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2011 | Buch

Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Management

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Über dieses Buch

This book is a selection of the most relevant contributions to the LCM 2011 conference in Berlin. The material explores scientific and practical solutions to incorporating life cycle approaches into strategic and operational decision making. There are several sections addressing methodological topics such as LCSM approaches, methods and tools, while more application-oriented sections deal with the implementation of these approaches in relevant industrial sectors including agriculture and food, packaging, energy, electronics and ICT, and mobility.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

LCSM approaches

Integrating Sustainability Considerations into Product Development: A Practical Tool for Prioritising Social Sustainability Indicators and Experiences from Real Case Application

In this paper, a tool for prioritising social sustainability parameters in product development is described. The tool's core element is a two-step Delphi exercise carried out in the product development team. The purpose of the tool is to (i) select critical social impact indicators suitable for guiding the product development process, (ii) enhance the product development team’s understanding in the field of social sustainability and (iii) engage the team in the sustainability assessment, with the further aim of ensuring the assessment’s influence on the product development process. Applied in a real product development project, the tool proved successful for selecting indicators and increase understanding of social sustainability within the product development team. Selected indicators' usefulness for the product development process remains an open question to be addressed later on as the project evolves.

Gustav Sandin, Greg Peters, Annica Pilgård, Magdalena Svanström, Mats Westin
A Life Cycle Stakeholder Management Framework for Enhanced Collaboration Between Stakeholders with Competing Interests

Implementation of a life cycle sustainability management (LCSM) strategy can involve significant challenges because of competing or conflicting objectives between stakeholders. These differences may, if not identified and managed, hinder successful adoption of sustainability initiatives. This article proposes a conceptual framework for stakeholder management in a LCSM context. The framework identifies the key sustainability stakeholder groups and suggests strategic ambiguity as a management tool to harness dysfunctional conflict into constructive collaboration. The framework is of practical value as it can be used as a guideline by managers who wish to improve collaboration with stakeholders along the supply chain. The article also fills a gap in the academic literature where there is only limited research on sustainability stakeholder management through strategic ambiguity.

Christina Scandelius, Geraldine Cohen
Stakeholder Consultation: What do Decision Makers in Public Policy and Industry Want to Know Regarding Abiotic Resource Use?

There is no agreement on what the issue of concern is regarding resource use. A stakeholder consultation was carried out in order to clarify this issue. The objective was to identify decision contexts in which stakeholders would use an indicator related to resource use, and what such indicator should express. Industry representatives were interested in the short term economic consequences of depleting resources whereas policy makers were more concerned with the robustness and reliability of the indicator over a longer time horizon. Some of the aspects the indicator should cover include availability, effort increase, substitution, and societal value. The stakeholder consultation resulted in the selection of three indicators for mineral resources and two for fossil using different time horizons; the short term perspective prioritises political constraints, the midterm focuses on the increase in effort while the long term focuses on overall availability.

Marisa Vieira, Per Storm, Mark Goedkoop
Life Cycle Management Capability: An Alternative Approach to Sustainability Assessment

There has been steady progress advancing life cycle assessment methods. However, application of LCA in business decision making has lagged. UNEP and SETAC are collaborating on development of a life cycle management capability maturity model to address this gap, particularly in small-to-medium sized enterprises (SME) with limited life cycle experience. The model provides a structured sequence of improvement actions that can speed organisational learning and deliver near- term business results. The framework also complements existing efforts to develop quantified sustainability performance measures by building the capacity of lower tier suppliers to make effective decisions based on their understanding of the local situation and according to their priorities. This should ensure the quality of the data provided as well as help further the development of sustainability indicators.

Thomas Swarr, James Fava, Allan Astrup Jensen, Sonia Valdivia, Bruce Vigon
The Sustainability Consortium: A Stakeholder Approach to Improve Consumer Product Sustainability

Consumers have become increasingly interested in sustainability, creating opportunities for businesses to position their products using environmental or social responsibility related information. This in turn has resulted in the widespread use of product claims, labels and other communication vehicles to deliver sustainability information to customers. To respond to this market demand, a unique industry, academic, governmental and NGO stakeholder collaborative organisation called The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) was formed in 2009. A primary objective of TSC is the development of a standardised framework for the communication of sustainability-related information throughout the product value chain. TSC’s sustainability measurement and reporting system (SMRS) will enable rigorous product-level LCAs to be done at a fraction of today’s time and cost, and provide a platform for sustainability-related data sharing across the supply chain. The SMRS will support ISO 14025 product claims, and is being developed with the principle of seeking to harmonise the world's leading environmental and social metrics, schemes and protocols that are currently being used by product manufacturers and suppliers.

Kevin Dooley, Joby Carlson, Georg Schöner, Vairavan Subramanian, Cameron Childs
A Social Hotspot Database for Acquiring Greater Visibility in Product Supply Chains: Overview and Application to Orange Juice

Social life cycle assessment (SLCA) is a technique to measure social and socio-economic impacts of product life cycles. The social hotspots database (SHDB) is an overarching, global model that eases the data collection burden in SLCA studies. It enables supply chain visibility by providing the information decision-makers need to prioritise unit processes for which site-specific data collection is desirable. Data for two criteria are provided to inform prioritisation: (1) labour intensity in worker hours per unit process and (2) risk for, or opportunity to affect, relevant social themes. This paper will present an overview of the results from a pilot study for orange juice made in the U.S. conducted with the SHDB and mandated by The Sustainability Consortium.

Catherine Benoît Norris, Deana Aulisio, Gregory A. Norris, Caroline Hallisey-Kepka, Susan Overakker, Gina Vickery Niederman

LCM methods and tools

A Novel Weighting Method in LCIA and its Application in Chinese Policy Context

Under given political environmental targets, if explicit and comprehensible conclusions could be reached via weighting method, LCA would play a much more crucial role for enforcement of environmental policies. A couple of distance-to-target weighting methods were proposed for this purpose, but the meaning of weighting was still questionable. Taking Chinese “Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (ECER)” political targets as an example, a different distance-to-target weighting method was proposed, so-called ECER method. The method was tested by a LCA case study on comparison of three desulfuration technologies in float glass production, in which explicit and exclusive conclusions were delivered, i.e. dry process is better than wet process and semi-dry process. And, the differences between ECER and other “distance-totarget” methods were discussed.

