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

life cycle based sustainability assessment as part of lcm
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Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment as Part of LCM Walter - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment as Part of LCM Walter Klpffer LCA Consult & Review Int. Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Frankfurt/M and Graz LCA LCA = Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Full sustainability


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SLIDE 1

Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment as Part of LCM

Walter Klöpffer LCA Consult & Review

  • Int. Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

Frankfurt/M and Graz

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SLIDE 2

LCA

  • LCA = Environmental Life Cycle

Assessment

  • Full sustainability assessment needs at

least two further dimensions

  • 1st SETAC Europe LCA Symposium,

Leiden, December 1991

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SLIDE 3

Hans-Carl von Carlowitz (1713)

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SLIDE 4

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"

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SLIDE 5

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
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SLIDE 6
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SLIDE 7

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
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SLIDE 8

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)

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SLIDE 9

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!

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SLIDE 10

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.

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SLIDE 11

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

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SLIDE 12

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

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SLIDE 13

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

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SLIDE 14

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)

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SLIDE 15

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!)

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SLIDE 16

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?

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SLIDE 17

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.”
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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