V. Roy, F. Zhao
Purdue University,
United States
Keywords: spatial life cycle assessment, environmental impact mapping, sustainable supply chains, circular economy, critical minerals
Summary:
Companies today encounter significant challenges in identifying the geographical distribution and propagation of environmental impacts across their supply chains. Traditional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), while effective in quantifying aggregated metrics such as total carbon emissions, lacks the spatial resolution necessary to localize critical hotspots or trace the origins of specific environmental burdens. Spatial LCA addresses this limitation by integrating geospatial data to map environmental impacts at regional and supplier-specific levels, providing unprecedented visibility into supply chain dynamics. A case study examining pilot-scale lithium extraction from clay deposits illustrates the framework’s capacity to resolve spatially disaggregated impacts: 90% of land and water use impacts are concentrated at the Nevada mining site, while 70% of freshwater ecotoxicity originates from upstream copper mining activities in Arizona. This spatial decoupling underscores the framework’s ability to trace impact propagation across supply chain stages, from raw material extraction to end-use applications. By enabling the identification of environmental hotspots—such as ecotoxicity linked to copper tailings—and facilitating targeted interventions like process redesign or logistical rerouting, Spatial LCA transforms abstract sustainability metrics into actionable, geographically resolved insights. Ongoing advancements integrate AI-driven automation to enhance location labeling, enabling the framework to scale across industries and products. Supported by extensive life cycle inventory databases such as Ecoinvent, which catalog over 22,000 processes, Spatial LCA resolves impacts across multiple environmental categories, including carbon emissions, freshwater ecotoxicity, and ozone depletion, providing a holistic view of supply chain sustainability. Future iterations aim to incorporate logistical and cost metrics, allowing industries to identify supply routes that balance ecological and economic criteria. By expanding beyond traditional impact assessment, the framework positions itself as a versatile tool for optimizing resource efficiency and fostering sustainable decision-making, demonstrating that spatial transparency drives both environmental accountability and operational innovation.