22ETC15D Introduction to sustainable Engineering

MODULE-3
LCA

Defining Life cycle Assessment

Life cycle assessment determines the environmental impacts of products,

processes or services, through production, usage, and disposal.

A systematic set of procedures for compiling and examining the inputs and outputs of materials and
energy and the associated environmental impacts directly attributable to the functioning of a product or
service system throughout its life cycle.

LifeCycle:
Consecutive and interlinked stages of a product or service system, from the extraction of natural
resources to the final disposal.

- ISO 14040.2 Draft: Life Cycle Assessment - Principles and Guidelines

Life Cycle Assessment is a process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a
product, process, or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes
released to the environment; to assess the impact of those energy and materials used and releases to the

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environment; and to identify and evaluate opportunities to affect environmental improvements. The
assessment includes the entire life cycle of the product, process or activity, encompassing, extracting
and processing raw materials; manufacturing, transportation and distribution; use, re-use, maintenance;
recycling, and final disposal.

- Guidelines for Life-Cycle Assessment: A 'Code of Practice', SETAC, Brussels

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used as a tool to assess the environmental impacts of a product,
process or activity throughout its life cycle; from the extraction of raw materials through to processing,
transport, use and disposal. In its early days it was primarily used for product comparisons, for example
to compare the environmental impacts of disposable and reusable products. Today its applications
include government policy, strategic planning, marketing, consumer education, process improvement
and product design. It is also used as the basis of eco-labelling and consumer education programs
throughout the world.

- Life Cycle Assessment: How Relevant is it to Australia? M. Demmers and H. Lewis

Life Cycle Assessment or LCA can be defined as a systematic inventory and analysis of the
environmental effect that is caused by a product or process starting from the extraction of raw materials,
production, use, etc. up to the waste treatment. For each of these steps there will be made an inventory
of the use of material and energy and the emissions to the environment. With this inventory an
environmental profile will be set up, which makes it possible to identify the weak points in the lifecycle
of the system studied. These weak points are the focal points for improving the system from an
environmental point of view.

- VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research)

Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) involve cradle-to-grave analyses of production systems and provide
comprehensive evaluations of all upstream and downstream energy inputs and multimedia
environmental emissions. LCAs can be costly and time-consuming, thus limiting their use as analysis
techniques in both the public and private sectors. Streamlined techniques for conducting LCAs are
needed to lower the cost and time involved with LCA and to encourage a broader audience to begin
using LCA.

- Research Triangle Institute (RTI)

Life-cycle assessment has emerged as a valuable decision-support tool for both policy makers
and industry in assessing the cradle-to-grave impacts of a product or process. Three forces are driving
this evolution. First, government regulations are moving in the direction of "life-cycle accountability;"
the notion that a manufacturer is responsible not only for direct production impacts, but also for impacts
associated with product inputs, use, transport, and disposal. Second, business is participating in
voluntary initiatives which contain LCA and product stewardship components. These include, for
example, ISO 14000 and the Chemical Manufacturer Association's Responsible Care Program, both of
which seek to foster continuous improvement through better environmental management systems.
Third, environmental "preferability" has emerged as a criterion in both consumer markets and

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government procurement guidelines. Together these developments have placed LCA in a central role
as a tool for identifying cradle-to-grave impacts both of products and the materials from which they are
made.

The "life-cycle" or "cradle-to-grave" impacts include the extraction of raw materials; the
processing, manufacturing, and fabrication of the product; the transportation or distribution of the
product to the consumer; the use of the product by the consumer; and the disposal or recovery of the
product after its useful life.

There are four linked components of LCA:

1. Goal and scope

2. Inventory

3. Impact assessment

4. Improvement assessment

1. Goal and scope of an LCA

What are we looking at? The point at which all decisions are made about what to include in the study, why
it’s being carried out, the “functional unit” that is being focused on, the different systems that need to be
investigated, as well as the boundaries – it’s often not practical (or possible) to measure every single input
and output and in the cases where there is good reason to think they are small or where they are deemed to
be beyond the scope of what you are interested in, they are left out. Every LCA has boundaries. This is also
the point where you ask what data do you need, what are your data quality requirements, what methods will
you use to assess impact, to interpret, and how you will report it.

