Life-Cycle Assessment

Lesson 1

Overview

This is the first lesson on life cycle assessment in this module. In this
lesson, the framework for conducting life-cycle assessments is
described and examples of the ways in which life-cycle assessments
have been applied are provided. The second lesson provides a more
detailed overview of the inventory process in life-cycle assessment,
and the third lesson discusses potential methods for assessing the
impacts of a product life-cycle.

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 Why do life-cycle assessment?

• minimize the magnitude of pollution

• conserve non-renewable resources

• conserve ecological systems

• develop and utilize cleaner technologies

• maximize recycling of materials and

waste

• apply the most appropriate pollution

prevention and/or abatement techniques
To begin the lessons, we ask the question: "Why do life-cycle
assessment?"

A great deal of waste is generated through human activities --

approximately 40 tons/year per person in the United States. This
represents lost resources as well as results in environmental
degradation.

The most important goal of LCA, according to a survey of organizations

actively involved in LCA, is to minimize the magnitude of pollution (S.
Ryding, "International Experiences of Environmentally Sound Product
Development Based on Life Cycle Assessment," Swedish Waste
Research Council, AFR Report 36, Stockholm, May 1994.) This chart
lists some of the other goals: conserve non-renewable resources,
including energy; ensure that every effort is being made to conserve
ecological systems, especially in areas subject to a critical balance of
supplies; develop alternatives to maximize the recycling and reuse of
materials and waste; and apply the most appropriate pollution prevention
and/or abatement techniques;

2
 How is life-cycle
assessment used?

By manufacturers:

• product development

• product improvement

• product comparison

Life cycle assessment has been applied in many ways in both the
public and private sectors. This is a list of some of the uses
manufacturers have for LCA. Product comparisons have received the
most attention from the press but according to the Swedish survey the
most important uses for manufacturers are 1) to identify processes,
ingredients, and systems that are major contributors to environmental
impacts, 2) to compare different options within a particular process
with the objective of minimizing environmental impacts, and 3) to
provide guidance in long-term strategic planning concerning trends in
product design and materials.

3
 How is life-cycle
assessment used?
By public policymakers:
• environmental labeling

LCA is also used in the public sector. Some of the most visible of the
applications of life-cycle assessments are environmental or eco-labels.
Examples of ecolabels from around the world are shown here. Besides
environmental labeling programs, public sector uses of life-cycle
methodologies include use as a tool for making procurement decisions
and developing regulations. Policymakers report that the most
important uses of LCA are in 1) helping to develop long-term policy
regarding overall material use, resource conservation and reduction of
environmental impacts and risks posed by materials and processes
throughout the product life-cycle, 2) evaluating resource effects
associated with source reduction and alternative waste management
techniques, and 3) providing information to the public about the resource
characteristics of products or materials.

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 What is life-cycle assessment?

energy
materials

products
human
raw

activities

wastes and
emissions

This is a simplified diagram of the inputs and outputs associated with

human activities. Opportunities for reducing waste outputs and energy
and raw material requirements in this system can be analyzed from
several perspectives. For example, studies of wastes and emissions at
a large scale can show the industries and regions where large volumes
of waste or highly toxic wastes are generated. In the field of industrial
ecology, the fate of materials as they move through processes and into
products and wastes are studied. Life-cycle assessment looks at this
system from the perspective of products.

In LCA, the processes required to make, use, and dispose of a product

are analyzed to determine the raw materials, energy requirements,
wastes, and emissions associated with the product's life cycle.

5
 What is a “product life-cycle?”
raw material
acquisition

energy
material
manufacture

transport

materials
recycle
raw product

remanufacture
materials manufacture

product
product
reuse
use
wastes
and
emissions
disposal

This is a simplified diagram that shows the major stages of a product

life cycle. First, there is raw material acquisition. For the case of
paper products, raw material acquisition would include timber
harvesting. For plastic products, it would include crude oil extraction.
After raw material acquisition is the material manufacture stage. This
is where raw materials are processed into basic materials of product
manufacture. Felled trees are processed into lumber and paper, for
example. Crude oil is processed into polymers that can be made into
plastics. These materials move to the product manufacture stage
where they are made into products such as paper and plastic cups.
After this, they are used and disposed of or recycled.

