Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1639e1646

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Screening life cycle assessment of an office used for academic purposes

Georgios Gaidajis*, Komninos Angelakoglou
Department of Production Engineering & Management, School of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The aim of this study is to contribute to the analysis of the environmental impacts deriving from
Received 1 November 2010 common aspects of the service sector activity and to identify auxiliary actions and hot spots in order to
Received in revised form improve the environmental performance of offices used for educational purposes. In that aspect,
24 May 2011
a screening life cycle assessment (LCA) for a university office-workstation of Democritus University of
Accepted 26 May 2011
Thrace, Greece, was performed with the application of the SimaPro LCA software, and the Impact 2002þ
method with fifteen impact categories for the interpretation of results. Findings from this research
indicated that energy consumption for the powering electronic appliances was the key factor affecting
Keywords:
LCA
most of the environmental impact categories examined. The impact categories most seriously affected by
Service sector the office life cycle were the emissions of respiratory inorganics (39%), global warming (31%) and non-
Office renewable energy use (27%). The saving of the energy consumed due to standby mode could lead to
University a reduction of 2.4% of the total energy consumption in the office in a yearly basis with proportional
Impact assessment positive influence in all the respective impact categories. Additionally, utilization of solar energy through
Environmental burden photovoltaic panels could lead to a reduction close to 90% for a number of impact categories. Therefore,
actions and strategies for improving the environmental performance of academic offices should focus on
the reduction of energy consumption.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction tertiary sector of the economy, in fields like science, engineering or

Until recently, industries were considered as the major culprit of
environmental problems. However, life cycle thinking that calls for
an holistic approach when assessing the environmental perfor-
mance of a product or a service changed that notion. More specif-
ically, an increasing number of environmentalists and researchers
indicated the significant amounts of materials and energy
consumed in the service sector basically through material flow
analysis studies.
Although, the general consensus is that the service sector is an
environmentally friendly sector, there are certain activities with
serious impacts on the environment (Alcántara and Padilla, 2009).
These activities are not directly affected by the European Directive
2002/358/EC concerning the approval of the Kyoto Protocol to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the
joint fulfillment of commitments there under (European
Commission, 2002). In that aspect legislation and green policies
need to reconsider their target groups and strategy. This specific
aspect is further supported by the fact that more than 30% of the
working force in the advanced industrial nations is related with the
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ30 25410 79877.
E-mail address: geogai@pme.duth.gr (G. Gaidajis).
in the knowledge-based professions of health care, finance and law
(Lehmann and Hietanen, 2009). In Greece 67% of employees are
occupied in the tertiary sector (EL. STAT, 2010), indicating the
importance of responsible attitudes deriving from service providers
in this country.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a specific elaboration of a generic
environmental evaluation framework (Tukker, 2000) that
addresses the environmental aspects and potential environmental
impacts throughout a product’s life cycle from raw material
acquisition through production, use, end-of-life treatment, recy-
cling and final disposal. In that aspect LCA can be used for figuring
out the energy and material performance of service sector activities
(Lehmann and Hietanen, 2009). For those who want to efficiently
perform a LCA, a standard four steps approach (UNEP/SETAC, 2005)
namely 1) goal and scope, 2) inventory analysis, 3) impact assess-
ment and 4) interpretation, that has been developed according to
the principles of ISO 14040 standard series is available.
Goal and scope step includes actions such as defining the aim,
functional unit and the boundaries of the system under examina-
tion. Life cycle inventory (LCI) is a list of all raw materials, extrac-
tions and emissions that occur in the production of the assembly
and the relevant materials and processes (Elcock, 2007). Impact
assessment is necessary for the comprehension of the inventory
results. During this step, the effects of the resources used and the