Another task at this point involves “screening”, which is the preliminary execution of the LCA and any
adjustment in the plan.

2. Inventory
Every LCA has an inventory. This is the data that you are collecting. The inventory includes things like
emissions, energy requirements and material flows for each process involved. These are the flows into and
out of the system you are studying. The data of these are adjusted depending on the functional unit you’re
looking at.

This is known as a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)

This can be extremely complex because it can involve dozens of separate processes, as well as hundreds of
tracked substances. This is where most of the complexity of an LCA is involved.

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3. Impact Assessment
The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is where the impacts on the environment are calculated. The
categories of impacts are chosen and the impacts on them based on the flow of emissions, energy and material
from the inventory, are assessed.

There are lots of different types of impacts (depletion of abiotic resources, global warming, ozone layer
depletion, acidification, etc) so this stage accounts for all the different impacts that have been chosen.

4. Improvement Assessment
Finally, the results are analysed in the context of the goal and scope of the study set out at the beginning.
What have we learned about the system from this LCA? This is where recommendations are typically
included.

What Is An Environmental Life Cycle

Assessment?
There’s more than one type of LCA as it happens, but they all do the same thing: measure environmental
impacts of a product, service or material. They are as close to the gold standard of understanding the
environmental consequences of a product as researchers can currently get. An LCA is a standardised method
to quantitatively assess environmental impacts.

Ultimately, an LCA is interested in what we have to take from the environment, in terms of raw materials
and energy, and what impact the product then has on the environment during its use (or the service, or the
material). It’s called “life cycle” because it usually takes the entire existence of the product into account:
from the raw material stage of putting the product together, through the use phase where the service, material
or product serves its’ purpose, to the “end-of-life” stage where the product is broken down in whatever
fashion occurs.

There have been LCAs on all manner of things from diapers to jet engines, on entire systems like recycling,
and on comparing materials like glass versus plastic.

What’s The Purpose Of A Life Cycle

Assessment?
The stated purpose of an LCA is to find the environmental impacts of a product, service or material, typically
so some decision can be made in the design of that item or in the formulation of some policy. It might be
that different alternative ways of creating a product or providing a service are being compared to see which
has a lower environmental impact.

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It is very hard for individuals to assess the actual environmental impacts of a product or service without
quantifying the inputs and outputs as is done in an LCA. LCAs thus permit us to quantify environmental
impacts and make better environmental decisions. By quantifying the environmental impacts at the different
stages of producing the product or service, stakeholders may understand what changes to make at the distinct
stages to improve environmental outcomes overall.

What Can An LCA Be Used For?

An LCA can be used by different people for different things. But it’s all about environmental impact and
performance.

Design: what changes can we make to the product to lessen its environmental impact?

Purchasing: which product has the least environmental impact?

Marketing: is this product “greener” than a competitors?

Benchmarking: how’s our company doing next to all the others in our industry?

Tracking: how’s our environmental performance doing this year compared with last years?

Policy: what initiatives will help improve overall environmental outcomes?

Who Conducts an LCA?

An LCA is no small feat. When they were first developed they could take years and millions of pounds to
complete, however a lot of knowledge has accumulated over the years meaning they’re a little easier to do
now. They can still take tens of thousands of pounds and can be done in months. It does vary a lot depending
on the scope however!

Most LCAs require outside experts. Consultants who have a special set of skills understanding areas like
industrial processes, transport modelling, human and ecological toxicity, and have knowledge of existing
data sources.

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Typically, a team is assembled who will rely on the outside experts to conduct the LCA, but will need to
give the experts access to staff across their organisation who are involved with different aspects of the
product or service.

The quality of the LCA depends very much on how well this wider network of individuals can work together.

Stakeholders outside of the organisation may also be involved, such as customers, competitors, NGOs and
academics. If the decision has been made to do consult with stakeholders, it’s a good idea to consult with
these stakeholders at the beginning stages of the study, while it is being designed. This gives opportunity to
ensure all the right questions are being asked and the correct data is being collected.

