dr zoe robinson, keele university, [email protected] greening business: an online teaching...
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Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Greening Business: An Greening Business: An online teaching resourceonline teaching resource
Session 3Session 3: Life Cycle Analysis
Suggested session outline
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
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Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
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Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Session outline
1. What is Life Cycle Analysis?
2. Why is Life Cycle Analysis used?
3. What are the difficulties associated with Life Cycle Analysis?
4. Case studies
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
What is Life Cycle Analysis?
Life Cycle Analysis involves ‘cradle to grave’ considerations (Photo: Stephen
Whitfield)
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Why consider Life Cycle Analysis??
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Barriers to adopting a LCA approach
There are several barriers to adopting a LCA approach (Photo: Zoe Robinson)
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Life Cycle Analysis considerations
Impa
ct
Res
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trac
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Man
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Use
Dis
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Tra
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An LCA allows the impacts at different stages of a product’s lifecycle to be
determined, helping future ‘greening’ efforts to focus on the areas of greatest impact
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
LCA considerationsLCA considerations
Raw materials and energy
Extraction and processing of raw materials
ManufactureDistribution and retailing
Use, reuse & maintenance
Waste management
Functional outputs; emissions to air, water,
land
Adapted from IEMA (2005)Adapted from IEMA (2005)
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Impacts
A wide range of impacts can be considered in an LCA (Source: Foto43
(flickr.com))
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Using Life Cycle Analysis
TIME
There has been a growth in the number of databases available
for use in LCAs
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Requirements of an LCA
LCAs are carried out at different scales and can be done ‘in house’ (Source:
morticide (flickr.com))
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
The limitations of LCA
Setting boundaries is an important part of designing an achievable LCA
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Reporting on a LCA
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Carrying out an LCA
Carrying out an LCA first involves defining the purpose, audience and
boundaries (Source: The Marque (flickr.com))
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
1) Defining the goal
A life cycle analysis flow chart for milk from farming processes to household
consumption – where are the boundaries of your study?
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
2) Collecting the data (Inventory analysis)
Process stage
Emission type (mg)
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Total
Dust 1100 600 9 1709
CO 220 730 110 1060
CO2 470,000 2,100,000 21,000 2.6 x 106
SOx 3100 7400 230 10730
NOx 4000 7700 180 11880
HCl 26 <1 - 26
Methane 8100 2700 - 10800
Example of an inventory table relating to release to air from the manufacture of 1 kg
of product X
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
3) Assessing the impact
Examples of impact categories and indicators
Example impact categories
Example Indicator
Global climate change Global warming potential (GWP) in CO2 equivalents
Acidification Loading of acidification potential as H+ equivalents
Eutrophication Loading of nutrients and organic substances that may decrease oxygen
Photochemical smog Loading of VOC emissions as photochemical ozone formation potential and NOx
Human toxicity No agreed indicator - may include carcinogens etc.
Resources Depletion rate of each mineral resource
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Production considerations
Transportation of raw material may be just one of many production
considerations in an LCA
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Usage considerations
Scrap metal – the end point of the life cycle of many products. The
durability of a product is an important consideration in life cycle analysis
(Source: ahisgett (Flickr))
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
Disposal considerations
What happens to a product at the end of it’s ‘life’ may have a big effect on a
product’s overall life cycle impact (Photo: nicholas.boullosa (Flickr.com))
Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, [email protected] Business: An online teaching resource. www.esci.keele.ac.uk/greeningbusiness
References and further resourcesReferences and further resources Centre for Sustainable Design: facilitates discussion and research on eco-design
and environmental, economic, ethical and social considerations in product and service development and design www.cfsd.org.uk
Ecocycle: newsletter covering LCA developments including evaluation of LCA software tools www.ec.gc.ac/ecocycle
IEMA (2005) Environmental Management in Organizations. Earthscan. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/112849/ Pacific Institute (2007) Hummer versus Prius. “Dust to dust” report misleads the
media and public with bad science www.pacinst.org/topics/...of.../hummer_versus_prius.html
Rocky Mountain Institute (undated) Checking Dust to Dust assumptions about the Prius and Hummer http://www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/Transportation/T07-01_DustToDust.pdf
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) http://www.setac.org/ SimaPro LCA software http://www.pre.nl/simapro/ Unilever (2009). Life Cycle Assessment (contains links to several LCA reports)
http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/environment/manufacturing/lifecycleassessment/