Summary lectures Toolbox 1: Environmental Assessment and Management Approaches
Week 1 – LCA: Goal and scope definition
Life Cycle model:
Cradle-to-Grave
o Interaction of a product/service with its environment
o Emissions going out
o Resources coming in
History of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA):
1960s: Pioneers of life cycle assessment
o First study conducted by Coca Cola
o End of life becomes very important
o Many questions let to the life cycle assessment
1973: First Oil Crisis
o Energy became important
o In Europe use increase of LCA studies
o No standard method to develop a LCA
1980s: Serious incidents let to public concerns of the environment (as Chernobyl)
o Big companies lead to environmental impacts Need for LCA
o Further development of green parties to challenge these big companies (e.g.
Greenpeace)
1990s: LCA took of larger
o LCA recognized method by companies and academia
o Different studies from different companies, different results Need for
harmonization
Since 1990s:
o Industrial adoption of LCA Applied in many industries
o Harmonisation of methodology received LCA guidelines and manuals and ISO
standards
o Academic recognition of LCA Academics are part of the development of LCA
o Policy implications Support for specific regulations, e.g. waste policies
Two international standards for LCA:
ISO (14040/14044:2006): The base of all LCA methodologies. Criticism:
o Too ambiguous and unspecific
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, o Very broad: Standard can be used for any service/product
o Room for interpretation: Can lead to unharmonized, because you can have different
outcomes because of interpretation
ILCD handbook: Detailed guidance on E-LCA. Criticism:
o Being internally inconsistent with respect to attributional and consequential
modelling
Life Cycle Assessment (according to ISO 14040): Assessing the environmental aspects and potential
impacts associated with a product.
Collecting an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs
Evaluating potential impacts associated with inputs and outputs
Interpreting results of inventory and impact assessment
The LCA perspective is: raw material acquisition production use disposal
General impact categories
Resource use
Human health
Ecological consequences
LCA Procedure (according to ISO 14040):
1. Goal and scope definition
2. Inventory analysis
3. Impact assessment
4. Interpretation of results
Different reasons to make use of an LCA:
Decision making
o Product or process design/development
o Purchase
o Implemented in policy, instruments of control
o E.g. Should they use plastic or a glass bottle
Learning
o Production system
o Identification of improvement possibilities
o Selection of environmental performance indicators
Market claims
o LCA-based eco-labelling
o Environmental product declarations
o Benchmarking
4 aspects of goal definition:
What: The intended application
o Comparison environmental impact of products
o Assessment of the impact of a single product to find improvement options
Why: The reasons for carrying out the study
o Reason why you conduct the study (6 types of applications)
General exploration of options
Innovation on company level
Innovation in a sector
Strategic planning
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, Comparison
ISO: “Comparative Assertion, disclosed to the Public”?
For Who: The intended audience
Comparative assertions disclosed to the public?
Example good goal definition:
Comparison of environmental impacts of paint types used for decoration of walls, in order to provide
information that can be used for formulating criteria for ecolabeling. The results will be used by the
Commission for Ecolabeling to develop criteria which promote the most environmentally friendly
products in the product group.
This example includes the aspects: What, Why, and for Who
Definition of the scope should consider and describe different aspects (according to ISO):
The product system(s) to be studied
Functions of product system(s)
Functional unit
System boundary
Allocation procedures
Impact assessment methodology, types of impacts
Interpretation to be used
Can include different scopes:
Temporal scope: This scope has some different requirements
o Input data requirements: E.g. data not older than 10 years
o Minimum time: E.g. heating season (only include summer months)
o Reference/valid year: E.g. Results valid for 2015-2020 (technology is changing
fast which makes this requirement important)
o Temporal scope for impacts: E.g. GWP-20 or GWP-100 (impact will differ using
other time scales; which is relevant depends on goal and scope of the study)
Geographical scope: Geographical region for which data will be collected or results are
valid.
o When different parts of the life cycle occur in different parts of the world (e.g.
Raw material acquisition in Asia and use in Europe)
o E.g. energy mix is different in China than in Germany
Technological scope: Technology determine the collected data
o Technology mix: You cannot compare a system of today with a system of 10
years ago
o This scope should fit with temporal and geographical coverage: Average of the
electricity power stations in The Netherlands around the year 2020
Features of LCA:
LCA is product/function oriented
o Compare multiple products or their functions
It covers all processes (cradle to grave)
It only includes environmental impacts (no social, thus sustainable assessment)
It is a quantitative assessment (as far as possible)
Different types of LCAs:
Attributional LCA (A-LCA): Descriptive assessment, retrospective, also named accounting
LCA, can be about specific life cycle emissions
o E.g. What are the environmental impacts of cooking with natural gas?
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, Consequential LCA (C-LCA): Focused on change (change-oriented), prospective, can be
about a policy-induced change in emissions
o What are the environmental impacts of changing from X to Y?
Difference between Attributional-LCA (A-LCA) and Consequential LCA (C-LCA)
Attributional LCA Consequential LCA
Question the What are the total emissions from the What is the change in total emissions as a result
method aims to processes and material flows directly used in of a marginal change in the production (and
answer the life cycle of a product? consumption and disposal) of a product?
Application - Understanding the emissions directly - Informing consumers and policymakers on the
associated with the life cycle of a product. change in total emissions from a purchasing or
- Consumption-based emissions accounting policy decision (takes direct and indirect effects
(aims to quantify actual emissions from into account).
consumption goods/services).
ALCA is not an appropriate approach for CLCA is not appropriate for consumption-based
quantifying the change in total emissions emissions accounting.
resulting from policies that change the output
of certain products.
System boundary The processes and material flows directly All processes and material flows which are
used in the production, consumption and directly or indirectly affected by a marginal
disposal of the product. change in the output of a product (e.g. through
market effects, substitution, use of constrained
resources etc).
Double-counting No double-counting of emissions. The Double-counting of emissions. The scope of
and accounting for emissions allocated to one product in an different CLCAs may overlap and the same
absolute emissions ALCA will not to allocated to other products emissions may be counted in multiple CLCAs. If
in other ALCAs. In theory, if ALCAs were CLCAs were conducted for all products the sum of
conducted for all products the sum of the the results may be multiple times higher (or
results would equal total emissions from lower) than total emissions from consumption.
consumption
Marginal or ALCA tends to use average data, e.g. the CLCA tends to use marginal data e.g. the marginal
average data average carbon intensity of the electricity carbon intensity of the electricity grid.
grid.
Market effects ALCA does not consider the market effects of CLCA considers the market effects of the
the production and consumption of the production and consumption of the product: A
product. change in the level of output of a product will
affect the market price of the inputs used to
make the product, and also the price of
substitute goods for the product itself, and the
substitutes for its co-products. These price signals
cause changes in the output of other goods,
which in turn may increase or reduce emissions.
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