Hongtao Wang, Ping Hou, Hao Zhang, Duan Weng
The Usefulness of an Actor’s Perspective in LCA

This paper is an argumentation for adding an actor’s perspective to lifecycle assessment (LCA). The need for this perspective stems from a criticism about the usefulness of LCA interpretation methods comparing the relative contribution of life-cycle phases of a product. Our argumentation is based on four previously published studies providing practical examples of how value chain actors’ influence may be considered in an LCA and the benefit of doing so. Manufacturing sector examples show how one company's influence can be illustrated in results and how it may relate all relevant emissions to its own processes. The food sector study shows how to assess several value chain actors’ individual improvement potential. The final example, taken from building sector, explore how to consider the fact that actors in one part of the value chain can influence other actors to improve.

Henrikke Baumann, Johanna Berlin, Birgit Brunklaus, Mathias Lindkvist, Birger Löfgren, Anne-Marie Tillman
Review on Land Use Considerations in Life Cycle Assessment: Methodological Perspectives for Marine Ecosystems

Land use within the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology deals with the impacts on the environment of occupation and transformation of a piece of land for human activities. Land quality can be altered in its ability to ensure ecosystem services. The present article reviews the different methods used to assess land use impacts on ecosystem quality during life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Details are provided on the choice of the reference state, areas of protection, indicators and methods which can be used for the assessment. Then the study focuses on the different methodological aspects which need to be investigated to take into account impacts on marine ecosystems marine use in LCA, based on the terrestrial methodological framework previously detailed.

Juliette Langlois, Arnaud Hélias, Jean-Philippe Delgenès, Jean-Philippe Steyer
Visual Accounting

Computers can support life cycle management in different ways. Normally, personal computer software in this field like Gabi, Simapro or Umberto are characterised as stand-alone solutions. They are normally not integrated into the computer-based information systems infrastructure of corporations. It would be better to have a fully integrated module within standard enterprise resource planning systems to provide decision support in the field of life cycle management. The question is why the stand-alone software tools are successful while still no software modules for enterprise resource systems are available. This paper examines the reasons for the success of computer tools today. Therefore, the first two chapters take a critical look at the theoretical background of instruments in the field of life cycle management, mainly life cycle assessment (LCA): the assumption that the instruments are decision support instruments.

Andreas Moeller, Martina Prox
International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook: Review Schemes for Life Cycle Assessment

Quality and consistency of life cycle based decision support are essential in public policy and business context. Those can and should be supported by ‘critical review’ of underlying data and of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies themselves. A review can help avoiding errors, assuring that all options or method requirements have been appropriately taken into account, and increasing acceptance by stakeholders. The principle requirements for reviews are briefly addressed in the ISO 14040 series. While other LCA-based standards define some review requirements in more detail, information on how to conduct the review or what qualifications are required from reviewers is scarce. Building on these standards, more specific requirements and guidance on review are provided in the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) handbook. Distinctions are made depending on the application context. Differentiations are made with respect to the intended audience, the complexity and broadness of the assessment, and the need of stakeholder involvement. In result, two different review types were identified (with/without stakeholder involvement). The handbook also provides minimum requirements for the qualification of reviewers. An upcoming document will provide more detail on scope (“what”) and the method (“how”) of review.

Kirana Chomkhamsri, Marc-Andree Wolf, Rana Pant
Time and Life Cycle Assessment: How to Take Time into Account in the Inventory Step?

Life cycle assessment is usually an assessment tool which only considers steady state processes: the temporal and spatial properties of extractions, usage and emissions are lost during the life cycle inventory step. This approach significantly reduces the environmental relevance of some results. As the development of dynamic impact methods is based on dynamic inventory data, it seems essential to develop a general methodology to achieve a temporal life cycle inventory. This study presents a method to select steps, in the whole network tree, for which dynamics have to be considered while the others are approximated by steady state representation. The selection procedure is based on the main contributors in term of impact. The approach is illustrated by the life cycle assessment of simplified rapeseed oil production as biofuel system.

Pierre Collet, Arnaud Hélias, Laurent Lardon, Jean-Philippe Steyer
A Method of Prospective Technological Assessment of Nanotechnological Techniques

Nanotechnology is frequently described as an enabling technology and a fundamental innovation, i.e. it is expected to lead to numerous innovative developments in the most diverse fields of technology and areas of application in society and the marketplace. Nanotechnologies are regarded as a substantial element for environmental reliefs. As a result the following questions arise: How large are the possible relief effects on the environment by nanotechnological techniques? This contribution describe a new method of prospective technological assessment of nanotechnological processes and gives a current overview of existing studies of published LCAs of the manufacture of nanoparticles and nanocomponents.

Michael Steinfeldt
State of the Art Study - How is Environmental Performance Measured for Buildings/Constructions?

Several studies have used life cycle assessments to measure the impacts of energy consumption in different building stocks in a quantitative way. The use of LCA as the assessing tool has become commonly used in this respect. Today, greenhouse gas emissions from buildings are mostly linked to energy consumption during its operation period. Through increasingly stringent energy requirements and other changes, energy use for the operation is likely to decrease over time. On the basis of a literature reviews, an assessment is carried out with the focus on explaining the methodological platforms the different studies are based on, and thereby explaining why the results vary and / or may not be comparable.

