something very precious, irreversibly.</p>
<p>It is usually at this point that any written piece about climate change ends with a <strong>message of hope</strong>. Because we don’t have to scare you too much dear reader. Because…doomism. We can still make it, you know…probably. But let’s be honest, this is less likely every day that passes. Climate change is already here, it’s not in 100 years as you are maybe imagining. The situation is serious, for real. <strong>This is no joke.</strong></p>
<h1 id="so-please-take-a-moment">So please take a moment</h1>
<p>to inform yourself about how <strong>your actions</strong> contribute to climate change. Leave your car at home, walk, take the bike, take the bus or train. But please no, don’t take that Aalborg-Copenhagen plane. Save as much energy as you can. Insulate your house, electrify. Eat much less meat and diary. Don’t buy so much stuff that you don’t actually need, just because it’s cheap, but learn how products are made and where they come from.</p>
<p>And since yes, of course this is <strong>not just an individual responsibility, demand some systemic change</strong>. Demand a serious environmental commitment from your favorite political party, your municipality, your neighborhood, whatever they are, demand a green agenda. Vote.</p>
<p>There is a lot you can do, everything counts. Indifference, instead, will only bring more coast to disappear, more warm water in the arctic, more female turtles, more sense of we lost it all.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p><em>The full program is <a href="https://www.bio.aau.dk/havforsker/program">here</a>, look at Session 9 of August 17th for details on the presentation titles and presenters.</em> <a href="#fnref:1" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Massimo PizzolFor realLCA teaching videos2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:002022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2022/08/15/teaching-videos<h1 id="lca-binge-watching">LCA binge watching</h1>
<p>I have recorded several <strong>teaching videos</strong> about LCA during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the shift to online teaching and most importantly due to the gradual shift to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped-classroom">flipped classroom</a> teaching approach - you find them all here.</p>
<p>Some disclaimers before watching:</p>
<ul>
<li>You might not be the intended audience for all videos. Some are for beginners, some are for people with already experience with LCA. Also, they cover only specif parts of LCA.</li>
<li>The videos are usually part of a course, and accompained by other material such as spreadsheets, readings, literature lists, and Q&A sessions. None of this is available here so the bigger picture is missing.</li>
<li>These were recorded in one take, with various recording tools, etc…video & audio quality is what it is.</li>
<li>Prepare yourself for some heavy italian-accent type of English…</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="videos-on-basics-of-lca">Videos on basics of LCA</h2>
<p>Used in courses at Aalborg University and University of Southern Denmark during years 2020-2022. Videos show how to structure and conduct a LCA, and how to implement LCA on the software <a href="https://simapro.com/">SimaPro</a> with database <a href="https://ecoinvent.org/">ecoinvent</a> (if you have a license).</p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=954e26c3-8a72-476c-a9a5-aee7007503b1">1-MP-Systems-thinking</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d49ef35f-77c7-449c-ae37-aee70075338e">2.1-MP-Functional-unit</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=50f4504f-3b63-4c4e-bebf-aee7007549e7">2.2-MP-Product-system-flow-chart</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d7e47891-8275-4fb8-ba5f-aee7007cef64">3.1-MP-product-system-diagram-to-matrix</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=ec190f29-335b-44c6-a598-aee7007cef64">3.2-MP-understand-the-product-system-matrix</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=f6885182-128b-481a-b529-aee7007cef64">3.3-MP-multifunctional-activities-explained</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=4d9e64a5-c157-416d-8a18-aee7007cef64">3.4-MP-multifunctional-activities-matrix</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d7209fe1-754e-4a1b-a8fe-acd900712870">4.1-MP-SimaPro-foreground-system</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d80005fd-9007-4692-a7d6-acd9006fa262">4.2-MP-SimaPro-background-system-described</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a6531bc9-d1d8-4acb-b92a-acd90072ecbc">4.3-MP-SimaPro-background-system-howtolink</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=dcf692cb-63fe-402f-9931-ace001289781">4.4-MP-SimaPro-match-with-excel</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=8796774f-fe29-4a01-a8f9-aee700808366">5.1-MP-LCIA-theory</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=41d9d6dd-b405-4175-bfeb-aee700808374">5.2-MP-LCIA-Simapro</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=4b4bfedb-812b-4b32-b22b-aee70080836b">5.3-MP-LCIA-norm-weigh</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=236bf686-d7df-43b2-b6cd-acd100907ac6">5.4-MP-Interpretation</a></p>
