CHAINET was a concerted action in the EU Environment and Climate programme (ENV4-CT97-0477). Similar to its predecessor LCANET, it was a European network which sought broad participation. CHAINET addressed the use of a variety of environmental tools. The Concerted Action commenced in December 1997 and ran for 2 years. The tasks of this Concerted Action was to set up a network linking environmental problem owners in three sectors with experts on different environmental analytical tools and interactively to write a guidebook. The guidebook provides a toolbox for chain analysis, linking demand for environmental information with supply of relevant information; as well as application of the toolbox in three different cases, indicating specific directions for design and development. 

The main objectives of CHAINET were: 
 

• linking the different scientific tool communities, problem owners and stakeholders,
• establishing a toolbox for chain analysis, linking demand for environmental information with supply of relevant information,
• investigating how tools can be applied in three selected cases, to suggest specific directions for design and development.

 

Cases

Three cases were selected as useful vehicles for discussions on how tools can be applied in order to obtain information on net environmental improvements. The three cases were the supply, use and waste management chain for: 
 

• automobiles
• consumer electronic goods
• domestic clothes washing

 

Tools

The supply of tools and concepts providing environmental information, for decision making support, is large and diverse. Developments have taken place independent of each other; from the supply side as "tool driven". In a problem oriented approach, distinct demands for environmental information according to the different decision contexts was the starting point. A short description of the following tools is provided: 
 

1. Check-lists
2. Cost-Benefit Analysis
3. Cumulative Energy Requirement Analysis (CERA)
4. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
5. Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA)
6. Input-Output Analysis (IOA)
7. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
8. Material Flow Accounting/Substance Flow Analysis (MFA-SFA)
9. Material Intensity Analysis (MAIA)
10. Multi-Criteria Analysis

 

Publications

• The chainet book: N.Wrisberg, H.A.Udo de Haes, U.Triebswetter, P.Eder, R. Clift 
  Analytical Tools for Environmental Design and Management in a Systems Perspective. The Combined Use of Analytical Tools Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 
  |  Buy at Kluwer Academic Publishers | 

   Drafts of case study reports. 

• 2nd Draft of the "domestic washing of clothes" case report (pdf, 357 kb)
• René Kleijn (final editor), Erik Hansen, Gjalt Huppes, Jake McLaren, Hanna Pesonen, Ab Steevels, Evdokia Vanakari, Hans van der Wel.  2nd Draft of the "electronic consumer goods" case report (pdf, 283 kb)
• Michael Kuhndt. Bernd Bilitewski, Wolfram Krewitt, Werner Niederle. 
  Towards Reduced Environmental Burden of Mobility: Improving the Automobile Life Cycle. A CHAINET Case Study Report, 2nd Draft (pdf, 481 kB) 
   

Abstracts of papers incorporated into the Chainet guidebook. 

• Matthijs Bouman, Reinout Heijungs and Ester van der Voet: 
  Material flows and economic models (pdf, 47 kb)
• Arnold Tukker: 
  The relation between environmental evaluation tools (pdf, 148 kb)
• Arnold Tukker: 
  Life Cycle Assessment as a tool in environmental impact assessment (pdf,  76 kb)
• Michael Kuhndt and Christa Liedtke: 
  Translating a factor X into praxis (pdf, 215 kb)
• Elja Kalliala: 
  The environmental index model for textiles and textile services (pdf, 175 kb)
• Francois Bouchart, Tim Foxon, Nicki Souter, Richard Ashley, David Butler and Paul Jowitt: 
  Decision mapping for the development of multi-criteria analysis tools to assess the relative sustainability of water/wastewater systems (pdf, 118 kb)
• Leo De Nocker and Dirk Ceuterick: 
  The use of external costs analysis for cost-benefit analysis in the energy and transport sectors (pdf, 126 kb)
• Thomas Orbach and Christa Liedtke: 
  Eco-Management Accounting in Germany, Concepts and Practical Implementation (pdf, 298 kb)
• Graziano Carli, Raffaele Scialdoni and Massimo Tronci: 
  Life cycle design management in the automobile sector, a framework (pdf, 143 kb)
• Tom Gameson: 
  Private Sector methods for weighting environmental indicators (pdf, 132 kb)
• Paolo Frankl and Frieder Rubik: 
  The use of LCA in business decision-making processes and its implications for environmental policy (pdf, 143 kb)
• Göran Brohammer: 
  LCA in Decision Making (pdf, 151 kb)
• Matthijs Nijboer: 
  REC: combining tools for the assessment and choice of soil remediation alternatives (pdf, 91 kb)

 

Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Share by WhatsApp Share by Mastodon