the business case for life cycle assessment steve allen & marcelle mcmanus
DESCRIPTION
Dr Steve Allen, Sustain Ltd and Dr Marcelle McManus of the University of Bath set out the thinking and research behind conducting Life Cycle Assessment and the business benefits of carrying it out.TRANSCRIPT
Dr Marcelle McManus, Uni. of Bath Dr Stephen Allen, Sustain Ltd
The business case for life cycle assessment Low Carbon Business Breakfast 20 May 2014
Contents
Presenter Details
Both Introductions
Marcelle Introduction to LCA: Historical perspective Key current developments
Steve The business case for LCA Example applications
Q&A Discussion
Networking with coffee and pastries
Close
Introduction to LCA
Dr Marcelle McManus University of Bath
McManus & Taylor, In Press
Goal and scope definition
Inventory analysis
Impact assessment
Interpretation
Four different phases of LCA can be distinguished:
Direct application: • product development
and improvement • Strategic planning
• Public policy making • Marketing
• Other
Source: ISO 14040
Decision making reporting
Historic/current data
LCA
Some current trends
Attributional Life Cycle Assessment
Decision making reporting
Historic/current data
LCA
Some current trends
Decision making reporting
Historic/current data
LCA
Historic/current data
LCA Legislation and
policy
Design Build Use
Incremental Re-design Use Build
Dispose/
Recycle
LCA often done here
(although often re-design stage left out)
LCA would make
most difference
here, although the
data is least
certain
Where/when to do LCA?
Some current trends
Decision making reporting
Historic/current data
aLCA
Data from lab scale
LCA Improvement in
design
Component Product ion Assembley of Product Use of Product Disposal of Product
Energy and
raw material
Requirements
emissions
to air, water
and soil
Energy and
raw material
Requirements
Energy and
raw material
Requirements
Energy and
raw material
Requirements
emissions
to air, water
and soil
emissions
to air, water
and soil
emissions
to air, water
and soil
Consequences
of using in
wider system
Consequential Life Cycle Assessment
Some current trends
Decision making reporting
Historic/current data
aLCA
Historic/current data
aLCA & cLCA Legislation and
policy
LCA and policy shape each other
Taylor & McManus, 2013
Where LCA is heading
– Retrospective
– Used for product and process improvement
– Attributional LCA
– Compliance
– promotion
– Forward facing
– predictive
– Policy and scene setting
– Consequential LCA
– GHG as proxy for resource use
– Indirect effects
– Social implications
Traditional Current/moving towards
• Data quality and quantity is often not sufficient for a comprehensive LCA
• A possible consequence of discrepancies in the data is that two independent studies analysing the same products may generate very different results
• Ostensibly comparable LCA's may therefore be incomparable
• Differing data used in the characterisation stage may mean that LCAs are incomparable.
• Use of alternative methodologies for the impact assessment stage can yield different results
Problems with LCA
The business case for LCA
Dr Stephen Allen Sustain Ltd
The business case for LCA and related methods
• Reveal “hotspots” throughout value chain and avoid burden shifting
effective improvement strategy
• Cost savings
• Innovation, e.g. in product design and supply chain mgt.
• Robust comms & marketing with investors, clients, consumers
• Competitive advantage, improve reputation
• Regulatory compliance
• Scarcity risks to resource supplies and their prices
Example 1: LCA of solar hot water (SHW) system
Organisation SHW panel manufacturer
Motivation • Gain competitive advantage • Answer customer questions • Improve design
Scope • LCA of production and use of panel
Production of SHW system
Source: Allen SR, Hammond GP, Harajli H, McManus MC, Winnett AB, (2010) 'Integrated
appraisal of a solar hot water system’, Energy, 35 (3)
Design advice
• Use recycled aluminium where possible. The use of
50% recycled components would give 10-45%
reduction of impacts
• Use alternative to lead for roof fittings
Carbon payback period of the SHW system
Source: Allen SR, Hammond GP, Harajli H, McManus MC, Winnett AB, (2010) 'Integrated
appraisal of a solar hot water system’, Energy, 35 (3)
Benefits for company
• Published energy and carbon payback with independent source
• Improved environmental performance: removed lead flashing from 90%
of installations
• Won green accreditation award: good for reputation and competitive
advantage
Example 2: LCA of novel washing machine
Organisation Xeros Ltd
Motivations • Robust and credible stats for marketing
Scope • Full LCA of domestic washing machine and conventional counterpart, with ISO-compliant peer review
System boundary
Source: Allen SR and Jones CI, 2014, Life Cycle Assessment of the Xeros domestic
bead cleaning system: Final Report (unpublished)
Headline results for key impact categories
Source: Allen SR and Jones CI, 2014, Life Cycle Assessment of the Xeros domestic
bead cleaning system: Final Report (unpublished)
Carbon footprint over the life cycle
Source: Allen SR and Jones CI, 2014, Life Cycle Assessment of the Xeros domestic
bead cleaning system: Final Report (unpublished)
Headline results for key impact categories
Source: Allen SR and Jones CI, 2014, Life Cycle Assessment of the Xeros domestic
bead cleaning system: Final Report (unpublished)
• Carbon footprint saving:
• over 700 kgCO2eq of GHG emissions
• equivalent to the emissions caused by operating a
32” LED TV for 32000 hours
• further info on next slide
• Water saving:
• 1.2 million litres of water
• equivalent to ten years’ worth of direct water use
by an average UK household.
Benefits for company
• Robust (peer reviewed) assessment of environmental performance
• Credible, headline results for marketing purpose
Example 3: “capital carbon” of water transfer scheme
Organisation Anglian Water
Motivations • Cost saving • Carbon saving
Scope • Cradle to construction (“capital carbon”) of 60km pipeline construction from Covenham reservoir and water treatment works to Boston, Lincolnshire
Context
• In 2009 water industry regulator Ofwat required all water companies to
assess the capital and operational carbon footprint of their proposed
2010-15 investment programme
• Anglian Water has been demonstrating the link between carbon and
cost for eight years; their data showing correlation between reduced
carbon and reduced cost
A direct link between carbon and cost
Cost of energy to emit 1 tonne (t) of carbon from electricity:
Purchase of electricity for 1t of carbon (1,862kWh at 12p/kWh) £223
Cost of Climate Change Levy (1,842kWh at 0.470p/kWh) £10
Cost of CRC carbon credit £16
£249
Cost of energy to emit 1 t of carbon from gas:
Purchase of gas for 1 t of carbon (5,446kWh at 4.5p/kWh) £245
Cost of Climate Change Levy (5,446kWh at 0.164p/kWh) £10
Cost of CRC carbon credit £16
£271
• £13 million cost saving, 12,000 tonne carbon saving, achieved by:
• “Building less and building clever”
• For the Covenham to Boston scheme, detailed network modelling
found that 40% of the 15Ml/d flow could be transferred through existing
assets, reducing pipeline requirement and eliminating an intermediate
pumping station
• Further gains from use of standard products and supply chain
efficiencies through early contractor involvement
Benefits for company
Source: HM Treasury, Infrastructure UK and BIS, 2013, Infrastructure Carbon Review
Q & A
Dr Marcelle McManus University of Bath Dr Stephen Allen Sustain Ltd