<h2 id="videos-on-advanced-lca">Videos on advanced LCA</h2>
<p>Used for PhD course in Advanced LCA at Aalborg University during years 2021-2022. They cover topics ranging from the computational structure of LCA to in particular the use of the <a href="https://brightway.dev/">Brightway2</a> python-based LCA software, and uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. The notebooks are available on the github repository <a href="https://github.com/massimopizzol/advanced-lca-notebooks">advanced-lca-notebooks</a>.</p>
<p>Videos from other teachers are available too for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdeMRDEdKW1uf9sr83G9vweym_q7dg44q">Consequential LCA module</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=4ad1c4d4-a3ed-473c-b09e-ad1600b2e0c0">AdvLCA-M2.1-Getting-Started</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a4d405b5-795b-4092-912b-ad1600c1dc67">AdvLCA-M2.2-Simple-LCA</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a5803418-4950-4506-90b4-ad2400cc8fc7">AdvLCA-M2.3-Navigate</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=af36fe3f-139c-402f-9e8f-ad2400d25bb2">AdvLCA-M2.4-Ecoinvent-import</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a895b9ab-caf8-415b-becd-ad2400df6327">AdvLCA-M2.5-Excel-import</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=ce6ff71d-1b57-469d-8924-ad2600e791c6">AdvLCA-M2.6-Monte-Carlo</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=c2fa835a-5dc3-4c45-ab58-ad2f00c5d60f">AdvLCA-M2.7-OAT-sensitivity-analysis</a></p>
<p><a href="https://panopto.aau.dk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=63d337bd-ca59-4519-9e70-ad2f00cbd0d6">AdvLCA-M2.8-Global-sensitivity-analysis</a></p>
<h2 id="comments--feedback">Comments & feedback</h2>
<p>Are very welcome. Please <a href="mailto:massimo@plan.aau.dk">write me</a> an email.</p>Massimo PizzolWatch these at 2xHighlights from SETAC’222022-05-20T00:00:00+00:002022-05-20T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2022/05/20/SETAC-2022-report<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anyway, good to see and catch up with so many people live at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SETACCopenhagen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SETACCopenhagen</a>. I won’t join the next one because I would have to fly there so see you all maybe in 2 years? Here a pic of the today (admittedly not very diverse 😓) session chair group as postcard. Cheers!👋👋👋 <a href="https://t.co/rECDMKmufL">pic.twitter.com/rECDMKmufL</a></p>— Massimo Pizzol ☮🇺🇦 (@m_outreach) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_outreach/status/1527272189338259457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<h1 id="four-days-of-setac">Four days of SETAC</h1>
<p>Short report of the first conference I attended in person after the pandemic.</p>
<h1 id="day-1">Day 1</h1>
<p>Warming up.</p>
<p>First session: improving data quality. Two presentations on food databases increasing granularity, two on <strong>uncertainty</strong> analysis - it seems to me that we have now both the data to make some inventories more accurate and the tools to simulate the uncertainty on the rest</p>
<p>Here I presented a <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/quantifying-uncertainty-elements-in-lci-modelling-of-chemical-mix">recent study</a> where we test the impact of different uncertain factors in total uncertainty and we figure out…<strong>database</strong> is the largest source. Which is a problem. Credits go mainly to Giovanni Codotto (AAU) who did the work under my supervision and in collaboration with Laurent Vandepear (AN-OG).</p>
<p>Second session: <strong>bio based</strong> products. Integration of economics / biochemistry tools with LCA and finally, finally we are talking about constraints in biomass supply, and how “circular” solutions must account for that. Søren Løkke from the AAU side <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/challenges-aligning-lca-results-across-bio-based-industries">presenting</a> some of the ideas behind our recent ALIGNED project.</p>
<p>Heads up and congrats to our very own PhD stud <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/life-cycle-assessment-of-brown-seaweed-based-plastic">Maddalen Ayala</a> who presented <a href="https://www.sintef.no/en/projects/2020/plastisea-novel-enhanced-bioplastics-from-sustainable-processing-of-seaweed/">Plastisea</a> project results on LCA of biolastfc from seaweed! She rocked it 🤘.</p>
