Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. Greening Business: An online teaching resource Session 3 Session 3: Life Cycle Analysis Suggested session outline

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Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. What is Life Cycle Analysis? Life Cycle Analysis involves ‘cradle to grave’ considerations (Photo: Stephen Whitfield)

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. Why consider Life Cycle Analysis? ?

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. Barriers to adopting a LCA approach There are several barriers to adopting a LCA approach (Photo: Zoe Robinson)

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. Life Cycle Analysis considerations Impact Resource extraction Manufacturing Use Disposal Transport 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. LCA considerations Raw materials and energy Extraction and processing of raw materials Manufacture Distribution and retailing Use, reuse & maintenance Waste management Functional outputs; emissions to air, water, land Adapted from IEMA (2005)

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. Impacts A wide range of impacts can be considered in an LCA (Source: Foto43 (flickr.com))

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. The limitations of LCA Setting boundaries is an important part of designing an achievable LCA

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. Reporting on a LCA

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 2) Collecting the data (Inventory analysis) Process stage Emission type (mg) Stage 1Stage 2Stage 3Total Dust CO CO 2 470,0002,100,00021, x 10 6 SO x NO x HCl26<1-26 Methane Example of an inventory table relating to release to air from the manufacture of 1 kg of product X

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 3) Assessing the impact Examples of impact categories and indicators Example impact categories Example Indicator Global climate changeGlobal warming potential (GWP) in CO 2 equivalents AcidificationLoading of acidification potential as H + equivalents EutrophicationLoading of nutrients and organic substances that may decrease oxygen Photochemical smogLoading of VOC emissions as photochemical ozone formation potential and NO x Human toxicityNo agreed indicator - may include carcinogens etc. ResourcesDepletion rate of each mineral resource

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. Production considerations Transportation of raw material may be just one of many production considerations in an LCA

Dr Zoe Robinson, Keele University, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. 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, Greening Business: An online teaching resource. References 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 Ecocycle: newsletter covering LCA developments including evaluation of LCA software tools IEMA (2005) Environmental Management in Organizations. Earthscan. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. Pacific Institute (2007) Hummer versus Prius. “Dust to dust” report misleads the media and public with bad science Rocky Mountain Institute (undated) Checking Dust to Dust assumptions about the Prius and Hummer 01_DustToDust.pdfhttp:// 01_DustToDust.pdf Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) SimaPro LCA software Unilever (2009). Life Cycle Assessment (contains links to several LCA reports) ent/ ent/