0959-6526/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.05.016
1640 G. Gaidajis, K. Angelakoglou / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1639e1646
Fig. 1. Ground plan of the university office examined.
emissions generated are grouped and quantified into a number of
impact categories. Impact assessment in LCA traditionally focused
on environmental impacts deriving from emissions, wastes,
resource use and energy consumption and are categorized by
practitioners in global warming potential (GWP), acidification,
eutrophication, stratospheric ozone depletion, photo oxidant
formation, resource use, land use, and others (Pennington et al.,
2004). Finally the results are interpreted according to the goal
and scope of the study. More details regarding LCA can be found
elsewhere (UNEP, 2003, Environmental Protection Agency, 2006).
Despite the fact that LCA is a useful tool for determining
significant environmental issues, few researchers have applied it in
service sector companies (Seppo, 2006). However, a number of
studies do exist, basically focusing on the LCA of the building that
houses the service rather than on the service itself (Kofoworola and
Gheewala, 2009), or to the energy performance of the building
(Scheuer et al., 2003), whereas working profiles that are ecologi-
cally more sustainable than others are discussed elsewhere
(Lehmann and Hietanen, 2009).
In this paper, a screening life cycle assessment for a typical
university office was performed following the principles of ISO
14040 standard, with the employment of a relative software
(SimaPro 7.2). A screening LCA is usually performed using easily to
be found data. The aim of a screening LCA is to quickly identify the
most important processes and in that aspect data quality is of less
importance than in a full LCA. The aim of this study is to contribute
to the analysis of the environmental impacts deriving from
common aspects of the service sector activity and identify auxiliary
actions and hot spots in order to improve the environmental
performance of offices used for educational purposes.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Goal definition
The goal of this study is twofold. Firstly is the quantification of
the environmental impacts in pre-defined categories from
a university office-workstation and the identification of the life
cycle phases and processes that significantly affect the environ-
mental performance of the examined system. Based on this anal-
ysis, measures for the amelioration of the environmental
performance of offices serving for educational reasons and research
will be discussed contributing to the research regarding the
“greening” of services.
2.2. System description
The system examined is a university office (32 m2) in the School
of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, located at
Northeastern Greece. The specific office is used as a workstation by
graduate students with variable working load. It could be assumed
however, that an average of four people are working on a 12-h basis
daily, using basic electronic equipment and furniture and
consuming water, energy and office consumables such as paper and
toners. Electronic equipment includes desktop computers, laptops,
printers and so forth whereas furniture equipment includes desks,
chairs, bookshelves etc. The electronic and furniture equipment
was acquired from local providers. Moreover the waste produced
enters the existing municipal waste management system and is
finally land filled. A ground plan of the office examined is presented
in Fig. 1.
2.3. Scope of the study and functional unit
According to the goals of the study, the scope of this work had to
include all life cycle stages from material acquisition and produc-
tion to equipment use and disposal. The boundaries of the study are
presented in Fig. 2. The construction of the office building was not
included in the scope of this study, since the study focused merely
on the environmental impact of the provided service. The inclusion
of construction parameters (e.g. insulation, windows, paint etc.)
would significantly affect the results due to the great material and
energy consumption flows associated with these parameters.
Moreover, certain low mass consumables such as pens and CDs
were not included in the analysis due to lack of ready-to-use
Extraction of raw materials
Processing of raw materials
Electronic and
Furniture
equipment
Transportation to
office Office
consumables
Office setup
Energy
Consumption
Office use
Waste Disposal
Fig. 2. Boundaries of the study.
 G. Gaidajis, K. Angelakoglou / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1639e1646 1641

Table 1
Data included in the inventory analysis.

