Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

1. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Sustainable Operations Prof. Gil Souza Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

2. Quizzes • For each pair of products / processes below, which one has the lowest environmental impact? • PET or aluminum packaging for soft drinks? • Remanufacturing or recycling? • Paper or plastic bags? • Ethanol or gasoline for powering automobiles? • Compact dish detergent or regular dish detergent? • LED lights or CFL lights or incandescent lights? Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

3. Answer: You Need Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) • LCA’s goal is to find the full range of environmental (and societal) damages assignable to products (or a process) through its entire life cycle • Raw material extraction and processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal / recycling • Common categories of assessed damages (but not limited to) • Global warming, toxicity (air, water, and land), ozone layer depletion, acid rain, depletion of minerals and fossil fuels • Data intensive process, usually done through software and existing databases Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

4. Structure / Scope of LCA Cradle to Gate Includes 4 stages Cradle to Grave Includes 6 stages Source: P&G website Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

5. LCA Phases (ISO 14040 and 14044) Interpretation (Major contributions, sensitivity analysis: what can be learned from study?) Goal and Scope Definition (Determining boundaries for study) Inventory Analysis (Data on inputs and outputs quantities for all relevant processes) Impact Assessment (Contribution to impact categories, such as energy consumption, through normalization and weighing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

6. Step 1: Determining Goal • Level of specificity in the study • Is the product being analyzed specific to a company or a plant? Two different plants producing the same type of product could have different emission levels, for example • This requires an additional level of data collection that may be impractical • Or, will we focus on industrial averages (e.g., impacts of using recycled aluminum in a design)? • Level of accuracy in data collection / analysis • Should be high if used in driving public policy • If used in internal decision making for a firm, a reasonable estimate is generally enough • How to display the results. Example: comparing two products • Comparison should be made in terms of equivalent use • Example: bar soap vs. liquid soap; the basis should be an equal number of hand washings Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

7. Step 1: Determining ScopeExample

8. Step 2: Inventory Analysis • Collect data on the impact of inputs and outputs generated by each row (life cycle stage) on the assessed category of interest. Categories on previous example: • Materials choice • Energy use • Solid residues • Liquid residues • Gas residues • Many databases exist for common materials and processes used (industry averages) • Mostly done through software 8

9. Materials Choice • Recommendations based on availability on Earth, rate of depletion and toxicity • Recommended: • Al, Br, C, Fe, H, Mn, N, O, S, Si, and Ti • Supplies are ample, potential for recycling is good, and have no significant toxicity issues • Limit or avoid: • Ag, As, Au, Cd, Cl, Cr, Hg, Ni, Pb • Short supply and/or toxicity problems 9

10. Energy Use (GJ / Mg) in Production of Various Metals * Consumer recycled material Source: P. Chapman and F. Roberts, 1983 10

11. Solid Residues • Process residues • A result of manufacturing process • Example: fly ash from coal combustion • Product residues • Intended to be part of the product • Example: plastic molding • Packaging residues • 30% of all municipal solid waste…but • 40% of all U.S. goods are purchased by corporations 11

12. Liquid Residues of Common Industrial Processes and Products * = Modest influence on local, regional or global scale; + = minor influence on local, regional, or global scale; • = major influence on local, regional, or global scale Source: T. Graedel and B. Allenby, “Design for Environment”.

13. Example of LCA 1: Paper vs. Plastic Bag Source: Institute for Lifecycle Energy Analysis Compares one paper bag with two plastic bags (similar carrying capacity) Assumes current recycling rates It depends! Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

14. Example of LCA 2: Impact on Global Warming of Different NEC Products Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Source: www.nec.co.jp

15. Example of LCA 3: Lamps (Energy Consumption) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Source: www.osram-os.com

16. Example of LCA 3: Lamps (Toxicity Potential) • Toxicity here is mainly caused by power consumption due to by-products: arsenic, sodium dichromate, hydrogen fluoride • Measured in 1,4 dichlorobenzene equivalent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

17. Example of LCA 4: Corrosion Protection Systems (After Scaling) Source: Technical University of Berlin Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

18. Example of LCA 5: Materials for Residential Construction Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Source: Kozak and Galston (2001)

19. Application of LCAWhich option is better for the environment: remanufacturing or recycling? Answer: It depends! (But remanufacturing is typically better)

20. Example A. Two Automotive Parts (Low Level of Technological Obsolescence) • In “disposal” a new part has to be produced from virgin raw materials • In recycling, a new part is produced from recycled materials • In remanufacturing, the part is remanufactured and reused Remanufacturing is clearly better! Source: Bert Bras (2009)

21. Example B. Cell Phones: Impact on Global Warming(Primarily Energy Consumption) Most carbon footprint (and also energy use) occurs in purchased pars (manufacturing and raw material extraction.) Remanufacturing is best! Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

22. Example C. Desktop PCs: Impact on Global Warming(Primarily Energy Consumption) Most carbon footprint (and also energy use) occurs in purchased pars (manufacturing and raw material extraction.) Remanufacturing is best! Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

23. Example D. Internet Switching Equipment: Impact on Global Warming (Primarily Energy Consumption) Most carbon footprint (and also energy use) occurs during the use. Recycling is best, if newer equipment is more energy efficient! Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

24. Example E. Refrigerators: Impact on Cumulative Energy Consumption Distribution Manufacturing Use Again, most energy consumption occurs in usage. Best to replace old appliances with energy efficient new appliances. Recycling is best! Source: Quariguasi Frota Neto et al. 2008

25. Limitations of LCA: Examples • Weights given to different impacts • What is more important? Use of water resources or CO2 emissions? • Drawing the boundaries • Cradle to Gate or Cradle to Grave? • Do we consider supporting activities for the system? • Example: a warehouse stores the product. Direct energy consumption for the warehouse should be part of the system, but emissions associated with garbage pickup for the facility probability shouldn’t be. • Social and economic impacts • Environmental impacts are relatively easy to measure, but socio-economic impacts are difficult to quantify • Renewable vs. non-renewable resources • Remanufacturing, recycling, and reuse • Consideration of recycling makes significant impact, even though that depends on recycling rates Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

26. Further Resources • The web has an incredible amount of information on LCA • For starters, please check the document “LCA_guide_EPA.pdf” on Angel, which has a more detailed guide to LCA (by the EPA), and it includes a list of software vendors • See http://www.life-cycle.org/ Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)