Résumé
GES 1point5 and most studies that assess the environmental impacts of research primarily focus on climate change, putting aside other environmental issues. This is particularly concerning given that six out of nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed. Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive approach, life cycle assessment (LCA) emerges as the standard methodology to evaluate a broad spectrum of environmental impacts across the life-cycle of products and services. However, few organization-wide multi-impact LCAs have been applied to research units or universities. Here, we developed impact factors (IFs) for assessing the environmental impacts of most of the modules of GES 1point5. For energy, transportation, buildings, and food, IFs were calculated based on two process-based LCA databases: ecoinvent 3.9.1,1 and Agribalyse 3.1.1. For purchases, IFs were based on the multi-regional environmentally extended input-output-based-LCA database Exiobase 3.2 Impacts were assessed using the Impact World + 2.0.1 LCIA method,3 which provides evaluations at both the midpoint (environmental pressures including climate change) and endpoint (potential damages on biodiversity and human health) levels, covering a wide range of impacts including acidification, climate change, (eco)toxicity, eutrophication, particulate matter formation, or land/resource use. These IFs were then applied to the GES 1p5 inventory containing activity data from 291 laboratories for the years 2019-2021.