1 Introduction

1.1 South Africa as a country

South Africa is located on the southern tip of the African continent covering an area of 1,219,090 km2 (CIA Factbook 2020), with a population estimated at 57.7 million as of 1 July 2018 (Statistics South Africa 2018). The economy ranked 35th in the world and 2nd in Africa with a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 317568 billion in 2017 (WorldAtlas 2017). The World Bank puts the country in the category of upper-middle-economy countries making it one of only four countries in this category on the continent. Traditionally, the primary and secondary sectors of the South African economy include agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, with tertiary sectors including finance, business, trade, government, transport, and personal services (WorldAtlas 2017).

1.2 Sustainable development and environmental challenges in the local context

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) signaled the increasing focus on environmental matters in the context of political and business decision-making. One of the calls was for national governments to report local environmental data. South Africa produced two key reports (“National State of the Environment” and the “South Africa Environment Outlook”) in 1999 and 2006, respectively, with updates to the “South Africa Environmental Outlook” report in 2012 and 2018. The National Development Plan has also stated that environmental impacts are an integral part of the country’s development agenda (National Planning Commission 2012). Other more specific environmental information is available through detailed reports, such as the “National Biodiversity Assessment” reports, “Greenhouse Gas Inventory” reports, “Environmental Sustainability Indicators,” and more (https://www.environment.gov.za/otherdocuments/reports and http://soer.environment.gov.za/soer/.

The challenge for South Africa is to limit environmental impacts in the context of a growing population and increased urbanization around a few South African urban nodes (The World Bank 2018). Historically, this has led to a loss of natural habitat, increased pollution, and declining environmental quality. This rapid urbanization process and other factors were seen as drivers to the process which gave rise to one of the most unequal societies in the world (The World Bank 2018). In terms of implications for the environment, it means that the country faces mass consumption (increased consumerism and associated resource use and waste generation) from a limited upper class and an increasing middle class, as well as consequences due to citizens living in abject poverty. Additionally, the country still has a strong dependence on coal-based energy, resulting in high air pollution. Therefore, quantitative tools such as LCAs and carbon and water footprints are becoming more important, not only as process tools but also as a source of environmental indicators.

1.3 Problem statement and objectives of the study

In the past 20 years, public awareness surrounding sustainable development has grown, as has the number of LCA studies, as can be seen through various country-specific review studies (Croft et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2014; Hou et al. 2015; Estrela 2015; Zanghelini et al. 2016; Maepa et al. 2017; Burman et al. 2018; Engelbrecht et al. 2018; Bodunrin et al. 2018; Wiloso et al. 2019; Ladenika et al. 2019). In South Africa, environmental performance has become increasingly significant in the context of escalating sustainable economic growth and development. This has led to an increase in the use of quantitative environmental assessment tools such as LCAs. This paper presents an overview of the implementation and utilization of LCA-related assessments in South Africa over the period 2011–2019. While there are several assessment methods available, the focus is limited to LCA, water, and carbon footprint studies as well as environmental product declarations (EPD) as the core tools. Studies that utilized assessment methods such as eco-efficiency, social-LCA, or other qualitative assessments were excluded due to the limited number of local studies published. This work further summarizes the country’s involvement in the Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) program (SRI 2020) in South Africa. From the findings, the paper explores challenges and opportunities for LCA developments in South Africa.

2 Methodology

Members from the South Africa LCA community, through formal collaborations, informal networks, mailing lists, as well as participation at yearly LCA workshops, were approached in person or via email to provide information regarding existing LCA-related studies (LCA, water, and carbon footprint studies) that they had produced or knew of in their extended networks. These included research organizations, academic institutions, and environmental consulting companies. Additional studies were identified through internet searches (Google/Google Scholar and Scopus) using combinations of the terms “life-cycle assessment,” “carbon footprint,” “water footprint,” and “South Africa.” Additionally, environmental product declarations (EPDs) were included for an additional perspective on environmental awareness in the country. This study further reports on the LCI data collection activities in South Africa (through the Sustainable Recycling Industries program). Within the SRI program (SRI 2020), South Africa has developed several LCI datasets and at the same time organized capacity building workshops across the country. The challenges and opportunities this has shown are also given.

