http://www.dantes.info/Tools&Methods/Environmentalassessment/enviro_asse_lca.

html
Life-Cycle
Assessment (LCA)

What it is
How to perform one

Let’s get started with an example

Christmas trees: Which is better?

The single-use natural tree or the multi-use artificial tree?

Answer at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/business/energy-environment/18tree.html

1
 Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) – also called Life-Cycle Analysis – is a tool
for examining the total environmental impact of a product through every
step of its life – from obtaining raw materials all the way through making it in
a factory, shipping it, selling it in a store, using it in the workplace or at
home, and disposing of it.
(Paul L. Bishop, Pollution Prevention: Fundamentals and Practice, 2000, p. 252)

http://www.environment.gov.au

Steps of an LCA

1. Goal and Scope: Select product or activity

Define purpose of study (comparison? improvement?)
Set boundaries accordingly

2. Inventory Analysis: Identify all relevant inputs and outputs

Quantify and add
(At this stage, data are in terms of energy consumed, water usage,
greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste produced, and the like.)

3. Impact Analysis: Determine the resulting environmental impacts

(At this next stage, the previous data are translated in additional cancer rates,
fish kill, habitat depletion, etc.)

4. Interpretation: Use value judgment to assess or decide

in relation to the objectives of the study.

Most often, an iteration occurs: Following the first interpretation, the product may
be revised or the boundaries modified.

2
Inventory Analysis

After Inventory Analysis:

Do the Impact Analysis
Life-Cycle
Inventory

Human Ecological Resource Social

Health Health Depletion Welfare

Clas sific ation

Stressor Stressor Stressor
Categories Categories Categories

Characterization Characterization Characterization

Methods Methods Methods

Characterization
Impac t Impac t Impac t
Desc riptors Desc riptors Desc riptors

Valuation
Methods / Valuation
Models

Improvement
Assessment

3
 Advantages of performing LCAs:

● Companies can claim one product is better than another.

● LCA inventory process helps to narrow in on the area
where the biggest reductions in environmental emissions can be made.
● LCA can be used to reduce production costs.
● Results of an LCA may qualify the product for an eco-label.

Drawbacks of LCAs:

● Performing an LCA to compare two products is like comparing apples to oranges.

Question: Which among energy consumption and water use imposes
the greater environmental burden?
● Recycling adds complexity to an LCA.
Where should the assessment end?

The diaper LCA study by Franklin Associates, Ltd., 1992

Figure 1 - Total energy used by each diaper type Figure 2 - Volume of solid waste per year.
in one year. Feedstock and process energy Industrial Waste includes waste used to
includes energy used through cotton growing, produce the diaper such as raw material
material processing and diaper manufacture. It production and process, manufacture
also includes energy used and embodied in trimmings, and ash from electricity
bleach and detergent. generation. Post consumer waste refers to
substances thrown out: the diaper itself, child
waste, and packaging.

(Source: http://www.ilea.org/lcas/franklin1992.html - obsolete link now)

4
The diaper controversy illustrates the importance of

- What impact is being considered: Energy? Water? Solid waste?

- Where are the boundaries of the study placed?

When conclusions of an LCA study are easily reversed, it is a close call,

and we may consider the alternatives as about equally impacting the environment.

Most LCAs, however, do lead to definite conclusions.

5
LCA of
polyester blouses

6
Ways to reduce impact of laundering:

- Design fabric that needs no laundering

(silver nanoparticles?)

- Front loading wash machine

(using less water and therefore less hot water)

- Cold wash, air dry

7
A solution to fiber
procurement

8
Paper or Plastic?

9
 Comparison of air emissions and energy consumption in the production of paper and
polyethylene (“plastic”) grocery sacks (Franklin Associates, Ltd., 1990)

Air emissions Energy consumption

(oz/sack) (Btu/sack)
Life cycle stages Paper Plastic Paper Plastic

Materials processing
+ product manufacture 0.0516 0.0146 905 464
+ product use

Raw materials acquisition 0.0510 0.0045 724 185

+ product disposal

So, which one is better?

It is a “no-brainer”!

http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/onlcourse/chm110/outlines/topic12.html

10
Beverage cup:

Waxed paper or styrofoam?

Petroleum-based

OR

Biomass-derived

plastics?

11
 LCA RESULTS
Per kg of material, either conventional polystyrene or biomass-derived PHA
(PHA = poly-hydroxy-alkanoates)

Polystyrene PHA

Raw materials 1.78 kg petroleum 31,218 kJ

Steam 7.0 kg 2.78 kg

Electricity 0.30 kWh 5.32 kWh

Converted into fossil-fuel equivalent (FFE):

Polystyrene PHA
Raw Materials 1.78 kg 0.80 kg
Steam 0.4 kg 0.14 kg
Electricity 0.08 kg 1.45 kg

TOTAL 2.26 kg 2.39 kg

LCA comparison
of two private houses

Source: Life Cycle Analysis of a

Residential Home in Michigan,
report by Steven Blanchard and
Peter Reppe, Center for
Sustainable Systems, University
of Michigan, 1998.

12
 Construction Use Disposal

Streamlining an LCA tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DungeonBypass

 Limit or eliminate life-cycle stages

 Focus on specific environmental impacts or issues

 Eliminate specific inventory parameters

 Do not include small parts (use a mass minimum threshold)

 Limit or eliminate impact assessment

 Use qualitative data instead of hard numbers

 Use surrogate data

 Establish show-stopper criteria

13