Recycling can occur in several ways. A product might be reused,

which is what happens when a plastic cup is washed and reused
instead of being thrown away. It could be sent to product
remanufacture, where the materials it contains are used to make
another product. A paper cup, for example, might be shredded and
used for animal bedding. Finally, it might be recycled to materials
manufacture, where it is fed as a raw material for a process.

As shown in the diagram, all of these stages, along with the transport
required to move products and materials, can require raw materials
and energy and all of them can produce wastes and emissions.

Life-cycle stages include raw-material acquisition, production, use, and

disposal. LCA is a new and evolving concept, and definitions and
terminology as well as more fundamental practice aspects are still
developing. Students of life-cycle assessment will find that
differences exist among practitioners as they learn more about LCA.

6
 3 Steps in LCA

1) life-cycle inventory

2) life-cycle impact
assessment

3) life-cycle improvement
analysis

There are three main steps in a life-cycle assessment:

1) Determine the emissions that occur and the raw

materials and energy that are used during the life-cycle of a product.
This is called a life-cycle inventory.

2) Assess what the impacts of these emissions

and raw material depletions are. This is called a life-cycle impact
assessment.

3) Interpret the results of the impact assessment

in order to suggest improvements. When LCA is conducted to
compare products this step may consist of recommending the most
environmentally desirable product. This is called an improvement
analysis.

7
 Planning an LCA Project

• determine objectives
Why is LCA being conducted?

• define product under study and

its alternatives
What is its function?
What is an appropriate functional unit?

• choose system boundaries

What inputs and outputs will be studied?
How will data be collected?

Because of the open-ended nature of life-cycle assessments, the

planning phase of an LCA project is important. In the plan, the
reasons for conducting the LCA are stated. Also, the product to be
studied and its alternatives are defined. The functions of the system
under consideration must be defined and a functional unit chosen that
provides a basis for calculating inputs and outputs. The choice of
function unit can be ambiguous and is discussed in more detail later in
this lesson. Also in the planning phase, a choice of system boundaries
is made, defining the scope of the project. A strategy for data
collection is also determined and aggregation and evaluation methods
are chosen.

8
 The Functional Unit

especially critical in LCAs conducted

to compare products

example:

Paper versus. plastic grocery sacks

function is to carry groceries so the

functional unit could be a defined
volume of groceries -- one plastic sack
does not hold the same volume of
groceries as a paper sack

The functional unit determines equivalence between systems.

Choosing a functional unit is not always straightforward and can have
a profound impact on the results of the study. For example, if paper
and plastic grocery sacks are to be compared in an LCA, the functional
unit would be a given volume of groceries. Because fewer groceries,
in general, are placed in plastic sacks than in paper sacks, the sacks
would not be compared on a 1 to 1 basis. Instead, two plastic sacks
might be determined as having the equivalent function of one paper
sack.

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 Functional Unit Ambiguity

Soft Drink Delivery Systems

number of functional units

12-oz.
Functional aluminum 16-oz. glass 2-liter
Unit cans bottles PET bottle
12-oz. of 1 1.25 5.33
soft drink

one 1 1 1
container

As shown here, the functional unit of soft drink delivery systems (12-
oz. aluminum cans, 16-oz. glass bottles, or 2-liter polyethylene
terephthalate bottles), could be either a serving of soft drink consisting
of a given amount (e.g. 12 oz.) or a given container. These two
choices illustrate some of the difficulty in choosing a functional unit.
Neither choice of functional unit is entirely satisfactory. Twelve ounce
cans and 16-oz bottles are generally consumed as a single serving and
comparing them on the basis of container count makes sense. It is
only rarely, however, that a 2-liter bottle of soft drink would be
consumed as a single serving.