Anne Rønning, Kari-Anne Lyng

Water footprinting

Comparison of Water Footprint for Industrial Products in Japan, China and USA

Recently, water scarcity has received attention. With the development of industries and the growth of population, the amount of water use has increased. In order to evaluate the water use of industrial products, the method of estimating water footprint (WF) has been developed. WF is defined as the amount of water use during the lifecycle of products or services. In this study, we estimated WF of industrial products in Japan, China, and the U.S. using input-output analysis. It was found that WF for BOF crude steel in Japan was estimated as 0.62 m3/t, whereas WF for EAF crude steel in Japan was estimated as 0.85 m3/t. WF of crude steel in China was estimated as 0.99 m3/t. In the U.S. the pig iron, crude steel and ferroalloy cannot be divided into each sector, so we cannot compare the results of the U.S. to those of Japan and China. In WF for a passenger car, the indirect water use dominated their WF in all countries. To compare the results in each sector between countries appropriately, consistency of industrial sector in the data for water use is required.

Sadataka Horie, Ichiro Daigo, Yasunari Matsuno, Yoshihiro Adachi
Assessment of the Water Footprint of Wheat in Mexico

Water footprinting is becoming a popular way of understanding the total water input to consumer products along its life cycle. Nevertheless, when the water footprint is defined only in terms of volume it can conceal important impacts on the environment caused by the use of water. When the water footprint is assessed with a life cycle approach and normalised with the water stress index, it is possible to integrate to a water footprint accounting, both the environmental impacts caused by the use of water and the water scarcity caused by the process that is being evaluated. The proposed methodology was applied to the growth of irrigated wheat in Mexico. Results show not only the volume of water used, but also the impact on ecotoxicity and depletion of the resource that agricultural activity causes in México. Results are also compared with the water footprint of wheat in México assessed with different methodologies.

Carole Farell, Sylvie Turpin, Nydia Suppen
Water Footprints in Four Selected Breweries in Nigeria

The water footprint (water source, use, and cleaner production (CP) efforts) in four major breweries in different hydrological settings in Nigeria were studied. Areas of wastage of raw materials in each brewery were determined using the ABREW software. All the breweries studied were in excess water usage category of their best practice rating by 2.9 -5.08 hl/hl of product. The average cost of operating losses from non-observance of CP practice from energy and material wastage was between $0.81-$2.42 per hl of beverage produced. The annual wastewater runoff averaged about 35-61 million hectolitres. The four breweries are still far from the accepted best practice benchmark level of 6.5 hl/hl, let alone the best technology level of 4 hl/hl. The BOD and COD loadings in the waste stream were below the maximum contaminant level except in one of the multinational breweries with a potential BOD reduction of 0.99kg/hl of product.

Ife K. Adewumi, Oludare J. Oyebode, Kingsley C. Igbokwe, Olutobi G. Aluko
Development and Application of a Water Footprint Metric for Agricultural Products and the Food Industry

The agriculture and food industries, which account for around 70% of global freshwater withdrawals and are an important source of chemical emissions to freshwater, are central to the issue of addressing global water stress. While water use efficiency is a longstanding and familiar concept, especially where water is a growth limiting factor for agricultural production, LCA-based water footprinting, which includes water use impact assessment, has recently emerged as an important parameter in LCM and the debate about sustainable food systems. This paper summarises recent case study evidence, noting that agriculture is not homogeneous and that it is dangerous to make generalisations about the water footprints of broad categories of food products and production regions. Issues of special significance to the water footprint of agriculture and food products, such as unmeasured flows, seasonal variations and rainwater flows, are discussed.

Bradley Ridoutt
LCA Characterisation of Freshwater Use on Human Health and Through Compensation

Impacts from water unavailability are not yet fully quantified in LCA. Water displacement from the original water body (consumption) or quality degradation of released water reduces water availability to human users. This can potentially affect human health through diseases or malnutrition or, if financial resources are available, adaptation can occur, which may generate indirect environmental impacts through the use of backup technologies such as water treatment, desalination, import of water or agricultural goods, etc. This paper proposes an inventory and impact assessment model to evaluate these potential impacts in an LCA context. Results are presented in DALY for impacts on human health and/or as a quantified water inventory to be compensated by users adapting to a situation in which water is scarce or unavailable. A fictional example on board production illustrates the full applicability of the methodology.

Anne-Marie Boulay, Cecile Bulle, Louise Deschênes, Manuele Margni

LCM of processes and organisations

How to Measure and Manage the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Impact of a Global Multinational Company

Unilever has recently launched its Sustainable Living Plan. It includes a target to halve the average per consumer use greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of the business by 2020. To set the GHG impact baseline for this target approximately 1600 representative products across 14 countries were measured, representing about 70 % of Unilever's sales. The results showed that less than 5 % of the product life cycle impacts occur in Unilever's own operations; the main contributors occur either with raw material suppliers or in the consumer phase. Thus, whilst programmes to reduce GHG emissions from manufacturing will continue, the largest reduction opportunity exists across the value chain. This paper will describe the approach taken to measure the GHG baseline and the challenges encountered as well as how the information and insights gained has helped guide Unilever's actions on GHG management across the value chain.

Nicole Unger, Henry King, Siri Calvert
Best Practice Application of LCM by Retailers to Improve Product Supply Chain Sustainability

Retailers are strategically positioned to leverage environmental improvement across product supply chains. This paper condenses retailer best practice into a proposed framework for systematic supply chain improvement based on eight best environmental management practice (BEMP) techniques. Third party product environmental certification is the preferred mechanism of improvement owing to transparency and credibility advantages, followed by use of retailer-defined environmental requirements, and implementation of supplier improvement programmes based on benchmarking and dissemination of better management practices. A BEMP to encourage consumption of front-runner ecological products is defined based on use of front-runner ecolabels. The performance of front-runner retailers is used to derive benchmarks of excellence for each technique, primarily expressed as sales shares of improved products within priority product groups. Life cycle management underpins best practice.

