Welcome to a course in

Life Cycle Assessment

Centre for Environmental Strategies Research
Anna Bjrklund and Gran Finnveden
 Whats the environmental impact of a PET
bottle?
Which is better; PET bottles,glass bottles, or
aluminium cans?
Energy &
material Emissions

Raw material Manufacture Use Waste

acquisition management

LCA covers the entire life cycle, from cradle-to-grave

LCA calculates energy and resource use, emissions,
environment and health impacts
The life cycle model
Raw material
acquisition Resources
(e.g. raw
Process materials,
energy,land)

Transport

Manufacture
Emissions
to air,
Use water,
ground
Waste
management
 Definition of LCA
LCA is a technique for assessing environmental aspects and
potential impacts of a product, by:
-compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs of a
product system;
-evaluating potential environmental impacts associated with
those inputs and outputs;
-interpreting the results.

(ISO 14040)
 Why LCA?
System focus, avoids sub-optimization and
problem shifting.
Structured, quantitative method to analyse
complex systems.
 Short LCA history
Waste debate and oil crisis strong incentives.
1969: First LCA? Resource and Environmental Profile Analysis
(REPA) of beverage packaging, commissioned by Coca Cola. (Similar
contemporary studies in UK, Germany, Sweden)
1980s: Growing use of LCA, applied to packaging. Mostly know to
researchers.
1991: The term LCA was defined.
1996: First scientific LCA journal.
1997: First ISO standard.
Today: LCA finds it way to public policy, design, decision making,
education.
 Applications of LCA
Product/process design, development, improvement.
Strategic planning (e.g. in companies, municipalities)
Public policy
Learning
Eco-labelling
Environmental produc declaration
Marketing
 Some applications
Environmental Systems Analysis of Pig Production - The Impact of
Feed Choice
Life Cycle Assessments for Waste
Life Cycle Assessment of a Personal Computer and its Effective
Recycling Rate
Life Cycle Assessment of the District Heat Distribution System
Life Cycle Assessment of the Mobile Communication System UMTS:
Towards Eco-efficient Systems
LCA of Multicrystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Systems
Life Cycle Assessment of Kerosene Used in Aviation
Life Cycle Assessment of Wood Floor Coverings
LCA methodology in brief
Life cycle assessment framework

Goal
and scope
definition

Inventory
analysis Interpretation

Impact
assessment

Source: ISO 14040

 ISO 14000
Environmental management
ISO 14040: LCA - Principles and framework
ISO 14041: LCA - Goal and scope definition and
inventory analysis
ISO 14042: LCA - Life cycle impact assessment
ISO 14043: LCA - Life cycle interpretation
ISO 14047: LCA - Examples of application of
ISO 14042
ISO 14048: LCA - Data documentation format
ISO 14049: LCA - Examples of application of
ISO 14041
 Goal and scope definition
Goal:
purpose
intended application
intended audience
Scope (specification of model):
studied product (or service)
system boundaries: processes to include, time, place
types of impacts
data requirements
 Goal of Danish packaging LCA
Purpose: Update LCA comparing potential environmental
impact of packaging systems.
Application: Basis for decisions on packaging systems in
Denmark.
Audience: General publication (external).
Scope of Danish packaging study
Functional unit: Packaging and distribution of 1000 litres
beer or softdrink.
System boundaries:
Bottles or cans that are filled and sold in Denmark,
secondary packaging (boxes, pallets, etc.),
all processes contributing significantly to the life cycle impacts
 Inventory
Draw flow chart of product system.
Collect data of resource use and emissions of all processes
Data sources: LCA databases, reports, scientific papers,
on-site investigation, expert knowledge, qualified guesses
Build system model (computerised in e.g. generic LCA
tool, Excel, other)
Calculate resource use and emissions of studied product.
Present results in charts and tables.
Iterative procedure!
 Inventories in
Danish packaging study
Inventories of:
refillable glass bottles
disposable glass bottles
aluminium cans
steel cans
refillable PET bottles
disposable PET bottles
 Process tree glass bottle
Retail

Filling Use
w. soda

Manufacture Waste management

glass bottle

Prod. Prod. Prod. Recycling

soda lime sand

Raw Raw Raw Landfill

material material material
extract. extract. extract.
 Impact assessment
Classification: Sorts inventory parameters according to
type of environemtal impact.
Characterisation: Translates inventory results (emissions,
resource use) to potential environmental impact.
Example: Global warming potential (according to
EDIP)
1 CH4 = 25 CO2 equivalents
1 N2O = 320 CO2 equivalents
1 CO = 2 CO2 equivalents
 Impact assessment in Danish
packaging study
EDIP (Danish method)
Global warming
Ozone depletion
Acidification
Eutrophication
Photochemical smog
Ecotoxicity: water chronic/acute, soil
Human toxicity: air, water, soil
Waste: bulk, hazardous, radioactive
Slags/ashes
Resources
 Optional steps
Normalisation: Relates each impact of the product system
to impacts of society as a whole. Gives perspective of
relative importance.
Weighting: Relates different impacts to each other, based
on subjective values.