Stephan Pfister
Biographic Data
| ID | 6547701 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephan Pfister |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephan |
| FAMILY NAME | Pfister |
| SIGNATURE | PFISTER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | ETH Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8984-2041 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
A parametric LCA platform for modelling environmental impacts in plant protein processing: Application to pea, soy, and wheat protein isolates and concentrates
The central dietary role of proteins and the high environmental burden of animal-based food require a transition to more sustainable protein sources. Plant protein extracts are the primary commercial alternatives, yet their environmental impacts remain poorly quantified. We present the first regionalized life cycle assessment of soy, pea, and wheat proteins, based on a harmonized modelling platform to evaluate 19 global value chains supplying the…
Prospective site-specific life cycle assessment of ocean alkalinity enhancement
Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is a promising marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) option, but its net climate benefit and wider environmental implications depend strongly on where, and how it is implemented and on decarbonized energy and material supply chains. We develop a prospective, site-specific, life cycle assessment (pLCA) that couples a field trials’ validated high-resolution ocean biogeochemical model with LCA for five OAE pathways d…
Mapping and quantifying nature’s contributions to people underpinning international food trade: The case of the Brazilian coffee and soy supply-chains
Global food systems are dependent on nature’s contributions to people (NCP), yet the role of such contributions in international trade is largely underrecognised. Using publicly available data on the configuration of natural and cultural landscapes, we developed a spatially-explicit approach to map, quantify and trace a regulating NCP (wild pollination) and a non-material NCP (supporting identities) underpinning Brazilian coffee and soy supply-ch…
Ambitious food system interventions required to mitigate the risk of exceeding Earth’s environmental limits
The role of nature's contributions to people in sustaining international trade of agricultural products
Nature's contributions to people (NCP) are essential for the production and trade of agricultural, forestry and fishery commodities. Often, there is a spatial disconnect between consumers and the natural systems where the commodities are produced. Traded agricultural products are therefore dependent on nature and NCP in their region of origin. The dependencies of agricultural products on NCP are, however, insufficiently recognised by consumers an…
Spatial optimization of industrial symbiosis for heat supply of agricultural greenhouses
Despite the many benefits of greenhouses, it is challenging to meet their heating demand, as greenhouses belong to the most energy‐intensive production systems in the agriculture sector. Industrial symbiosis can bring an effective solution by utilizing waste heat from other industries to meet the greenhouse heat demand. This study proposes an optimization framework by which optimum symbiotic relationships can be identified. For this aim, the spat…
Biodiversity impact assessment for finance
Biodiversity loss, driven by human activities, significantly affects the environment, human societies, and economies. Using the extended multi‐regional input–output (EEMRIO) and life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques, we offer insights into how these methodologies can be used to inform financial decisions related to biodiversity focusing on two key aspects: biodiversity impacts and ecosystem service dependencies. Our method combines spatially exp…
Regionalizing the supply chain in process life cycle inventory with multiregional input–output data: An implementation for ecoinvent with Exiobase
Life cycle inventory (LCI) databases, such as ecoinvent, are crucial for life cycle assessment (LCA), but lack country‐specific resolution in activity details and trade between regional activities in the supply chain. For example, ecoinvent only provides rest‐of‐world and European datasets for photovoltaic panel production, consuming the same global consumption mix of photovoltaic cells. Global or continental activities and trade limit the use of…
Biodiversity impacts of recent land-use change driven by increases in agri-food imports
Land-use change such as the conversion of natural habitat to agricultural land has been a major driver of global biodiversity loss, prompting efforts at biodiversity restoration. However, restoration measures in certain areas can shift the detrimental biodiversity impacts elsewhere through the outsourcing of agri-food supply chains to biodiverse regions. This study examines the link between biodiversity impacts from land-use change and shifts in …
Ambitious food system interventions required to mitigate the risk of exceeding Earth’s environmental limits