<p>Finally, very tired right into chairing a <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/en/activities/topical-discussion-should-we-strive-towards-a-single-common-lca-a">discussion session</a> together with our Agneta Ghose (AAU) and Tomas Ekvall (Chalmers) about striving for a common LCA methodology…<strong>hot</strong> topic indeed.</p>
<p>A survey across the audience showed that although they were undecided on whether we should go for a common LCA method, we will never make it anyway (not realistit an objective to achieve). Great comments from the audience overall. A quote about data interoperability for example:</p>
<p><em>“[adapting data from diff sources and software] is a nightmare for us and a source of huge pain and cost”</em></p>
<p>This says it all…</p>
<h1 id="day-2">Day 2</h1>
<p>I actually missed it.</p>
<p>So I tried collecting ‘highlights’ from the participants to the LCA session.</p>
<p>The first two informants were not very informative: <em>“Session was a bit weird”</em> and <em>“Yesterday? It is all a bit blurried”</em> is all I could get 🤌</p>
<p>Apparently the session on LCA of biofuels was very interesting: critique of iLUC models, and strikes that people are still doing research on 1st gen biofuels? I thought we were past that?!?</p>
<p>Sorry for lousy coverage. I asked around but there was nothing major to report. Skip to day 3 report below.</p>
<h1 id="day-3">Day 3</h1>
<p>Go with the flow.</p>
<p>Session in the morning about impact assessment. I am a bit <strong>rusty</strong> on LCIA tbh but I get the impression this stuff is still as much of an open research area as 10y ago when I started. There is so much to do to increase coverage of impact pathways, increase robustness, reduce uncertainty, etc.</p>
<p>Anyway, some presentations about methodologies and frameworks for human and ecosystem damage, as well as methods for specific sources (fisheries, wind turbines).</p>
<p>The boundary with risk assessment is getting very blurried IMO.</p>
<p>A couple of presentations didn’t show results, this was…surprising?</p>
<p>Afternoon session about <strong>methodological harmonization</strong>. Great session. Thomas Schaubroeck (LIST) criticizing ISO for inconsistency, Tomas Ekvall (Chalmers) reporting on the inconsistency of how people interpret system expansion</p>
<p>I made a comment here that came out all wrong but the essence is: before writing guidelines about system expansion or substitution…do the math! Words can be misleading or confusing but <strong>matrices and equations</strong> shuold be quite univocal.</p>
<p>Finally, networking session on prospective LCA: huge attendance and interest. We are going to build a small knowledge-sharing network on the topic, stay tuned.</p>
<h1 id="day-4">Day 4</h1>
<p>Survival mode.</p>
<p>Only two sessions on this day about <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/en/activities/session-chair-prospective-assessment-of-emerging-technologies-and">prospective LCA</a> of emerging tech, that I was so kindly invited to co-chair by Nils Thonemann (DTU) and Alexis Laurent (DTU). <strong>Without any bias</strong> I can tell this was the absolutely BEST session in the conf.</p>
<p>Presentations & posters covered several <strong>emerging technologies</strong> some of which were even completely new to me. And a variety of modeling approaches</p>
<p>My impression, the modus operandi is generally:</p>
<ol>
<li>Make scenarios (often in collaboration with stakeholders)</li>
<li>Convert qualitative scenarios into a set of operational model parameters</li>
<li>Sampling or combination to produce several LCA results</li>
<li>Sensitivity analysis</li>
</ol>
<p>This was done to various levels of <strong>sophistication</strong> in the presentations, some covering foreground modeling only, some bagroung only, some both. Interesting to see the combinations and interactions between the two layers (a presenter nicely represented this as an iceberg, foreground = tip, background = bottom)</p>
<p>A presentation about a <strong>validation</strong> study showed that upscaling methods can not be fully trusted! Do not work for specific tech e.g. bio based. Difficult to generalize but attention (and better methods and validation) needed!</p>
<p>And again congrats to our very own PhD stud <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/da/persons/pierre-antoine-jouannais">Pierre Jouannais</a> who presented some of the <a href="https://aquahealth-project.com/">Aquahealth</a> project results on modelling microalgae cultivation prospectively and stochastically - very advanced modelling effort.</p>