Category Component Processes/materials adopted from software Database Estimated life periodb
Electronic equipment 1Printer Printer, laser jet, b/w at plant Ecoinvent 8
1 Desktop PC Desktop computer, without screen, at plant Ecoinvent 3
1 LCD screen LCD flat screen, 17 inches, at plant Ecoinvent 5
3 Laptops Laptop computer, at plant Ecoinvent 3
1 Air-condition No inputa e 12
1 Water cooler No inputa e 10
8 Lights bulbs Light bulb 60 Watt S ETH-ESU 96 1
Furniture 3 Desks Surfaced dried lumber, at planer mill, (1  120 kg, 2  100 kg) USLCI, 10
Steel ETH S, (used for nails, 6 nails, 50 g each) ETH-ESU 96
3 Bookshelves Surfaced dried lumber, at planer mill, (1  250, 200, 100 kg) USLCI, 10
Steel ETH S, (used for nails, 20, 15, 6 nails respectively) ETH-ESU 96
1 Cabinet Surfaced dried lumber, at planer mill, (120 kg) USLCI, 10
Steel ETH S, (used for nails, 6 nails, 50 g each) ETH-ESU 96
1 Sofa Leather I, (10 m2) IDEMAT 10
Surfaced dried lumber, at planer mill, (80 kg) USLCI
PUR flex. block foam, (10 kg) IDEMAT
Steel ETH S, (used for nails, 10 nails, 50 g each) ETH-ESU 96
9 Chairs Leather I, (1 m2) (IDEMAT 2001) IDEMAT 5
PUR flex. Block foam, (1 kg) IDEMAT
PVC B250, (6 kg) BUWAL 250
Consumables Paper Paper woody C B250, (124 kg year1) BUWAL 250
Water Tap water, (1100 L year1) Ecoinvent
Toners Toner module, laser jet, b/w, (10 toners/year) Ecoinvent
Energy Energy use Electricity MV use in GRþ import ETH-ESU 96
a
Only the energy consumption during use phase was taken into account.
b
Life period of each component in years according to (Gaidajis et al., 2009).

modules for software application. However, their low mass does
not mean that they are of low impact, and an underestimation of
impacts is expected to take place in the analysis.
The functional unit set was the use of the office described for
a period of one year, satisfying the needs of the users. In order for
this functional unit to be efficiently applied, the environmental
impacts deriving from life cycle stages such as extraction of raw
materials, equipment manufacturing, disposal and so forth were
exalted to one year basis using the estimated life period of the
components of the system analyzed. Thus, it was assumed that the
environmental impacts of each component were equally distrib-
uted within its life cycle. This approach is useful, since the impacts
from the initial and the last life cycle stages do not overbalance the
use phase of the office, whereas it is easy to examine the impacts
for more than one year.
This module includes disposal of specific waste types to sanitary
landfills. Due to software restrictions and unavailability of data,
specific landfilling technology encountered at Switzerland in 2000
was applied. An officially organized e-waste management scheme
has not been established yet in Greece and in that aspect, the
absence of recycling for electronic equipment is relatively repre-
sentative of the situation in Greece.
2.5. Impact assessment and interpretation
The data collected in life cycle inventory had to be converted
into potential human health and environmental impacts. In this
study the IMPACT 2002þ method was applied. IMPACT 2002þ is
a combination of four methods: IMPACT 2002, Eco-indicator 99,

2.4. Inventory analysis Table 2

Relative contribution of each device to the total energy consumption of the office
under examination.
The detailed list with all the components used for the struc-
turing of the office model is presented in Table 1. Electronic equipment Assumption applied in Estimated energy
Data included in the inventory analysis. this studya consumption per
year (in kWh)
The office uses air-conditioning for cooling and heating whereas
1Printer, laser jet b/w Mode: 300 W for 0.5 h (on), 54
a water cooler is used for water needs. The furniture equipment
4 W for 23.5 h (standby)
masses and materials were estimated by the authors or obtained 1 Desktop PC, without Mode: 190 W for 12 h (on), 506
from the producers. Since furniture items were not available, screen 1.6 W for 12 h (standby)
intermediate products were utilized. For electronic equipment 1 LCD flat screen 17” Mode: 19 W for 12 h (on), 51
modules (see Table 1) data from the software were integrated with 0.3 W for 12 h (standby)
3 Laptop computers Mode: 12 W for 12 h (on), 100
the exception of air-condition and water cooler for which no data 0.7 W for 12 h (standby)
were available. The total energy consumption was estimated 1 Air-condition Mode: cooling-210 W 2000
according to the energy consumption of each device (Energy Star, heating- 1600 W for 8 h (on),
2010) and its daily use. The relative contribution of each device to 20 W for 16 h (standby),
(16 weeks cooling and
the total energy consumption of the office under examination is
28 heating)
summarized in Table 2. 1 Water cooler 152 kWh year1 152
Relative contribution of each device to the total energy 8 Lights bulbs On mode: 60 W for 8 h 845
consumption of the office under examination. Total energy consumption 3.71 MWh
The end-of-life phase was modeled with the application of a
Assumptions were made considering that the office is operational 5days a week,
Landfill/CH waste scenario module found in Ecoinvent database. 44 weeks a year.
1642 G. Gaidajis, K. Angelakoglou / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1639e1646