The results presented in this paper are restricted to studies published during the period 2011–2019. For a prior snapshot of the status of LCA in South Africa, the paper by Brent and colleagues is recommended (Brent et al. 2002). Studies that are based on life cycle thinking, such as life cycle management, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment, were excluded due to the relatively small number of published studies reported for South Africa. Studies where reports were not available online, nor published in (open access or subscription) journals, were excluded, e.g., studies from private consulting projects, since rigor and findings could not be validated. Studies with a scope specifically outside the borders of South Africa, even if the work was co-authored by South Africans, were also excluded. Research studies leading to academic degrees were not included, except for the peer-reviewed outputs of these degrees. Database results that are available in LCA software packages were also not included in this study, e.g., in openLCA Nexus, which lists 14,865 datasets for South Africa, including potential duplicates of unit vs system processes and consequential vs cutoff scenarios (GreenDelta GmbH 2019).

3 Results and discussion

LCA, carbon and water footprinting studies, as well as EPDs available addressing South African cases are presented (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Summary of LCA-related environmental studies available in the literature for South Africa (2011–2019) (number of studies)

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3.1 Life cycle assessment

For the period 2011–2019, a total of 27 publicly available LCA studies were reported (Table 1). Nine studies were published between 2011 and 2014, while the remainder were published after this period. Fifteen out of 27 studies were available in peer-reviewed journals, while ten were available as research reports, and two as full conference papers. It should be noted that conference papers or abstracts that later became full journal papers were not included to avoid double counting.

Table 1 Summary of available life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies in South Africa
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Eight studies were for the agricultural sector, which included assessments of dairy, livestock, and crop products and processes. Furthermore, seven studies were centered on the energy industry, including activities such as biofuel and biogas production. Three studies were conducted for the mining sector focusing on the environmental impacts of the mining process of platinum group metals (PGMs) and sandstone. LCA studies were also conducted for the value chains of certain textile products such as t-shirts and towels. Other studies were conducted for the infrastructure, water, and packaging sectors (Fig. 2). The share of LCA studies in the manufacturing (38%) and agriculture (31%) sectors do not correspond to their contribution to the South African GDP (13 and 1% respectively), which is dominated by financial services, government, and trade (20, 18, and 17%, respectively) (Statistics South Africa 2020). It is noted that the GDP figures change from quarter to quarter and the impact of COVID could play a role in future numbers. Given that most progress has been made, and more experiences exist for “product” LCAs, it is understandable that there are substantial gaps in the tertiary sector, to address financial services and trade, which contribute significantly to the country’s GDP. GDP figures for trade also relate to other sectors of the GDP through, for example, manufacturing and agricultural products, such that the representation here may not be completely accurate based purely on GDP values.

Fig. 2
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Relationship between the percentage share of nominal GDP (Q4, 2019) (Statistics South Africa 2020) and LCA studies in South Africa

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Only three out of 27 these studies were initiated and funded by government research organizations. The rest were supported by private companies and professional associations with strong international links. Therefore, it appears that the drivers for LCAs are mainly from industry (with some international motivation due to exports) and less from government entities.

3.2 Water footprinting

Seventeen water footprint studies have been conducted in South Africa between 2012 and 2019 (Table 2). Between 2012 and 2017, published water footprint research has increased annually with 43% of studies being published in 2017. Only one study was published in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Most water footprint studies (76%) were for the agricultural industry, with eight studies on vegetables and fruits and one on wheat production for bread. Four studies were conducted on livestock production of which three studies were in terms of dairy production and one study on beef. Three water footprint studies were done for processes in the mining industry. A single study was conducted for water management purposes. No water footprint studies were found for any other industries, such as forestry, energy, waste, and textile industries.

Table 2 Summary of available water footprint (WF) studies in South Africa
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In 2019, 62% of the freshwater water resources in South Africa were used by the agricultural sector, 27% by municipalities, 3% by industries, 3% by mining activities, and 2% each by forestry and energy sectors. This breakdown of water use is mirrored in the number of water footprint studies, with most of them in the agricultural sector, followed by water footprint studies in industries and mining activities (Fig. 3). It has to be stated that the country is deemed as water scarce, with extreme rainfall variations and uneven geographical distribution of water resources (GreenCape 2019). Also, severe droughts have been recorded, and current water usage exceeds reliable water supply in some areas.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Relationship between the share of freshwater consumption (2019) (GreenCape 2019) and WF studies in South Africa

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The majority (78%) of water footprints used the Hoekstra methodology (Hoekstra et al. 2011). Two studies (presented as a publication, thesis, and technical report) compared the applicability of the Hoekstra method (Hoekstra et al. 2011) versus a regional water stress index approach (Milà et al. 2009; Pfister et al. 2009; Ridoutt and Pfister 2010) and a hydrologically based method (Deurer et al. 2011). It should be noted that six of the 17 studies were funded by the government through the Water Research Commission of South Africa (WRC) and centered around crops or value chain goods. Industry is linked to six of the 17 studies and catchment management agencies, and regional organizations are associated with eight studies.