<p>In general, <strong>impressive</strong> computational and data intensive approaches! Coding skills for using - and good practices for sharing - prospective databases increasingly needed…</p>
<p>I speculate, looking at the funding, that this <strong>wave</strong> of prospective LCA studies is partly due to the EU Commission and Horizon programme. Many EU projects are initiated in green/emerging tech development and there is always a LCA WP…so LCA research followed.</p>
<p>Also, if I can be <strong>critical</strong>, we need to start thinking a bit critically about these large prospective simulations: where does the science ends and the speculation begins? How can we validate any of this? What is the meaning of uncertainty in a scenario-world? Etc.</p>
<p>Exhausted after the conf but nice to be there again. That’s all from my side about SETAC-Copenhagen.</p>Massimo PizzolLive report of the CPH conferenceStory of a LCA course2022-04-08T00:00:00+00:002022-04-08T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2022/04/08/story-of-a-course<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today I start teaching a master course in ''Holistic Design", 2020 edition. I'll tweet every Wednesday about it under <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HolisticDesign20?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HolisticDesign20</a></p>— Massimo Pizzol ☮🇺🇦 (@m_outreach) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_outreach/status/1225050054748200960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<h1 id="timeline">Timeline</h1>
<p>This post is about the evolution of the <em>Holistic Design</em> course that I have been teaching at SDU in Esbjerg in the last five years. Since I “inherited” this course I don’t know where the name <em>Holistic Design</em> comes from and I didn’t get many indications at that time, but I was given quite some freedom in choosing the topics - as long as it was around LCA and within the hours available.</p>
<h1 id="2017">2017</h1>
<p><strong>Early days</strong>. I didn’t start completely from scratch, but I built this course relying on a previous bachelor LCA course also taught at SDU-Esbjerg and other bachelor and master courses in LCA and sustainability at AAU. In the same year I also developed a new course on LCA and ecodesign at AAU together with my colleague <a href="https://vbn.aau.dk/da/persons/100083">Henrik Riisgaard</a>, that was influenced by this.</p>
<p>The course was originally structured in six lectures:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Ecodesign Workshop</em> (by Henrik Riisgard as guest lecturer): A combined workshop and lecture focused less on the analytical skills and more on the creative processes to come up with sustainable solutions and designs</li>
<li><em>Systems thinking</em> Again soft skills on system thinking, reflecting on the relation between sustainability, complexity, and systems. Doing <a href="https://moutreach.science/2017/04/21/Group-exercises-system-thinking.html">this exercise</a> on causal loop diagrams - <em>Product systems</em> Introduction to LCA, focus on inventory: functional units, product systems, computational structure with matrix algebra</li>
<li><em>Consequential LCA</em> Again life cycle inventory, focus on multifunctional activities and constrained suppliers</li>
<li><em>Indicators</em> Basically Life Cycle Impact Assessment</li>
<li><em>Input-Output analysis and case studies</em> Touching on IOA, doing <a href="https://moutreach.science/2017/06/30/Group-exercises-LCA-modelling.html">this exercise</a> on personal consumption patterns</li>
</ul>
<p>For each lecture, a different <strong>group exercise</strong>. All exercises collected together in a <strong>portfolio</strong>. Portfolio starting point for the <strong>individual</strong> oral exam.</p>
<h1 id="2018">2018</h1>
<p>Several <strong>changes in structure</strong> based on the feedbacks from the students and what I thought was not working well or was too abstract or irrelevant.</p>
<p>New structure: <em>Systems thinking, Ecodesign workshop, Product systems I (Functional units, inventories and multifunctionality), Product Systems II (LCA databases and software), Indicators (LCIA), Planetary boundaries and circular economy, Scenario workshop.</em></p>
<p>The lecture on planetary boundaries and circular economy was intended to introduce these concepts and link them to system thinking and LCA, but also looking <strong>critically</strong> at them via exercises about the analysis of sources with pro/contra stances. The scenario workshop was about a compressed version of the participatory scenario development <a href="https://moutreach.science/2017/03/13/Group-exercises-participatory-scenario-development.html">exercise</a>.</p>
