Evaluating Stormwater Management Devices— the Role of Life Cycle Assessment Robbie Andrew 1 and Eva-Terezia Vesely 2 1 NZ Centre for Ecological Economics, Palmerston North 2 Landcare Research, Auckland

Summary Life cycle assessment (LCA) Rain gardens Site Analysis Conclusions / Future work

Today’s Purpose Address the following: General perception is that rain gardens are more env friendly Is LCA the tool for the job? Indirect effects and impacts are often ignored

Life Cycle Assessment (1) “Cradle to Grave” ISO series

LCA: Sounds useful… An objective approach ISO Direct and Indirect impacts Bottom-up International data gathering effort

LCA: But… Assumes linearity –Production of 2kg of product impacts environment twice as much as production of 1kg System boundary critical –Conclusions can strongly depend on how much you include in the analysis

The 3 Stages of LCA Goal and Scope Definition Inventory Analysis Impact Assessment

An Application Goal: To compare the life-cycle environmental impact of a rain garden with that of an equivalent conventional stormwater device

Study Site North Shore City Design incomplete: difficulties with sloping terrain  Cost

Raingarden: Life Cycle Screenshot from GaBi 4

Raingarden: Production

Raingarden: Use

Raingarden: Disposal

This is a Work in Progress Much of initial work complete Data collection to continue Monitoring data to be used Impact Assessment Conclusions / Future Work

Acknowledgements Surya Pandey and Robyn Simcock of Landcare Research Barbara Nebel of Forest Research Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology