A Life-cycle Assessment Framework to Estimate the Environmental Impacts of Regional and Urban Areas: Application to the Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55845/joce-2026-41359Keywords:
Urban Metabolism, Life-cycle Assessment, Urban Consumption, Environmental Impacts, Consumption FootprintAbstract
Policies and strategies to improve environmental sustainability in cities and regions have often focused on a single sector, subsystem or impact category, or a small number of them, limiting their potential to effectively reduce overall environmental impacts. Comprehensive frameworks are needed to adequately assess environmental impacts and to identify hotspots, trade-offs and opportunities with substantial improvement potential. This article introduces a systematic framework to calculate the potential life-cycle environmental impacts of consumption at the regional and city levels. The framework is applied to the Autonomous Province of Trento and its capital city, Trento, in northern Italy. The framework draws on (i) a state-of-the-art methodology combining urban metabolism and life-cycle assessment, which estimates cradle-to-gate environmental impacts of urban consumption, and (ii) the EU Consumption Footprint methodology, which estimates cradle-to-grave environmental impacts of household consumption. First, we develop a material flow accounting model to estimate annual consumption of thousands of product types. Second, we select a set of representative product types based on their relative mass consumption shares and on their potential environmental impacts, as identified in existing research, to ensure relevant coverage across all consumption areas. Third, we develop a cradle-to-grave life-cycle model to assess the potential environmental impacts of consumption across a broad range of impact categories. Cradle-to-grave and cradle-to-gate results are compared, highlighting the importance of a cradle-to-grave perspective, including food, buildings and transport, which contribute significantly to the overall impacts associated with regional and urban areas. This comprehensive and systematic framework can support more effective and integrated decision-making by comprehensively addressing consumption-driven environmental impacts of cities and regions across the full life cycle.
References
Achakulwisut, P., Almeida, P. C. and Arond, E. (2022), ‘It’s time to move beyond “carbon tunnel vision”’, SEI Perspectives, 28 March 2022, accessed 12 June 2025, https://www.sei.org/perspectives/move-beyond-carbon-tunnel-vision/.
Albertí, J., Brodhag, C., & Fullana-i-Palmer, P. (2019). First steps in life cycle assessments of cities with a sustainability perspective: A proposal for goal, function, functional unit, and reference flow. Science of the Total Environment, 646, 1516–1527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.377
Alhowaish, A. (2026). Institutional Readiness and Systemic Barriers to Circular Economy Transitions in Emerging Urban Economies: Evidence from a Rapidly Industrializing Gulf Metropolitan Area. Journal of Circular Economy 4 (1). https://doi.org/10.55845/joce-2026-41268
Andreasi Bassi, S., Biganzoli, F., Ferrara, N., Amadei, A., Valente, A., Sala, S., & Ardente, F. (2023). Updated characterisation and normalisation factors for the Environmental Footprint 3.1 method. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC130796. https://doi.org/10.2760/798894
Arbabi, H., Punzo, G., Meyers, G., Tan, L. M., Li, Q., Densley Tingley, D., & Mayfield, M. (2020). On the use of random graphs in analysing resource utilization in urban systems. Royal Society Open Science, 7(4).
Baabou, W., Grunewald, N., Ouellet-plamondon, C., Gressot, M., & Galli, A. (2017). The Ecological Footprint of Mediterranean cities: Awareness creation and policy implications. Environmental Science and Policy, 69, 94–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.12.013
Baldassarri, C., Allacker, K., Reale, F., Castellani, V., & Sala, S. (2017). Consumer Footprint. Basket of Products indicator on Housing. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC107958. https://doi.org/10.2760/734672
Barkhausen, R., Rostek, L., Miao, Z. C., & Zeller, V. (2023). Combinations of material flow analysis and life cycle assessment and their applicability to assess circular economy requirements in EU product regulations. A systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 407(March), 137017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137017
Bastos, J. (2023). Report Work Package 1 - Data collection , UM modelling and preliminary analysis for the Autonomous Province of Trento (pp. 1–22). Eurac Research. Zenodo, Geneva. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7681411
Bastos, J., & Rosado, L. (2024). Regional Metabolism: A Material and Product Flow Accounting Model for Trentino, Italy, in: Bisello, A., Vettorato, D., Bottero, M. and Kolokotsa, D. (eds), Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39206-1_4
Bastos, J., Banja, M., Vitel, A.E., Steen-Olsen, K., Baltruszewicz, M. et al. (2026) Tackling out-of-boundary emissions in climate change mitigation action at the city level – State of the art on greenhouse gas accounting and mitigation, including scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions – Final report, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC145257, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/0893489.
