Allocation and characterisation factors for absolute environmental sustainability assessment

Allocation and characterisation factors for absolute environmental sustainability assessment | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Data Note Allocation and characterisation factors for absolute environmental sustainability assessment Jan Marcus Hartmann, David Yang Shu, André Bardow, Niklas von der Assen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9223095/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Absolute environmental sustainability assessment (AESA) enables the comparison of the environmental impacts from economic sectors against sector-specific thresholds for environmental sustainability. Implementing AESA requires data to establish sector-specific sustainability thresholds and to characterise the environmental impact of elementary flows that are exchanged between the economic sector and the environment. The following dataset comprises the necessary data to perform a planetary-boundary-based AESA. The dataset includes allocation factors for 163 economic sectors across 44 countries and 5 Rest-of-World regions to determine environmental sustainability thresholds. The allocation factors are calculated using four economic allocation methods, based on direct or total and on consumption- or production-based value generated by the economic sector. Additionally, the dataset provides characterisation factors for the 2684 elementary flows within standard and prospective ecoinvent v3.10.1 databases, enabling the assessment of the elementary flows’ environmental impact on all global planetary boundary categories except novel entities. The dataset includes Python code to calculate the allocation factors and to import the characterisation factors into the life-cycle assessment software Brightway. Environmental Engineering Systems Engineering life cycle assessment planetary boundaries downscaling allocation factors share of safe operating space life cycle impact assessment characterisation factors Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare potential competing interests as follows: D.S. reports financial support provided by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the Federal Office for the Environment. A.B. has ownership interests in Carbon Minds, a firm that renders services on LCA to industry, and other companies which also provide services to industry using LCA. A.B. has served on review committees for research and development at ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies, oil and gas companies that are also active in LCA. All other authors report no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9223095","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Data Note","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":612022119,"identity":"1f955434-510a-4586-837f-3005d06ec755","order_by":0,"name":"Jan Marcus Hartmann","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4295-1299","institution":"RWTH Aachen University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jan","middleName":"Marcus","lastName":"Hartmann","suffix":""},{"id":612022120,"identity":"07b2006f-4a0a-48a1-bfcc-9cda182c401c","order_by":1,"name":"David Yang Shu","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4096-3883","institution":"ETH Zurich","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"David","middleName":"Yang","lastName":"Shu","suffix":""},{"id":612022121,"identity":"ad49115c-b3b7-4186-83f9-b2518d2d47e8","order_by":2,"name":"André Bardow","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3831-0691","institution":"ETH Zurich","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"André","middleName":"","lastName":"Bardow","suffix":""},{"id":612022122,"identity":"ca43d72b-af6c-4c12-8981-aefd5f5243c0","order_by":3,"name":"Niklas von der Assen","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8855-9420","institution":"RWTH Aachen University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Niklas","middleName":"von der","lastName":"Assen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-25 12:35:07","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":true,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9223095/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9223095/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105566050,"identity":"18259362-e53d-42ed-9787-d7908b68cb0f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-27 12:55:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":489815,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"20260310ScientificDataHartmann.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9223095/v1_covered_4e68a2a6-b93d-49e2-a6d4-8b91796df92b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare potential competing interests as follows: D.S. reports financial support provided by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and the Federal Office for the Environment.\nA.B. has ownership interests in Carbon Minds, a firm that renders services on LCA to industry, and other companies which also provide services to industry using LCA. 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