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

145 Pages·2016·2.065 MB·English

by  Viachaslau Filimonau (auth.)

Viachaslau Filimonau
Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA)
and Life Cycle
Analysis in Tourism
A Critical Review of Applications and
Implications
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle
Analysis in Tourism
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
BournemouthUniversity
Poole
UK
ISBN978-3-319-26222-2 ISBN978-3-319-26224-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-26224-6
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Preface
Recently, international tourism has demonstrated steady and substantial growth.
Thishascontributedtothesignificantdiversificationofitsproductofferandmadeit
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
oftheirlifestyles.Whiletherearealargenumberofpositiveeffectsassociatedwith
global tourism development, there is also a dark side to the story. This is because
travelwithleisure purposes imposes significant pressures on theenvironment. The
negative outcome of the industry has been recognised and the research stream
aimingtorevealthenatureandtoquantifythemagnitudeofenvironmentalimpacts
fromtourismproductsandservicesisgrowing.Thenegativeenvironmentaleffects
should be minimised to facilitate progress of the industry towards the goal of
sustainability.
Reductionofenvironmentalimpactsfromtourismrepresentsachallengingtask.
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-
ismproductsandservicesshouldfirstbeidentifiedandtheirmagnitudeestablished.
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
frameworkswhichhavebeendeployedwithintheindustryinquestiontoaccurately
measureitsimpacts ontheenvironment.Complexcomputations areoftenrequired
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.Thereisacriticalneedtoenhancethemethodologicalunderpinningof
tourism impact appraisal in order to enhance its accuracy, refine the depth of
analysis and improve the reliability offindings. Academic literature has acknowl-
edged that relatively little has been done in this respect to-date.
Theconceptoflifecyclethinkinghasbeentrendingforquiteawhile.Ithasbeen
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
thinkingparadigmoriginatesfromthe‘hard’scienceswhiletourismasawholehas
primarily been examined from the ‘soft’ sciences perspective as described above.
Thepotentialofthelifecyclethinkingconcepttocontributetothedevelopmentof
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
appraisalresearch.Itintroducesandevaluatesthepotentialoflifecycleassessment
(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
ofexamplesextractedfromreal-worldbusinessandcontemporaryresearchpractice
todemonstratetheimportanceofthebroaderadoptionoflifecyclethinkingandthe
method of LCA in tourism.
Whilethis bookdealswiththeconcept oflifecycle thinking andthemethodof
LCA,itdoesnotaimtosubstituteorbecomeanotherhandbookonLCA.Thefield
of LCA research is well established and there are a large number of significantly
more detailed andspecialisedmanuscriptsavailable with whichthisbookdoesnot
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
tourismbusinessoperations,itsgoalwasnottoreviewthistopicinthefullestdetail
asthishasrepeatedlybeendoneinawiderangeofdedicatedtextbookswhichhave
been produced specifically with this purpose. Instead, this book strives to demon-
strate how lifecycle thinking andthemethodofLCA could beappliedintourism,
anindustryofglobalimportancewhosenegativeenvironmentalimpactshavebeen
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
withtheassessmentandmitigationoftourism’sincreasedenvironmentalpressures.
However,thebookalso makes animportantinputinto LCAresearchagenda. This
is because it aims to link the ‘worlds’ of tourism and LCA not only by demon-
stratingthebenefitsofapplyingthelifecyclethinkingconstructsintourismimpact
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
retrievedfromnon-tourismrelatedliteratureandreflectinguponreal-worldtourism
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-
lectedsincehadlaidthebasisofthemanuscript.Thislongresearchjourneyhashad
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
makingoftheauthorasanacademicwhohasdevelopedpassionforresearchwhich
isrelatedtoLCAapplicabilityintourism.Theauthorisparticularlythankfultohis
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 Simplified LCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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
ix
x Contents
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 Agriculture 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