Beylot, A., Secchi, M., Cerutti, A., Merciai, S., Schmidt, J., & Sala, S. (2019). Assessing the environmental impacts of EU consumption at macro-scale. Journal of Cleaner Production, 216, 382–393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.134
Booth, M.S. and Giuntoli, J. (2025), Burning Up the Carbon Sink: How the EU's Forest Biomass Policy Undermines Climate Mitigation. GCB Bioenergy, 17: e70035. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.70035
Buylova A, Nasiritousi N, Bergman J, Sanderink L, Wickenberg B, Casiano Flores C and McCormick K (2025) Bridging silos through governance innovations: the role of the EU cities mission. Front. Sustain. Cities 6:1463870. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2024.1463870
Castellani, V., Fusi, A., & Sala, S. (2017). Consumer Footprint. Basket of Products indicator on Food. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC107959. https://doi.org/10.2760/555836
Cohen, B., Cowie, A., Babiker, M., Leip, A. and Smith, P. (2021). Co-benefits and trade-offs of climate change mitigation actions and the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable Production and Consumption 26: 805-813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.12.034
C40 (C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group) (2018), Consumption-based GHG emissions of C40 cities. University of Leeds, University of New South Wales, Arup. https://www.thegpsc.org/sites/default/files/consumption-basedghgemissions.pdf
Dawkins, E., Rahmati-Abkenar, M., Axelsson, K., & Grah, R. (2024). The carbon footprints of consumption of goods and services in Sweden at municipal and postcode level and policy interventions. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 52(May), 63–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2024.10.013
Druckman, A., & Jackson, T. (2009). The carbon footprint of UK households 1990 – 2004 : A socio-economically disaggregated , quasi-multi-regional input – output model. Ecological Economics, 68(7), 2066–2077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.01.013
Elliot, T. and Levasseur, A. (2022). System dynamics life cycle-based carbon model for consumption changes in urban metabolism. Ecological Modelling 473: 110010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.110010
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) (2024). FAO Statistical Database - Food balances (2010-). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Available at: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FBS
Fazio, S., Castellani, V., Sala, S., Schau, E., Secchi, M., Zampori, L., & Diaconu, E. (2018). Supporting information to the characterisation factors of recommended EF Life Cycle Impact Assessment method. New models and differences with ILCD. European Commission, Ispra, JRC114822, https://doi.org/10.2760/671368
Gao, C., Gao, C., Song, K., & Fang, K. (2020). Pathways towards regional circular economy evaluated using material flow analysis and system dynamics. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 154, 104527.
Genta, C., Sany, E., Sala, S., & Lombardi, P. (2022). The Consumption Footprint as possible indicator for environmental impact evaluation at city level. The case study of Turin (Italy). 79(December 2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.103679
Goldstein, B., Birkved, M., & Quitzau, M. (2013). Quantification of urban metabolism through coupling with the life cycle assessment framework: concept development and case study, Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 8, No 3, 035024. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/035024
Goldstein, B. P., Birkved, M., & Fernandez, J. (2017). Surveying the Environmental Footprint of Urban Food Consumption. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(1), 151-165. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12384
Graedel, T. E. (2019). Material Flow Analysis from Origin to Evolution. Environmental Science and Technology, 53(21), 12188–12196. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b03413
Groen, E.A., Bokkers, E.A.M., Heijungs, R. et al. Methods for global sensitivity analysis in life cycle assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 22, 1125–1137 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1217-3
Hertwich, E. G., & Peters, G. P. (2009). Carbon Footprint of Nations : A Global , Trade-Linked Analysis. Environmental Science and Technology, 43(16), 6414–6420. https://doi.org/10.1021/es803496a
Hynes, W., M. Lees and J. Müller (eds.) (2020), Systemic Thinking for Policy Making: The Potential of Systems Analysis for Addressing Global Policy Challenges in the 21st Century, New Approaches to Economic Challenges, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/879c4f7a-en
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2014). Human Settlements, Infrastructure, and Spatial Planning. In Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Working Group III contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 923–1000. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107415416.018
Ipsen, K. L., Zimmermann, R. K., Nielsen, P. S., & Birkved, M. (2019). Environmental assessment of Smart City Solutions using a coupled urban metabolism—life cycle impact assessment approach. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 24(7), 1239–1253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1453-9
Isman, M., Archambault, M., Racette, P., Noel, C., Miranda, R., Lin, D., Iha, K., & Ouellet-plamondon, C. M. (2018). Ecological Footprint assessment for targeting climate change mitigation in cities : A case study of 15 Canadian cities according to census metropolitan areas. Journal of Cleaner Production, 174, 1032–1043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.189
ISPAT (Istituto di statistica della Provincia di Trento) (2022). Il Censimento permanente della popolazione in Trentino. Anno 2020, 12 May 2022. https://www.istat.it/it/files//2022/05/Focus-Censimento-permanente-popolazione_Trento.pdf
ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica) (2023). Conti economici territoriali - Anni 2020-2022, 21 December 2023. https://www.istat.it/comunicato-stampa/conti-economici-territoriali-anni-2020-2022/
ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica) (2020). Statistiche sui permessi di costruire. Anno 2019, 12 November 2020. https://www.istat.it/tavole-di-dati/statistiche-sui-permessi-di-costruire-anno-2019/
Ivanova, D., Stadler, K., Steen-Olsen, K., Wood, R., Vita, G., Tukker, A. and Hertwich, E.G. (2016), Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 20: 526-536. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12371
Ivanova, D., Vita, G., Steen-Olsen, K., Stadler, K., Melo, P. C., Wood, R., & Hertwich, E. G. (2017). Mapping the carbon footprint of EU regions. Environmental Research Letters, 12, 054013. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa6da9
Kouloumpis, V., Stamford, L. and Azapagic, A. (2015), ‘Decarbonising electricity supply: Is climate change mitigation going to be carried out at the expense of other environmental impacts?’, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Vol. 1, pp. 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2015.04.001.