Many people are involved and play different roles such as:

• Environmental expert: typically managing the project, serving as technical resource, and conducting
the project.
• Engineer: expert on the engineering management systems, accessing engineering data, etc.
• Manufacturing/operations: provide operational information
• Purchasing: ensure data format can support purchasing decisions, support the team in choosing a
practitioner, etc.
• Others such as the marketing team and outside stakeholders.

A word on LCA International Standards

There are now international standards (ISO 14040 and others) that place strict limits on what qualifies as an
LCA, and what you can and can’t do.

Are there different types of LCA?

In short, yes. As per the ISO standards however, not all of these will meet them.

Conceptual LCA: very basic level looking at qualitative inventory, to create flow diagrams and understand,
for example, which components have the highest relative environmental impact.

Simplified LCA: Basically a proper LCA but using more generic data and standard modules for energy
production. A simplified assessment that focuses on the most important environmental aspects, and
thoroughly assesses the reliability of the results.

Detailed LCA: The full process of in-depth data collection, highly specific to the product in question.

LCA Standards: ISO 14040 and ISO 14044

The standards for producing an LCA are ISO 14040 (which covers principles and frameworks)
and ISO 14044 (which covers requirements and guidelines). In order for an LCA to be verified,
the results are reviewed by a neutral third party. This way, the results can be compared to other
studies and can be relied upon to show an accurate picture of environmental impact. It is these
standards, the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, that ensure compliance. Since the standards make

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the LCA results reliable, businesses can confidently factor in the information for setting energy
efficiency or emission reduction targets.

Why conduct an LCA?

Consumers and governments are demanding higher attention to resource efficiency and
social responsibility. Therefore, it can be extremely advantageous for businesses to measure
and market the environmental impacts of their products and services.

An LCA is a great tool for identifying “hot spots” for efficient investments along a supply
chain. For instance, materials that are particularly impactful to the environment, or use a high
amount of energy, can be seen clearly in the LCA results. This information is then used to
select more efficient alternatives, resulting in direct or long-term cost savings.

It is becoming more important to understand the life cycle impact of products and services in
order to improve efficiencies and set impact reduction goals. Life Cycle Assessment is a critical
part of any sustainability strategy and supports a variety of calculations including:

• Carbon Footprint (CF)

• Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
• Eco-efficiency Analysis (EEA)

The results of an LCA can be used in many different ways. For example:

• To report the environmental impact of your product to your stakeholders by means of a report
or a commercial leaflet.
• To support your marketing department by providing useful environmental information which
can strengthen your product value proposition.
• To help your organisation to identify the hotspots in the value chain of a product.
• To help in supporting future improvements in product design.
• To allow you to make an environmental claim (for example an EPD or self-declared claim).

Overall, it supports and enhances your sustainability strategy by contributing credible metrics
to show how your company is developing and improving the sustainability of your product
portfolio.
Most common types of LCA

Depending on the scope of the study and its intended application, e.g. internal vs external
communication, the level of detail of an LCA can differ even though, according to the life cycle
assessment frameworks and standards ISO 14040/ISO 14044, there is no differentiation among
the types of LCA. In practice, LCA’s can be divided based on their level of description: ranging
from a high-level screening to a full in-depth assessment.

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• LCA screening studies: a screening LCA provides a high-level overview of the major
impacts or “hot spots” of the different phases of a product life cycle. It provides sufficient
environmental insights to identify and understand the main drivers of high impacts within the
value chain, as well as the aspects that require deeper examination.

LCA screenings are useful for an organisation to evaluate the environmental footprint of its
products. A screening study is used to identify opportunities for environmental impact
reduction within the value chain, and also serves to obtain environmental knowledge about a
product and thus support eco-design. LCA screenings are also used for internal communication,
and for sharing environmental information with business partners.

• In-depth LCA studies: this LCA is much more detailed and descriptive than a screening
study, and aims to provide a comprehensive and complete analysis of the product under study.
Most of the time this type of LCA complies with ISO 14040/44 standards and may include a
3rd party review and verification.