David Styles, Harald Schoenberger, José Luis Galvez-Martos
Life Cycle Management Approach to the Design of Large-Scale Resorts

The Walt Disney Company has been dedicated to understanding and reducing its environmental impacts for years. As a large and complex corporation, quantifying and understanding the most beneficial and cost-effective ways to reduce these impacts can be a challenge. Life cycle costing (LCC) has already played an important role in the evaluation of design decisions at Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI). Recently, WDI has started to incorporate environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) alongside existing LCC efforts to move towards life cycle management (LCM). In order to be a practical tool for large-scale developments, LCM must be scalable and effective at a wide level of detail. Evaluating the large footprint of a major resort is highly complex and involves a wide variety of components and processes, at a scale shared by small to mid-size cities and communities. To deliver a sustainable design for a new Disney resort, our research is focused on determining what level of detail and scope will be sufficient to support design decisions on this scale, without expending more resources than necessary. Furthermore, the development of internal tools and processes will be necessary to integrate environmental impact information into the design process. Providing life cycle information to the broad spectrum of park designers and planners in a useful and understandable format is critical to fully pursuing life cycle management. Integrating these tools into the design process will help establish sustainability as a core consideration in the design of our resorts.

Kristin Lee Brown, Daniel Clayton Greer, Ben Schwegler
Greening Events: Waste Reduction Through the Integration of Life Cycle Management into Event Organisation at ESCi

This paper explains the strategy and procedures followed by the ‘Greening Events' project to spread green practices in the event organisation at ESCi. The academic years 2008-2009, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 have been analysed in order to establish a relationship between the kg of waste type produced by person per day. The outcomes will serve as a basis to identify the areas to focus on and the greening principles that need to be implemented before, during and after each event, following a life cycle perspective.

Marta Anglada Roig, Sonia Bautista Ortiz, Pere Fullana i Palmer
Challenges for LCAs of Complex Systems: The Case of a Large-Scale Precious Metal Refinery Plant

Umicore Precious Metal Refining (UPMR) runs a high-tech industrial metal refinery which recovers 17 different metals from end-of-life consumer products and from by-products of the non-ferrous industry. We present an approach for an attributive gate-to-gate LCA study of this system, which is characterised by multi-input/multi-output processes, changing feed compositions and time lags. We propose five assumptions to reduce the complexity of the highly dynamic system. We compiled inventory data for over thirty sub-processes and allocated it over the metals passing the sub-process by either a mass-based or metal revenue based allocation. The exemplary results for rhodium, platinum, tellurium and copper (impact assessment method: global warming potential) show a high dependence of allocation choice and different patterns of the metals for metal revenue based allocation due to the high volatility of prices.

Anna Stamp, Christina E. M. Meskers, Markus Reimer, Patrick Wäger, Hans-Jörg Althaus, Roland W. Scholz
Life Cycle Inventory of Pine and Eucalyptus Cellulose Production in Chile: Effect of Process Modifications

This work reports the life cycle inventory (LCI) of cellulose production in Chile, following a cradle-to-gate approach. Primary data have been used in this study, and cover 100% of pine and eucalyptus cellulose production capacity in Chile. Results show that pine based cellulose presents greater chemical and environmental loads than eucalyptus. Most fossil energy consumption takes place in raw materials transport, chemical manufacturing and limestone kilns in cellulose plants. Effluent discharges are associated with bleaching operations. New forestry practices and pulping and bleaching processes, introduced during the last decade, has led to significant reductions in water consumption, pollutant discharges, and air emissions. However, despite the sharp reduction in chemicals consumption due to process improvements and new technology, greater associated GHG emissions have been recorded as a result of the significant increase in the share of thermoelectric generation experienced during the last decade in Chile.

Patricia González, Mabel Vega, Claudio Zaror
Life Cycle Assessment of Integrated Solid Waste Management System of Delhi

In this study quantity and composition of solid waste of Delhi is predicted till the year 2024 and feasibility of different options for long term management are evaluated. Then the life cycle assessment (LCA) is carried out to examine the environmental impact caused by the each option. The input for LCA is considered as quantity and composition MSW and energy whereas the output is taken as air emission, water emissions and energy recovery. The result of LCA indicates that recycling has least environmental impact. Moreover landfills produce less environmental impact than the incinerators during initial years and as the years passes the landfills produce more environmental impact than incinerators due to waste accumulation in landfill.

Amitabh Kumar Srivastava, Arvind Kumar Nema
LCM of Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Emerging Neighbourhoods in Colombia

Potential environmental impacts of water harvesting systems for rain to emerging neighbourhoods in Colombia were studied. Two tools were integrated into a simulation model (life cycle analysis and system dynamics). This was performed as an application case study in two urban areas of Colombia (Bogota and Pereira). We modelled a standard neighbourhood with 10 residential 5-storey buildings of 24 apartments. The results show that it is possible to avoid in every neighbourhood 150,729 kg CO2e and 44,857 kg CO2e, respectively.

Tito Morales-Pinzón, Sara Angrill, Joan Rieradevall, Xavier Gabarrell, Carles M. Gasol, Alejandro Josa

LCM in the agriculture and food sectors

Environmental Profiles of Farm Types in Switzerland Based on LCA

The goal of the study was to assess the environmental impacts of a network of Swiss farms consisting of farms of different types, production regions and farming systems in order to analyse the environmental profile per farm type. Agronomic, technical and economic data of 105 Swiss farms have been collected for the year 2008. We identified three types of environmental profiles subject to the analysed functional units: i) a rather favourable environmental profile, e.g. 'combined suckler cows'; ii) a profile with favourable impacts regarding the function of land cultivation, but unfavourable for the productive and financial function, e.g. 'other cattle'; and iii) a profile with favourable impacts for the productive function, but unfavourable for the financial function and the function of land management, e.g. 'combined pigs/poultry'. In conclusion, we found that an environmental optimisation over three functions is challenging as areas of conflicts are present, especially between conserving land management and high productive output

Daniel U. Baumgartner, Johanna Mieleitner, Martina Alig, Gérard Gaillard
The Use of Models to Account for the Variability of Agricultural Data

LCA outputs are often presented as point estimates measuring potential impacts although average impacts values may be misleading to rank different options, especially in the case of agricultural products. In an LCA study comparing different slurry application techniques, NH3 and N2O emissions have been estimated through two approaches, experimental data collected from the literature and mathematical simulations over different soil and climate conditions. Both approaches lead to similar ranges of emissions; however the simulation-based approach allows us to construct a probability distribution of emissions whereas the limited number of experimental studies leads only to the definition of a range of emissions. A better knowledge of the variability of emissions helps the practitioner to sort alternatives and to detect situations where they are not discernable. Moreover the knowledge of the distribution and of its most impacting sources of variability leads to the definition of more informative and significant typologies.