CML and IPCC. The Eco-Indicator 99 method offers a way to Table 4

measure various environmental impacts, and shows a final result in LCA results with the application of the Impact 2002þ method (weighted results,
contribution %).
a single score. The normalization and weighting are performed at
damage category level (human health, ecosystem quality and Impact category Unit Total Office setup and Electricity Landfill
resources) while the damage categories are normalized on a Euro- consumables consumption
(1 yr)
pean level (damage caused by one European per year). CML is a LCA
Carcinogens % <1 <1 <1 <1
methodology developed by the Institute of Environmental Sciences
Non-carcinogens % <1 <1 <1 <1
(CML) of Leiden University, containing further characterization Respiratory inorganics % 39.2 3.05 35.9 <1
factors for baseline characterization methods, whereas the Inter- Ionizing radiation % <1 <1 <1 <1
governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method includes Ozone layer depletion % <1 <1 <1 <1
characterization factors for the direct (except CH4) global warming Respiratory organics % <1 <1 <1 <1
Aquatic ecotoxicity % <1 <1 <1 <1
potential of air emissions expressed in kg CO2 equivalent (kg CO2 Terrestrial ecotoxicity % 1.44 <1 <1 <1
eq.), the basic unit for measuring global warming. Terrestrial acid/nutri % <1 <1 <1 <1
The IMPACT 2002þ methodology proposes a feasible imple- Land occupation % <1 <1 <1 <1
mentation of a combined midpoint/damage approach, linking all Aquatic acidification % e e e e
Aquatic % e e e e
types of life cycle inventory results via 14 midpoint categories to
eutrophication
four damage categories (Goedkoop et al., 2010). The four damage Global warming % 30.5 3.56 26.1 <1
oriented impact categories include human health, ecosystem Non-renewable % 26.9 3.87 22.9 <1
quality, climate change, and resources. In SimaPro, 15 different energy
impact categories are presented, as human toxicity is split up in Mineral extraction % <1 <1 <1 <1
Total % 100 11.9 86.8 1.32
Carcinogens and Non-carcinogens.
In order to interpret the results a weighting procedure was
applied. According to IMPACT 2002þ, if aggregation is needed, self-
determined weighting factors or a default weighting factor of one reduction of energy consumption in order to improve its environ-
should be applied thus the default weighting of 1:1:1:1 was applied mental performance. Indicatively in 11 out of 15 impact categories,
in this study. More details and information about IMPACT 2002þ energy consumption dominated the results with a relative contri-
can be found elsewhere (Jolliet et al., 2003). The interpretation of bution ranging between 60 and 95%.
the results is presented in the following section. LCA results with the application of the Impact 2002þ method
(characterization).
3. Results and discussion Following, in order to quantify the impact categories most
seriously affected by the office life cycle, a weighting procedure was
The LCA results with the application of the IMPACT 2002þ applied. Results indicated the emissions of respiratory inorganics
method are summarized in Table 3. Office setup and consumables (39.2%), global warming (30.5%) and non-renewable energy use
include all the materials and processes needed in order to efficiently (26.9%) as the main impact categories that were highly affected by
equip the office and their transportation. Consumables such as water, the office life cycle (Table 4). It should be noted though, that the
paper and toners are also included. Landfill expresses the burden authors of Impact 2002þ method suggest considering the four
deriving from disposal of each component at the end of its life cycle. damage oriented impact categories i.e. human health, ecosystem
The results shown in Table 3 refer to a time period of one year. quality, climate change, and resources separately for the interpre-
The consumption of energy was the key factor affecting most of tation phase of LCA (Jolliet et al., 2003). Moreover, weighting of
the impact categories examined. This finding is in conformity with results embeds a high risk of uncertainty, thus those results should
the general consensus that service sector should focus on the be adopted cautiously.

Table 3
LCA results with the application of the Impact 2002þ method (characterization).

