1. Life Cycle Assessment: a tool to measure sustainability: A way to think
Rita Schenck
Institute for Environmental Research & Education
American Center for Life Cycle Assessment
6 March 2009

2. IERE Background
IERE is environmental not-for-profit founded in 1997 & headquartered on Vashon Island
Its mission is to support fact-based environmental decision-making
Staff is primarily environmental scientists
The American Center for Life Cycle Assessment is its flagship program: this is the LCA society for the USA
Most of the work of IERE is on the national & international level. All of it is related to LCA.
Local work:
Community energy independence (Vashon Island)
Development of clean technology program at South Seattle Community College
LCA studies of apples & wheat in conjunction with WSU
City of Seattle WEB training
Broad-based funding: grants, donations, membership fees, fee-for-service, foundations, individuals, corporations & government

3. Life Cycle Assessment: Inputs & Outputs of Any Product System
Raw
Material
Extraction
Manufacturing, Production
Distribution ,
Transportation
Operations and Maintenance
Recycle and Waste Management
Inputs
(resources)
energy,
materials
Outputs
air and water
emissions,
wastes
Systems Thinking is Essential

4. Life Cycle Assessment Measures All Impact Categories
Toxicity
Ozone Depletion
Fossil Fuel Depletion
Acidification
Smog
Eutrophication
Water Resource Depletion
Climate Change

5. Raw Materials Extraction

6. Production/Manufacture

7. Transport

8. Use & Maintenance
Where the system function happens

9. Disposal West Point Treatment Plant, Seattle
Landfill, Minnesota
Disposal West Point Treatment Plant, Seattle

10. Produce & transport fuel
Life Cycle Thinking
Re-seed
Produce & transport fuel
Use Herbicide
Use Herbicide
Get & Treat Water
Compost clippings
Grow Seed & Transport
Mow the Lawn
Fertilize Lawn
Kill Trees
Water the Lawn
The concept imbedded here is the perhaps the most important for you to learn. Our decisions have implications: large and small, direct and indirect. Once you make a decision, a whole domino effect is put into motion. This is an example. Suppose we decide to plant a lawn. What happens? You need to have seed and fertilizer and water. Once the lawn is planted it needs to be mowed and the clippings managed. Direct impacts are shown on the left, and indirect impacts are shown on the right (not all shown). Direct effects are the things that happen right at the lawn. For example, you mow the lawn and that uses fuel. An indirect effect is one that happens away from the lawn. To mow the lawn you need to have the fuel to run the mower and you have air emissions when you do that. Extracting and manufacturing the fuel are indirect or upstream effects. Another direct effect is that you water the lawn: you use water. The indirect effect is all the upstream stuff needed to create treated water– with all the energy and chemicals that go into treating it.
Methane from
Composting
CO2 from Mower
Plant a Lawn
N2O emissions &
Eutrophy Sound

11. ISO and the 14040 series 14040 series are guidance on how to do LCA’s
ISO makes voluntary standards to support international trade: ISO is sister organization of WTO
14040 series are guidance on how to do LCA’s
ISO is the technical standard for how to do an LCA
ISO14025 is the standard on how to develop environmental product declarations

12. Phases of a Life Cycle Assessment
Goal
and
Scope
Impact Assessment
Inventory Analysis
Interpretation

13. System for Wooden Chairs
System function: child school chair useful for 20 years: unit = 1 chair
System for Wooden Chairs
System Boundary
Grow Trees
Harvest
Trees
Mill Wood
Make Glue
Make fasteners
Make
Varnish
Extract petroleum
Assemble
Chair
Varnish Chair
Exercise: What are the environmental issues (brainstorm)
Transport
Chair
Make
Electricity
Manufacture Diesel
Use
Chairs
Dispose of Chairs

14. Inventory of a unit process
Flows to and from the Technosphere
Flows to and from the Ecosphere
Unit
Process

15. FLOWS: Inputs and Outputs
Water
COD
TDS
TSS
BOD (5,7,10)
Flow
Temperature
NH3 (as N)
TKN (as N)
NO3, NO2 (as N)
PAH’s
Phosphates (as P) Cu Ni As Cd Cr Pb Hg
Resources
Electricity (location)
Water (location & type)
Fuel (in ground)
Minerals (in ground)
Biomass (harvested)
Land use (area & location)
Air
CO2 CO
PM (10, 2.5)
CH4
SOX
NOX
NH3 Hg Pb
VOC (NM)
Dioxin
PAH’s
Wastes
Solid waste
Radioactive Waste (high, low, medium)
Hazardous Waste

16. On site Generation System Boundary Transport Water Production &
Processing
Generation
Pollution
Control
Material Storage &
Handling
Maintenance
Transmission
Distribution
Resource Extraction
Manufacturing
Distributed generation
Construction &
Demolition
Disposal
Fleet Operations
System Boundary

17. Not all Energy is the Same
Energy Source Grams CO Equivalents/kWh
Coal
Natural Gas
Hydro
Nuclear
Wind
Tidal
Solar – 100
Seattle’s electric grid is dominated by hydro– this gives us a leg up for climate issues. In Washington State’s carbon footprint is dominated by transportation fuels, not electricity use. In general, diesel engines are about 25% more efficient than gasoline internal combustion engines.