Brigitte Langevin, Laurent Lardon, Claudine Basset-Mens
Modular Extrapolation Approach for Crop LCA MEXALCA: Global Warming Potential of Different Crops and its Relationship to the Yield

MEXALCA (Modular EXtrapolation of Agricultural LCA) extrapolates crop inventory data and impacts from an original country inventory to all producing countries worldwide. This allows estimates of worldwide means weighted by production volumes and of the environmental impact distribution. In this paper, the relationship between the yield and the environmental impacts is analysed in order to test whether the yield alone can be used as an extrapolation criterion. The results show that the global warming potential (GWP) per kg decreases with increasing yields for the means of the 27 studied crops. When comparing the production of a crop in different countries, the relationship between GWP per kg and yield exists only for those crops where the contribution from basic cropping operations and tillage to the GWP is significant. Considering the yield alone therefore generally allows only a poor approximation of the GWP.

Thomas Nemecek, Karin Weiler, Katharina Plassmann, Julian Schnetzer, Gérard Gaillard, Donna Jefferies, Tirma García–Suárez, Henry King, Llorenç Milà i Canals
Regional Assessment of Waste Flow Eco-Synergy in Food Production: Using Compost and Polluted Ground Water in Mediterranean Horticulture Crops

The potential eco-synergetic effects of using two waste flowsfor the substitution of mineral fertilisers is assessed from nutrient and environmental points of view. The two wastes are: composted organic municipal waste (slow release of nutrients) and nitrate polluted water (rapid nitrogen release).Catalonia is selected as a representative Mediterranean area of study. Macro-data at county level was used for the calculations, geographic information system, for the illustrations, and IPCC impact factors, for the environmental quantification. Compost and polluted water are able to supply 35-50% of the nutrient demand of Catalan horticulture production (330,000 tons of horticulture products per year), leading to reduction of 46% of the global warming potential of mineral fertiliser production.Moremineral fertilisersare saved in urban and agriculture intensive areas.

Julia Martínez-Blanco, Pere Muñoz, Joan Rieradevall, Juan I Montero, Assumpció Antón
Assessing Management Influence on Environmental Impacts Under Uncertainty: A Case Study of Paddy Rice Production in Japan

The potential eco-synergetic effects of using two waste flowsfor the substitution of mineral fertilisers is assessed from nutrient and environmental points of view. The two wastes are: composted organic municipal waste (slow release of nutrients) and nitrate polluted water (rapid nitrogen release).Catalonia is selected as a representative Mediterranean area of study. Macro-data at county level was used for the calculations, geographic information system, for the illustrations, and IPCC impact factors, for the environmental quantification. Compost and polluted water are able to supply 35-50% of the nutrient demand of Catalan horticulture production (330,000 tons of horticulture products per year), leading to reduction of 46% of the global warming potential of mineral fertiliser production.Moremineral fertilisersare saved in urban and agriculture intensive areas.

Kiyotada Hayashi
Assessing Environmental Sustainability of Different Apple Supply Chains in Northern Italy

The application of environmental assessment methods in the fruit sector is conventionally divided into a field phase and a retail phase. Although there are important differences in the environmental impacts in field phase, a major part of the impacts is related to the management of the fruit and the distribution chain in the retail phase. In this paper, the environmental impact of fruit production is quantified in the production and retail phase of apple production in Piedmont in Northern Italy. Three main scenarios have been identified: (I) direct selling, (II) distribution to local markets and (III) distribution to national markets. A complete life cycle assessment (LCA) has been performed on the three apple supply chains. Results show the importance of retailing strategies for the environmental sustainability of such food item.

Alessandro K. Cerutti, Daniela Galizia, Sander Bruun, Gabriella M. Mellano, Gabriele L. Beccaro, Giancarlo Bounous
The Effect of CO2 Information Labelling for the Pork Produced with Feed Made from Food Residuals

In this study, we attempts to evaluate customer reaction to the labelling of food residuals recycling and CO2 reduction for pork, using a web marketing survey and an in-store survey. The results are as follows: (1)The willingness to pay (WTP) for the pork produced with feed from food residuals was approximately an additional 19.3 yen / 100g-pork in comparison with to ordinary Japanese pork; (2) The WTP for life cycle-CO2 (LC-CO2) reduction was approximately an additional 0.4 yen / g-CO2. It can be concluded that many consumers have positive feelings towards pork produced with feed made from food residuals and see added value in this process. Moreover, it is suggested that labels with information concerning resource recycling and LC-CO2 reduction would encourage consumers to purchase the pork produced with feed from food residuals.

Hideaki Kurishima, Tatsuo Hishinuma, Yutaka Genchi

LCM in the packaging sector

Role of Packaging in LCA of Food Products

This article presents the results from life cycle assessment case studies of packed food products made in the Futupack2010EKO Project, where environmental impacts of different food packaging options were investigated. Also environmental impact scenarios resulting from the unutilised food supply caused by food wasted in households as a function of different sizes of packaging were included. The studied environmental impacts were climate change, eutrophication and acidification. A consumer survey was carried out to determine and model the amount of food waste from consumers. The results of the LCA case studies showed that the production chain of the wasted food was usually a more significant source of environmental impacts than the packaging production chain. Packaging solutions that minimise the generation of food will lead to the lowest amount of total environmental impacts over the entire product-packaging-chain.

Frans Silvenius, Juha-Matti Katajajuuri, Kaisa Grönman, Risto Soukka, Heta-Kaisa Koivupuro, Yrjö Virtanen
Packaging Legislation and Unintended Consequences: A Case Study on the Necessity of Life Cycle Management

This paper presents a case study of the unintended consequences associated with ignoring life cycle management (LCM) tools in enacting restrictive packaging legislation. In 1988, the city council in Portland, Oregon, USA, enacted an ordinance requiring food vendors to discontinue the use of polystyrene foam foodservice products. In the ensuing years, it became clear that the Portland ban had failed to improve environmental quality because the city council ignored LCM data on the environmental advantages of foam. LCM that considers multitudinous variables can improve decision-making and lead to effective environmental stewardship; unfortunately, policymakers sometimes ignore LCM data, relying instead on outdated, unreliable information or subscribing to conventional wisdom that produces facile, short-sighted conclusions, as the Portland case study illustrates.

James Michael Martinez
Carbon Footprint of Beverage Packaging in the United Kingdom

The food and drinks sector is the major user of packaging in the UK, accounting for 70% of the total. With the consumption of packaging in the UK estimated at over ten million tonnes, the life cycle environmental impacts of packaging could be significant. This work focuses on drinks packaging and estimates the carbon footprint of packaging used for five types of beverage in the UK: fruit juice, water, milk, beer and wine. The types of packaging considered are: carton; glass, PET and HDPE bottles; and aluminium and steel cans. The results show that the carton packaging has the lowest carbon footprint ranging from 90-111kg CO2e/1000 litres of beverage and glass bottle the highest, from 150-761kg CO2e/1,000 litres. A significant variation has been found in the carbon footprint for the same type of packaging material, mainly influenced by the size and weight of the containers and the recycling rates. The manufacture of raw materials and the packaging are the main hot spots for all packaging.

Haruna Gujba, Adisa Azapagic
Enhanced Resource Efficiency with Packaging Steel

Packaging steel is used for the safe and efficient distribution of different products worldwide. In the long line of improvement of steel packaging the total volume of canned products per tonne of packaging steel has increased dramatically in the last 50 years. This result is directly linked to a better use of the resources necessary for making packaging steel. The recycling rate for packaging steel in the EU is now over 70%. Efficient recycling can be seen as a multi-use system from the material point of view. The recycling of the core material enables the industry to avoid a CO2 burden in the production route. These above mentioned characteristics have to be taken into account when studying the life cycle of packaging steel. Resource efficiency has direct effects on other life cycle parameters such as greenhouse gas emissions or energy use. This will be shown in some examples. An outlook for future developments will be given as well.

Evelyne Frauman, Norbert Hatscher
Damage Assessment Model for Freshwater Consumption and a Case Study on PET Bottle Production Applied New Technology for Water Footprint Reduction

The effects of freshwater consumption will differ from country to country depending on the availability of freshwater resource and adaptability to water scarcity. In this study, damage assessment model focused on human health and social asset damage caused by freshwater consumption was developed based on statistical data analysis. Calculated damage factors showed that undernourishment damage due to agricultural water scarcity was a dominant effect in most countries due to the ripple effects of international food trade. Case study of PET bottle production was performed to verify the availability of calculated damage factors and quantitatively assess the effectiveness of freshwater savings by applying new developed filling technology of PET bottle. No small reduction of environmental impact by advanced filling technology will be expected through the savings of freshwater consumption.

Masaharu Motoshita, Norihiro Itsubo, Kiyotaka Tahara, Atsushi Inaba

LCM in the energy sector

Sustainability Assessment of Biomass Utilisation in East Asian Countries

In order to provide decision-making methodology to evaluate sustainability of biomass utilisation in East Asian context, an expert working group has been formed since 2007 and has been conducting researches to assess the sustainability of biomass utilisation with the concept of triple bottom line focusing on environmental, economic and social pillars of sustainability. Based upon the methodology developed in 2008, the WG had conducted four pilot studies in India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines in 2010 to field-test the methodology developed and investigate the sustainability of various feedstocks utilisation for biomass energy. This paper aims at introducing the sustainability assessment methodology the WG developed and addressing experiences and lessons learned through the pilot studies.

Yuki Kudoh, Masayuki Sagisaka, Sau Soon Chen, Jessie C. Elauria, Shabbir H. Gheewala, Udin Hasanudin, Hsien Hui Khoo, Tomoko Konishi, Jane Romero, Yucho Sadamichi, Xunpeng Shi, Vinod K. Sharma
Life Cycle Inventory of Physic Nut Biodiesel: Comparison Between the Manual and Mechanised Agricultural Production Systems Practiced in Brazil

The physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) is an oleaginous species recently introduced into Brazil for energy purposes. The technological framework for the development of the physic nut biodiesel productive chain in Brazil is still being set up. Two production systems are in practice at the agricultural level, the small scale manual system and the medium scale mechanised system. The objective of the present research was to assess the environmental performance of these two production systems by elaborating life-cycle inventories (LCIs) using a cradle-togate approach. The main environmental aspects of these LCIs are the synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, land-use changes and its emissions and the occupation of the land. Making use of the residues from the agroindustrial physic nut chain and the use of biological pest control methods could improve the environmental performance of these systems.