Impact Category Unita Totalb Office setup and Electricity consumption Landfill
consumables (1 yr)

Value (%) Value (%) Value (%) Value (%)

Carcinogens kg C2H3Cl eq. 1.63  101 100 1.07  101 65.5 5.30  100 32.5 3.31  101 2.03
Non-carcinogens kg C2H3Cl eq. 3.12  101 100 1.99  101 63.9 1.02  101 32.8 1.02  100 3.29
Respiratory inorganics kg PM2.5 eq. 7.13  100 100 5.54  101 7.78 6.53  100 91.7 3.80  102 0.53
Ionizing radiation Bq C-14 eq. 4.21  104 100 1.85  104 43.9 2.24  104 53.3 1.19  103 2.83
Ozone layer depletion kg CFC-11 eq. 1.21  103 100 5.42  105 4.46 1.10  103 95.2 4.22  106 0.34
Respiratory organics kg C2H4 eq. 1.70  100 100 4.69  101 27.6 1.21  100 71.3 1.87  102 1.10
Aquatic ecotoxicity kg TEG water 6.35  105 100 2.55  105 40.2 3.46  105 54.5 3.36  104 5.29
Terrestrial ecotoxicity kg TEG soil 4.47  104 100 1.71  104 38.3 2.71  104 60.6 5.08  102 1.14
Terrestrial acid/nutri kg SO2 eq. 1.23  103 100 1.23  101 10.1 1.09  102 89.2 9.11  101 0.74
Land occupation m2org.arable 2.68  101 100 4.31  100 16.1 2.06  101 76.9 1.88  100 7.02
Aquatic acidification kg SO2 eq. 7.25  101 100 3.60  100 4.96 6.85  101 94.5 3.82  101 0.52
Aquatic eutrophication kg PO4 P-lim 9.26  101 100 8.67  101 93.6 8.90  103 0.96 5.02  102 5.42
Global warming kg CO2 eq. 5.42  103 100 6.32  102 11.7 4.63  103 85.5 1.52  102 2.81
Non-renewable energy MJ primary 7.35  104 100 1.06  104 14.4 6.24  104 84.9 5.13  102 0.69
Mineral extraction MJ surplus 7.85  101 100 5.94  101 75.7 1.87  101 23.8 3.73  101 0.47
a
Unit description: kg chloroethylene equivalents into air (kg C2H3Cl eq.), kg chloroethylene equivalents into air (kg C2H3Cl eq.), kg PM2.5 equivalents into air (kg PM2.5 eq.),
Bq C-14 equivalents into air (Bq C-14 eq.), kg CFC-11 equivalents into air (kg CFC-11 eq.), kg ethylene equivalents into air (kg C2H4 eq.), kg triethylene glycol equivalents into
water (kg TEG water), kg triethylene glycol equivalents into soil (kg TEG soil), kg SO2 equivalents into air (kg SO2 eq.), m2 organic arable land (m2org.arable), kg SO2 equivalents
into air (kg SO2 eq.), kg PO4 equivalents into a P-limited water (kg PO4 P-lim), kg CO2 equivalents into air (kg CO2 eq.), MJ primary non-renewable (MJ primary), MJ surplus (MJ
surplus).
b
Numbers may vary a little due to approximations.
 G. Gaidajis, K. Angelakoglou / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1639e1646
LCA results with the application of the Impact 2002þ method
(weighted results, contribution %).
The three impact categories that were highly affected by the
office life cycle are further discussed below (Table 4, shaded area).
Respiratory inorganics impact category is expressed through kg
PM2.5 equivalent unit. PM2.5 expresses particulate matter with an
aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 mm and is a common used
indicator of air quality. Some of the health risks associated with
exposure to high concentrations of particulate matter include irri-
tation of eyes, nose or throat, respiratory problems, cardiovascular
disease and cancer (World Health Organization, 2005).
Global warming potential (GWP) on the other hand, is the
primary method in the policy for quantifying climate impacts of
greenhouse gases thus expressing climate change (Daniel et al.,
2009). GWP is expressed in kg CO2 equivalent (kg CO2 eq.),
a method that exalts the environmental impacts deriving from all
the emissions of a pre-defined system (mainly greenhouse gases) to