Therefore, the drivers for water footprint studies appear to differ from the drivers for LCAs. Water footprints are connected mainly to government research organizations, such as the Water Research Commission, who provide more funding than the private sector to academic institutes and consulting firms.

3.3 Carbon footprinting

Twelve academic, peer-reviewed carbon footprinting studies were reported (Table 3). Most of the studies (seven) were centered on the agricultural sector, with research conducted for vegetable and fruit crops, sugarcane, wine, and livestock. Two studies were undertaken for the mining process of platinum group metals. Although private companies conduct their carbon footprint studies and publish the results in annual sustainability reports, these were not included in this paper since different quality control and review procedures were used; hence, no validation was possible. In this context, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), adopted through the National Business Initiative (partnered with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)), needs to be mentioned. In 2010, this initiative resulted in the publication of carbon footprint information for 100 companies from different sectors listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (CPD - Carbon Disclosure Project 2011). However, this initiative has not been updated, and most figures for the carbon footprints will be outdated.

Table 3 Summary of available carbon footprint (CF) studies in South Africa
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An analysis of the distribution of published carbon footprints per sector in South Africa shows no correspondence with their levels of contribution to the GDP (Fig. 4). The latest GHG inventory for South Africa (2012) showed that the energy sector is a significant contributor to carbon dioxide and other emissions with a 67.8% allocation. Other sectors such as industry, transport, “agriculture, forestry, and other land use” (AFOLU), and waste contributed with 12.8%, 9.2%, 6%, and 4.2%, respectively (Department of Environmental Affairs 2018). None of the academic carbon footprint studies published in the last few years have investigated the highest emitting sectors in the country. The energy and transport sectors are dominated by government-controlled parastatal companies (i.e., Eskom, Transnet, and Sanral), and this highlights the need for detailed, consistent peer-reviewed carbon footprints not only in the private sector but more importantly for government parastatals.

Fig. 4
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Relationship between the contribution to GHG emissions (2012) (Department of Environmental Affairs 2018) and CF studies in South Africa

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From the experience of the authors, there are many carbon footprinting studies conducted for internal use. The drivers in these studies are thus either for internal company consumption or from a business perspective, rather than at a basic research level, as seen in the reports listed in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

3.4 Environmental product declarations

EPDs present quantified environmental information on the life cycle of a product and are based on independently verified LCA data (International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 2006). Since 2016, ten EPDs have been published. Belgotex Floors has three EPDs registered in the Global Green Tag EPD program; the LCA studies considered the production of carpets and other flooring applications in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, in 2014 (Belgotex Floors 2016a, b, c). Chevron Crushtech, a supplier of post-consumer recycled filling and building sands, also registered EPDs in the Global Green Tag. There is one EPD for building sand (Blu-Core Building Sand) and three for fillings (Blu-Core G5, G6, and G7 filling) where the LCA considered applications in industrial sectors and the 2017 production in South Africa (Chevron Crushtech 2018a, b, c, d). Five more EPDs from Gyproc Saint Gobain were found in the International EPD System, showing the results of the LCA studies of their Rhinoboard products, a calcium sulfate-based material to build drywall and/or ceilings. Data for these EPDs was collected from the production site in Cape Town for the year 2016 and in Brakpan for the year 2017 (Gyproc Saint Gobain 2018a, b, 2019). While the exact drivers for EPDs are not clear, their number and awareness about these are both increasing.

3.5 LCI data collection and local expertise projects: sustainable recycling industries program and REAL project

The Sustainable Recycling Industries (SRI) program was funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and jointly implemented by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), the World Resources Forum (WRF), and the ecoinvent Association. The SRI Component A, coordinated by ecoinvent, aimed at building LCA/LCI expertise through training events and at building life cycle inventory (LCI) data (industrial, agricultural, and other sectors) for newly industrialized countries, including Brazil, India, and South Africa. The creation of reliable, consistent, and transparent regionalized LCIs represented a core purpose of the SRI program Component A.