Lah, O. Breaking the silos: integrated approaches to foster sustainable development and climate action. Sustain Earth Reviews 8, 1 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-024-00102-w
Larsen, H. N., & Hertwich, E. G. (2010). Implementing Calculation Tools in Municipal greenhouse gas inventories – The Case of Norway. Journal of Industrial Ecology 14(6), 965–977. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2010.00295.x
Lavagna, M., Baldassarri, C., Campioli, A., Giorgi, S., Dalla Valle, A., Castellani, V., & Sala, S. (2018). Benchmarks for environmental impact of housing in Europe: Definition of archetypes and LCA of the residential building stock. Building and Environment, 145, 260–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.09.008
Lavers, A., Kalmykova, Y., Rosado, L., Oliveira, F., & Laurenti, R. (2017). Selecting representative products for quantifying environmental impacts of consumption in urban areas. Journal of Cleaner Production, 162, 34–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.030
Lavers Westin, A., Kalmykova, Y., Rosado, L., Oliveira, F., Laurenti, R., & Rydberg, T. (2019). Combining material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to identify environmental hotspots of urban consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 226, 526–539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.036
Leontief, W. (1970). Environmental Repercussions and the Economic Structure : An Input-Output Approach. Review of Economics and Statistics, 52(3), 262–271.
Mirabella, N., Allacker, K., & Sala, S. (2019). Current trends and limitations of life cycle assessment applied to the urban scale: critical analysis and review of selected literature. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 24(7), 1174–1193. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1467-3
Möslinger, M., Ulpiani, G. and Vetters, N. (2023), ‘Circular economy and waste management to empower a climate-neutral urban future’, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 421, 138454, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138454
Nemry, F., & Uihlein, A. (2008). Environmental Improvement Potentials of Residential Buildings ( IMPRO-Building ). Joint Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC46667. https://doi.org/10.2791/38942
Nuss, P., Sanyé-Mengual, E., & Sala, S. (2023). Monitoring the consumption footprint of countries to support policy-making: An assessment of data availability in Germany. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 27 (5): 1354-1369.. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13412
Ostermeyer, Y., Nägeli, C., Heeren, N., & Wallbaum, H. (2018). Building inventory and refurbishment scenario database development for Switzerland. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 22(4), 629–642. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12616
Pan, H., Zhuang, M., Geng, Y., Wu, F., & Dong, H. (2019). Emergy-based ecological footprint analysis for a mega-city : The dynamic changes of Shanghai. Journal of Cleaner Production, 210, 552–562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.064
Papageorgiou, A., Bjorklund, A., & Sinha, R. (2025). A novel assessment framework for circular urban areas with its application to a Swedish municipality. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 57(April), 121–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2025.05.005
Papageorgiou, A., Björklund, A., Sinha, R., Livia, M., Almeida, R. De, & Steubing, B. (2024). Coupling material and energy flow analysis with life cycle assessment to support circular strategies at the urban level. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 29(7), 1209–1228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02320-y
Patrício, J., Kalmykova, Y., Rosado, L., & Lisovskaja, V. (2015). Uncertainty in material flow analysis indicators at different spatial levels. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 19(5), 837–852. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12336
Pezzuto, S., Zambotti, S., Croce, S. and Zambelli, P. (2017) ‘Building stock analysis’, Hotmaps, GitLab, updated 5 September 2025 (created 18 September 2017), https://gitlab.com/hotmaps/building-stock
Pichler, P.-P., Zwickel, T., Chavez, A., Kretschmer, T., Seddon, J., & Weisz, H. (2017). ‘Reducing Urban Greenhouse Gas Footprints.’ Scientific Reports, 7, 14659. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15303-x
Pristerà, G., Sanyé-Mengual, E., Wierzgala, P., & Sala, S. (2025) Testing circularity measures: Lifespan and end-of-life modelling influence on the environmental impact of the EU residential building stock. Sustainable Production and Consumption 56, 207-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2025.03.014
Ravikumar, D., Keoleian, G.A.m Walzberg, J., Heath, G., & Heller, M.C. (2024). Advancing environmental assessment of the circular economy: Challenges and opportunities. Resources, Conservation & Recycling Advances 21, 200203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcradv.2024.200203