CO2 equivalent. Indicatively it was found that the use of the specific
office for one year is responsible for the emission of approximately
5.4 tons CO2 equivalent, similar with the annual emissions from
a typical passenger vehicle (5.5 tons CO2 equivalent) (UNEP 2009).
Non-renewable energy impact category is assessed through the
amount of additional primary energy required per unit of total non-
renewable primary energy for energy carriers (in MJ). This is based
on the assumption that dissipated non-renewable energy is not any
more available at a functional exergy level. This implies that the
total energy content is lost as a resource, in addition to the surplus
energy (Jolliet et al., 2003).
Similarly with Table 4, the network developed in order to assess
the life cycle of the office indicated the electricity consumption as
the main factor (w87%) contributing to the office LCA (Fig. 3). The
bar on the right side of every node indicates the contribution of this
process/material to LCA whereas this is further expressed by the
percentage on the bottom left corner.
Fig. 3. Percentages express the relative contribution of every factor to the total impact of the office.
1643
As discussed, the mentioned impact categories were mainly
affected by the electricity use for one year. This could be attributed to
the energy mix of Greece which is highly dependent on fossil fuels
(lignite). Lignite, as a low quality fossil fuel is expected to significantly
contribute to respiratory inorganics and global warming impact
categories whereas as a non-renewable source highly affects the
non-renewable energy impact category. The utilization of natural gas
or solar energy instead, is expected to ameliorate the results. In that
aspect, the impacts deriving due to the energy mix of Greece should
be further analyzed whereas the integration of renewable energy
resources should be promoted. This is further supported by the
weather and geographical characteristics of Greece.
In order to further confirm these results, the Eco-Indicator 99
method was additionally applied, indicating once again the respi-
ratory inorganics as the main impact category (32.3%) affected. An
additional observation however, was that the ecotoxicity played
a significant role (9.1% out of which 6.4% is due to landfill), thus
rises some questions regarding e-waste management. The global e-
waste production is assessed at 20e50 Mt/year (UNEP 2006), equal
to 1e3% of the estimated global urban waste production (1636 Mt)
(Cobbing, 2008, OECD, 2008). E-waste is liable for 5000 tons of Cu
annually released to the environment (Bertram et al., 2002). PBDEs
(Polybrominated diphenyl ethers) are combustion retardants that
finally result in the environment and are bioaccumulated in living
organisms (Deng et al., 2007). The refrigerators and air-
conditioners discarded contain Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that
will eventually destroy the ozone layer when, in the future, CFCs
escape from the e-waste dumping site (Scheutz et al., 2004). Based
on these reasons, e-waste affect ecotoxicity and carcinogens impact
categories in Eco-Indicator 99 method.
The reason why Eco-Indicator 99 hints that ecotoxicity plays
a more significant role, is that the hierarchist version of Eco-
Indicator 99 was applied. In the hierarchist perspective the
chosen time perspective is long-term and substances are included if
1644 G. Gaidajis, K. Angelakoglou / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1639e1646