Marília Folegatti Matsuura, Gil Anderi da Silva, Luiz Alexandre Kulay, Bruno Galvêas Laviola
Life Cycle Assessment of Biodiesel Production from Microalgae Oil: Effect of Algae Species and Cultivation System

Different microalgae are widely studied as alternative sources for biodiesel production. They show higher oil productivity values (per area) than oilseed crops and are not used for food industry. For the evaluation of the energy and environmental feasibility of biodiesel coming from microalgae, life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology provides a very useful tool. In this work, we have used it to evaluate the biodiesel production from the microalga

Nannochloropsis gaditana

cultivated in three different systems: tubular and flat-plate photobioreactors and raceway ponds. Results indicate that tubular reactor has a very high energy demand leading to the lowest net energy ratio (NER). Despite the better NER results of the cultivation step when using flat-plat configuration and race-way ponds, harvesting and lipid extraction necessary for biodiesel production lead to an important reduction of NER increasing also CO2 emissions

Javier Dufour, Jovita Moreno, Rosalía Rodríguez
Modelling the Inventory of Hydropower Plants

Life cycle inventories are data intensive by definition and missing data continues to hinder more complete and accurate assessments. This article proposes a statistical approach to address data gaps in life cycle inventories applied to large scale hydroelectric power. The procedure relies on relationships between the technical characteristics of hydropower plants and the material and energy flows necessary throughout the life cycle of such systems. With highly flexible estimators known as kriging, predicting the value of material and energy flows suddenly becomes more accurate. From relatively small sample sizes, kriging allows better estimation without averaging out any of the original data. Similarly, parameter estimation and model validation can be performed through cross validation which assumes very little on the data itself. Mean absolute errors for various forms of kriging and regression show that the former performs better than the latter, more so in cases of incomplete data.

Vincent Moreau, Gontran Bage, Denis Marcotte, Réjean Samson
Life Cycle Carbon Dioxide Emission and Stock of Domestic Wood Resources using Material Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment

Lifecycle greenhouse gas emission and carbon stock of domestic wood resources and products were evaluated using material flow analysis and life cycle assessment. Carbon storage and material substitution effect was analysed for a single residential wooden house substituting typical concrete house. The embodied greenhouse gas emission of wooden type was lower than that of concrete type by 54.3t CO2e. Furthermore, the wooden house stored 38.3t CO2 in the wood material used for the house until the end of life of the house. To promote greenhouse gas mitigation potential of forest sector, the application of life cycle assessment and material flow analysis of wood products is required. Wood biomass such as demolition wood or wood pellet can reduce greenhouse gas emission when used for energy source by substituting fossil fuel consumption. Better option and increasing wood use for material and energy substitution can be a strategy to cope with climate change in forest sector.

Junhee Cha, Youn Yeo-Chang, Jong-Hak Lee
Analysis on Correlation Relationship Between Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission and Life Cycle Cost of Electricity Generation System for Energy Resources

In this work, we analysed correlations between life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and life cycle cost of energy resources. Energy resources studied in this paper include coal, natural gas, nuclear power, hydropower, geothermal energy, wind power, solar thermal energy, and solar photovoltaic energy, and all of them are used to generate electricity. We calculated the mean values, ranges of maximum minus minimum values, and ranges of 90% confidence interval of life cycle GHG emissions and life cycle cost of each energy resource. Based on the values, we plotted them in two dimensional graphs to analyse a relationship and characteristics between GHG emissions and cost. Besides, to analyse the technical maturity, the GHG emissions and the range of minimum and maximum values were compared to each other. For the electric generation, energy resources are largely inverse proportional to the GHG emission and the corresponding cost.

Heetae Kim, Tae Kyu Ahn
Development and Application of a LCA Model for Coal Conversion Products (Coal to Y)

TOTAL Gas & Power launched a series of development studies in order to investigate the potential for coal conversion projects (coal to Y) for the production of fuels and primary products for the petrochemical industry. A crucial role is played by the aspects of carbon capture and storage (CCS). Based on these studies, a methodology and a model for life cycle analysis (LCA) were developed in order to understand the environmental impacts associated with Coal to Y conversion routes, especially regarding GHG emissions, water consumption, and energy efficiency. The model was designed around the need for adaptability to a) the geographic location of the coal mine and the coal to Y conversion plant, and b) the final products (e.g. methanol, DME, SNG and FT diesel) and their respective markets. By applying the model to a potential coal to methanol application by utilising original data and in-house expert advice, first results were generated, giving valuable insights especially into the critical elements of the CO2 management system. The developed LCA model is a powerful tool that can assist in analysing clean coal studies.

Christian Nissing, Loïc Coënt, Nathalie Girault

LCM in the electronics and ICT sectors

European LCA Standardisation of ICT: Equipment, Networks, and Services

Evidentially the lack of harmonisation and transparency for life cycle assessment (LCA) is a cause of concern in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. Building mainly on ISO 14040/44, several important stakeholders (network operators together with manufacturers of network equipment, end–user equipment, and parts) have jointly agreed on such core elements as system boundaries, recommended/optional life cycle phases, unit processes, functional units, life time, allocation methods, data quality evaluation, and cut–off rules. To show the added value of the performed work in relation to ISO 14040/44, the new standardisation approach will also be applied to common ICT equipment and networks. LCAs done according to the new approach have consistent result presentations. This is shown for some common ICT equipment, ICT networks and ICT aervices. Consistent result presentations lead to convenient quality comparisons of different ICT LCAs.

Anders S. G. Andrae
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) Assessment of a Dell OptiPlex 780 Desktop – Results and Recommendations

Dell has adopted a strategy that takes into account the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of our products and our suppliers. By assessing the carbon footprint of our products, we are able to identify areas for improvement to reduce overall GHG emissions and also help customers do the same. We determined the carbon footprint of the OptiPlex 780 Mini Tower, a typical business desktop. The total carbon footprint has been studied for three regions (US, Europe, Australia). The differences in the three scenarios have been further assessed. The distribution between manufacturing and use has been studied to determine where the focus on environmental improvement needs to be, manufacturing or use. Further the key components in terms of impact in the manufacturing phase have been assessed.

Markus Stutz
State of the Art in Life Cycle Assessment of Laptops and Remaining Challenges on the Component Level: The Case of Integrated Circuits

The current hype for product carbon footprints of IT, policy initiatives, such as the European ecodesign directive and several research activities recently lead to the publication of numerous LCA results of laptop computers. A comparison of the various studies unveils a broad variance among the results, which cannot be explained solely by technical differences: LCA for IT products still faces severe shortcomings and methodological uncertainties due to the complexity of the products, and assumptions to be made. This paper addresses the component level in the case of integrated circuits (ICs) to reveal the challenges in the data collection. The paper discusses the various approaches under consideration as reference units for IC-datasets, in order to contribute towards creating a harmonised reference unit of IC dataset.