<h1 id="2019">2019</h1>
<p><strong>Less is more</strong>. Again changes compared to previous year, mainly cutting to make more space for core elements. I removed the ecodesign workshop (Henrik could not join), spread the LCA content in more lectures, added a buffer lecture for finishing exercises (students were always delayed with them), and included the SDGs in the last lecture.</p>
<p>New structure: <em>Systems thinking, Product systems I (qualitative, FU and flow chart), Product Systems II (quantitative: matrices for inventories and multifunctionality), LCA databases and software, Indicators (LCIA), Planetary boundaries circular economy and SDGs.</em></p>
<h1 id="2020">2020</h1>
<p>The course started basically simultaneously with the COVID <strong>pandemic</strong>. No time to prepare for the sudden shift to remote teaching so the same program was maintained with minor modifications, and the main change was that all lectures were given online. Using Zoom for presentations and discussions in plenum and Slack for chatting and posting material and notes.</p>
<p>After a couple of lectures I realised I could record them and upload them for the students to see them again. I started learning about <strong>using videos</strong> and the potential of videos.</p>
<p>Overall, not the best settings and constant emergency mode, but we managed.</p>
<p>That year I skipped the module on <em>scenario workshop</em>. Not possible remotely, but in all honesty it didn’t work well live either, there was not enough time for it even if compressed (should be done in two days). We instead used the extra time for more Q&A and group exercises, since doing things online we were overall delayed.</p>
<h1 id="2021">2021</h1>
<p>Still pandemic, still teaching online. I had realised early on in 2020 that “doing the same things as before but in zoom” was a terrible approach to teaching. So I switched to <strong>flipped-classroom</strong> mode. I recorded some videos and provided the materials to students in advance on the course platform. Then spent the online class time on Q&A on the material and supervision of group exercises, jumping from one Zoom breakout room to the other. It worked better than previous year.</p>
<p>In this year I also included a module on critical assessment of models, inspired by the work of <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901119304721">Funtowic</a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01812-9">Saltelli</a> & co. In particular I developed this exercise:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here a free resource to use for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AcademicTwitter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AcademicTwitter</a> people. I have designed and tested this exercise with my students today as a conclusion lecture of a course on sustainability. Based on <a href="https://twitter.com/AndreaSaltelli?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndreaSaltelli</a> et al. manifesto. <br /><br />Great success! <a href="https://t.co/ilIqTIMa17">pic.twitter.com/ilIqTIMa17</a></p>— Massimo Pizzol ☮🇺🇦 (@m_outreach) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_outreach/status/1374737417362681859?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<h1 id="2022">2022</h1>
<p>Back to teaching <strong>in person</strong>. Full flipped-classroom mode: all the videos made during the pandemic provided in advance, together with readings. At the classes, the structure is always Q&A on the material, and supervision of group exercises (in person). Worked very well, probably the best version of the course I ever made. I strengthened also the focus on the critical assessment of models, and model limitations, proposing again exercises like the one above.</p>
<p>At the end of the course the assignments were very high quality, full LCAs and very reflective students.</p>
<h1 id="stop-when-you-are-on-top">Stop when you are on top</h1>
<p>After five years, I feel this course has been fine-tuned to a very high degree. In the last editions I really enjoyed the discussion and the overall process. Why stopping now? Got a large project that will keep me occupied next years and the course is at another university than mine (they collaborate) so I need to reduce and focus on the in-house teaching.</p>
<p>The point of this post is: <strong>it takes time</strong> to make a good course.</p>
<p>Also, a big <strong>thank you</strong> to all the students, I hope the course was just as useful and enjoyable to you as it was to me.</p>Massimo PizzolFive years of teaching, in a timelineLCA as a model2022-03-01T00:00:00+00:002022-03-01T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2022/03/01/LCA-model<h1 id="a-modelling-ethic">A modelling ethic</h1>