The SRI Component A was constructed on three pillars:

  • Setting up regional LC networks

  • Developing local LCI/LCA expertise

  • Building LCI datasets

UNEP’s LCInitiative, together with the ecoinvent Association and the European Commission, developed a program to promote national databases. The “Resource Efficiency through Application of Life cycle thinking” (REAL) project, which included South Africa, ran from October 2018 to August 2019 (LCInitiative 2019). A roadmap for developing the South African LCI database was proposed in the outcomes of the REAL project (Notten and Von Blottnitz n.d.).

3.5.1 South African LCI datasets

With this international support, over 70 South African specific LCI datasets were developed in five data projects involving several South Africa universities and organizations: Blue North Sustainability, The Green House, University of Cape Town, the University of Johannesburg, and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Charikinya et al. 2018; Muigai and Pradhan 2018; Notten and Patel 2018; Russo and von Blottnitz 2018; Russo et al. 2018). Coverage of the data projects included (Fig. 5) the following:

  • Major primary sectors of the South African economy—key agriculture products (maize, fruit, beef, wheat), key metals and minerals (coal, gold, platinum, ferrochrome, and heavy mineral sands), and electricity generation

  • Some manufacturing sectors—cement and concrete, synthetic fuels, and chemicals

  • Road and rail freight and domestic liquid fuel markets

Fig. 5
figure 5

Building blocks to the start of a possible LCI database for South Africa

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South African specific datasets on water supply and infrastructure, liquid fuels (petroleum refining), and solid waste disposal were also developed under the SRI program but that did not involve South African partners.

The new datasets are available in the ecoinvent database, through standard license agreements, with a subset of theses provided in the Global LCA Access Data (GLAD). Sectoral reports are available for the South African SRI LCI datasets, which describe the data collection and modeling of the datasets.

3.5.2 LCA capacity building in South Africa

The capacity building activities of the SRI program were delivered through a framework, with a consortium formed by the National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa (NCPC-SA), the University of Cape Town (UCT), the Center for LCA Sustainable Design (CADIS), and Quantis. This consortium was also mandated to develop and organize “capacity building” events, with the purpose to increase the capacity for conducting LCA and promote life cycle thinking across the different sectors of the society in South Africa.

A baseline assessment carried out by UCT (Von Blottnitz and Russo 2018) provided insights into the knowledge gaps and recommended to prioritize capacity building and provide custom-made training for South Africa. A survey was done to determine the level of understanding of life cycle thinking in the country. There were 51 respondents with a major presence from government departments (22%), followed by academia (20%), corporate (13%), consultants (12%), and others (33%). Eighty percent of the respondents were familiar with the LCA framework. Respondents from academia, corporate, consultants, and self-employed (~ 57%) sectors generally possessed a satisfactory knowledge of LCA, and respondents from the government as well as industry associations (~ 26%) were shown have limited knowledge. Agriculture and related topics, followed by water treatment and management, specific products, and biofuels, were the main subjects of their previous studies. The respondents highlighted the need for integration of life cycle thinking into companies’ existing management and resource efficiency systems. Environmental LCA, with carbon and water footprints, as well as life cycle costing, emerged as the preferred topics for the training, with limited requests for EPDs.

Based on this feedback, training contents and practical exercises were developed using Story Telling and Participlan (Thomas 2014; New York University 2019). The training sessions were carried out in Durban and Pretoria (May 2018) with 29 and 53 participants, respectively. The profile of participants was mixed from industry, government, consultants, and academia. Participant’s knowledge ranged from a lack of previous LCA knowledge to intermediate knowledge.

4 Challenges, opportunities, and recommendations

Most research projects identified have been undertaken by several academic institutions and environmental consulting companies with few (available) studies emanating from private corporations and local and national government.

Although LCA and carbon and water footprint studies have potential advantages for decision-making in business and policy, their implementation and impact remain limited. While the exact reasons are potentially different for their use in policy and business, specific challenges related to conducting LCAs in South Africa could include the accuracy and availability of data as well as the confidentiality of key parameters (Sevitz et al. 2003; Hoogevorst 2004; Buckley et al. 2011). Other aspects limiting the use of LCA are the scarcity of local expertise and the perceived high costs. Other limitations simply include the lack of will, policy drivers, or the understanding of how LCA could add value to existing systems. Some of these limitations are interlinked, and solving one could remove other limitations as well. These may also be valid for the carbon and water footprints; however, given that these types of studies are less data-intensive, results could be made available at a lower price. The impact of coal-based energy in South Africa should also be emphasized. There is a potential concern that LCA results could often lean towards a significant impact from coal emissions, overshadowing all other impacts. There is also a shortage of LCA studies in the tertiary sector, with more “product” LCA studies available, suggesting an area for future growth.

