Life Cycle Assessment

Dr Sue Haile March 2008

What is LCA ?

 LCA attempts to predict the overall environmental issues associated with a

product, function or service.
 Look from the cradle to grave of a product or system and checks on the
environmental issues of each stage so that you can find ways of improvement.
 It also allows you to compare the environmental performance of two products

Why is it it used and by whom?

1. To define and compare the overall burden the finished product or service will
have on the environment. Such studies are very complex and lengthy.
(academics)
2. To guide development of specific projects. To enable you to say- what if? do
changes produce real environmental improvements. (industry)
3. To look for hot spots in product life cycle , (industry)
4. In product defence (industry)
5. As a marketing tool (industry)
6. To set criteria for eco-labels (committee)
7. To allow informed consumer choice (NGOS and public )
8. To distinguish between two alternative scenarios, (policy makers)

Background
Started in late 60’s early ‘70s. Initially focused on issues such as energy efficiency, the
consumption of raw materials and, to some extent, waste disposal from the late sixties
and early seventies, and focused. In 1969, for example, the Coca Cola Company
funded a study to compare resource consumption and environmental releases
associated with beverage containers. Early on used particulalr for packaging decisions.
Use took off in ‘80s and now a widely used tool although can be both expensive and
time consuming.

LCA attempts to predict the overall environmental impact associated with a product,
function or service. The methodology is still racked with conflict and uncertainty as
there are many environmental effects that are difficult to quantify.

It allows you to look from the cradle to grave of a product or system and checks on the
environmental impact of each stage so that you can ways of improvement. It also

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allows you to compare the environmental performance of two products. Industry wants
to find ways of delivering better value and performance whilst using less raw
materials including energy. Achieving 'more from less' requires a systematic
approach that measures the two comparatives 'more' and 'less'. 'More' relates to value,
'less' to environmental impact. Value assessment means you look at how well a
product performs relative to what the user is prepared to pay. Obviously it therefore
changes according to the user. The traditional approach has been to look at the
product but it may be better to look at the system as you may be better using another
product. LCA are often used for packaging options or to compare the relative merits of
solid waste disposal.

LCA has four stages:-

1. Initiation deciding what to compare

2. Inventory assessing the environmental burdens of each stage

3. Impact assessment what is the relative importance of the impacts on the

environment

4. Interpretation what you decide to do next

In LCA measurements are made of energy requirements, raw materials and pollutants
emitted during manufacture, use and ultimate disposal during the inventory stage. It is
therefore very hard and it is particularly difficult to define the boundaries of the study,
what you should include and what you can leave out. LCA therefore tends to focus on
the part of the LCA where it is thought the main environmental impacts will occur.

For packaging it may be during manufacture and disposal, for a washing machine it is
during use. For a Nuclear power station it would probably be in waste disposal, although
the Nuclear industry is very difficult in LCA because the Impacts are so difficult to
quantify. Perhaps less expectedly is the fact that the major impact of a car bull bar is
also in it's use, as it's weight has a significant effect upon fuel consumption.
Society for the Promotion Of Life Cycle Development has been set up. SPOLD-
members include Dow Chemical, Norsk Hydro, Proctor and Gamble and Unilever. It
aims to promote the development of LCA as a scientific tool and to use the results for
inputs into discussions concerning legislation such as eco-labelling.

A monthly newsletter is now produced by SETAC (the Society for Environmental

Toxicology and Chemistry), for those involved in LCA and a bank of basic input data is
being set up, available to those who pay a yearly subscription. SETAC has also been
involved in trying to evolve a commonly accepted set of LCA terms and methods.

Who conducts LCAs?

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A lot are carried out by industry or by industry federations such as CEFIC, the European
Chemical Industry Counci and academics. Few are carried out by non governmental
bodies.
Examples of companies using LCA
 3M
 Alcan
 ConocoPhillips
 Daimler-Chrysler
 Electrolux
 ExxonMobil
 Fujitsu
 General Motors
 Hewlett Packard
 Nissan
 Procter&Gamble
 Rio Tinto Borax
 Rolls-Royce
 Solvay
 Toyota
 Unilever

LCA is a tool that allows you to make decisions with respect to the environment.
LCA turns up winners and losers and it's up to you to decide what is a priority.

Life Cycle Assessment

1 Initiation and Goal definition

Before you conduct an LCA

What question are you asking.

Define the system boundaries, the functional unit, data requirements, alternative
products or services you may want to compare, what key assumptions are you making,
what are the likely limitations?
Determining the system boundary is very difficult. Where do you draw the line? Do you
involve capital costs of equipment.