<p>If you follow the <a href="https://support.simapro.com/articles/FAQ/How-do-I-subscribe-to-the-LCA-discussion-list">Pré LCA discussion list</a> there are occasionally more or less sensible <strong>meta</strong> threads/flames/discussions about the crisis of LCA, allocation, etc.</p>
<p>The most recent one is about whether LCA is science or accounting or engineering.</p>
<p>I should say Thomas Ekvall and Bo Weidema have still the clearest view on the issue.</p>
<p>In short:</p>
<p><strong>BW</strong>: <em>If it is accounting only, then it does not help us making decisions</em></p>
<p>To support decisions you need a model of the consequences of these decisions, that happen in the future, not an accounting of past events based on arbitrary normative rules.</p>
<p><strong>TE</strong>: <em>LCA is about models. Models ar emental constructs with elements of subjectivity. Moreover, LCA is about system modelling and [the model of the entire system] can’t be tested agaist reality</em></p>
<p>This is for me the most sensible way to think about LCA. The logical step is that to perform LCA we need a <strong>modelling ethic</strong>.</p>
<p>A modelling ethic for me is <strong>not</strong> about making new standards and guidelines. Far from it. A modelling ethic is about recogninzing first that these models have limits, that quantification itself has limits, that not all models can be used for all purposes. Then about being transaprent about modelling assumptions, making uncertainty and sensitivity explicit, sharing data and allow for open model use, model check and reproducibility by others.</p>
<p>This is the hard work that some, but not many yet, in the LCA community have understood is important. These is what <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01812-9">other modelling communities</a> have already understood.</p>
<p>This is also what brings back LCA into the realm of “science”, I would say.</p>
<p>Yes I sound like a broken record…</p>
<h1 id="mass-balance">Mass balance</h1>
<p>Obviously one should strive to achieve a complete mass balance in every “unallocated” inventory dataset. This is not always practically possible due to data gaps, but should remain an objective.</p>
<p>Using economic allocation - “value allocation” - aka partitioning or splitting a multifunctional activity in two or more monofunctional “virtual” activities, which is a <em>modelling practice</em> will break this mass balance and result in a <em>model</em> which is mass-unbalanced. This is a fact, it can be proven mathematically easily.</p>
<p>Is the resulting model a good one? I would say it’s a model that is poorly representative of a complex reality (cows that produce milk and not calves don’t exist, combined-heat-and-power plants that produce only heat don’t exist, etc.), and also of limited practical use. But I aknowledge that the vast majority of LCA practitioners don’t have any problem with that. There is plenty of guidelines recommending economic allocation.</p>
<p>Is this a problem? Probably not the right question to ask. Since we know that <em>“<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong">all models are wrong</a>, some are useful”</em> then likely the right question is: what is the <strong>use</strong> of such a model? Maybe worth spending a minute or two reflecting on the answer.</p>Massimo PizzolAll models are wrong...Top ten sci papers 20212021-12-21T00:00:00+00:002021-12-21T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2021/12/21/top-ten-sci-papers-2021<h1 id="get-back-jo">Get back Jo</h1>
<p>Here continues the millennial tradition where I list ten papers published this year that particularly impressed me for one or the other reason. Disclaimer: this is probably the most subjective and most criteria-weak top ten you find on the web. Also, this year there is <strong>a lot of LCA</strong> papers so I hope you really enjoy reading this stuff.</p>
<p><strong>Random order!</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="lca-and-global-sensitivity-analysis">LCA and Global Sensitivity Analysis</h4>
<p>Probably the most technically interesting paper I read this year in the LCA space. Amazing work this one. 👌</p>
<p><em>Kim, A., Mutel, C., Froemelt, A., 2021. Robust high-dimensional screening. Environ. Model. Softw. 105270. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105270">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.105270</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="lca-and-circular-bio-economy">LCA and circular bio-economy</h4>
<p>These two papers go well together. The authors have done a very good job in identifying current challenges and controversies. Must read if you do research in bioeconomy.</p>