The above-mentioned points have been partially overcome thanks to the SRI program, which were not limited to LCIs’ data collection but also aimed at building LCA/LCI expertise through dedicated training and workshops. The creation of regionalized LCIs represented a core purpose of the SRI program, and these datasets now form a reliable pool of data for some South African sectors’ value chains which enhance the assessments of the environmental performance of local activities and products. This is an opportunity as they build a foundation that allows for the development of a South African national life cycle database as a repository of credible datasets useful in evidence-based policy- and decision-making advancing sustainable development. While the SRI program datasets are a long way off from being a complete database, the reliability of local South African LCA studies has been strengthened through their development. Even with a small number of datasets, the motivation and knowledge the project provided to the South African LCA community should allow for immediate incremental steps in advancing a database.

To enhance the accessibility and promote local data gathering, a first step is the need to establish a common data platform to consolidate available data in the country. A second step is the development of protocols to ensure and validate the quality of data in such an open-access database. The custodian of the database would need to be carefully considered to ensure that the quality and continuity are maintained. This rigor will encourage a greater number of studies and might lead to wider uptake of LCA in the country, where in the past, costs of commercially available datasets were perceived as high for low returns.

Furthermore, with LCA being part of the draft Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations as a future legal requirements, “to conduct life cycle assessment in relation to product, in accordance with the relevant South African Bureau of Standards on International Organisation for Standardisation standards (ISO 14040 & ISO 14044)” in the Extended Producer Responsibility measure in the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008 (Act no. 59 of 2008), there is a growing pressure from the government to implement LCA at a broader scale in South Africa.

5 Conclusions

A total of 66 studies were located, including 27 LCA studies, 17 water and 12 carbon footprinting studies, as well as 10 EPDs. The number of local LCA-related research has increased in the past 5 years, which indicates a growing interest in life cycle–based thinking in South Africa. Academic institutions and environmental consulting companies have undertaken most studies. Few studies are publicly available from the private sectors. Many of the studies have been conducted for the agriculture and mining sectors, which are traditionally the major industries in South Africa. Future studies could include the packaging, energy, transport (road, rail, and air), and related industries which were not well represented.

The drivers for water footprint studies differed from LCAs as WF drivers were mainly connected to the Water Research Commission, and less to the private sector. This reflects the increased importance of water as a national strategic resource, and more studies are encouraged to address gaps regarding water operations. More water footprints should be encouraged in sectors that have high water demand and have not been investigated before via a water footprint. These include municipalities, forest plantations, and various other water-intensive industry sectors. Geographically, seven of the water footprint studies were applied at a national level and nine at a regional or catchment level, with one at a municipal or local level. Considering that South African municipalities are large consumers, this is a research gap that needs further investigation and analysis.

While fewer carbon footprints are available in academic style literature, more companies are reporting carbon footprint results through carbon disclosure projects. In addition to the need for increasing the quantity of academic carbon footprint studies, the quality of the carbon footprints calculated by companies needs to be consistent. As a long-term goal, standardized carbon footprint methods (e.g., ISO or PAS) should be used as well as peer reviews for studies where results are published. There are also fewer environmental product declaration studies, but these are increasing.

The quality and quantity of environmental assessments improved in the last years through initiatives such as the SRI program, which is a noteworthy input in this regard. However, the outputs, e.g., datasets, of similar initiatives, particularly from international projects, could be placed in commercial paid for LCA databases limiting their availability for local practitioners. Agreement for free-to-use or discounted access, especially for local providers of data, is one way to address this concern around those datasets. Once the core set of LCA datasets has been developed for the major industrial activities (mining, agriculture, energy), with more experience and background data, LCA studies for other local markets and products (transport, services, and other industries) may follow more easily.

Overall, capacity building activities in the country are still needed to further the implementation of life cycle management practices in South Africa. While there are LCA studies and related methods in the country, the development of such in business and industrial spaces is perceived as a gap. Collaboration and communication between academia, business, governmental, and non-profit organizations could lead to a stronger LCA community in general. It was also seen that a greater focus is needed in capacity building, to enable users to extract useful information from existing and future LCA studies.