Bridging Arctic environmental science and life cycle assessment: A preliminary assessment of regional scaling factors

Current research aims to make the impact assessment module of life cycle assessment (LCA) less site-generic and thus more relevant to particular regions. The Arctic region attracts its share of interest when it comes to environmental issues, but little research has been performed with the explicit aim to incorporate its particular features into LCA. Through a survey directed to individual experts and a brief literature review, this article identifies environmental impact categories of particular relevance to this region. Findings should be interpreted with caution; nevertheless, impact categories connected to POPs, heavy metals, ecotoxicity, acidification and the cryosphere are with confidence identified as important. The regional scaling factors resulting from the survey could in principle be employed in LCA calculations, but optimally require verification by specified future research. However, indications of a certain resistance to a full quantitative clarification of priorities in the Arctic environment are identified.