<p><em>Finkbeiner, M., Bach, V., 2021. Life cycle assessment of decarbonization options—towards scientifically robust carbon neutrality. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 26, 635–639. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-021-01902-4">https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-021-01902-4</a></em></p>
<p><em>Sevigné-Itoiz, E., Mwabonje, O., Panoutsou, C., Woods, J., 2021. Life cycle assessment (LCA): informing the development of a sustainable circular bioeconomy? Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 379, 20200352–20200352. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0352">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2020.0352</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="comparative-lca-under-uncertainty">Comparative LCA under uncertainty</h4>
<p>Nothing to add here. Very useful paper with good overview of various stat approaches, all explained. A classic “Heijungs R”.</p>
<p><em>Heijungs, R., 2021. Selecting the best product alternative in a sea of uncertainty. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 616–632. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01851-4">https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01851-4</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="allocation-is-a-problem">Allocation is a problem</h4>
<p>I don’t think it was the original intention of the authors, but this is probably the best critique of allocation (aka “partitioning multifunctional activities according to rather arbitrary normative rules”) that exists today. Highly recommended if you can read between the lines.</p>
<p><em>Wilfart, A., Gac, A., Salaün, Y., Aubin, J., Espagnol, S., 2021. Allocation in the LCA of meat products: is agreement possible? Clean. Environ. Syst. 2, 100028–100028. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cesys.2021.100028">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cesys.2021.100028</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="lca-and-modelling-recycling">LCA and modelling recycling</h4>
<p>Not a sci paper but this book chapter deserves a special mention for the crazyness. I didn’t even imagine people had invented so many different methods for modelling recycling…Think that I have been using substitution for ages without problems. Kudos to the authors for collecting all of them together and nicely explaining them.🙌</p>
<p><em>Tomas Ekvall, Miguel Brandão, 2020. Modelling material recycling in life cycle assessment: how sensitive are results to the available methods? Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788972727.00018">https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788972727.00018</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="even-more-on-multifunctionality">Even more on multifunctionality</h4>
<p>This paper is discussing marginals in a different way. I am not sure I agree with all the claims made here but…it started some thoughts. And then I need a consequential paper for the list.</p>
<p><em>Ekvall, T., Gottfridsson, M., Nellström, M., Nilsson, J., Rydberg, M., Rydberg, T., 2021. Modelling incineration for more accurate comparisons to recycling in PEF and LCA. Waste Manag. 136, 153–161. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2021.09.036">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2021.09.036</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="some-puzzling-papers">Some puzzling papers</h4>
<p>I keep a <em>positive vibes only</em> policy in this blog and it is not my intention to criticize anybody here. This said, I would like to list two papers that puzzled me. I am not sure I get them. I would have loved to see some technology matrices to understand how all the modelling advice translates into practice…maybe next time?</p>
<p><em>Heijungs, R., Allacker, K., Benetto, E., Brandão, M., Guinée, J., Schaubroeck, S., Schaubroeck, T., Zamagni, A., 2021. System Expansion and Substitution in LCA: A Lost Opportunity of ISO 14044 Amendment 2. Front. Sustain. 2, 40–40. <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frsus.2021.692055">https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frsus.2021.692055</a></em></p>
<p><em>Guinée, J., Heijungs, R., 2021. Waste is not a service. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 26, 1538–1540. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-021-01955-5">https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-021-01955-5</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h4 id="carbon-accounting">Carbon accounting</h4>
<p>We can’t do without a Nature paper in this list can we? And also something not LCA related. This is both things plus very illuminating. Take home message: reduce emissions directly forget offsets and negative emissions techs.</p>
