Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Analysis in Viachaslau Filimonau

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Analysis in Tourism A Critical Review of Applications and Implications

123 Viachaslau Filimonau Faculty of Management Bournemouth University Poole UK

ISBN 978-3-319-26222-2 ISBN 978-3-319-26224-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-26224-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015953260

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Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface

Recently, international tourism has demonstrated steady and substantial growth. This has contributed to the significant diversification of its product offer and made it one of the fastest developing economic sectors globally. Further acceleration of international tourism is projected which implies it will be playing an increasingly more important role in global economy in the future. The phenomenon of continued tourism growth can be explained by a broad set of factors, all of which have enabled an increasingly larger number of people worldwide to consider travel with leisure purposes as an indispensable element of their lifestyles. While there are a large number of positive effects associated with global tourism development, there is also a dark side to the story. This is because travel with leisure purposes imposes significant pressures on the environment. The negative outcome of the industry has been recognised and the research stream aiming to reveal the nature and to quantify the magnitude of environmental impacts from tourism products and services is growing. The negative environmental effects should be minimised to facilitate progress of the industry towards the goal of . Reduction of environmental impacts from tourism represents a challenging task. It is the joint responsibility of many stakeholders, starting with holidaymakers themselves and finishing with national governments and tourism enterprises. To achieve effective reduction, environmental pressures associated with specific tour- ism products and services should first be identified and their magnitude established. This can only be achieved via the application of reliable impact assessment methods. Tourism has traditionally been considered as part of ‘soft’ sciences. This may have found reflection in the limited number of assessment tools and appraisal frameworks which have been deployed within the industry in question to accurately measure its impacts on the environment. Complex computations are often required to assess the magnitude of environmental effects; the outcome of these computa- tions is normally expressed in a quantitative way while many ‘soft’ sciences have been traditionally concerned with more qualitative approaches to impact

v vi Preface assessment. There is a critical need to enhance the methodological underpinning of tourism impact appraisal in order to enhance its accuracy, refine the depth of analysis and improve the reliability of findings. Academic literature has acknowl- edged that relatively little has been done in this respect to-date. The concept of life cycle thinking has been trending for quite a while. It has been successfully applied to evaluate the environmental impacts from a broad range of products and services. It has assisted managers and policy-makers in identifying areas with the life cycle of specific products and services which require urgent mitigation. Surprisingly, the concept of life cycle thinking has found little appli- cation in the field of tourism to-date. This may be partially because the life cycle thinking paradigm originates from the ‘hard’ sciences while tourism as a whole has primarily been examined from the ‘soft’ sciences perspective as described above. The potential of the life cycle thinking concept to contribute to the development of strategies which could bring the tourism industry closer towards the goal of envi- ronmental sustainability may have therefore not been entirely appreciated by tourism academics. Life cycle thinking has a number of striking advantages over conventional methods for environmental impact appraisal when applied to tourism products and services and it is vital that tourism managers, policy-makers and academics can all apprehend and capitalise upon these. This book represents the first known attempt to systematically discuss the benefits of integrating the life cycle thinking considerations into tourism impact appraisal research. It introduces and evaluates the potential of life cycle assessment (LCA), an established method for impact appraisal of products and services which has gained international recognition and won high reputation in a broad range of non-tourism related disciplines but has rarely been applied in tourism, for assess- ment of the negative environmental effects attributed to the tourism industry. The book provides an overview of the key terms and explains the primary concepts attributed to the LCA impact appraisal framework and critically reviews the pros and cons of its implementation in tourism with the purpose of more effective environmental management and decision-making. The book draws upon a number of examples extracted from real-world business and contemporary research practice to demonstrate the importance of the broader adoption of life cycle thinking and the method of LCA in tourism. While this book deals with the concept of life cycle thinking and the method of LCA, it does not aim to substitute or become another handbook on LCA. The field of LCA research is well established and there are a large number of significantly more detailed and specialised manuscripts available with which this book does not aim to compete. Likewise, while this book looks at the tourism industry, its broad product and service portfolio and a variety of environmental impacts attributed to tourism business operations, its goal was not to review this topic in the fullest detail as this has repeatedly been done in a wide range of dedicated textbooks which have been produced specifically with this purpose. Instead, this book strives to demon- strate how life cycle thinking and the method of LCA could be applied in tourism, an industry of global importance whose negative environmental impacts have been intensifying, with the purpose of generating more accurate and comprehensive Preface vii appraisals of the magnitude and disclosing the true diversity of these impacts. The book therefore contributes to the growing stream of academic literature concerned with the assessment and mitigation of tourism’s increased environmental pressures. However, the book also makes an important input into LCA research agenda. This is because it aims to link the ‘worlds’ of tourism and LCA not only by demon- strating the benefits of applying the life cycle thinking constructs in tourism impact assessment research, but also by outlining a new avenue (=tourism) for LCA application outside the ‘hard’ science disciplines that have so far been overlooked in terms of holistic environmental impact analysis. Drawing upon examples retrieved from non-tourism related literature and reflecting upon real-world tourism business case studies, it outlines a number of new, prospective application direc- tions for the method of LCA whose appraisal potential has not yet been properly recognised and whose benefits have not therefore been fully capitalised upon in tourism. This book is a product of many years’ research work. The author embraced the challenge of exploring the role of life cycle thinking and the method of LCA in tourism impact appraisal back in 2008 and the groundwork which has been col- lected since had laid the basis of the manuscript. This long research journey has had its ups and downs and, on the personal and professional fronts, the author is very grateful to many people for the support provided. Professor Janet Dickinson and Mr. Derek Robbins from Bournemouth University have played the key role in the making of the author as an academic who has developed passion for research which is related to LCA applicability in tourism. The author is particularly thankful to his family (Yuliya, Emily, Katsyaryna and Leanid) for love, patience and encourage- ment provided throughout all research journeys he has embarked upon so far. The author is also deeply indebted to his dear friends from Worms and Frankfurt (Germany) who have contributed considerably to the personal and professional development of the author, especially at the early stages of his academic career. Contents