In-depth LCAs are useful for an organisation to externally communicate (B2B, B2C) their
environmental impact and to make environmental declarations and claims about their products.
Examples of the latter are ISO type III environmental claims such as EPDs. Moreover, in-depth
LCAs can also be used to make comparisons between products serving the same functions.

• Comparative LCA studies: according to the ISO standards, when an in-depth LCA is
completed with the purpose of making public comparative assertions and claims that an
organisation’s product is environmentally better than a competitor’s, a comparative LCA is
compulsory. Comparative LCAs have additional requirements to guarantee the full
comparability of products and must include a critical review by an external review panel.

TYPES OF LCA There are three different types of LCA.

They are:

i) Conceptual LCA – Life Cycle Thinking,

ii) Simplified LCA;

and iii) Detailed LCA.

The different types can be used in different ways and have strengths and weaknesses, depending upon
the context in which they are used. Table 1 below illustrates how the differing LCA types can be used
and which types are used for preferred options.

1.Conceptual LCA:

The conceptual LCA is the simplest form of LCA and is used at a very basic level to make an
assessment of environmental aspects, based upon a limited and usually qualitative inventory. The results
of a conceptual LCA can usually be presented using qualitative statements, graphics, flow diagrams or
simple scoring systems which indicate which components or materials have the largest environmental
impacts and why.

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The results of Conceptual LCAs are not suitable for marketing purposes or for public dissemination.
They may, however, help decision makers identify which products have a competitive advantage in
terms of reduced environmental impacts. The term, “Life Cycle Thinking” is sometimes used instead
of “Conceptual LCA” (UNEP-DTIE, 2003).

2.Simplified LCA :

Simplified LCA applies the LCA method for a screening assessment (i.e. covering the whole life cycle).
But it does so superficially by using generic data and standard modules for energy production. This is
followed by a simplified assessment that focuses on the most important environmental aspects and/or
stages of the life cycle and a thorough assessment of the reliability of the results. Simplification of LCA
consists of three stages: * Screening: Identifying those parts of the system (life cycle) or of the
elementary flows that are either important or have data gaps; * Simplifying: Using the findings of the
screening in order to focus further work on the important parts of the system or the elementary flows;
and * Assessing reliability: Checking that simplifying does not significantly reduce the reliability of the
overall result.

3. Detailed LCA

Detailed LCAs involve the full process of undertaking LCAs and require extensive and in-depth, data
collection, specifically focussed upon the target of the LCA, which if only available generically, must
be collected specifically on the product or service under review.

There are also many LCA-related assessments, such as:

• Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs, a more reader-friendly document
used for comparing products)
• Studies compliant with a product- or sector-specific standard such as the Product
Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organizational Environmental Footprint
(OEF)

• Single-issues analyses like the carbon- or water footprint

• Social LCA

• Organizational LCA

• Long-term monitoring studies.

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22ETC15D Introduction to sustainable Engineering

There are also many LCA-related assessments, such as:

• Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs, a more reader-friendly document
used for comparing products)
• Studies compliant with a product- or sector-specific standard such as the Product
Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organizational Environmental Footprint
(OEF)

• Single-issues analyses like the carbon- or water footprint

• Social LCA

• Organizational LCA

• Long-term monitoring studies.

Life cycle assessment vs other approaches

While an LCA is very much based on data and captures the mind of the audience; other
approaches rely more on capturing the hearts of audiences. The two most well-known life
cycle approaches apart from LCA are:
1. Cradle to cradle (materials used in production are fully reusable in the next life cycle)

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2. Circular economy (aimed at ‘closing the loop’ and preventing waste)

1. Cradle to cradle
The cradle-to-cradle certification system is about qualitative visions and storytelling. It uses
qualitative criteria to judge whether a product can be certified. Criteria include material
health, material reuse, renewable energy and carbon management, water stewardship and
social fairness. The lowest score on these criteria becomes the product’s overall mark. In
contrast to LCA, cradle to cradle does not measure whether a certified product actually has a
lower overall environmental impact. So, a cradle to cradle-certified product may end up
having a shifted or even increased burden.