Notice from this table how influential the choice of functional unit is. If
"one container" is chosen as the functional unit, values obtained for the
life-cycle inventory of 2-liter bottles will be over five times more per
functional unit than values obtained if a 12-oz serving is chosen as the
functional unit.

This example emphasizes that the results of LCA studies are heavily
dependent on the decisions made during the planning phase.

10
 Uncertainty in Results of Life-
Cycle Inventories

• assumptions made when choosing

system boundaries and data sources

• use of regional or global data

• poor quality data

• unavailable data

Ambiguity in the choice of functional unit is only one possible source of

error in conducting a life-cycle inventory. This is a list of some of the
major sources of uncertainties inherent in the results of life-cycle
inventories. It is important to understand the factors that affect the
accuracy of the data so that the results are not over-interpreted and so
that time and resources are not wasted in "fine-tuning" elements of the
inventory process when the overall results cannot be precisely
obtained.

The inherent uncertainties in life-cycle inventory include the

assumptions and choices for system boundaries and data sources.
For example, if a life-cycle stage is excluded from the analysis
because it is incorrectly assumed to contribute insignificantly to the
overall impacts, the results of the inventory will be in error. Also, local
conditions may not have been adequately addressed in a study that
used regional or global data. Most importantly, available data on the
processes being inventoried may be of poor quality or not available.

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 Product Comparisons

• generally sponsored by a
stakeholder (e.g. plastics manufacturers
sponsor a study comparing paper and
plastic products)

• uncertainties and assumptions

inherent in life-cycle inventories leave
room for stakeholders in “losing”
product to criticize results

Perhaps the most widely publicized applications of LCA are those that
were completed for the purpose of comparing products. Examples of
assessments That received a great deal of press attention are one
conducted to compare cloth and disposable diapering systems, one
comparing plastic and paper cups, and one comparing polystyrene
clamshells and paper wrappings for sandwiches. Comparison
assessments are generally sponsored by an industry that has a vested
interest in the results, and because of the open-ended nature of LCA,
there is always room for criticism of the data. Because the results of
these LCAs have generated a great deal of controversy and debate,
these high-profile examples have created a great deal of skepticism
about the value of LCA and diverted attention away from some of the
other less controversial applications, such as LCAs conducted in order
to improve products.

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 LCA for Product Improvement

Average Gross Energy Required to

Produce 1 kg of Polyethylene
Fuel
Production
and Delivered Feedstock Total
Delivery Energy Energy Energy
Fuel Type (MJ) (MJ) (MJ) (MJ)
Electricity 5.31 2.58 0.00 7.89
Oil Fuels 0.53 2.05 32.76 35.34
Other 0.47 8.54 33.59 42.60
Totals 6.31 13.17 66.35 85.83
Feedstock energy is defined as the caloric value of materials that
are input into the processes required to produce polyethylene.

From “Ecoprofiles of the European Plastics Industry, Reports 1-4,”

PWMI, European Centre for Plastics in the Environment, Brussels,
May 1993.

LCAs conducted for product improvement can reveal processes,

components, ingredients, and systems to target for environmental
improvement. This was identified by product manufacturers as the
most important application of LCA, according to a Swedish survey
mentioned earlier.

The results of an example of an LCA effort conducted for the purpose

of product improvement are shown in this table, which gives the results
of an inventory of the energy required to produce 1 kg of polyethylene.
The table shows that the majority of fuel required to make polyethylene
is in the organic matter that instead of being burned for energy is
converted to polyethylene. The values in the column titled "Feedstock
Energy" are about 3/4 of the total energy requirements. This inventory
showed that the focus of efforts to reduce the life-cycle energy
consumption of polyethylene are best spent on reducing the mass of
polyethylene in products -- to make them as light as possible.

