Dr.-Ing.

Albrecht, Stefan

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  • Publication
    LCA's theory and practice: Like ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony?
    ( 2013)
    Baitz, Martin
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    Albrecht, Stefan orcid-logo
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    Brauner, Eloise
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    Broadbent, Clare
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    Castellan, Guy
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    Conrath, Pierre
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    Fava, James
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    Finkbeiner, Matthias
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    Fischer, Matthias orcid-logo
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    Fullana i Palmer, Pere
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    Krinke, Stephan
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    Leroy, Christian
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    Loebel, Oliver
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    McKeown, Phil
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    Mersiowsky, Ivo
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    Möginger, Bernhard
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    Pfaadt, Marcus
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    Rebitzer, Gerald
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    Rother, Elmar
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    Ruhland, Klaus
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    Schanssema, Aafko
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    Tikana, Ladji
    This editorial aims to improve cooperation in the use of LCA in both theory and practice. The successful development of LCA requires, on one hand, an influx of new ideas and harmonized methodologies, and on the other hand, thriving and credible application. The authors share the implications of LCA in daily businesses and practice and aim to nurture and strengthen the interfaces between scientific findings and application. Working together to encourage a broader application of "good practice" LCA in industry as well as strengthening scientific LCA work towards "applicable science" will develop and reinforce professional LCA work and technical implementation in the academic and business arena. This article is written with a primary focus on industrial applications and research in applied science and with less emphasis on specific governmental applications.
  • Publication
    Challenges in the sustainability assessment of historic buildings
    ( 2013)
    Bos, Ulrike
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    Kilian, Ralf
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    Leissner, Johanna
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    Briana, Niblick
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    Albrecht, Stefan orcid-logo
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    Schneider, Sarah
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    Milch, Christine
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    Rettberg, Britta von
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    Sedlbauer, Klaus
    In recent years, several methods and certification systems have been established to assess the sustainability of buildings. However, these methods often neglect historic buildings due to their non-standard characteristics. Such characteristics, often rooted in long cultural traditions, can be found in a wide variety of traditional structures, from rural homes, to houses and buildings in small towns to churches, cathedrals, and even castles. The lack of a standard method by which to assess the sustainability of historic buildings is a major gap in the field of green building and has led to an increasing number of researchers and practitioners asking how to best sustainably preserve these historic buildings, in the absence of any standard approach. The Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics is conducting a project entitled "Energetic analysis and optimization of internal wall insulation (abbreviated "Internal Wall lnsulation") in which diverse thermal insulation materials will be tested and evaluated for historical buildings. The objective of this project is to find thermal insulation materials and constructions that are suitable for historic buildings. The materials should ideally be reversible and should have both an excellent physical and environmental performance. The project is located at the Fraunhofer Centre Benediktbeuern and experimental work will happen in both the historic building of the Old Cooperage and at the Outdoor Test Facility of Fraunhofer IBP at Holzkirchen. The IBP Department of Life Cycle Engineering (GaBi), together with experts for building conservation from Fraunhofer IBP group of Preventive Conservation and Preservation of Cultural Heritage in Holzkirchen, will conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the various thermal insulation materials tested over the course of the project in order to assess the materials' sustainability as a new, additional part of the historic building. This paper gives an overview of the challenges associated with assessing the sustainability of historic buildings and examines a case study via the project "Internal Wall Insulation". Sustainability of heritage preservation, life cycle assessment and its applicability in the building sector, and possible solutions for the challenges in the sustainability assessment of historic buildings are all discussed.
  • Publication
    An extended life cycle analysis of packaging systems for fruit and vegetable transport in Europe
    ( 2013)
    Albrecht, Stefan orcid-logo
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    Brandstetter, Peter
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    Beck, Tabea
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    Fullana-i-Palmer, Pere
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    Grönman, Kaisa
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    Baitz, Martin
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    Deimling, Sabine
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    Sandilands, Julie
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    Fischer, Matthias orcid-logo
    Purpose: The year-round supply of fresh fruit and vegetables in Europe requires a complex logistics system. In this study, the most common European fruit and vegetable transport packaging systems, namely single-use wooden and cardboard boxes and re-useable plastic crates, are analyzed and compared considering environmental, economic, and social impacts. Methods: The environmental, economic, and social potentials of the three transport packaging systems are examined and compared from a life cycle perspective using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Working Environment (LCWE) methodologies. Relevant parameters influencing the results are analyzed in different scenarios, and their impacts are quantified. The underlying environmental analysis is an ISO 14040 and 14044 comparative Life Cycle Assessment that was critically reviewed by an independent expert panel. Results and discussion: The results show that wooden boxes and plastic crates perform very similarly in the Global Warming Potential, Acidification Potential, and Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential categories; while plastic crates have a lower impact in the Eutrophication Potential and Abiotic Resource Depletion Potential categories. Cardboard boxes show the highest impacts in all assessed categories. The analysis of the life cycle costs show that the re-usable system is the most cost effective over its entire life cycle. For the production of a single crate, the plastic crates require the most human labor. The share of female employment for the cardboard boxes is the lowest. All three systems require a relatively large share of low-qualified employees. The plastic crate system shows a much lower lethal accident rate. The higher rate for the wooden and cardboard boxes arises mainly from wood logging. In addition, the sustainability consequences due to the influence of packaging in preventing food losses are discussed, and future research combining aspects both from food LCAs and transport packing/packaging LCAs is recommended. Conclusions: For all three systems, optimization potentials regarding their environmental life cycle performance were identified. Wooden boxes (single use) and plastic crates (re-usable) show preferable environmental performance. The calibration of the system parameters, such as end-of-life treatment, showed environmental optimization potentials in all transport packaging systems. The assessment of the economic and the social dimensions in parallel is important in order to avoid trade-offs between the three sustainability dimensions. Merging economic and social aspects into a Life Cycle Assessment is becoming more and more important, and their integration into one model ensures a consistent modeling approach for a manageable effort.
  • Publication
    Anforderungen an und Nutzen von Lebenszyklusanalysen in Unternehmen der Luftfahrtindustrie
    ( 2011)
    Horlacher, Stefan
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    Albrecht, Stefan orcid-logo
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    Sedlbauer, Klaus
    In Anbetracht steigender Ressourcenpreise und einer zunehmend stärkeren Fokussierung auf umweltrelevante Fragestellungen in Unternehmen der Luftfahrtindustrie werden zukünftige Flugzeugkonzepte und die darin verwendeten Materialien mehr und mehr hinsichtlich ihrer ökologischen Performance analysiert werden. Es wird daher in der Luftfahrtindustrie zunehmend ein Instrument benötigt werden, das bei der Umsetzung einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung unterstützen kann. Die Methode der Ökobilanz stellt ein solches, in Industrie und Forschung etabliertes Instrument dar. Der zielgerichtete Einsatz und Nutzen der Ökobilanz erfordert signifikanten administrativen und personellen Einsatz bei der Datenerhebung, Erstellung der Ökobilanzmodelle sowie Eingliederung in die Unternehmensstruktur. Die erschwert vor allem kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen häufig den Einstieg in deren Anwendung. In der Diplomarbeit "Anforderungen an und Nutzen von Lebenszyklusanalysen in Unternehmen der Luftfahrtindustrie" von S. Horlacher wird eine Systematik entwickelt, mit der der Aufwand der Datenerhebung für Ökobilanzen verringert werden kann. Des Weiteren soll eine Kommunikationsgrundlage geschaffen werden, um die effiziente Nutzung von Ökobilanzen in verschiedenen Bereichen eines Unternehmens der Luftfahrtindustrie zu unterstützen.