2. Circular economy
The circular economy is an inspirational strategy for creating value for the economy, society
and business while minimizing resource use and environmental impacts through reducing,
reusing, and recycling. The circularity of materials is looked at with a Material Circularity
Indicator (MCI). Combine both the robustness of the LCA methodology and the inspirational
principles of the MCI and the circular economy and you have a holistic approach for
innovation.

LCA is an iterative methodology, where you refine things as you go along. For instance,
the first round of analysis may tell you that you need more data. Or the results of the
assessment or your interpretation may nudge you to revise your goal and scope. In this sense,
every LCA you do not only gives you valuable advice to make changes in your business but
also tells you how to best plan your next LCA to learn even more.

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IMITATIONS OF LCA

Though the core characteristic of LCA is its ‘holistic’ nature, which is its major strength, and
at the same time, it has limitations also. Most importantly, LCA cannot address localized
impacts. It is possible to scale down some of the results and identify the regions in which certain
emissions take place, after which differences in the sensitivity of these regions can be taken
into account in the context of LCA.

LCA is typically a steady-state, rather than a dynamic, approach. However, future

technological developments are increasingly being taken into account in more detailed LCA
studies. In general, LCA regards all processes of production as linear, both in the economy
and in the environment. Again, some progress is being made in reducing this limitation, but at
heart, LCA is a tool based on linear modelling. It focuses on the environmental aspects of
products, but says nothing about their economic, social and other characteristics. A further
limitation can lie in the availability of data, which is more challenging.

IMPLICATIONS FOR EXTENSION

The main advantage of this approach lies in its ability to easily detect deferrals of
environmental loads in the chain. In general, the main aim of using LCA is to reduce the
environmental impact of products by guiding the decision making process towards more
sustainable solutions. Within the life cycle of a certain product, there is a sequential order of
life cycle stages, each one of these phases consumes a certain amount of energy, minerals,
water, etc., that subsequently induces a harmful impact on the environment.

With the use of this method Extension researchers can identify the loopholes in the chain or
stages from the emission perspective. As this tool is totally inventory-oriented as used in the

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chain, so the real farm level inventory data analysis can give us an idea about the identification
and management of emission hotspots. This analysis helps us to identify the practices most
responsible for higher carbon footprint values. This will help researchers to identify potential
improvement opportunities of products or processes from the perspective of lower
environmental impacts and reduced use of resources across all life cycle stages.

LCA as a research methodology

This introduction to LCA focuses primarily on how the methodology can be applied to the
needs of a business. But it is worth mentioning that LCA has a much broader usage, and serves
as a fundamental scientific methodology used by researchers working within sustainability.

Some important ways in which researchers use LCA to generate findings that may inspire
smarter, more effective sustainability policies include the following:

• To enable the transition to a circular economy: LCA is useful for identifying practical
opportunities for circularity within linear industrial systems.
• To mitigate “burden shifting”: Burden shifting is what happens when one source of
environmental impact is solved but another is created. LCA is a strategy for avoiding such
unintended consequences because it offers a systems-level perspective, assessing multiple
environmental impacts at once.
• To objectively verify sustainability claims: Researchers may also use LCA to substantiate or
disprove sometimes commonsense assumptions. Dr. Callie Babbitt, associate professor at the
Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), made
this point in a 2017 article in Clean Technology and Environmental Policy:
“Typically, it is taken as fact that a bio-based alternative would be greener compared to a
nonrenewable resource, that a waste feedstock is preferable to a primary raw material, or that
absence of a known hazard automatically ensures that a new technology is ‘clean.’ It is far less
common to see systematic assessment of such assumptions, even on a qualitative basis, or a
parallel investigation of both technical and environmental performances.”

LCA research at GIS: Integrating an industrial-ecology analysis

You’re likely to find far more electronic products in today’s average American household than
you would have in one just a few decades ago. Even if each new product is much more
sustainable when considered alone, the impact of multiple green electronics can add up. This
cumulative impact may even outweigh that of an older, legacy item (like a cathode-ray tube
television). And, as consumer electronics become more lightweight and affordable, their life
cycle has shrunk over the past fifty years. Consumers tend to buy more electronics more often,
but use them for less time before sending them into the waste stream. This net effect means
that sustainable design does not, alone, reduce environmental impacts.