Ran Liu, Siddharth Prakash, Karsten Schischke, Lutz Stobbe
The Concept of Monitoring of LCM Results Based on Refrigerators Case Study

The paper presents the concept of new approach in measurement and evaluation of results in life cycle assessment of products as a result of implementing LCM methodology in companies, based on an exemplary product of a major household equipment producer in Poland. The new approach is established on a complex analysis of economical, environmental and social consequences of an objects’ life cycle. Evaluation is generated by an unification of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Social Life Assessment (SLCA) methodology. Obtained results were registered into a matrix, enabling the identification between undertaken development operations and their results. This created a possibility to determine alterations on economical, environmental and social levels of a products’ indicators. Consecutively, the range of modifications allowed a comparison between the current “state of an art” solution and the one proposed by interested parties.

Przemyslaw Kurczewski, Krzysztof Koper
Life Cycle Management of F-Gas-Free Refrigeration Technology: The Case of F-Gases-Free Frozen Dessert Equipment

This study aims to demonstrate the environmental advantages to adopt an innovative technology based on a natural refrigerant for an ice-cream machine, produced by Carpigiani Group. The environmental analysis has been carried out using the LCA methodology. This study has also been the starting point to introduce in the company the life cycle thinking and to create an ecodesign team integrating the environmental aspects into traditional design process. As required by several European directives the life cycle approach is recommended for all the energy using products in the residential, tertiary, and industrial sectors. The objective is to improve the overall environmental performance of these products, so to achieve the eco-innovation at the product-chain level.

Francesca Cappellaro, Grazia Barberio, Paolo Masoni

LCM in the mobility sector

Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of Electric Vehicle Concepts

Under the impression of current discussions on depleting resources and environmental questions, the transportation sector is aware of its responsibility and pushes the development of alternative power train concepts. Especially electric vehicle concepts are investigated, since they decrease the dependency from oil based fuels and reduce local noise and emissions during the vehicle operation. By using renewable energies (e.g. wind power), e-mobility can contribute to a significant reduction of the climate balance of transportation. However, there is only little known about the life cycle impacts of e-mobility and respective vehicle components. Based on the method of life cycle assessment (LCA), this paper gives a first quantification on the environmental profile and relevant indicators of e-mobility.

Michael Held, Michael Baumann
A Consistency Analysis of LCA Based Communication and Stakeholders Needs to Improve the Dialogue on New Electric Vehicle

The launch of new technologies such as electric vehicles will be a major change on several levels such as new business models and possible changes of consumer’s habits. The results of the life cycle assessment (LCA) are key as they will be used for decision support for governmental policies, for vehicle design, and finally to disclose environmental data to specific stakeholders around the world. It was clear that only a multidisciplinary approach could open a successful way in this work. A new methodology is proposed, by crossing the capability of understanding and action, through the human development index and level of awareness by using the environmental performance index. Based on these indexes it is possible to assess the "eco-maturity" level of many countries. Main stakeholder needs in environmental information are then screened. The various life cycle based communication are analysed on four axes, feasibility, life cycle coverage, ability to help the decision and finally educate the consumer. An example is calculated to show concrete facts and the LCA communication strategy wheel is created to determine the right effort to provide, toward the right target, in the most efficient way.

Stephane Morel, Tatiana Reyes, Adeline Darmon
Design for Environment and Environmental Certificate at Mercedes-Benz Cars

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used as a tool for design for environment (DfE) to improve the environmental performance of the Mercedes Car Group products. For new models a brochure including an environmental certificate and comprehensive data for the product are published. This environmental certificate brochure reports on processes, data and results based on the international standards for life cycle assessment (ISO 14040/44) [1,2], for environmental labels and declarations (ISO 14020-21) and for the integration of environmental aspects into product design and development (ISO TR 14062), which are accepted by all stakeholders [3]. Furthermore, the DfE process is representing the key element of the environmental management system (ISO 14001) of the R&D organisation at Mercedes-Benz Car Group. The compliance with these international standards and the correctness of the information contained in the certificate are reviewed and certified by independent experts. In 2005, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class became the world’s first automobile to receive an environmental certificate. It has now also been granted to the C-Class, the A-/BClass, the GLK, the E-Class, the new CLS and SLK, and the S 400 HYBRID [4].

Klaus Ruhland, Rüdiger Hoffmann, Halil Cetiner, Bruno Stark
Implementing Life Cycle Engineering Efficiently into Automotive Industry Processes

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool which supports life cycle engineering. It can be used as an environmental management instrument within the product development. For successful life cycle engineering the formal incorporation of life cycle thinking into the company policy is a necessary prerequisite. Additional success factors which have to be met are the transformation of LCA results into measurable targets for engineers. Based on given environmental targets, such as a certain target value for greenhouse gas emissions, LCA can be used to calculate a specific technical target such as the weight of a component or the fuel consumption of a vehicle. The transformation of LCA results into measurable targets, show the added value which LCA can give in terms of life cycle engineering.

Stephan Krinke
Environmental Product Declaration of a Commuter Train

The design for environment (DfE) approach of Bombardier applies a complete life cycle perspective using the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA) and using environmental product declarations (EPDs) to provide transparent and reliable information on the environmental performance of Bombardier trains. This paper gives insight into the EPD of an electrical train and how the compiled life cycle information is used for comparison as well as improvement of Bombardier trains. The results of the performed LCA clearly show that the use phase dominates the environmental impact of the analysed commuter train in all of the input-related impacts as well as the selected outputrelated impact categories. In addition raw material extraction shows a significant impact in most impact categories. Through these results key environmental performance drivers are found and used for future design projects.

Kathy Reimann, Sara Paulsson, Yannos Wikström, Saemundur Weaving
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Management
herausgegeben von
Matthias Finkbeiner
Copyright-Jahr
2011
Verlag
Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN
978-94-007-1899-9
Print ISBN
978-94-007-1898-2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1899-9