Table 5 costly parts, more difficult to upgrade), batteries (particularly toxic,

Relative contribution of various materials/components in the LCA of the system waste energy while charging) and components difficult to be re-
examined.
used at the end of computer life. On the other hand, desktop PCs
No Process Project/Database Unit Total % contain plastics such as polybrominated diphenyl and monitors
1 Electricity MV ETH-ESU 96 Pt 1.5600 86.8 which contain potentially harmful materials. The lifespan of laptops
consumption System process versus desktops depends on the utilization profile and cannot be
in Grþ import
accurately estimated. Thus, due to the various factors and life cycle
2 Laptop computer Ecoinvent system Pt 0.0659 3.67
process stages affecting the environmental performance of PCs, a holistic
3 Paper woody C BUWAL 250 Pt 0.0345 1.92 approach is needed in order to evaluate the environmentally “best”
4 Desktop computer, Ecoinvent system Pt 0.0338 1.88 choice.
without screen process Moreover, the use and disposal of paper indicated the need for
5 Toner module, Ecoinvent system Pt 0.0331 1.84
laser jet, b/w process
the adoption of a more responsible paper consumption and
6 LCD flat screen, Ecoinvent system Pt 0.0220 1.23 management attitude. According to a study, cutting out paper and
17 inches process replacing with a electronic equivalent, could reduce climate change
7 Disposal, municipal Ecoinvent system Pt 0.0203 1.13 gas emissions by 85% (Counsell and Allwood, 2007). This refers to
solid waste, to sanitary process
a hypothetical ideal situation however, since paper cannot be
landfill
8 PVC BUWAL 250 Pt 0.0108 0.60 replaced 100% with electronic equivalent. Furthermore, the pref-
9 Disposal, paper, Ecoinvent system Pt 0.0034 0.19 erability of electronic media over paper is not quite so clear. The
11.2% water, process number of readers per copy of printed and tablet e-paper, reading
to sanitary landfill time, lifetime and energy use of the electronic devices are some of
10 Printer, laser jet, b/w Ecoinvent system Pt 0.0026 0.14
process
the key factors affecting the environmental performance of every
Total of all processes Pt 1.7900 100 choice (Moberg et al., 2010).
Based on the result that highlighted energy use as the major
burden regarding LCA of the office examined, a further analysis was
there is consensus regarding their effect. The default weighting of
performed. More specifically, two scenarios were further developed
hierarchist version favors ecosystem quality damage category
and examined:
(including ecotoxicity) thus affecting the results. More details
regarding Eco-Indicator 99 can be found elsewhere (Goedkoop and
Spriensma, 2001). This fact proves that various impact assessment 1. For Scenario 1, it was supposed that the standby operation
methods may give different results due to different spatial and mode of the electronic equipment were switched to the turn-
temporal data, normalization and weighting procedures. off mode, thus saving a significant amount of energy.
Regarding specific processes and materials, the top-10 processes 2. For Scenario 2, the energy needed during the use phase
and/or components-materials that contributed in the LCA of the (3.71 MWh) was assumed to be acquired from photovoltaic
system examined are presented in Table 5. Results are aggregated by (PV) panels (thus utilizing only solar energy).
the software into a weighted non-metric unit named Point, in order
for a common reference base to be applied. As expected, energy The second scenario was modeled with the application of the
consumption once again dominated the results (1.56 Pts out of 1.79). relative process found in ecoinvent database (Electricity, produc-
However, laptop and desktop PCs, followed in the ranking of tion mix photovoltaic, at plant, GR). The specific module includes
relative contribution. This is due to their elevated content in heavy the production mix of photovoltaic electricity for the country
metals (e.g. copper) and/or hazardous materials and chemicals examined. The annual output of grid-connected photovoltaic
needed for their manufacturing processes. power plants is differentiated for Roof-Top and facade plants.
Based on this finding it would be interesting to examine Additionally a lifetime of 30 years is taken into account for the PV
whether using laptop or desktop PCs in services is the most envi- installation. It should be noted though that these are based on
ronmentally friendlier choice. Laptops consume less energy and rough estimations, based on average data and assumptions by the
materials but have normally shorter life cycles (more fragile, more developers of the module.

Table 6
Impact 2002 þ V2.06 Comparison of different scenarios.