A traditional LCA, evaluating the environmental impacts of electronic products individually,

may miss important observations like those above. So what happens when consumption trends
and ownership patterns are taken into an assessment? When an LCA considers a series of
electronics and their owners as part of an ecosystem, rather than each in isolation? These were
questions that researchers from GIS put forward in a 2015 study.

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The GIS researchers wanted to know how these dimensions—consumer behavior and
ownership trends—could be meaningfully integrated into an LCA study. They saw a complex
relationship between consumption and technological progress, and recognized limits to
describing it through a conventional LCA. To create an LCA methodology

y with a wider frame, they turned to biological community ecology to develop a new
concept, the product community. An adjusted methodology was
introduced, the consumption-weighted LCA, which is designed to capture the shifts in net
environmental impacts that follow a fast-evolving electronic product market.

In the study, the methodology was applied to common consumer electronics used in an average
U.S. household over the course of a year (the functional unit), and analysis evaluated energy
use and greenhouse-gas emissions (impact categories). However, its findings suggest that it
could be applied more broadly to different sectors and product types.

what is LCA Data base?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing the environmental
impacts of products from raw materials to disposal after use. The LCA Database,
part of the LCA Digital Commons Project at the National Agricultural Library,
provides open access Life Cycle Assessment datasets and tools. The goal of the LCA
Digital Commons Project is to develop a database and tool set intended to provide
data for use in LCAs of food, biofuels, and a variety of other bioproducts. It makes
North American LCA data more accessible to the community of researchers, policy-
makers, industry process engineers, and LCA practitioners.

One example of a Life Cycle Assessment study comes from dairy farming: an
extensive study considered practices at dairy farms, milk processing facilities,
transportation companies, and other portions of the supply chain that ultimately puts
milk into American's refrigerators. Based on their data, they calculated the
greenhouse gas output to get a generic gallon of milk produced, processed,
packaged, distributed, sold, and consumed is between 15 to 20 pounds of CO2-
equivalent. The study data also show the relative contribution of greenhouse gases
from each phase of the supply chain.

Life Cycle Assessment Software Tools

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the scientific method to measure the environmental
footprint of products and services.

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Sustainability, climate change, the circular economy – they’re all becoming part
of everyday business. As a result, the market for LCA tools develops quickly.
Companies have an increasing need for LCA software.

Who is this LCA overview useful for?

You or your company needs to measure a Product Footprint, LCA, or even a Product
Carbon Footprint (PCF). Whether you’re new to the field or not – finding the right
tool that fits your needs and purposes is difficult.

openLCA is an open source and free software for Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment,
with the following features:
• Fast and reliable calculation of your Sustainability Assessment and/or Life Cycle
Assessment
• Very detailed insights into calculation and analysis results; identify main drivers
throughout the life cycle, by process, flow or impact category, visualize results and
locate them on a map
• Best in class import and export capabilities; easy to share your models
• Life Cycle Costing and social assessment smoothly integrated in the life cycle model
• User-friendly; user interface in a variety of languages; advanced and efficient
repository and collaboration feature (currently developed)
• Continuous improvement and implementation of new features
It plays in the same league as commercial LCA software, such as SimaPro, GaBi, or Umberto,
but offers distinct differences.

This overview helps you get more insights into the world of LCA software. We have
summed up the results in the table below.

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The Costs involved with LCA tools

Life Cycle Assessment calculations rely on Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data. Whilst some software
comes with its own databases, most LCI databases commercially available need to be bought
separately. Therefore, the costs of LCI data have to be taken into consideration when calculating the
price of an LCA tool.

We can’t provide the costs of the listed software in our overview. That’s because some software
providers do not disclose costs. They make a custom quote based on the size of your company,
desired results, and required features. You can expect the total costs to include:

• Payment for a subscription or license to use the software,

• Additional costs to purchase an LCI database,
• Often a fee for consultancy.

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