The Journal of Industrial Ecology invites submissions for a special issue on linking Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Details of the call for papers can be found at JIE journal website: https://jie.yale.edu/life-cycle-sustainability-assessment-sustainable-development-goals
The goals of the special include:
- Promoting original research that applies or develops quantitative and/or qualitative LCSA-related methodologies to support decision-making related to multiple (at least 2) SDGs in different economic sectors/industries/systems, and at different temporal and geospatial scales, including the local versus global dimension. Authors need to identify research gaps in literature and articulate the intellectual contributions of the work.
- Encouraging the integration of LCA with other advanced modeling techniques to better incorporate social, environmental, and economic considerations for improved LCSA methodology in support of various SDGs.
- Exploring how LCSA can contribute to the achievement of the SDG framework as a whole. For example, submissions are encouraged to show how SDGs can be achieved by holistically assessing environmental, social, and economic impacts and by uncovering hidden relationships between goals and targets. LCSA has the potential to serve as a systematic framework to cultivate and foster cross-disciplinary research for scholars who may be interested in a particular dimension of the SDGs or a global governance scheme. Submissions demonstrating the broader leadership of LCSA in supporting inter/cross-disciplinary research are encouraged.
- Further developing the assessment and coverage of interlinkages, trade-offs and prioritization of SDGs in LCSA methodology. In light of this, the characterization of positive impacts, such as product benefit or handprint assessment, and how to aggregate them with negative impacts is also key. Moreover, the relationship with conventional areas of LCSA-methodology should be explored with (re)consideration of the ethical backbone, such as social justice or equity issues. A potential gap between the current research focus of LCSA and SDGs is scale—the product itself may have negligible direct contributions to SDGs but could have significant impacts at a large-scale production and/or consumption. Submissions focusing on specific products or technologies should take this into consideration.
- Considering further developments in the SDG community, such as a possible revision of the SDG framework (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02002-3), and studying how these possible adaptations could be flexibly covered in LCSA methodology. Submissions are encouraged to discuss policy and governance implications beyond achieving and revisiting SDGs based on LCA evidence. For example, how can science-based evidence obtained from LCSA and SDGs research support decision-making in policy and determining social priorities?
Case studies that focus on the application of LCSA methods need to demonstrate and highlight the innovations with respect to methodology, new knowledge, or new data.
Special Issue Timeline
- Call for papers: 1 December 2020
- Optional extended abstract submission deadline: 1 March 2021
- Full papers invited by editorial team: 15 April 2021
- Full manuscript submission deadline: 15 October 2021
- Papers posted online when accepted
- Issue publication expected in early 2022
Special Issue Editorial Team
Yuan Yao, Yale University, United States
Thomas Gloria, Harvard University, United States
Haibo Feng, Northumbria University, United Kingdom
Cassie Thiel, New York University, United States
Oludunsin Arodudu, Maynooth University, Ireland
Thomas Schaubroeck, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxembourg
David Murphy, St. Lawrence University, United States
Larry Swatuk, University of Waterloo, Canada
For further information and abstract submission, please contact the following mailing list: jie-lcsa-special-issue@googlegroups.com
