Life Cycle Analysis - Environmental LCA's

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Professor Hector R RodriguezSchool of BusinessMount Ida College

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Course Map – Topics Covered in Course• Society

– The Corporation and Its Stakeholders– People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals– Corporate Citizenship– The Social Responsibility of Business– The Shareholder Primacy Norm– CSR, Citizenship and Sustainability

Reporting– Responsible Investing– The Community and the Corporation– Taxation and Corporate Citizenship– Corporate Philanthropy Programs– Employees and the Corporation– Managing a Diverse Workforce

• Environment– A Balanced Look at Climate Change– Non-anthropogenic Causes of Climate

Change– Sulfates, Urban Warming and Permafrost– Conventional Energy– The Kyoto Protocol– Green Building– Green Information Technology– Transportation, Electric Vehicles and the

Environment– Geo-Engineering– Carbon Capture and Storage– Renewable Energy– Solid, Toxic and Hazardous Waste– Forests, Paper and Carbon Sinks– Life Cycle Analysis– Water Use and Management– Water Pollution

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• The term “life cycle” refers to the major activities in the course of the product’s life-span from its manufacture, use, and maintenance, to its final disposal, including the raw material acquisition required to manufacture the product.

• By including the impacts throughout the product life cycle, LCA provides a comprehensive view of the environmental aspects of the product or process and a more accurate picture of the true environmental trade-offs in product and process selection.

• Usually follows international rules (the ISO 14040 series standards)

Source: Mary Ann Curran, “Life Cycle Assessment: Principles and Practice,” EPA: (2006)

What is Life Cycle Assessment?

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• Identify opportunities environmental impact and waste reduction

• Prepare to capitalize on regulatory changes• Improve product/corporate image• Develop metrics and enable comparison across the

company and among suppliers and partners• Help to secure market and competitive positions• Answer customer’s requests for environmental and social

information• Identify cost savings

Why Conduct an LCA?


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Side Bar - Eco-Labeling, Already in Stores Near You

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LCA Process

Raw Materials All process and distribution steps

required to produce the raw material

Production All process and distribution steps from when the raw material is

bought by the client until the finished product leaves the factory site

Distribution All steps involved with moving the product from

the factory site to the end consumer

Use All steps from end consumer

purchasing goods through to disposal

Disposal For product going to landfill - all

steps from consumer disposing of product to reaching its final state of decomposition

For recycled product - all steps from consumer disposing of product to reaching the recycler

Define methodology

Identify proxies/estimators

Collect data

Measure product related emissions Identify potential opportunities

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• The LCA process is a systematic, phased approach and consists of four components: 1. Goal Definition and Scoping - Define and describe the product, process

or activity. Establish the context in which the assessment is to be made and identify the boundaries and environmental effects to be reviewed for the assessment.

2. Inventory Analysis - Identify and quantify energy, water and materials usage and environmental releases

3. Impact Assessment - Assess the potential human and ecological effects of energy, water, and material usage and the environmental releases identified in the inventory analysis.

4. Interpretation - Evaluate the results of the inventory analysis and impact assessment to select the preferred product, process or service with a clear understanding of the uncertainty and the assumptions used to generate the results.

LCA Framework


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• The system function and functional unit: the economic or social good provided by the goods or services in question.

• Impact categories: which environmental concerns are included and which are excluded

• The system boundary: which processes are included and which ones are excluded

• The audience of the LCA and therefore whether it will be a public and peer reviewed document.

• Technical issues such as engineering conventions and impact assessment models

Scoping


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• What is a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)? – A life cycle inventory is a process of quantifying energy and raw

material requirements, atmospheric emissions, waterborne emissions, solid wastes, and other releases for the entire life cycle of a product, process, or activity.

• Why Conduct an LCI? – Without an LCI, no basis exists to evaluate comparative

environmental impacts or potential improvements.

Life Cycle Inventory


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• The more complete the flow diagram, the greater the accuracy and utility of the results.

Inventory Process


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• What is a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)? – The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phase of an LCA is the

evaluation of potential human health and environmental impacts of the environmental resources and releases identified during the LCI.

– Impact assessment should address ecological and human health effects; it should also address resource depletion.

– A life cycle impact assessment attempts to establish a linkage between the product or process and its potential environmental impacts.

• For example, what are the impacts of 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide or 5,000 tons of methane emissions released into the atmosphere? Which is worse? What are their potential impacts on smog? On global warming?

