Our researchLIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
Chaudhary et al. (2014) Environ. Sci. Tech. 48, 14607-14614.
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Transition towards a sustainable world entails adoption of environmental-friendly products and processes. Imagine that for each product that we buy, the information about environmental impact caused by it is available which can be used by consumers to choose green products over others. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a quantitative tool to calculate the 'cradle to grave' impact of products/processes and compare it with traditional counterparts. Our lab utilizes LCA tool to evaluate the damage done by a product/process on different domains of the environment (such as air, water, land, biodiversity, human health) at each of its life cycle's stage (e.g. raw material extraction, transport, manufacturing, use, maintenance, disposal). This comprehensive analysis helps in identification of hotspots within the product's life cycle that can then be dealt with by the manufacturer in detail to improve the product/process's environmental profile and market it as a green alternative to the consumers. Moreover, governments can utilize such information to incentivize greener alternatives or tax damaging products. The Sustainable Data Analytics lab also seeks to compile inventory data and develop spatially-explicit environmental models and characterization factors that can be incorporated in LCA tool and improve the accuracy of the results.
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Selected published scientific articles on LCA research:
- Chaudhary, A., Akhtar, A. (2024). A novel approach for environmental assessment of road construction projects in India. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 106, 107477.
- Chaudhary, A., Akhtar, A. (2022). A template for evaluating cradle to site environmental life cycle impacts of buildings in India. ACS Environmental Au, 3, 94-104.
- Verones, F., Hellweg, S., Anton, A., Azevedo, L.B., Chaudhary, A. et al. (2020). LC-IMPACT: a regionalized life cycle damage assessment method. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 24, 1201-1219.
- Chaudhary, A. et al. (2018). Nutritional Combined Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Analysis for Incorporating Canadian Yellow Pea into Cereal-Based Food Products. Nutrients, 10(4), 490.
- Chaudhary, A., & Hellweg, S. (2014). Including Indoor Offgassed Emissions in the Life Cycle Inventories of Wood Products. Environmental Science & Technology, 48(24), 14607-14614.
SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS
Chaudhary & Krishna (2019) Environ. Sci. Technol. 53, 7694-7703.
Chaudhary et al. (2018) Nature Communications 9, 848
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Food systems are at the heart of at least 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Agriculture and allied sectors are by far the biggest employer in the world and represent an important part of national economies. Food production for direct human consumption or animal feed threatens environmental planetary boundaries as it is also one of the major contributor to climate change, biodiversity loss, eutrophication, land degradation, water scarcity and other environmental pollution. Finally, food production and consumption patterns must change globally to address widespread malnutrition and obesity related diseases. The Sustainability Data Analytics lab seeks to design food systems that achieve multiple objectives simultaneously using optimization algorithms. This includes designing affordable diets rich in nutrition, low in environmental impact and still culturally acceptable. Or designing environmentally-friendly agriculture production systems at sub-national level meeting nutrition demand of the region without compromising farmer's income. Such analyses can identify win-win scenarios for multiple indicators of sustainability and thus avoids unintended outcomes of Green Revolution. The results generated are relevant to national missions on food security, rural development, climate resilience and environment.
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Selected published scientific articles on sustainable food systems research:
- Chaudhary, A. (2023). Impacts of Sustainable food systems: the way forward in the Indian context. Indian Pediatrics.
- Perez-Escamila, R., Corvalan, C., [....], Chaudhary, A. (2022). Healthy and sustainable diets. Med, 3, 723-726.
- Chen, C., Chaudhary, A., Mathys, A. (2022). Dietary change and global sustainable development goals. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6, 771041.
- Kastner, T., Chaudhary, A., Gingrich, S., et al. (2021). Global agricultural trade and land system sustainability: implications for ecosystem carbon storage, biodiversity and human nutrition. One Earth, 4(10), 1425-1443.
- Chen, C., Chaudhary, A., Mathys, A. (2021). Nutritional adequacy of global food production. Frontiers in Nutrition, 8, 739755.
- Kimani-Murage, E., Gaupp, F., Lal, R., Hansson, H., Tang, T., Chaudhary, A., et al. (2021). An optimal diet for planet and people. One Earth, 4(9), 1189-1192.
- Chaudhary, A., Krishna, V. (2021). Region-specific nutritious, environmentally friendly, and affordable diets in India. One Earth, 4, 531-544.
- Metson, G.S., Chaudhary, A., et al. (2021). Nitrogen and the food system. One Earth, 4(1), 3-7.
- Chaudhary, A., & Tremorin, D. (2020). Nutritional and environmental sustainability of lentil reformulated beef burger. Sustainability, 12, 6712.
- Chen, C., Chaudhary, A., Mathys, A. (2020). Nutritional and environmental losses embedded in global food waste. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 160, 104912.
- Green, A., Nemecek, T., Chaudhary, A., Mathys, A. (2020). Assessing nutritional, health, and environmental sustainability dimensions of agri-food production systems. Global Food Security, 26, 100406.
- Rust, N., Ridding, L., …..Chaudhary, A., et al. (2020). How to transition to reduced-meat diets that benefit people and the planet. Science of the Total Environment, 718, 137208.
- Chaudhary, A., Krishna, V. (2019). Country-specific sustainable diets using optimization algorithm. Environmental Science & Technology, 53, 7694-7703.
- Chen, C., Chaudhary, A., Mathys, A. (2019). Dietary change scenarios and implications for environmental, nutrition, human health and economic dimensions of food sustainability. Nutrients, 11(4), 856.
- Willett, W., Rockstrom, J., Loken, B., Springmann, M., ….Chaudhary, A. et al. (2019). Our food in the Anthropocene: The EAT-Lancet commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet, 393(10170), 447-492.