1 Tourism, Environmental Impacts and Their Assessment: An Introduction ...... 1 2 The Life Cycle Thinking Approach and the Method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ...... 9 2.1 Evolution of Life Cycle Thinking and the LCA Method...... 9 2.2 LCA as a Tool for Accurate and Holistic Assessment of Environmental Impacts...... 12 2.3 The LCA Assessment Framework ...... 14 2.4 Types and Categories of LCA...... 23 2.4.1 SimplifiedLCA...... 26 2.5 LCA Application in Tourism ...... 29 2.6 Limitations of LCA ...... 33 2.7 Conclusions ...... 41 2.8 Further Reading ...... 41 3 Are There Alternatives to the Method of LCA in Tourism Environmental Impact Appraisal?...... 43 3.1 International Standards for Carbon Accounting and Reporting. . . . 43 3.1.1 The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative (The GHG Protocol) ...... 49 3.1.2 International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) . . . . . 52 3.1.3 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) . . . . . 54 3.1.4 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)...... 56 3.1.5 Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050:2011 ...... 59 3.1.6 Country-Specific (National)/Public Approaches...... 60 3.2 The Capability of the International Standards for Carbon Accounting and Reporting to Assess the Carbon Impacts from Tourism Products and Services ...... 61 3.3 Conclusions ...... 63 3.4 Further Reading ...... 64

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4 Implications of LCA for Tourism Management, Policy-Making and Research ...... 65 4.1 Transportation...... 66 4.2 Accommodation ...... 74 4.3 Activities ...... 81 4.4 Composite Tourism Products (Holiday Package Tours) ...... 88 4.5 Tour Operators and Travel Agents...... 94 4.6 Conclusions ...... 97 4.7 Further Reading ...... 98 5 Future Outlook on the Application of LCA in Tourism ...... 101 5.1 Life Cycle Management (LCM) as a New Managerial Paradigm in Tourism ...... 103 5.2 Enhancing Environmental Consumer Awareness in Tourism via Eco-/Carbon Labels ...... 105 5.3 LCA in Tourism and the Role of Academia ...... 106 5.4 LCA in Tourism and the Role of Political Reinforcement...... 108

Glossary ...... 111

References ...... 119 Acronyms

AA UK’s Automobile Association ABTA Association of British Travel Agents ADEME Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (French Environment and Energy Management Agency) ASA Advertising Standards Authorities BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG BSI The British Standards Institution CC Carrying Capacity DEFRA UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs EEA European Environment Agency EFA Ecological Footprint Analysis EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ELCD European reference Life Cycle Database EM Environmental Management EPA Environmental Protection Agency EPD Environmental Product Declaration EPR Extended Producer Responsibility EU European Union FAO Food and Organisation FU Functional unit GFA Gross Floor Area GHG Greenhouse gas HCMI Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative HD High Definition IFEU Institut für Energi und Umweltforschung (Institute of Energy and Environmental Research) IHG InterContinental Hotel Group IO Input–Output IOA Input–Output Analysis IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ISO International Organisation for Standardisation

xi xii Acronyms

KTP Knowledge Transfer Partnership LAC Limits of Acceptable Change LCA Life Cycle Assessment LCC Life Cycle Costing LCEA Life Cycle Energy Analysis LCIA Life Cycle Inventory Analysis LCM Life Cycle Management LCSA Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment MICE Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions PAS Publicly Available Specification PLC Public Limited Company REPA Resource and Environmental Profile Analysis RF Radiative Forcing SAS Statistical Analysis System SETAC Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry SME Small and Medium Enterprise TALC Tourist Area Life Cycle TQM Total Quality Management UK United Kingdom UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organisation USA United States of America VAT Value-Added Tax VW Volkswagen AG WBCSD World Business Council for WMO World Meteorological Organisation WRAP UK’s and Resources Action Programme WRI World Resources Institute