Consider Scope, Purpose, Resources, Format of Report, Need for Critical Review

- What benefits are anticipated?

- How will the results be used?

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- Who will have access to the results?

- If you don't come up with the "right" answer what will you do?

- Do you have enough data to conduct your inventory - how can you get data from
competitors? it is too difficult to assess nuclear effects as not enough is known to
compare them with alternatives.

What is the scope of the project? how much time and money do you have, What
will be the geographic limitations, will the results be country or site, (i.e. factory),
specific.

How durable will be the product be, will it's efficiency decrease over time.

Goal and scope definition

Goal and scope definition is the first phase in a life cycle assessment containing the
following main issues:
 Goal
 Scope
 Functional unit
 System boundaries
 Data quality
 Critical review process

The definition of the goal and scope is the critical parts of an LCA
 the purpose and intended application
 the function of the studied systems(s) and a defined functional unit
 the studied product group and chosen alternatives, if relevant
 the system boundaries applied
 the data quality needed
 the validation or critical review process needed

The different needs are described in detail below.

Goal
The goal of an LCA study shall unambiguously state the intended
application, including the reasons for carrying out the study and the intended
audience, i.e. to whom the results of the study are intended to be
communicated.

The goal definition also has to define the intended use of the results and users of the
result. The practitioner, who has to reach the goal, needs to understand the detailed
purpose of the study in order to make proper decisions throughout the study. Examples
of goals of a life cycle assessment are:

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  to compare two or more different products fulfilling the same function with
the purpose of using the information in marketing of the products or
regulating the use of the products
 to identify improvement possibilities in further development of existing
products or in innovation and design of new products
 to identify areas, steps etc. in the life cycle of a product where criteria can
be set up as part of the eco-labeling criteria to be used by e.g. the eco-
labeling board

The goal definition determines the level of sophistication of the study and the
requirements to reporting. Transparency is essential for all kind of LCA studies. The
target group of the LCA study is also important to have in mind in the choice of reporting
method.

Scope
The definition of the scope of the life cycle assessment sets the borders of the
assessment - what is included in the system and what detailed assessment methods
are to be used.
In defining the scope of an LCA study, the following items shall be considered and
clearly described:

 the functions of the system, or in the case of comparative studies, systems;

 the functional unit;
 the system to be studied;
 the system boundaries;
 allocation procedures;
 the types of impact and the methodology of impact assessment and subsequent
interpretation to be used;
 data requirement;
 assumptions;
 limitations;
 the initial data quality requirements;
 the type of critical review, if any;
 the type and format of the report required for the study

The scope should be sufficiently well defined to ensure that the breadth, the depth and
the detail of the study are compatible and sufficient to address the stated goal. g. in the
interpretation phase.
Functional unit

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Definition of the functional unit or performance characteristics is the foundation of an
LCA because the functional unit sets the scale for comparison of two or more products
including improvement to one product (system). All data collected in the inventory phase
will be related to the functional unit. When comparing different products fulfilling the
same function, definition of the functional unit is of particular importance.

 The efficiency of the product

 The durability of the product

 The performance quality standard

When carrying out your life cycle inventory you work with a functional unit. This is your
unit of consideration of just looking at one product or process of unit of comparison for
example if comparing the performance of a packaging system you would compare the
weight of the different packaging required to deliver 2 litres of detergent eg 100  gm
plastic v 80 g cardboard. You should include secondary packaging as for example a
floppy plastic container needs more support that a cardboard box.

You shouldn’t compare a glass milk bottle with a wax laminated cardboard carton as the
former will be used 20 times. Therefore the functional unit would be the amount of
packaging required for packaging a number of litres of milk for a given number of
journeys, and don’t forget the glass bottles would need crates and the plastic pouches
would probably be in boxes.

System boundaries

The system boundaries define the processes/operations (e.g. manufacturing, transport,

and waste management processes), and the inputs and outputs to be taken into
account in the LCA. SB determines how far back and sideways you go. For example do
you consider the wood, the tree, the forest, the fertilizer, the felling equipment?

2 Inventory (LCI) (Quantifying the environmental burdens)

The definition of LCI is the identification and quantification of energy and resource
inputs and environmental outputs from a system. This can be difficult as it may be
hard to get good reliable data. You need to carry out data quality assessments. It may
be hard to get the information that you need from your competitors if you want to do
comparative studies. In this stage the ststem process is modelled with each stage
being a unit process with its own inpouts and output data categories.

Mass Balance

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An important concept in LCI is that your energy and materials inputs and outputs should
balance. You should also distinguish between organic and inorganic chemical as the
former will have a residual fuel value which should be included. Inputs and outputs may
be measured in different units, e.g. joules, Kg. You may have to include recycling,
which may be open loop, where the product is recycled into another different product, or
closed loop where it is recycled within the system into the same product.