Transforming the global food system is essential to avoid exceeding Earth’s environmental limits. A robust evidence base is crucial to assess the scale and combination of interventions required for a sustainable transformation. We developed a risk assessment framework, underpinned by an evidence synthesis of global food system modeling studies, to quantify the potential of individual and combined interventions to mitigate the risk of exceeding gl…
Improved sustainability assessment of the G20’s supply chains of materials, fuels, and food
Transparency in global value chains of materials, fuels, and food is critical for the implementation of sustainability policies. Such policies should be led by the G20, who represent more than 80% of global material, fuel, and food consumption. Multi-regional input–output analysis plays an important role for consumption-based assessment, including supply chains and their environmental impacts. However, previous accounting schemes were unable to f…
A planetary boundary-based method to assess freshwater use at the global and local scales
Many studies have attempted to evaluate the transgression of the water planetary boundary at sub-global levels. Typically, this has been done by assessing water consumption in a country/city or sector against the assigned share of the global limit. Such an approach enables evaluating whether a sub-global unit operates within the safe global limits. However, it ignores spatial water availability and thus may provide an incomplete image of water-re…
How to estimate whether preferential trade agreements contribute to international environmental impact shifting. A new methodology and empirical illustration for Switzerland
Methodology and optimization tool for a personalized low environmental impact and healthful diet specific to country and season
To remain within the limits of the planetary boundaries and address increasing disease rates due to poor eating habits, there needs to be a major shift in dietary patterns. The composition of an optimal diet changes depending on location, season, and personalized dietary needs. We develop a methodology to build a 500+ food item, nutrient, and environmental impact database specific to a given country and month, which includes several life cycle st…
Quantifying uncertainty for Aware characterization factors
Growing environmental footprint of plastics driven by coal combustion
Research on the environmental impacts from the global value chain of plastics has typically focused on the disposal phase, considered most harmful to the environment and human health. However, the production of plastics is also responsible for substantial environmental, health and socioeconomic impacts. We show that the carbon and particulate-matter-related health footprint of plastics has doubled since 1995, due mainly to growth in plastics prod…
Lc‐impact: A regionalized life cycle damage assessment method
Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is a lively field of research, and data and models are continuously improved in terms of impact pathways covered, reliability, and spatial detail. However, many of these advancements are scattered throughout the scientific literature, making it difficult for practitioners to apply the new models. Here, we present the LC-IMPACT method that provides characterization factors at the damage level for 11 impact categ…
The greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and heat emissions of global steam-electric power production: A generating unit level analysis and database
Steam-electric power dominates global electricity production. Mitigating its environmental burdens relies on quantifying them globally, on a high resolution. Here, with an unprecedented combination of detail and coverage, the Rankine cycle was individually modelled for >21 000 geocoded steam-electric generating units globally. Accounting for different cooling systems and fuels enabled the calculation of three major environmental stressors on a ge…
Quantifying the Valuation of Animal Welfare Among Americans
International trade of global scarce water use in agriculture: Modeling on watershed level with monthly resolution
Global emission hotspots of coal power generation
Water scarcity assessments in the past, present, and future
Water scarcity has become a major constraint to socio‐economic development and a threat to livelihood in increasing parts of the world. Since the late 1980s, water scarcity research has attracted much political and public attention. We here review a variety of indicators that have been developed to capture different characteristics of water scarcity. Population, water availability, and water use are the key elements of these indicators. Most of t…
Bringing it all together: Linking measures to secure nations’ food supply
Dealing with uncertainty in water scarcity footprints
Water scarcity adversely affects ecosystems, human well-being and the economy. It can be described by water scarcity indices (WSIs) which we calculated globally for the decades 1981-1990 and 2001-2010. Based on a model ensemble, we calculated the WSI for both decades including uncertainties. While there is a slight tendency of increased water scarcity in 2001-2010, the likelihood of the increase is rather low (53%). Climate change played only a m…
Global thermal pollution of rivers from thermoelectric power plants
