Economical pillar of sustainability assessment on resource circulation-development and application of life cycle costing approach
HU Ming-ming1,2, ZHANG Chun-bo1,2, DONG Liang2, XIANG Peng-cheng1, ZHANG Qian3
1. School of Construction Management & Real Estate, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China;
2. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden 2300 RA, Netherlands;
3. Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Bridging economic and environmental system is critical for decision making on circular economy, and Sustainability Assessment, as well as Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), which is developed based on the Life cycle assessment (LCA). Increasing interest in sustainability related assessment and the application in resource circulation has led to the development of economic sustainability assessment tools such as Life Cycle Costing (LCC). LCC was highlighted as useful economic tool for decision-making in global studies. Due to terminological and methodological disparities in LCC itself and along with other costing tools like Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), conceptual confusion and even misuse of LCC often happen. With this circumstance, by using the methodology of literature study and case study this article aims to unveil and clarify the vague definition of LCC and to improve practical application of LCC as well as LCSA. First of all, we reviewed relevant literature of LCC world widely and found out that with increasing environmental and societal concerns LCC evolved from financial accounting tool eventually to one pillar of LCSA. Meanwhile by applying with Citespace analysis on the progress of domestic and international LCC journal publications from 2000 to 2017 was conducted, and the results reveal that compared to domestic study international study has switched from conceptual & theoretical exploration and corporate cost control to practical optimization of specific systems. Then the three pillars of sustainability concept was visualized and analysed to illustrate the three dimensions of LCSA and its connections to LCC. The differences between alternate terms respect to LCC and between LCC and CBA are also compared. A European Union project VEEP was taken as a case study to qualitatively and quantitatively explain the boundaries of different types of LCCs from multi-actors perspectives and its analytical processes. Finally, future concerns on the prospect of LCC application in China was discussed, including expansion of applied domain, standardization, multi-methodological integration, and development of database and software.
Asiedu Y, Gu P. Product life cycle cost analysis:State of the art review[J]. International Journal of Production Research, 1998,36(4):883-908.
[2]
Woodward D G. Life cycle costing-Theory, information acquisition and application[J]. International Journal of Project Management, 1997, 15(6):335-344.
[3]
Kumar D, Chattopadhyay G, Pannu HS. Total cost of ownership for railway assets:A case study on boxn wagons of Indian railways[C]. Australia:Proceedings of the Fifth Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and Management Systems Conference, 2004.
[4]
Gupta Y P. Life Cycle Cost Models and Associated Uncertainties[M]. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1983:535-549.
[5]
Zussman E, Kriwet A, Seliger G. Disassembly-Oriented Assessment Methodology to Support Design for Recycling[J]. CIRP Annals-Manufacturing Technology, 1994,43(1):9-14.
[6]
Gluch P, Baumann H. The life cycle costing (LCC) approach:a conceptual discussion of its usefulness for environmental decision-making[J]. Building and Environment, 2004,39(5):571-580.
[7]
黄和平.生命周期管理研究述评[J]. 生态学报, 2017,37(13):4587-4598.
[8]
Finkbeiner M, Schau E M, Lehmann A, et al. Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment[J]. Sustainability, 2010,2(12):3309-3322.
[9]
Hoogmartens R, Van Passel S, Van Acker K, et al. Bridging the gap between LCA, LCC and CBA as sustainability assessment tools[J]. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 2014,48:27-33.
[10]
UNEP. Towards a lifecycle sustainability assessment:making informed choices on products[EB/OL]. http://www.unep.org/pdf/UNEP_LifecycleInit_Dec_FINAL.pdf2011/2018-05-30.
[11]
Norman G. Life cycle costing[J]. Property Management, 1990,8(4):344-356.
[12]
Miah J H, Koh S C L, Stone D. A hybridised framework combining integrated methods for environmental Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing[J]. Journal of cleaner production, 2017,168:846-866.
[13]
World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Measuring Eco-Efficiency:A Guide to Reporting Company Performance[R]. Geneva:WBCSD, 2000.
