Sustainable Development Goals as a Guideline for Indicator Selection in Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

Abstract

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) emerged as a methodology allowing a detailed representation of technologies in their processes from a life cycle perspective. To conduct a profound LCSA a plausible indicator selection is needed. From a Sustainability perspective, the currently dominant political framework is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. In this paper, LCSA indicators are selected based on the SDGs, comparing in a first approach the implication due to the selection based on overall goals and SDG indicators level. The applicability of this selection is tested by a case study of electrolytic hydrogen production. The analysis shows meaningful differences between the goal-based and the indicator-based assessment. Only the goal-based indicator set comprises all dimensions of sustainability.