Worldwide riverine thermal pollution patterns were investigated by combining mean annual heat rejection rates from power plants with once-through cooling systems with the global hydrological-water temperature model variable infiltration capacity (VIC)-RBM. The model simulates both streamflow and water temperature on 0.5° ×0.5° spatial resolution worldwide and by capturing their effect, identifies multiple thermal pollution hotspots. The Mississip…
A revised approach to water footprinting to make transparent the impacts of consumption and production on global freshwater scarcity
Spatially explicit assessment of water embodied in European trade: A product-level multi-regional input-output analysis
Growing environmental footprint of plastics driven by coal combustion
Research on the environmental impacts from the global value chain of plastics has typically focused on the disposal phase, considered most harmful to the environment and human health. However, the production of plastics is also responsible for substantial environmental, health and socioeconomic impacts. We show that the carbon and particulate-matter-related health footprint of plastics has doubled since 1995, due mainly to growth in plastics prod…
Biodiversity impacts of recent land-use change driven by increases in agri-food imports
Land-use change such as the conversion of natural habitat to agricultural land has been a major driver of global biodiversity loss, prompting efforts at biodiversity restoration. However, restoration measures in certain areas can shift the detrimental biodiversity impacts elsewhere through the outsourcing of agri-food supply chains to biodiverse regions. This study examines the link between biodiversity impacts from land-use change and shifts in …
How to estimate whether preferential trade agreements contribute to international environmental impact shifting. A new methodology and empirical illustration for Switzerland
Global emission hotspots of coal power generation
Accounting for a scarce resource: Virtual water and water footprint in the global water system
Bringing it all together: Linking measures to secure nations’ food supply
Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Freshwater Consumption in LCA
A method for assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption was developed. This method considers damages to three areas of protection: human health, ecosystem quality, and resources. The method can be used within most existing life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods. The relative importance of water consumption was analyzed by integrating the method into the Eco-indicator-99 LCIA method. The relative impact of water consumption…
A revised approach to water footprinting to make transparent the impacts of consumption and production on global freshwater scarcity
Comparison of Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches to Calculating the Water Footprints of Nations
The water footprint has been introduced as a potential sustainability indicator for human-induced water consumption, and has frequently been studied at local, national and international scales during the last decade. While water footprints are sometimes understood as a measure that includes environmental impact assessment, the water footprint as used in this paper refers to volumes of water consumed, without including weighting procedures to allo…
Value Choices in Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Stressors Causing Human Health Damage
Does South‐to‐North Water Transfer Reduce the Environmental Impact of Water Consumption in China
The South‐to‐North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) is planned in China to alleviate the problem of the heterogeneous distribution of water resources. The project is expected to reduce water stress and decrease associated environmental impacts in northern China. This article utilizes life cycle impact assessment modeling, including regionalized water consumption impact assessment and an interregional input‐output model, to examine the potential of …
Assessing the Environmental Impact of Water Consumption by Energy Crops Grown in Spain
The environmental impact of the water consumption of four typical crop rotations grown in Spain, including energy crops, was analyzed and compared against Spanish agricultural and natural reference situations. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used for the assessment of the potential environmental impact of blue water (withdrawal from water bodies) and green water (uptake of soil moisture) consumption. The latter has so far been dis…
Towards an Integrated Family of Footprint Indicators
Accounting for a scarce resource: Virtual water and water footprint in the global water system
Teleconnecting Consumption to Environmental Impacts at Multiple Spatial Scales: Research Frontiers in Environmental Footprinting
Response to Fang and Heijungs
Dealing with uncertainty in water scarcity footprints
Water scarcity adversely affects ecosystems, human well-being and the economy. It can be described by water scarcity indices (WSIs) which we calculated globally for the decades 1981-1990 and 2001-2010. Based on a model ensemble, we calculated the WSI for both decades including uncertainties. While there is a slight tendency of increased water scarcity in 2001-2010, the likelihood of the increase is rather low (53%). Climate change played only a m…
