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Life Cycle Assessment: A simple overview of a complex process

Life Cycle Assessment: A simple overview of a complex process. Greg Thoma University of Arkansas, USA. Life Cycle Assessment quantifies processes.

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Life Cycle Assessment: A simple overview of a complex process

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  1. Life Cycle Assessment:A simple overview of a complex process Greg Thoma University of Arkansas, USA Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  2. Life Cycle Assessment quantifies processes Evaluate environmental impacts of a product or process throughout the entire life cycle, which for agricultural products begins with production of fertilizers, and then crop cultivation, and animal husbandry, through processing, use and disposal of wastes associated with its final end-use. Goal and Scope of LCA must be formulated at the outset of the project, and the functional unit must be defined. Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  3. LCA Defined 14040: Principles and Framework 14044: Requirements and Guidelines Life Cycle Assessment Framework Direct Applications: • Product Development & Improvement • Strategic planning • Public policy making • Marketing • Other Goal & Scope Definition Interpretation Inventory Analysis Impact Assessment Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  4. Why LCA? What is the value? • Identify supply chain inefficiencies / environmental hotspots • Reduce impact and improve profitability • Benchmark progress towards reduction goals • Decision support (~managerial accounting) • Avoid perverse decisions • Identifying and understanding trade-offs (digester: GHG vs. land use) • Prevent or identify ‘burden shifting’ • Sustainability claims (~financial accounting) • No ‘green washing’ Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  5. Stages of an LCA Functional Unit Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  6. Heart of LCA: The Functional Unit 2 (or N) coats of paint? Protection of a surface for N years 10 (or N) diaper changes? Life till ‘potty trained’ • Agricultural System Challenge: • How to quantify the function of food / livestock (draught)? • How interchangeable are different foods? • Vieux et al. Ecol. Econ 75 (2012) • Nutritional density vs. mass (most common FU: kg milk) • Good (consensus) solutions do not yet exist • Examples: • Paints • Diapers Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  7. Stages of an LCA Unit processes Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  8. Unit Processes: the “Thing” you collect data for Outputs to nature Inputs from other processes Outputs to other processes Inputs from nature Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  9. Linked Unit Processes – life cycle inventory model Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  10. Stages of an LCA LCI data collection toLCI Modeling Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  11. Cheese Plant Data Collection • Material and Energy Flows • Milk: whole, skim, NFDM, cream • Energy: electricity, NG, propane, fuel oil, … • Water: purchased, well-water, waste-water • Transportation (milk in, products out) • Chemicals • Ingredients • Packaging materials • Landfill waste

  12. SimaPro Network Diagram (cradle-to-grave LCI model) The fractional contribution shown is for the cumulative energy demand, and is an approximate representation of the relative, cumulative contributions. The principal purpose of this figure is to show the major (greater than 2%) unit processes in the system. Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  13. Stages of an LCA Life cycle impact assessment Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  14. Impact Assessment results Life cycle impact assessment Inventory results (LCI)‏ LCIA Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  15. Life Cycle Impact Assessment Midpoint Categories Endpoint Categories ( e.g. kg C2H3Cl- eq) (e.g. DALY’s) Increasing uncertainty of quantitative numerical result butIncreasing utility for decision making Single Score Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  16. GHG Inventory for US Farms

  17. Plant Variability – post-farm room for improvement Comparison of farm gate to grave impacts of cheese manufacturing facilities reporting for this study. The average mozzarella facility is shown in red and average cheddar in blue. All facilities are normalized to the average mozzarella plant defined as 100.

  18. Stages of an LCA Interpretation Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  19. Additional analysis of the LCIA results LCIA

  20. ReCiPeFramework Normalization Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  21. Uncertainty Analysis (Cheddar)(dry solids basis) Results of 1,000 Monte-Carlo runs (95% confidence interval)per MT of dry cheddar cheese solids

  22. Methodological / Modeling Considerations in LCA Current challenges and opportunities Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  23. Some Current Challenges in Ag LCADecision support with imperfect knowledge • Geospatially explicit – LCI and LCIA • Dynamic Systems – static models • Effects of e.g., variation of weather/climate • Data Availability – proxy & substitution • Can data for broilers be used for turkeys? • Can raspberry substitute for strawberry? • Is Danish or New Zealand milk a better proxy for…? • LCI in agriculture often modeled • Production budgets, manure emissions, enteric methane, MEXALCA (tool for proxy LCI)

  24. Some Current Challenges in Ag LCADecision support with imperfect knowledge • Variability • Inherent in system under study – high for agricultural systems. • Quantification requires detailed knowledge/data • Uncertainty • Lack of precise knowledge • LCI data (proxy/ substitution effects) • Incomplete system model – including LCIA (e.g., lack of consensus: LULC, ecosystem services, biodiversity)

  25. Methodological / Modeling Considerations Use of models for lci data Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  26. Using Models to predict LCI data

  27. Methodological / Modeling Considerations Geospatially explicit Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  28. Dairy Water Use Watershed with highest direct use for dairy is Central Valley in California Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  29. Dairy Water Use to USGS Total Agricultural Water Use Compared to total agricultural use, dairy direct use is very low

  30. Current Climate WaSSI & Dairy Herd Demographics Few dairies are located in water scarce regions, most impacts are from crops rather than direct use Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  31. Emerging Consensus Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome Need for comparable metrics that span sectors, industries and geographies Metrics should be grounded in scientific methodologies Sustainability Metrics, Indicators and Indices must be transparent LCA data (LCI) should be transparent, validated, widely available, inexpensive The same data and models should be used by producers, retailers, policymakers, NGOs and consumers

  32. Conclusions • LCA is a useful and potentially powerful framework for assessing resource efficiency, but • Some aspects are still evolving and caution is advised in interpretation of results for decision support • Linking LCA to material flow analysis appears promising for a focus on resource efficiency Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  33. Methodological / Modeling Considerations Allocation Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  34. Shonan Guidance Principles (2011) Closing the Efficiency Gap in Natural Resource Use 2-4 April, 2012 FAO Headquarters, Rome

  35. Milk / Beef Allocation Choices • System Expansion • What did culled dairy cow replace in market? • Beef from dairy not quite equivalent to ‘Angus’ • Biological / Causal • What is the causal (biophysical) connection of activities? • Each feed has different conversion efficiency • Determine net feed consumed requirement (from a model) for: • Growth • Milk production • Allocation based on ratio of feed consumption • Economic Value, Mass or Energy content • FAO approach for dairy uses protein content

  36. Effect of Allocation Choice on Carbon Footprint of Beef from Dairy Operations Data from 536 US dairy farms 100% allocation to milk

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