Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment as Part of LCM Walter - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment as Part of LCM

Walter Klöpffer LCA Consult & Review

• Int. Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

Frankfurt/M and Graz

LCA

• LCA = Environmental Life Cycle

Assessment

• Full sustainability assessment needs at

least two further dimensions

• 1st SETAC Europe LCA Symposium,

Leiden, December 1991

Hans-Carl von Carlowitz (1713)

Brundtland Report

• Brundtland, G.: Our Common Future.

Oxford University Press. Oxford 1987:

• "Sustainable development is development

that meets the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

United Nations

• United Nations Conference of

Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, 1992

• Sustainability identified as the guiding

principle for the 21th Century

• Reconfirmed in Johannesburg, 2002

Sustainability Assessment of Products, Quantification

SustAss = LCA + LCC + SLCA

• LCA:

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment

• LCC:

LCA-type Life Cycle Costing

• SLCA: Societal Life Cycle Assessment

Prerequisites

• Equal and consistent system boundaries

for the three life-cycle methods, including

• Physical instead of marketing life cycle in

LCC (“cradle-to-grave”)

• Identical or at least compatible LCIs

(SLCA will be more demanding with regard to regional resolution)

Why Life-cycle based?

• Systems approach needed in order to:
• Recognize and avoid trade-offs
• No shifting of problems into the future!*
• Life cycle thinking is a good starting point,

but not enough for LC-based decisions

• Quantitative methods are needed
• Global system boundaries

*especially important for sustainability, aspect of inter-

generation fairness!

Status of LCA

• Standardized method:
• SETAC “Code of conduct” 1993, based on

the Sesimbra workshop

• ISO 14040-14043 (1997-2000)
• ISO 14040+14044 (October 2006)

superseded 14040-14043

• Research and testing needed for difficult

impact categories and indicators, I/O, regionalization, consequential LCA etc.

Status of LCC

• SETAC Europe working group 2003-2005
• Book to be published at CRC Press soon
• SETAC Europe LCC Guideline writing

group started May 2006:

• To be finished for final discussion at the

next SETAC World Congress August 3-7, 2008 in Sidney

• Publication by SETAC in a global

publishing house, e.g. Springer

Status of SLCA

• Although the idea is not new (Ökoinstitut

1987, O`Brian et al. 1996), a steep increase in relevant papers occurred only recently:

• Presentations at the SETAC World

Congress, Portland 2004

• Dreyer et al. 2005; Weidema 2005, 2006;

Norris 2006; Labuschagne and Brent 2006; Hunkeler 2006

SLCA Publications

• Saling et al. 2007; Öko-Institut (PROSA)

2007(?); University of Stuttgart 2007 (?); Grießhammer et al. (UNEP-SETAC task force) 2006

• Jørgensen et al. 2007 (Review about

methodologies for SLCA)

• Still much grey literature, no consensus

how the SLCA of the future will look like

Main Problems

• How to relate quantitatively the existing

indicators to the functional unit of the system

• How to get enough specific data for the

(necessarely) regionalized SLCA

• Decision between many indicators (most
• f them qualitative) or few ones that can

be quantified, e.g. via the LCI work-hours per functional unit (Hunkeler 2006)

One Assessment or three?

Option 1:

• SustAss

= LCA + LCC + SLCA Main advantages: transparency, no weighing, no meaningless “sustainability points” Clear attribution of advantages and disadvantages in comparative product assessments, no compensation (very important!)

One Assessment or three?

Option 2:

• SustAss

= “LCA new” (including LCC and SLCA as additional impact categories in Life Cycle Impact Assessment - LCIA). Advantage: only one LCI Question:

• is Option 2 compatible with ISO 14040 +

14044?

ISO 14040 (2006)

• “LCA addresses the environmental aspects

and potential impacts...throughout a product´s life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end-of-life treatment, recycling and final disposal (i.e. cradle-to-grave)”.

• “LCA typically does not address the economic or

social aspects of a product, but the life cycle approach and methodologies described in this International Standard may be applied to these

• ther aspects.”

Conclusions

• SLCA is a necessary component of

sustainability and thus LCM

• SLCA of product systems is feasible
• Several methods have been proposed

(similar to the proto-LCAs in the 1980s)

• More experience is needed (comparative

studies)

• Final aim: SETAC guideline and/or

standardization by ISO