Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (HILCSA)

hilcsa grafik en klein

Contact persons: Dr.-Ing. Walther Zeug

Measuring and evaluating ecological, economic, and social sustainability across all stages of a product's, process’s, or service’s life cycle is at the core of established Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. These approaches are increasingly combined into Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) frameworks. HILCSA—Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment—is an innovative method within this field, enabling a comprehensive, ISO 14040/14044-compliant and integrated evaluation of holistic sustainability.


A Societal Perspective on Sustainability

HILCSA builds on the Theory of Societal Relations to Nature, which views economic systems as comprising both physical and social components. These systems of societal metabolisms mediate the transformation of natural resources into goods and services for societal needs through infrastructures and economic practices. Based on this understanding, HILCSA defines sustainability as:
  • Social sustainability: Long-term, global fulfillment of societal needs and well-being
  • Ecological sustainability: Long-term environmental stability as the foundation for societal reproduction, within planetary and regional ecological boundaries (PB)
  • Economic sustainability: Efficient, effective, sufficient, and just technological and economic systems that support sustainable needs fulfillment within PB

hilcsa1
i) Sustainability model, ii) Framework of HILCSA = f (S-LCA, E-LCA, LCC) (integrated product and production systems in openLCA entail ecological, social and economic data)


A Holistic and Integrative Method

HILCSA integrates ecological, economic, and social dimensions into a single assessment framework. HILCSA models processes, products, organizations, and regions as integrated systems, incorporating material and energy flows, as well as working time. It uses up to 100 qualitative and quantitative indicators, aggregated into indices, across all three sustainability dimensions and addresses 14 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The method provides a transdisciplinary and critical analysis of sustainability trade-offs, synergies, and hotspots in production and consumption systems—particularly within the bioeconomy but also beyond. It is fully implemented in free the openLCA software, using data from the Ecoinvent and SoCa databases.
hilcsa2
Product system of LVL production in Central Germany with foreground and background activities, based on openLCA model graph (“+” indicates hidden upstream flows and processes for inputs; position of processes is schematic), from (Zeug et al. 2022)


Case Studies and Applications

To date, HILCSA has been applied in several case studies, mostly in context of the bioeconomy. The method enables relative sustainability assessments, comparing innovative production systems to fossil-based systems or alternative resource use pathways. However, the method is not limited to that and suitable for comparisons across all economic sectors. Results—both qualitative and quantitative—are embedded in a broader transdisciplinary analysis of political economy and political ecology, incorporating stakeholder participation.

Key findings from two case studies demonstrate:
  • Sustainability effects are closely interlinked, creating complex synergies and trade-offs
  • Without structural changes, relying on biomass imports can perpetuate global inequalities and externalities
  • Material use of biomass in the construction sector often outperforms non-renewables and energetic use of biomass in terms of most SDGs
  • The use of biomass can involve complex sustainability risks: while reducing greenhouse gases, it can lead to ecological, social, and economic drawbacks if not carefully managed
These insights highlight that focusing solely on greenhouse gas emissions may result in misguided regulations and missed opportunities for holistic sustainability.
hilcsa3
Relative holistic sustainability of LVL compared to steal beam production, presented in form of the holistic sustainability framework for HILCSA of the BE (SDGs are viewed in size according to their relevance for German BE assessments; colors and values represent the substitution factors of impacts (Table 1); white = no data), from (Zeug et al. 2022)


Decision Support for Policy, Civil Society, Research and Industry

By identifying detailed and aggregated synergies, trade-offs, and critical hotspots, HILCSA reveals common systemic risks and chances in economic systems and value chains, such as the bioeconomy with planetary limits on land and water availability and persistent socio-economic inequalities in global supply chains. It offers valuable, science-based decision support for policy, civil society, research and industry and connects sustainability assessment with normative societal and political questions.


Licensing and use of HILCSA

The HILCSA method is publicly available and can be licensed for use in openLCA. It is provided via the Nexus platform of Green Delta GmbH.

Method Update HILCSAv2.3

With the release of HILCSA on the Nexus platform for openLCA, a consolidated and user-friendly version 2.3 was developed. This version includes comprehensive documentation and a detailed manual for applying the method.

Publications:

Backgrounds of the method:

Zeug W, Bezama A, Thrän D (2023a) Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Sustainable Bioeconomy, Societal-Ecological Transformation and Beyond. In: Progress in Life Cycle Assessment 2021. Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management. Springer, pp 131-159. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-29294-1_8

General framework:

Zeug W, Bezama A, Thran D (2021) A framework for implementing holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of regional bioeconomy Int J Life Cycle Ass doi:10.1007/s11367-021-01983-1

Case studies:

Pries M, Zeug W, Thrän D (2026) Holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of community supported agriculture: A case study of school catering in Leipzig, Germany. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption 20:100372

Puricelli S, Zeug W, Cecere G, Dolci G, van den Oever A, Rigamonti L, Grosso M, Bezama A (2026) Navigating through Holistic and Integrated LCSA of passenger cars with different power supply: Methodological limitations and research needs. Journal of Environmental Management 398:128499

Zeug W, Mirutko A, Uppal A, Bezama A (2025) Nachhaltigkeit von Bioökonomie in Sachsen-Anhalt: Fallstudien zu Baustoffen, Ernährung und Bioraffinerien, Leipzig. https://doi.org/30391

Zeug W, Yupanqui KRG, Bezama A, Thrän D (2023b) Holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of prospective biomass to liquid production in Germany Journal of Cleaner Production 418 doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138046

Zeug W, Bezama A, Thran D (2022) Application of holistic and integrated LCSA: Case study on laminated veneer lumber production in Central Germany Int J Life Cycle Ass 27:1352-1375 doi:10.1007/s11367-022-02098-x

Projects:

BegleitDiP – Accompanying research on the digitalization of plant-based value chains for the development of a participatory and learning sustainability monitoring

Obtaining levans and fructo-oligosaccharides of the levan type from residues from sugar beet processing (LeFOS)

KEK Monitoring − Status monitoring of the climate and energy concept of the state of Saxony-Anhalt