Global thermal pollution of rivers from thermoelectric power plants
Worldwide riverine thermal pollution patterns were investigated by combining mean annual heat rejection rates from power plants with once-through cooling systems with the global hydrological-water temperature model variable infiltration capacity (VIC)-RBM. The model simulates both streamflow and water temperature on 0.5° ×0.5° spatial resolution worldwide and by capturing their effect, identifies multiple thermal pollution hotspots. The Mississip…
Spatially explicit assessment of water embodied in European trade: A product-level multi-regional input-output analysis
Water scarcity assessments in the past, present, and future
Water scarcity has become a major constraint to socio‐economic development and a threat to livelihood in increasing parts of the world. Since the late 1980s, water scarcity research has attracted much political and public attention. We here review a variety of indicators that have been developed to capture different characteristics of water scarcity. Population, water availability, and water use are the key elements of these indicators. Most of t…
Bringing it all together: Linking measures to secure nations’ food supply
International trade of global scarce water use in agriculture: Modeling on watershed level with monthly resolution
Global emission hotspots of coal power generation
Lc‐impact: A regionalized life cycle damage assessment method
Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is a lively field of research, and data and models are continuously improved in terms of impact pathways covered, reliability, and spatial detail. However, many of these advancements are scattered throughout the scientific literature, making it difficult for practitioners to apply the new models. Here, we present the LC-IMPACT method that provides characterization factors at the damage level for 11 impact categ…
The greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and heat emissions of global steam-electric power production: A generating unit level analysis and database
Steam-electric power dominates global electricity production. Mitigating its environmental burdens relies on quantifying them globally, on a high resolution. Here, with an unprecedented combination of detail and coverage, the Rankine cycle was individually modelled for >21 000 geocoded steam-electric generating units globally. Accounting for different cooling systems and fuels enabled the calculation of three major environmental stressors on a ge…
Quantifying the Valuation of Animal Welfare Among Americans
Methodology and optimization tool for a personalized low environmental impact and healthful diet specific to country and season
To remain within the limits of the planetary boundaries and address increasing disease rates due to poor eating habits, there needs to be a major shift in dietary patterns. The composition of an optimal diet changes depending on location, season, and personalized dietary needs. We develop a methodology to build a 500+ food item, nutrient, and environmental impact database specific to a given country and month, which includes several life cycle st…
Quantifying uncertainty for Aware characterization factors
Growing environmental footprint of plastics driven by coal combustion
Research on the environmental impacts from the global value chain of plastics has typically focused on the disposal phase, considered most harmful to the environment and human health. However, the production of plastics is also responsible for substantial environmental, health and socioeconomic impacts. We show that the carbon and particulate-matter-related health footprint of plastics has doubled since 1995, due mainly to growth in plastics prod…
Improved sustainability assessment of the G20’s supply chains of materials, fuels, and food
Transparency in global value chains of materials, fuels, and food is critical for the implementation of sustainability policies. Such policies should be led by the G20, who represent more than 80% of global material, fuel, and food consumption. Multi-regional input–output analysis plays an important role for consumption-based assessment, including supply chains and their environmental impacts. However, previous accounting schemes were unable to f…
A planetary boundary-based method to assess freshwater use at the global and local scales
Many studies have attempted to evaluate the transgression of the water planetary boundary at sub-global levels. Typically, this has been done by assessing water consumption in a country/city or sector against the assigned share of the global limit. Such an approach enables evaluating whether a sub-global unit operates within the safe global limits. However, it ignores spatial water availability and thus may provide an incomplete image of water-re…
Economics (27 works) · Environmental Science (24 works) · Environmental Impact and Sustainability (19 works) · Natural resource economics (19 works) · Business (16 works) · Ecology (16 works) · Geography (16 works) · Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies (14 works) · Environmental resource management (12 works) · Agriculture (11 works)