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 LCA for Product Improvement
Polyester blouse life-cycle energy
requirements:
Production: 18%
Use: 82%
Disposal: <1%

Energy requirements of use stage could be

reduced by more than 90% by switching to
cold water wash and line dry instead of warm
water wash and drying in dryer.

(See Franklin Associates, Ltd., “Resource and

Environmental Profile Analysis of a
Manufactured Apparel Product,” Prairie
Village, KS, June 1993 for more details.)

The results of another example of an LCA conducted for product

improvement are shown here. This energy inventory of the life cycle
of a polyester blouse showed that the majority of energy consumption
in the life-cycle (82%) occurred during the product use life-cycle stage,
during washing and drying of the blouse. In this case, low-energy use
methods of washing and drying the blouse (cold water wash and line
dry) have the greatest potential for lowering the energy requirements
of a blouse's life cycle.

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 LCA for Product Improvement

Transportation vs. Manufacturing

Energy Consumption for a Garment
% of Life-Cycle Energy
Requirements for a Garment
Delivery Mode Transport Manufacture
Overnight Air 28% 72%

Truck 5% 95%

Truck + Rail 1% 99%

From Hopkins, Allen, and Brown, Pollution

Prevention Review, 4(4), 1994.

The results of a life-cycle inventory of the energy required to

manufacture a garment and deliver it to the customer are shown in this
table. This study showed that in the case where next-day air shipping
is used, the transportation and distribution life-cycle stages of a
product can be significant contributors to its energy requirements.
When customers were sent their orders by overnight air, transportation
energy requirements were 28% of total life-cycle energy requirements.
This finding is contrary to common knowledge: transportation and
distribution of products generally contribute negligibly to the energy
requirements of a product. Prior to this study, the garment
manufacturer was unaware that the delivery mode could contribute
significantly to the energy required over the life-cycle of their products.

15
 LCA for Product Improvement

A final example of LCA used for product improvement is one where

the assessment was used to reveal which components are responsible
for the majority of raw material usage, wastes, emissions, and energy
consumption in a product manufactured from multiple components. In
a life-cycle assessment of a computer workstation, life-cycle inventory
data were compiled for diverse components such as semiconductors,
semiconductor packaging, printed wiring boards and computer
assemblies, and display monitors. The findings of the study showed
that the majority of energy usage over a workstation life cycle occurs
from operation of the display during the use stage of the life-cycle.
Therefore, to reduce the overall energy usage of a computer
workstation, efforts are best directed at the energy consumed by the
monitor. Semiconductor manufacture was found to dominate
hazardous waste generation and was also found to be a significant
source of raw material usage, even though, by weight, semiconductors
are a very small portion of a workstation.

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 Summary of Lesson 1
• LCAs are a tool for assessing and
minimizing the impact of human activities.
• Life-cycle stages of a product include raw
material acquisition, manufacturing, use,
and disposal.
• LCA techniques have been adopted in
industry and the public sector to serve a
variety of purposes.
• Choices made during the planning phase of
an LCA have a profound impact on the
results obtained. The choice of functional
unit, particularly when LCAs are
conducted to compare products, is
especially influential.

This concludes the first lesson on life-cycle assessment in this module.

You have been introduced to the concepts and goals of LCA.
Remember that a complete life-cycle assessment consists of three
steps: 1) a life-cycle inventory of the wastes and emissions, raw
materials, and energy requirements of a product over its life cycle, 2) an
assessment of the impacts caused the wastes and emissions, raw
materials and energy requirements of the product over its life cycle, and
3) an improvement analysis where recommendations for reducing the
impacts are formulated. At this point, you should understand what
factors to consider in choosing a functional unit and also understand how
crucial the system boundaries of a life-cycle assessment are to the
results. You should also be aware of some of the ways in which this
powerful tool has been put into use by industry and by public
policymakers.

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