Life Cycle Thinking in Sustainable Design

1. Life Cycle Thinking in Sustainable Design Joep Meijer President of theRightenvironment Chemical Engineer 10 year LCA Expert in EU 2 years in Austin IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

2. Life Cycle Thinking = • No trade-offs in life cycles • It is not only design and construct, it is operations too • Where does it come from and where does it end up • No trade-offs in different aspects of Sustainability • One-issue thinking forgets other issues IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

3. Organic salad outside of CA A bag of organic spring leaf lettuce, brings 57 calories of food to your table How many calories of energy did they invest in cutting, washing, cooling and transportation to get you this fabulous bowl of lettuce? IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

4. Organic salad outside of CA A bag of organic spring leaf lettuce, brings 57 calories of food to your table How many calories of energy did they invest in cutting, washing, cooling and transportation to get you this fabulous bowl of lettuce? About 70 times that much: 4500 calories IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

5. Life Cycle Thinking = Making informed decisions By everybody involved IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

6. A common language If you need to have everybody involved, then How can we make everybody communicate? What language do we need to develop? IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

7. My language: Life cycle assessment (LCA) LCA is a powerful tool for assessing the environmental performance of products, services or scenarios It is based on material and energy flows for processes and materials that together form a life cycle Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation Resource A Production Assembly Resource B Recycling Use Maintenance IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

8. Goal and Scope What question do we want to answer? What is the basis for comparison? Who is the target audience? Which life cycle phases are of interest? Which impact categories are of interest? Who are the stakeholders? Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

9. Inventory What data do we need to satisfy the goal and scope? Who do we need to contact for information? With what level of information are we satisfied? Incoming and outgoing material and energy flows for every process and material Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

10. Impact Assessment How do we translate 1 kWh of electricity to an environmental profile consisting of different environmental impact categories? By using equivalency factors for different substances and adding them up to a total: From carbon dioxide and methane to global warming 1 kg carbon dioxide = 1 kg GWP-equivalents1 kg methane = 24 kg GWP-equivalents------------------------------------------------------------------ Total = 25 kg GWP-equivalents Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

11. Impact categories A range of impact categories can be distinguished • global warming • depletion of non-renewables • depletion of the ozone layer • acidification • eutrophication • summersmog • aquatic ecotoxicity • terrrestrial ecotoxicity • human toxicity • energy • non-hazardous waste • hazardous waste • … Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

12. Impact Assessment The result is an Environmental profile Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

13. Interpretation Major contributions give options for improvements Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

14. Interpretation Major contributions in terms of substances per impact category Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

15. Interpretation Normalization tells us which impact categories are relatively important compared to all emissions in a certain year for a certain area. Introduction Goal and Scope Inventory Impact Assessment Interpretation IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

16. Uses LCA can be used for any assessment of environmental performance: • Carbon footprint calculators • Environmental product declarations • Design for the Environment • Policy and transition scenario studies • Prioritizing green purchasing and investments • Benchmark technologies and products • And more… IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

17. Your computer • 2/3 of US computers are left on every night and weekend • Over 350 hazardous materials/chemicals went into the manufacturing • Over 1000 hazardous materials/chemicals went into the manufacturing • Self aware computers already control 75% of the U.S. government IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

18. Your computer • 2/3 of US computers are left on every night and weekend • Over 350 hazardous materials/chemicals went into the manufacturing • Over 1000 hazardous materials/chemicals went into the manufacturing • Self aware computers already control 75% of the U.S. government IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

19. Sustainable Design = First take care of Producing natural capital Enhancing social sustainability Economy will follow It will be a different economy Get ready for change IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

20. LCA for Design = ask yourself How to include life cycle considerations into your daily practice? • What environmental topics? • What life cycle phases? • At which stage of the design process? CO2 the New Carb IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

21. What do I want to work on • Better and more information for decision makers • Based on life cycle thinking • Involving responsible parties • Accepted framework • Verified/certified • Great tools IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

22. Feeling hungry? • A cow metabolized 15 lb of corn into muscle for a 1/4 lb burger • The growing of feed for beef cattle accounts for 10% of the world's pesticide use • A cheeseburger can take 700 gallons of water to make • I'm not sure that a cheeseburger even contains beef from a cow IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

23. Feeling hungry? • A cow metabolized 15 lb of corn into muscle for a 1/4 lb burger • The growing of feed for beef cattle accounts for 10% of the world's pesticide use • A cheeseburger can take 700 gallons of water to make • I'm not sure that a cheeseburger even contains beef from a cow IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA

24. Life Cycle Thinking in Sustainable Design Joep Meijer President of theRightenvironment www.theRightenvironment.net IDSA – Digging Deeper, July 22 2008, San Francisco, CA