Co Product Allocation

A process may produce more than 1 product, for example a CHP plant that generates
electricity and district heating, a saw mill that produces planks of wood but also
sawdust. Because it is not fair to make the main product responsible for all of the
environmental effects of the co-product (useful) or by- product (waste) you need to find
a way of transferring some of the environmental burden out of the system.

A by-product may find a use and become a co-product. You can look at other things
that could replace the co-product and calculate their burden then subtract this from the
system. If there is nothing that you could substitute for the co-product you can allocate
the effects according to criteria such as economic value, or a physical property such as
by weight, or energy content.

In the cotton nappy example you could consider the extra use of the nappy as a floor
cloth as a co-product, calculate the environmental effects of a similar cloth and deduct
them from the LCI.

Data Quality

Results of life cycle inventory are only as good as the data:-

eg recent study of paper - used 10 year data on the production of virgin paper and
compared it with the latest technology data on the production of recycled paper to prove
how much better it is.

Data quality

The quality of the data used in the life cycle inventory is naturally reflected in the quality
of the final LCA. The data quality can be described and assessed in different ways. It is
important that the data quality is described and assessed in a systematic way that
allows others to understand and control for the actual data quality.
In all studies, the following additional data quality indicators shall be taken
into consideration in a level of detail depending on goal and scope definition:
 Precision: measure of the variability of the data values for each data
category expressed (e.g. variance).

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  Completeness: percentage of locations reporting primary data from
the potential number in existence for each data category in a unit
process.
 Representativeness: qualitative assessment of the degree to which
the data set reflects the true population of interest (i.e. geographic
and time period and technology coverage).
 Consistency: qualitative assessment of how uniformly the study
methodology is applied to the various components of the analysis.
 Reproducibility: qualitative assessment of the extent to which
information about the methodology and data values allows an
independent practitioner to reproduce the results reported in the
study.

How do collect the data for an inventory?

measurement
interviews / asking others
database/literature reviews
theoretical calculations
qualified guessing
industrial espionage

Consider

data source
data age
data representivity

Estimate the data accuracy/variability

How frequently were measurements taken

Over what time period, e.g. year, week

Are there estimates of the variability of the data

Means/ Medians/Std Dev/Confidence Limits.

Is data site specific or industry averaged

Is data complete, are there gaps

what methods were used to fill the gaps in data

what measurement methods were used they may not be the same e.g. UK uses
BOD2 , Nordic countries use BOD7

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 Is there uncertainty in the data, lack of consistency, measurements within non
detectable limits what methodology was used in sampling

Is transport included, (usually not) if so is it just fuel or the vehicle, the

building or road, port or runway, loss of countryside).

Databases exist for certain common elements like transport, types of energy and base
materials such as Al, Plastics. They are incorporated into many of the software
packages you can by.
Comprehensive databases are held by Franklin (US), Sundstrom, (Sweden) and
Battele, (Germany). Software packages include those by Simapro and Boustead.

3 Impact Assessment

In this stage you deciding on the relative importance of the environmental burdens and
resource depletion's. Some impacts are easy to quantify, e.g. global warming,
acidification, others which may be socio-economic may be much harder- things like
cultural heritage, bio-diversity, employment are all factors.

Examples of Impact categories

 ozone layer depletion
 heavy metals
 carcinogens
 summer smog
 winter smog
 pesticides
 greenhouse effect
 eutrophication
 acidification

You may classify your impacts on the inventory table into a number of categories, such
as natural resources, human health. Some may count double, such as NO x, which
effects eutrophication as well as causing acid rain, NH3 counts three times as a toxin,
causes organic pollution, and eutrophication .

Characterisation. Within each impact category the emissions are calculated to the
same unit and summarised. Some substances may have a more intense effect than
others. This problem is dealt with by applying weighting factors to the different
substances. THIS WILL BE SUBJECTIVE

You next may quantify the total impacts within each of the above categories so you
end up with impact descriptions, measures and scores. E.g. 6 tonnes of Nox/per kg
plastic produced.

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Normalisation. In order to gain a better understanding of the relative size of an effect, a
normalization step is required. Each effect calculated for the life cycle of a product is
benchmarked against the known total effect for this class. This is important as for
example 10 tonnes of one pollutant may be far less harmful than a few kg of another.
Effectively you are measuring the relative contribution For example, normalising with
effects caused by the average European during a year. s an example vehicle emissions
may contribute 40% of the NOx emissions pa in the UK.