Redlingshöfer, B. (2024). Minimizing then Closing Material Cycles: The Ignored Potential of Food Waste Reduction to Transform the Urban Food Metabolism of the Paris Metropolitan Area. Journal of Circular Economy, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.55845/joce-2025-3365
Rosado, L., Niza, S., & Ferrão, P. (2014). A Material Flow Accounting Case Study of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area using the Urban Metabolism Analyst Model. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 18(1), 84–101. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12083
Sakai, S. ichi, Yano, J., Hirai, Y., Asari, M., Yanagawa, R., Matsuda, T., Yoshida, H., Yamada, T., Kajiwara, N., Suzuki, G., Kunisue, T., Takahashi, S., Tomoda, K., Wuttke, J., Mählitz, P., Rotter, V. S., Grosso, M., Astrup, T. F., Cleary, J., … Moore, S. (2017). Waste prevention for sustainable resource and waste management. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, 19(4), 1295–1313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-017-0586-4
Sala, S., Benini, L., Beylot, A., Castellani, V., Cerutti, A., Corrado, S., Crenna, E., Diaconu, E., Sanyé-Mengual, E., Secchi, M., Sinkko, T., & Pant, R. (2019). Consumption and Consumer Footprint: methodology and results. Indicators and Assessment of the Environmental Impact of European Consumption. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC113607. https://doi.org/10.2760/98570
Sala, S., & Castellani, V. (2019). The consumer footprint: Monitoring sustainable development goal 12 with process-based life cycle assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 240, 118050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118050
Sanyé-Mengual, E., Pasqualino, R., Omodara, L., Frankowska, A., Wierzgala, P., Chiorrini, A., Bennett, M. J., Listorti, G., & Sala, S. (2025). Consumption Footprint and Domestic Footprint Monitoring Report 2024. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC138470. https://doi.org/10.2760/4133548
Sanyé Mengual, E., Foschi, J., Orza, V., Sinkko, T., Wierzgala, P., & Sala, S. (2023). Consumption Footprint: methodological overview. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC132734. https://doi.org/10.2760/077364
Sanyé Mengual, E., & Sala, S. (2023). Consumption footprint and domestic footprint: assessing the environmental impacts of EU consumption and production : life cycle assessment to support the European Green Deal. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, JRC128571. https://doi.org/10.2760/3878
Sasso, F., Chambers, J., & Patel, M. K. (2023). Space heating demand in the office building stock : Element-based bottom-up archetype model. Energy & Buildings, 295, 113264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113264
Tukker, A., Huppes, G., Guinée, J., Heijungs, R., de Koning, A., van Oers, L., Suh, S., Geerken, T., Van Holderbeke, M., Jansen, B., & Nielsen, P. (2006). Environmental impact of products (EIPRO) - Analysis of the life cycle environmental impacts related to the final consumption of the EU-25. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Wackernagel, M., Kitzes, J., Moran, D. A. N., Goldfinger, S., & Thomas, M. (2006). ‘The ecological footprint of cities and regions: Comparing resource availability with resource demand’, Environment & Urbanization, 18 (1): 103–112.. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247806063978
Wei W, Larrey-Lassalle P, Faure T, Dumoulin N, Roux P, Mathias JD. How to conduct a proper sensitivity analysis in life cycle assessment: taking into account correlations within LCI data and interactions within the LCA calculation model. Environ Sci Technol. 2015 Jan 6;49(1):377-85. https://doi.org/10.1021/es502128k
Withanage, S. V., & Habib, K. (2021). Life cycle assessment and material flow analysis: Two under-utilized tools for informing e-waste management. Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(14): 7939. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147939
Zabala-Iturriagagoitia, J.M. (2022). Fostering regional innovation, entrepreneurship and growth through public procurement. Small Bus Econ 58, 1205–1222 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-021-00466-9
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
Data Availability Statement
Supporting data is provided in the supplementary materials file. The data sources that support the findings of this study are provided in the manuscript and in supplementary materials. All original data sources are publicly available, except for ecoinvent data.
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Joana Bastos, Riccardo Fraboni, Rita Garcia, Leonardo Rosado (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
Funding data
-
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Grant numbers Grant UID/6438/2025 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/06438/2025) -
Formas, FCT (ref. DUT/0009/2022; https://doi.org/10.54499/DUT/0009/2022)
Grant numbers ECLECTIC – Enabling CircuLar Economy aCTIon plans for small and medium-sized Cities -
European Commission
Grant numbers Driving Urban Transitions Partnership
