http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/resources-life-cycle/ Dear Colleagues, With the triple bottom line of sustainability (People - Profit - Planet), environmental sustainability has been largely focused since the 1980 through the study of effects of manmade emissions onto natural systems. Classical Life Cycle Assessment has been of huge importance here by taking into account several environmental impacts due to emissions: global warming, ozone layer depletion, eutrophication, acidification, aquatic toxicity, ... Now in the 2000s, we are in an era where the second pressure of our industrial society onto the natural environment gets more and more tangible: the depletion of natural resources. Indeed, with an ever lasting worldwide population growth resulting in an ever lasting growing resource demand, and the awareness of the finity of a number of natural resources, today natural resources are key in fulfilling the needs of the population now and in the future. Definitely, proper resource management is a central issue and it is a challenge to learn from Life Cycle Assessment. The special issue envisages new scientific findings that clarify and substantiate the discussion on how techniques such as life cycle assessment can contribute to better resource management. Prof. Dr. Jo Dewulf Editorial Advisor Submission All manuscripts should be submitted to sustainability@mdpi.com with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI. Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Article Processing Charges (APC) for publication in this Open Access journal are 300 CHF (Swiss Francs) per accepted Paper. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/8/2621/ An unreferenced statement on page 608 is challenged as being incorrect. FSC and PEFC are competitors and issues on the differences between the programs are often arguable. We do agree that a small portion of the statement could have been more clearly stated, but the intent of the statement was essentially correct. The original article contained 80 references and not every sentence could be referenced. We include 18 additional references below to strengthen and clarify our statement. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/8/2621/ Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 CEST Sustainability 2010-08-18 2 8 Reply 2621 2625 2071-1050 Response to Comments of Ben Gunneberg 2010-08-18 doi: 10.3390/su2082621 Thomas J. Straka Patricia A. Layton http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/8/2617/ Unreferenced statement on page 608: “A fundamental difference between FSC and PEFC is the stakeholders. While FSC was founded mainly by environmental groups, PEFC had strong forest industry and trade groups among its founders. This is one reason FSC is not a member of PEFC. Both the ATFS and SFI are recognized by PEFC as acceptable standards”. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/8/2617/ Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 CEST Sustainability 2010-08-18 2 8 Commentary 2617 2620 2071-1050 Comments on ‘Straka, T.J.; Layton, P.A. Natural Resources Management: Life Cycle Assessment and Forest Certification and Sustainability Issues. Sustainability 2010, 2, 604–623’ 2010-08-18 doi: 10.3390/su2082617 Ben Gunneberg http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/4/919/ As freshwater is a vital yet often scarce resource, the life cycle assessment community has put great efforts in method development to properly address water use. The International Organization for Standardization has recently even launched a project aiming at creating an international standard for ‘water footprinting’. This paper provides an overview of a broad range of methods developed to enable accounting and impact assessment of water use. The critical review revealed that methodological scopes differ regarding types of water use accounted for, inclusion of local water scarcity, as well as differentiation between watercourses and quality aspects. As the application of the most advanced methods requires high resolution inventory data, the trade-off between ‘precision’ and ‘applicability’ needs to be addressed in future studies and in the new international standard. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/4/919/ Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:00:00 CEST Sustainability 2010-04-05 2 4 Review 919 944 2071-1050 Water Footprinting: How to Address Water Use in Life Cycle Assessment? 2010-04-05 doi: 10.3390/su2040919 Berger Finkbeiner http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/2/604/ Forest sustainability and forest certification are important natural resource management and environmental issues. Forest certification addresses the social and environmental issues in the acquisition of raw materials (e.g., lumber to be used in the building process). Life cycle assessment is a common technique used in the evaluation of forest sustainability issues and forest certification programs. Life cycle assessment is a tool to evaluate multiple issue environmental and some social impacts attributed to a product or process (e.g., wood as a building material). Inputs (like raw material extraction) and outputs (like pollution) are measured over the entire life process, with a goal to minimize negative environmental impacts over the life cycle of a product or process. The relationship between forest certification schemes and life cycle assessment is examined and assessed. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/2/604/ Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:00 CET Sustainability 2010-02-21 2 2 Article 604 623 2071-1050 Natural Resources Management: Life Cycle Assessment and Forest Certification and Sustainability Issues 2010-02-21 doi: 10.3390/su2020604 Thomas J. Straka Patricia A. Layton