The hardest part of all is deciding on Valuation. You may have system or product A
causing global warming whereas system B causes toxic health hazards or acid rain.
You must decide what is important. This is why the results of LCAs so often differ, it
depends on the subjective opinion of the person carrying it out and what impacts each
person is eager to minimise.

You need to decide on a weighting of the various factors, these weightings are socially
or politically driven eg in UK we may feel NO x reduction is most important, Switzerland
may feel landfill reduction more important so we might add a weighting factor to NOx
results. Assessment in usually made on a global environmental level and is not site
specific and is not therefore considering the potential sensitivity of a local site. Also as
emissions are summed it is impossible to know if they are gradual or sudden releases
which would have a greater impact.

Impact Categories

 Can consider effect on nature like acidification, eutrophication, global warming,

ozone depletion etc (mid-point effects).
 Or can use the consequences these effects will have, like lessen biodiversity or
shorter length of life of humans (end-point effects).
 In the Eco Indicator ’99 method there are three impact categories:

Impact category Category indicator Unit

Ecosystem Quality Potentially disappeared PDF*m2*yr

fraction

Human Health DALY (Disability Adjusted person*year

Life Years)

Resources Resource damage  MJ/kg

Other Methods of Impact Assessment

Less is better (current SETAC methodology)

Assumes all emissions are relevant and all should be reduced regardless of whether
they are below their limit, (NOEC) no observable effect concentration or Incipient limit.

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There is thus no evaluation of the likely environmental harm. It is a simple method. Like
the precautionary principle, don’t wait ‘til something is proved to be bad before you start
to reduce it.

Only Above Threshold

Based on whether the predicted limit for environmental damage is passed. Relies on
tools such as toxicity data, risk assessment, EIA, and Environmental monitoring. Has
the advantage that it identifies where real environmental damage is likely to occur. But
difficult to apply on a large scale. Does not take into account local site sensitivity or
bioaccumulation, magnification or interactions between toxins.

Problem Oriented approach (Dutch method)

Based on which problem you consider most important. In one country this may be
chemicals causing acid rain, in another the need to avoid landfill, hence it tends to be
motivated by political and economic factors. Advantage is it does allow you to consider
local factors. Disadvantage is that then will not be applicable elsewhere.

Critical Volumes approach (eg Switzerland)

Considers the emission limits based on limit values for different releases to atmosphere,
water etc. For example if the safe limit for a known water pollutant is 1000 ppm and for
an air pollutant 500 ppm then they have equal environmental impact. Limitations of this
Critical Volumes as limits are not available for all pollutants, some effects are too
difficult to predict like nuclear waste, others not proven like global warming. Effects of
pollutants may be dependant on other variables eg Al and Ammonia toxicity Ph
dependent.

DELPHI technique. panel judgement of a team of experts.

Used for Zeolite versus phosphate builders. Study carried out by Albright and Wilson.
The "Delphi" technique was used to determine the weights to be given to different
pollutants. This works as follows:
Experts are asked by questionnaire to weight the various pollutants on their relative
potential to cause environmental damage. The response are analysed and returned to
the experts who can then modify their view in light of the consensus opinion.
This process may continue until there are no more changes in the experts opinion. This
process then continues until there is a majority view.

4 Interpretation

This is the phase where the results are checked and evaluated to see that they are
consistent with the goal and scope and that the study is complete.
The process of interpretation is meant to progress simultaneously with the other phases
in the LCA and not only afterwards.

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The results from this phase are conclusions,recommendations and reports

Using the result. In seeking improvements you will often end up looking for the "best
practicable environmental option". Some LCA workers say you don't need to carry out
this stage as the inventory stage shows where your major impacts are. However the
improvements may involve different costs and time scales and impact analysis should
help you decide which to go for. Must include sensitivity analysis, what would happen
if some of the assumptions made where changed, e.g. if energy was HEP not Coal fired
power station. This stage allows to decide “what if” without actually having to do it. If
recycling rate changed, how much would this effect the result. What will be the effect of
the packaging directive? What happens if we change our supplier. What happens if you
increase the recycling rate, how much does this effect the result. What if you change to
nuclear or renewable energy? For example a laminate pouch is "better" than a plastic
detergent bottle unless the recycling rate for plastic increases from 2% - 70%. Are the
results consistent?
This also allows you to look at the impact of future legislation in the planning of you
priorities. It may also allow you to determine BPEO or BAT. Infra Structure
Differences must be considered. These are variations from one country to another. e.g.
where does the energy come from? gas, coal nuclear? What levels of emissions are
permitted? what issues are a priority some countries are against landfill, others more
determined to reduce Nox or SOx.