18. Environmental Problems (Impact Categories)
Pollution Problems
Climate Change
Stratospheric Ozone
Smog
Acid Deposition
Eutrophication
Toxicity
Biohazards
Resource Problems
Fossil Fuels
Water Depletion
Mineral Depletion
Bio-resource Depletion
Land & Biodiversity
Soil Depletion
Greenwashing “solutions”
exchange one problem for another

19. Life Cycle Impact Assessment
Climate Change
Measures Global Warming Potential according to the model of the intergovernmental panel on climate change
The Climate Change results for an LCA are called a carbon footprint
This is an example of how life cycle impact assessment is performed.
IPCC is Predicting global agricultural collapse if we do not reduce GHG emissions by 80% in 40 years

20. Land Use/Biodiversity
Most parks are working to introduce biodiversity into our lives. This is a critical issue because we are rapidly decreasing the amount of natural land surface. In particular, forests are decreasing 0.5% per year– and forests are the source of our oxygen.
40% of the land surface
of the globe is in agricultural use
0.5% of forests lost per year

21. Eutrophication

22. Here is a familiar example of eutrophication
Here is a familiar example of eutrophication. Of course Frosh Pond at UW is not a natural body of water but see how green it is!

23. Acidification
1968
1908
Photos courtesy of Herr Schmidt-Thomsen

24. 70% of the world’s freshwater is used for irrigation
Water Depletion
Most of the world freshwater supply is used for irrigation. This is a picture of the Colorado river, where it is supposed to reach the ocean. The Rio Grande does not reach the ocean any longer either. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the amount of freshwater flowing into the Sound has decreased 10% in the last 40 years. Are we next?
70% of the world’s freshwater is used for irrigation

25. Water Resources Less than 2% of all Earth’s Water is Fresh:
Fresh water is precious, needed for all land life. With climate change our freshwater resources are shrinking.
Less than 2% of all Earth’s
Water is Fresh:
Most of that is frozen
Water flow into Puget Sound has dropped 10%

26. Everyone understands the concepts of toxicity
Everyone understands the concepts of toxicity. We are exposed to toxic materials all the time every day, but our choices can reduce the use and hence the exposure we all experience.

27. Uses of LCA LCA DfE Vendor Management Annual Reports Emissions Trading
Product
Stewardship
Public Policy
Marketing & Labels
EMS

28. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
Ecolabels that disclose LCA performance
Do not have performance limits (anyone can play)
Designed for direct comparisons between products (like a nutrition label)
Much used in Europe
In France by 2011, all products must have them
Congress considering legislation to form a national EPD system

29. EPD: the outcome of an LCA
Rosendahl Farm Pork Ecoprofile
Impact Category
% of USA Avg.
Farm Result
Unit per Pound Meat
Climate Change 40
3.8
lbs CO2 equivalents
Acidification 66
0.1
lbs SO2 equivalents
Eutrophication
107
0.065
lbs PO4 equivalents
Photochemical Smog 12
0.0
lbs ozone equivalents
Aquatic Toxicity 42
lbs water polluted
Fossil Fuel Depletion 92
2.0
lbs oil equivalents

30. WalMart Uses LCA to Manage its Supply Chain
Wal-Mart is using LCA as the basis of its entire sustainability program
They are already making purchasing decisions based in part on the LCA information provided by materials manufacturing
Carbon footprints are being done on a large number of products

31. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program
Two executive orders supporting “green Purchasing” were written during Clinton Administration
Required all U.S. government purchasing to take into account environmental preferability of products: Life cycle approach required
Program Managed through the EPA
General Services Administration and many other parts of U.S. Government have programs
For More Info see

32. Exciting stuff nearby
King County Green Buildings Ordinance requires a lifecycle approach for infrastructure
WA CTED (Division of Community Trade and Economic Development) is proposing the State use LCA for policy-making
Carbon footprinting is getting more and more common.

33. Life Cycle Thinking at Home: Paper vs. Plastic Grocery Bags
CH4 emission

34. Plastic Bags
No emissions

35. Paper vs. Plastic
Paper is much heavier than plastic, so transport is more important
Plastic takes sequestered carbon (fossil fuels) and puts it into another carbon sequestration location (the landfill)
Paper takes sequestered carbon (the forest) and converts it into methane (in the landfill)
Result: Paper grocery bags are 2 to 10 times more polluting than plastic bags

36. Best Solution Reused plastic grocery bags
Use it once a week, save 33 kgs CO2 per year over paper bags

37. Take-home for LCA
The methods and knowledge already exist to determine the environmental outcomes of any decision.
Life Cycle Assessment is technically powerful, and the outcomes are clear and easy to understand.
LCA is holistic and provides a way to think about our environmental decisions.
There are many organizations using LCA already– more every day, for many different purposes.
You can use life cycle thinking to guide everyday decisions

38. More information Check out www.lcacenter.org
Classes are available through UW and online from Harvard; soon available through Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Curriculum objectives for LCA can be found at
Life cycle inventory at
Check out BEES from NIST