LCA Tools Life Cycle Thinking Ecodesign is a strategic design management process that considers the full life-cycle impacts of products and services (e.g. energy, materials, distribution, packaging, use and end-of-life treatment). As a process, ecodesign can help provide practical and creative solutions to complex problems, especially with respect to sustainability. While not all sustainability problems are related to design, ecodesign methodologies and processes can allow for consideration of multiple issues and stakeholder interests. These methodologies are iterative and require a broad range of data and inputs. Designers need to have reliable and appropriate data on the relative environmental impacts of products, processes and materials so they can make informed decisions.

Because every life-cycle stage of a product has potential human and environmental impacts, making informed decisions can be difficult. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method of measuring the relative human and environmental impacts of products across their full life cycle. LCA allows designers to make informed decisions on where the greatest impacts are and what design strategies need to be developed to design out the greatest impacts. There is a wide selection of LCA tool available. These tools range from the relatively inexpensive online tools to the more complex LCA tools used by larger organisations. Some of these LCA tools are highlighted in this document.

Forward by Simon O’Rafferty Ecodesign Centre

01 Life Cycle Analysis

                              

        

 

Sustainable Minds http://www.sustainableminds.com/

Design Greener Products Right From The Start A web-based tool with no download needed. Users can compare results of any two concepts side by side. It also contains an expansive section to help designers understand ecodesign strategies that may reduce the impacts highlighted by the software,

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Greenfly http://www.greenflyonline.org

Design Greener Products An online tool that helps you design environmentally improved products. Results are broken down into charts visualising carbon footprint, energy demand, water use and waste generation. Includes a set of ecodesign guidelines to help prompt users to consider the whole spectrum of goals.

Free

 

LCA Calculator http://www.lcacalculator.com/  

The Tool For Sustainable Design A simplified, easy-to-use LCA online tool to estimate the carbon footprint and energy use of a product. Adequate to gain a basic understanding of LCA with very vague results. Lacks guidelines or strategies to help reduce impacts.

Free

 

GaBi Software http://www.gabi-software.com/

Product Sustainability A much more sophisticated LCA software package with a steeper learning curve than with the previous. GaBi requires users to build a process tree to link materials, processes and energy to parts for an in-depth study of a products life cycle.

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SolidWorks Sustainability http://www.solidworks.com/sustainability/

LCA Directly Within The Design Window Conduct LCA on parts or assemblies directly within the design window. Search for comparable materials and see in real time how they affect the environmental impact. Create detailed reports that explain products’ sustainability.

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02 LCA Tools

                                   

Sustainable Minds™ Design greener products right, from the start Sustainable Minds is an online LCA tool that enables rapid iteration and evaluation of product concepts whilst designing. Once life cycle stages have been entered, the results are broken down into easy to read charts. These provide a quick idea of where the main impacts of the products life-cycle are. The environmental impacts are rolled into a single number to simplify the results and provide clear information to act on. You can then add as many concepts as you like and compare any two side by side. The software then indicates the impact reduction between them. Sustainable Minds also has an expansive section that helps designers to understand ecodesign strategies that may help to reduce the impacts revealed by the software.

  

Greenfly Design greener products Greenfly is another online LCA tool with a user-friendly interface that allows the user to enter design attributes for all life cycle stages. As information is added impact charts are updated in real time on the right-hand side of the screen. Results in these charts visualise impacts compared on global warming, water use, energy demand and solid waste generation. Unfortunately, there is no way of comparing two scenarios side by side to view relative differences. The tool also includes a set of ecodesign guidelines to help prompt users to consider goals relating to: dematerialization, low impact material selection, cleaner production, optimized distribution, design for durability, use phase impact reduction, and design for waste avoidance and resource recovery.