Impact category Unita Regular Office useb Scenario 1 Scenario 2

Standby Mode off Reduction (%) Solar energy utilization Reduction (%)
Carcinogens kg C2H3Cl eq. 1.63  101 1.62  101 0.61 1.54  101 5.5
Non-carcinogens kg C2H3Cl eq. 3.12  101 3.09  101 0.97 2.89  101 7.3
Respiratory inorganics kg PM2.5 eq. 7.13  100 6.97  100 2.29 7.63  101 89
Ionizing radiation Bq C-14 eq. 4.21  104 4.16  104 1.20 2.63  104 37
Ozone layer depletion kg CFC-11 eq. 1.21  103 1.19  103 1.68 9.92  105 91
Respiratory organics kg C2H4 eq. 1.70  100 1.67  100 1.79 6.36  101 62
Aquatic ecotoxicity kg TEG water 6.35  105 6.26  105 1.43 3.18  105 49
Terrestrial ecotoxicity kg TEG soil 4.47  104 4.41  104 1.36 2.45  104 45
Terrestrial acid/nutri kg SO2 eq. 1.23  103 1.20  103 2.50 1.64  101 86
Land occupation m2org.arable 2.68  101 2.63  101 1.90 7.81  100 70
Aquatic acidification kg SO2 eq. 7.25  101 7.09  101 2.25 4.96  100 93
Aquatic eutrophication kg PO4 P-lim 9.26  101 9.26  10e1 e 1.06  100 12
Global warming kg CO2 eq. 5.42  103 5.30  103 2.26 9.87  102 81
Non-renewable energy MJ primary 7.35  104 7.20  104 2.08 1.44  104 80
Mineral extraction MJ surplus 7.85  101 7.80  101 0.64 7.84  101 0.12
a
See Table 2 for unit description.
b
Numbers may vary a little due to approximations.
 G. Gaidajis, K. Angelakoglou / Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 1639e1646
The results from the comparison of these scenarios are presented
in Table 6. According to the calculations made, 0.09 MWh year1
could be saved just by turning off the electronic devices. Moreover,
the model suggested that a reduction of 0.61e2.50% to various
impact categories could be achieved in comparison with the initial
model where devices were left to standby mode. Indicatively for
global warming potential and terrestrial acid impact categories,
120 kg CO2 eq. (2.26% reduction) and 3 kg SO2 eq. (2.5% reduction)
respectively could be saved just by turning off all the devices.
Consequently, even the simplest actions may have a noticeable effect
to environmental performance of offices whereas eco-friendly atti-
tude in the office should be promoted.
Furthermore, by utilizing solar energy from photovoltaic panels,
significantly higher reduction could be achieved. Indicatively in
some impact categories the reduction was approximately 90% (e.g.
ozone layer depletion and aquatic acidification) whereas for most
impact categories reduction was greater that 40%. Aquatic eutro-
phication impact category was the only category for which an
increase (12%) was observed.
4. Shortcomings and further work
Specific assumptions were made regarding the office examined
and the application of the specific impact assessment methods.
These assumptions were identified by the authors and are pre-
sented below:
 Data from different libraries were combined, increasing the
level of uncertainty.
 Landfill module is only compatible with the Ecoinvent data,
thus an underestimation of the environmental burden of
landfilling is expected.
 Some building parameters and low mass consumables were
not included in the analysis, due to unavailability of data and
the screening LCA approach of the study.
 The default weighting, proposed by software was applied.
In order to enhance the comprehensiveness of this study further
research is proposed, indicatively:
 Utilization of additional raw data in order to efficiently model
the system under examination.
 Comparison of the results with similar studies.
 Adoption of a different functional unit (e.g. person-hr) in order
to provide the productive output of office workers (work done
per employee). The significant diversity of work and
employees, challenge this proposal since the quality of labor
cannot be efficiently assessed.
 Assessment of the system examined with additional impact
assessment methods.
 Development and assessment of further ameliorative scenarios
(e.g. recycling of paper and e-waste, partial substitution of
devices with more energy efficient devices)
5. Conclusions
Service sector is one of the most developing sectors involving
more than 30% of the working force in the advanced industrial nations
(Lehmann and Hietanen, 2009). The fact that 67% of the employees in
Greece are occupied in tertiary sector, calls for the development of
methodologies for assessing the environmental responsibility of
service sector whereas adopting responsible attitudes and strategies
is of major importance. In that aspect, a screening life cycle assess-
ment of a university office-workstation was performed in this study.
1645
Findings from this research indicated that the energy used for
powering the electronic appliances contributed significantly to the
impact categories examined, followed by the manufacturing of the
electronic appliances. As a result, energy efficiency of offices, use of
eco-friendly devices and an adoption of a responsible attitude of
the office user should be highly promoted. Additionally, quantifi-
able values for fifteen impact categories were provided with the
application of the Impact 2002þ method, expressing thus the
significant environmental burden of the office. A further analysis
performed in this study indicated that the saving of the energy
consumed during standby mode could lead to a reduction of 2.4% of
the total energy consumption in the office for one year with
proportional positive influence in all the respective impact cate-
gories. Additionally, utilization of solar energy through PV panels
could lead to a reduction close to 90% for a number of impact
categories. Therefore, actions and strategies for greening common
aspects of service sector activity should be highly supported.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for
their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of
the paper.
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