ISO 14040 LCA published 97

14041 Goal and Scope Definition- inventory analysis
14042 LCAimpact Assessment
14043 LCA interpretation

updated 2006 this was replaced with

 14040 Principles and Framework
 14044 Requirements and Guidelines

It provised guidance and a flexible framework IT IS NOT prescriptive

Critical review process

In other uses of environmental standards, certification of a system or product or
accreditation of the measuring laboratory is applied. In LCA 14040 series it is not yet
clear what to certify: The study, the individual practitioner or the company of the
practitioner. Therefore, a variation of the peer review set-up used in scientific journals is
used as described below. The purpose of the critical review process is to ensure the
quality of the life cycle assessment. The review can be either internal, external or
involve interested parties as defined within the goal and scoping definition.
The critical review process shall ensure that:
 The methods used to carry out the LCA are consistent with this
international standard;

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  The methods used to carry out the LCA are scientifically and
technically valid;
 The data used are appropriate and reasonable in relation to the goal
of the study;
 The interpretations reflect the limitations identified and the goal of the
study;
 The study report is transparent and consistent.

When appraising an LCA consider

o 1. Who did it, where they independent. Companies may well wish to keep
results secret, but all studies should be done to the same high standard.

o 2. Who provided the data

o 3. Who commissioned the study

o 4. Did the study include inventory analysis and impact assessment

o 5. What functional unit was used, was it comparable?

 eg insulation, functional unit should be amount of different materials needed to
provide a certain degree of insulation.

o 6. What are the system boundaries?

 Do they take into account secondary packaging, waste management, heating
and lighting, capital equipment, maintenance.

o 7. Has sensitivity analysis been conducted?

 This is where you change the data input to see what effects it has eg change the
amount of energy needed for filling packets, how does it effect the output?

o 8. Do the environmental burdens mass balance?

 ie does the weight of materials and energy sources (inputs) - weight of release to
air, water and land (outputs)

o 9. Has the report been critically appraised by experts other than the stake
holder. LCAs are very rarely subject to peer review, often the excuse or
reason being they are too confidential.

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  Is the LCA reproducible, credible,

LCA often throws up results you don't expect eg LCA of paper recently showed it was
better to incinerate with heat recovery as if you recycle you use up fossil fuels. You
don't get unanimous agreement over the results of LCAs. It is often cynically said that
you get the answer according to who commissioned the LCA!

A comparison of two lca’s of the same corrugated cardboard showed d 60% difference
in estimated energy requirement, 30- 100% difference in emissions, 80% difference in
solid waste.

To Summarise
 LCA is a tool that allows you to make decisions with respect to the
environment.
 LCA was traditionally carried out on packaging as the system was
relatively simple.
 LCA turns up winners and losers and it's up to you to decide what is a
priority.
 It should be like maths- the same numbers in the same equation should
yield the same result
 BUT it is possible to manipulate to get what you want!

 You don't get unanimous agreement over the results of LCAs.

 ISO14040 attempts to set guidance to ensure consistency of approach.
LCA does not really address the sustainability of a process or product as focuses

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Glossary

Allocation Division of flows in case they make part of two or more separate processes. E.g
a product may also involve the production of a co product so the environmental burden of
latter must be deducted.
Category indicator Quantifiable representation of an impact category, e.g. infrared
radiative forcing
(W/m2) in the case of global warming.
Data category Input or output of a unit process or product system. Examples are
resources, energy, products, raw materials, emissions, waste etc.
Elementary flow Material flows that are not refined but enter or leave the system directly
from/to the nature e.g. crude oil, air, heat, non-refined minerals but also emissions and
effluents that are not treated before they are released.
Environmental impact Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial,
wholly or partially resulting from the organisation’s activities,products or services.
Functional unit The measure of the functional performance of the outputs of the product
system e.g. area covered by a certain thickness of paint.
Impact category Class representing environmental issues of concern to which LCI results
may be assigned e.g. acidification, eutrophication, global warming, ozone depletion or
human toxicity.
Inventory List with data on inputs and outputs of the studied system.
LCI-data The results from the inventory phase. A list of all inputs and outputs from the
studied systems before the impact assessment is performed.
Non-elementary flow Refined energy or material flows, e.g. petroleum, electricity and other
artificially manufactured components.
Product system A product system is a collection of unit processes connected by flows of
intermediate products which performs one or more defined functions. The essential property
of a product system is characterised by its functions, and cannot be defined solely in terms
of the final products.
System boundary The system boundaries define the unit processes to be included in
the system to be modelled.
Unit process The smallest portion of a product system for which data is collected.
Examples are individual production processes.

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