Life Cycle Impact Assessment


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• Water Resource Depletion

• Mineral Resource Depletion

• Fossil Fuel Depletion• Land Use/Biodiversity• Soil Conservation

• Climate Change• Stratospheric Ozone

Depletion • Eutrophication• Photochemical Smog• Acidification• Human Toxicity • Eco-Toxicity

Typical Impact Categories

What are the specific impacts on each one of these variables?

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Typical Impact Categories

Reducing a Product’s Environmental Footprint. This spider diagram is one way to show how a particular product’s environmental effects or “footprint” are reduced over time through incremental improvements in sustainable design. This diagram shows the

dimensions of the footprint in years 2009, 2025 and 2050.

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Side Bar - Social LCA’s, Emerging Initiative

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• Normalization, Scoring and other methods• Used to clarify data for decision makers• Based on value judgments, not science• Important to choose these methods to support the

decisions you make– E.g. policy: normalized to national per capita figures– E.g. comparisons between products, normalized to average

product– E.g. comparisons between businesses normalized to net sales

After Impact Assessment

16Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/coffee-maker.htm

Coffee Maker Example

• Step 1 – Goal definition and scope– Establish purpose & goal

• Determine how to improve the environmental performance of a coffee maker

– Define decision criteria, function & functional unit• Total energy consumed, equivalent CO2 produced

– Define system boundaries• Five years of use, Europe, production, use & end-of-life stages

– Determine required data quality• Difficulties and limitations

– How do you compare different products that provide similar functions or services?

– How do you compare similar products that provide multiple functions or services?

– Where do you stop drawing the bounds?

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1. Make process tree or flow chart classifying events in a product’s life cycle

2. Determine all mass and energy inputs and outputs3. Establish (correct) material and energy balance(s) for

each stage and event

Step 2 – Inventory Analysis

Single Stage or Unit Operation

Energy

Waste

Primary Product

Product Material Inputs (including reuse & recycle from another stage)

Reuse/ Recycle

Reuse/ Recycle

Useful Co-productFugitive & Untreated Waste

Process Materials, Reagents, Solvents & Catalysts (including reuse & recycle from another stage)

Source: EPA Life-Cycle Design Guidance Manual, EPA Report no. EPA/600/R-92/226, p. 104.

18Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

Simplified Process for Coffee Maker

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• Finding data is hard and usually very time-consuming– Published data on material loads exists, but is often inconsistent

and/or not directly applicable• Obtained data is usually discrete, static and linear (makes

many simplifying assumptions)– Mistakes are easily made in quantification– Mass and energy balances may not be correct– Results can be generalized improperly

Difficulties and Limitations of Step 2

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1. Define impact categories2. Determine which loads affect different impact categories3. Assign indicators to impact categories4. Weigh importance of each category

Environmental ImpactEnvironmental Load

greenhouse effect

ozone layer depletion

eutrophication

depletion of abiotic resources

(summer) smog

acidification

Copper

CO2

CFC

SO2

NOx

Phosphorous

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Heavy metals

PCB

Pesticides

Styreneeco-toxicity

depletion of biotic resources

human toxicity

odor

Step 3 – Impact Analysis

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Step 3 – Coffee Maker

Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

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• Subjective, subjective, subjective– Impact categories chosen– Indicators chosen for impact categories– How metrics / load affect impact indicators– Weightings used for impact categories

• Where are the impacts occurring?– U.S., Europe, Brazil?

• Is there damage already in the area being impacted?• How much can that area take before it breaks down? Or

can it handle it without any problems?• How are managers and engineers supposed to know the

effects of every load on the different impacts?

Difficulties and Limitations of Step 3

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1. Identify areas & opportunities for improvement2. Evaluate progress versus original goal definition3. Target lifecycle areas/processes/events with large

impacts– Large amounts w/ low hazard– Small amounts w/ high hazard

4. Ask yourself: – What are the resources required and risks involved?

Step 4 – Improvement Analysis

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How to improve coffee maker? Where should we focus?

Step 4 – Coffee Maker

Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

It is fairly representative of appliances - main impact is use phase

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Life Cycle of CD or DVD

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Carbon Footprint of an Automobile

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• Focus should be on the product’s lifecycle, not the product itself

• Presented the main steps of LCA (ISO 14040-14043) • Presented the limitations & difficulties of each step of

LCA• While LCA has variations limitations, its underlying

philosophy is right on• Emerging new regulations may require LCA’s (and

labeling) for all consumer products

Summary

Life Cycle Analysis - Environmental LCA's

Business

Transcript of Life Cycle Analysis - Environmental LCA's