The meaning of life … cycles: lessons from and for safe by design studies

12Citations
Citations of this article
39Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The concepts of Safe by Design (SbD) and Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) are receiving increasing attention. The definitions of both concepts include the term ‘life cycle’ in combination with the terms ‘chemical’, ‘material’ and ‘product’, but their meanings are not further elaborated and defined in scholarly publications on SbD/SSbD. Here, we address two research questions: (1) How are the terms chemical, material and product used and defined in the scholarly literature on SbD and SSbD; (2) How are life cycles defined and which are considered in the scholarly literature on SbD/SSbD? We found largely consistent, though still confusing, uses of the terms product, material and chemical and we found four types of life cycles in the reviewed papers. Using consistent definitions of the terms product, material and chemical, we reduce the four types of life cycles found to three types of distinctive life cycles: (1) the life cycle of a product; (2) the life cycle of a chemical in a specific product; (3) the life cycle of a chemical in all its product applications. We discuss the different trade-offs that each of these life cycle approaches can identify and argue that they are complementary and should preferably all be applied in SbD/SSbD studies.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Guinée, J. B., Heijungs, R., Vijver, M. G., Peijnenburg, W. J. G. M., & Villalba Mendez, G. (2022, October 7). The meaning of life … cycles: lessons from and for safe by design studies. Green Chemistry. Royal Society of Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1039/d2gc02761e

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free