- Chaudhary, A. et al. (2018). Nutritional Combined Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Analysis for Incorporating Canadian Yellow Pea into Cereal-Based Food Products. Nutrients, 10(4), 490.
- Chaudhary, A., Gustafson, D., & Mathys, A. (2018). Multi-indicator sustainability assessment of global food systems. Nature Communications, 9(1), 848.
BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AND MODELING
Chaudhary & Brooks (2017) World Development 121, 178-187.
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Habitat loss driven by human land use is the major threat to global biodiversity endangering not only species but also ecosystem services, economies and human health. Our lab is involved in development of high spatial resolution methods and models to quantify the risk of species extinction of different taxa (mammals, birds, amphibians, plants, reptiles) due to different human land types (e.g. urban, agriculture, pasture, forestry) in different regions. Such research can identify areas of high biodiversity value that have been encroached by humans, thereby flagging hotspots where special attention to species is needed. Results can then be used by policy makers to reduce the intensity of threats in hotspots region. The output from models can also be combined with production, consumption and trade data to answer questions such as what is the biodiversity footprint of one kg of wheat, or 1 m3 of wood in a particular region or how much threat does the production of Indian rice destined for export to USA poses on local biodiversity.
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Published scientific articles on biodiversity conservation and modeling research:
- Cisneros-Pineda, A., Chaudhary, A., et al. (2023). Challenges in Modelling the Global Impacts of Local Responses in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Environmental Research Letters.
- Estrada, A., Garber, P.A., Gouveia, S., [......], Chaudhary, A. et al. (2022). Global importance of Indigenous Peoples, their lands, and knowledge systems for saving the world's primates from extinction. Science Advances, 8(31), eabn2927.
- Chaudhary, A., Maier, L., Strassburg, B., Menon, V., Brooks, T.M., McGowan, P.J.K. (2022). Sub-national assessment of threats to Indian biodiversity and potential of ecosystem restoration. Environmental Research Letters, 17, 054022.
- Maier, L., …….Chaudhary, A., et al. (2021). A metric for spatially-explicit contributions to science-based species targets. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1-8
- Leclere, D., Obersteiner, M., Barrett, M., Butchart, SHM., Chaudhary, A. et al. (2020). Towards pathways bending the curve terrestrial biodiversity trends within the 21st century. Nature, 585 (7826), 551-556.
- Estrada, A., Garber, P., Chaudhary, A., (2020). Reconciling human population growth and well-being with an imperative for primate conservation. PeerJ, 8, e9816.
- Estrada, A., Garber, P.A., Chaudhary, A. (2019). Expanding global commodities trade and consumption place the world’s primates at risk of extinction. PeerJ, 7, e7068.
- Chaudhary, A. & Mooers, A. (2018). Terrestrial vertebrate biodiversity loss under future global land use change scenarios. Sustainability, 10(8), 2764.
- Chaudhary, A. & Brooks, T.M. (2018). Land use intensity-specific global characterization factors to assess product biodiversity footprints. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(9), 5094–5104
- Steel, M., Pourfaraj, V., Chaudhary, A., Mooers, A.O. (2018). Evolutionary isolation and phylogenetic diversity loss under random extinction events. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 438, 151-155.
- Chaudhary, A., Pourfaraj, V. & A.O. Mooers. (2018). Projecting global land-use-driven evolutionary history loss. Diversity and Distributions, 24, 158-167.
- Chaudhary, A. & Brooks, T.M. (2017). National Consumption and Global Trade Impacts on Biodiversity. World Development, 121, 178-187.
- Chaudhary, A., Carrasco, L.R., Kastner, T. (2017). Linking National Wood Consumption with Global Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Losses. Science of the Total Environment, 586, 985-994.
- Chaudhary, A., Pfister, S., Hellweg, S. (2016). Spatially Explicit Analysis of Biodiversity Loss Due to Global Agriculture, Pasture and Forest Land Use from a Producer and Consumer Perspective. Environmental Science & Technology, 50(7), 3928–3936.
- Chaudhary, A., Burivalova, Z., Koh, L.P., Hellweg, S. (2016). Impact of Forest Management on Species Richness: Global Meta- Analysis and Economic Trade-Offs. Scientific Reports, 6, 23954.
- Chaudhary, A., & Kastner, T. (2016). Land Use Biodiversity Impacts Embodied in International Food Trade. Global Environmental Change, 38, 195-204.
- Chaudhary, A., et al. (2015). Quantifying Land Use Impacts on Biodiversity: Combining Species–Area Models and Vulnerability Indicators. Environmental Science & Technology, 49(16), 9987–9995.
- Verones, F., Huijbregts, M. A., Chaudhary, A., et al. (2015). Harmonizing the Assessment of Biodiversity Effects from Land and Water Use within LCA. Environmental Science & Technology, 49(6), 3584–3592.
SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
Chaudhary & Brooks (2018) Environ. Sci. Technol. 52, 5094-5104.
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In economically developing countries like India, a huge amount of construction is anticipated over next decade. The government has launched Smart City initiative to promote the construction of houses, road, railways, airport and urbanization, in a sustainable manner. However, a detailed understanding of environmental impacts of different construction materials and activities in India is lacking. Most studies have focused on energy use or carbon emissions only without accounting for damage to air, water, resource use, human health, land and biodiversity due to infrastructure development. Our lab seeks to employ life cycle assessment (LCA) tool to quantify impacts of construction sector on different domains of the environment and identify opportunities to reduce this impact.
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Published scientific articles on sustainable infrastructure research:
- Chaudhary, A., Akhtar, A. (2024). A novel approach for environmental assessment of road construction projects in India. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 106, 107477.
- Chaudhary, A., Akhtar, A. (2022). A template for evaluating cradle to site environmental life cycle impacts of buildings in India. ACS Environmental Au, 3(2), 94-104.