<p><em>Zickfeld, K., Azevedo, D., Mathesius, S., Matthews, H.D., 2021. Asymmetry in the climate–carbon cycle response to positive and negative CO2 emissions. Nat. Clim. Change 11, 613–617. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01061-2">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01061-2</a></em></p>
<p> </p>
<h1 id="happy-end-of-2021">Happy end of 2021</h1>
<p>🍾🍾🍾</p>
<p>Looking forward to new insightful reads in 2022.</p>Massimo PizzolBookmarking like there is no tomorrowReproducibility Hackathon2021-12-02T00:00:00+00:002021-12-02T00:00:00+00:00https://moutreach.science/2021/12/02/Reproducibility_Hackathon<h1 id="on-a-cold-snowy-winter-day">On a cold snowy winter day</h1>
<p>We agreed in the group to spend the entire today dedicated to a <strong>reproducibility hackathon</strong>.</p>
<p>This was intended as an occasion to cross-check each other’s models and code prior to publication. Everybody in the group is working on some code or model, to a different extent, so this was relevant for all - in principle.</p>
<h1 id="preparation">Preparation</h1>
<ol>
<li>Bring your code or (LCA) model and prepare at least some basic documentation for the others to understand it.</li>
<li>Write a few lines about what type of check you need and send them to the others latest the day before (you could have more than one need):
<ul>
<li><strong>code check</strong>: you need to have our model/code reviewed for readability, mistakes, structure, style (format, not content)</li>
<li><strong>reproducibility check</strong>: you need to try if your model/code runs on another computer and produces the same results as on yours (e.g. for sharing as part of a publication)</li>
<li><strong>solution check</strong>: you need help in finding a solution to a specific model/code problem or to understand if the model/code works correctly (content, not format)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>If you don’t have code/model, and want to support others or learn, just bring yourself and computer</li>
<li>Bring coffee/cake/candies/biscuits/fruit…long day ahead 😊</li>
</ol>
<h1 id="how-it-worked">How it worked</h1>
<p>We first made an <strong>overview</strong> of the needs and participants, and a schedule.</p>
<p>We then reviewed one code/model at the time. We had initially though about assigning different roles to everybody every time (some doing code-check others doing reproducibility-check) but in the end everybody did the same and the person “in charge” for that turn was giving support and instructions and answering questions.</p>
<p>We worked based on the capacity and skills of the people present, which in terms of modelling and coding skills is very <strong>diverse</strong>, so that everybody was welcome and was contributing.</p>
<p>Mixed <strong>remote and physical</strong> participants (but at least a core group was present physically in a real room). This worked surprisingly well - I guess two years of COVID lockdowns have left their mark.</p>
<h1 id="outcome">Outcome</h1>
<p>We went <strong>overtime</strong>, this was anticipated, but not too much.</p>
<p>We had <strong>five review rounds</strong> in total, about 60-90 min each: three reproducibility checks and two solution checks.</p>
<p>We compiled a shared document with the issues encountered in each round and with <strong>feedback</strong> to each code or model “owner” so that they can improve the documentation, code or model after the hackathon.</p>
<p>Examples of what we did:</p>
<ul>
<li>Trying to a conda environment to work + importing databases + simulation.</li>
<li>Finding a solution to a problem, e.g. modify a database and make a simulation.</li>
<li>Trying some code we don’t understand written by others about stuff we don’t clearly understand. But that we need to use, and debugging.</li>
</ul>
<p>Personally I was exhausted after a full-day of coding/reviewing models but it was <strong>totally worth it</strong>. Everybody got something useful out of it I think, either by learning new tricks, seeing how everybody else struggles, trying out stuff <em>hands-on</em>, and of course getting their own code or model checked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Bonus</strong>: I had asked on twitter for suggestions and recommendations before the hackathon, and received a lot of good tips. You find them here:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am organizing a “reproducibility hackathon” tomorrow with the PhDs&postdocs in our group where we will do code/model sharing and review to make sure they are understandable and reproducible prior to publication, + fix issues. <br /><br />First time we do this so…any recommendation?</p>— Massimo Pizzol (@m_outreach) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_outreach/status/1465972476903632896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Massimo PizzolModel and code review day