Life Cycle Assessment
A product-oriented method
for sustainability analysis
UNEP LCA Training Kit
Module b – Overview of LCA
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Contents • What is LCA?
• Why LCA?
• The ISO 14040 framework
– Goal and scope definition
– Inventory analysis
– Impact assessment
– Interpretation
What is LCA?
• Officially: Life Cycle Assessment
• Here, LCA is confined to:
quantitative environmental Life Cycle Assessment of products
– Quantitative
– Environmental
– Life Cycle
– Assessment
– Product system
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What is LCA?
• LCA has at least three different meanings:
– LCA as a field of study
– LCA as a technique
– LCA as a specific study
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What is LCA?
• Tool for decision-support
– computational aspects
• which data?
• which models?
• which formulas?
– procedural aspects
• who to involve?
• how to report?
• how to use?
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What is LCA?
• ISO 14040 - standardised LCA procedure
(ISO 14040, created in 1997-2000; revised in 2006)
– Structured framework: four phases
– Rules, requirements and considerations specified
– Specific data and calculation steps not specified
– Much attention for transparency in reporting
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ISO 14040 framework
Life cycle assessment framework
ft
Goal
and scope
definition
Direct applications:
- Product development
ra
and improvement
- Strategic planning
Inventory
analysis Interpretation - Public policy making
D - Marketing
- Other
Impact
assessment
Source: ISO 14040
ISO 14040 framework
• ISO: Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the
potential environmental impacts of a product system
throughout its life cycle
– International Standard ISO 14040
– complementary International Standards ISO 14041,
14042, 14043
– no Technical Report to 14040, but Technical Reports to
14041 and 14042
– 14044 merges the revised 14040-14043 (2006)
– 14020, 14021, 14024 and 14025 address public assertions
of environmental performance on products
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Why LCA?
• Why an integrated information tool?
– Prevent problem shifting
• to other life cycle stages
• to other substances
• to other environmental problems
• to other countries
• to the future
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Why LCA?
• Why a method?
– To structure the large amount of complex data
– To facilitate comparisons across product alternatives
– To enable benchmarking
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Why LCA?
Raw product data can be difficult to understand
Product property Incandescent lamp Fluorescent lamp
power consumption 60 W 18 W
life span 1000 hr 5000 hr
mass 30 g 540 g
mercury content 0 mg 2 mg
etc … …
ISO 14040 framework
Life cycle assessment framework
Goal
and scope
definition
Direct applications:
- Product development
and improvement
- Strategic planning
Inventory
analysis Interpretation - Public policy making
- Marketing
- Other
Impact
assessment
Source: ISO 14040
Phase 1: Goal and scope definition
• Goal and scope definition is the LCA phase in which the aim
of the study is established. The breadth and depth of the study
are also established in relation to that.
– goal definition
– scope definition
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Phase 1: Goal and scope definition
• Goal definition:
– intended application
• product development and improvement
• strategic planning
• public decision making
• marketing
• other
– reasons for carrying out the study
– intended audience
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Phase 1: Goal and scope definition
• Scope definition:
– function, functional unit and reference flow
– initial choices
• system boundaries
• data quality
– critical review and other procedural aspects
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Phase 1: Goal and scope definition
• Functional unit:
– comparison on the basis of an equivalent function
– example: 1000 liters of milk packed in glass bottles or
packed in carton, instead of 1 glass bottle versus 1 carton
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Phase 1: Goal and scope definition
• Critical review and other procedural aspects
– critical review to ensure the consistency, scientific validity,
transparency of the report, etc.
– internal review, external review, review by interested
parties
– procedural embedding of LCA: LCA as a (participatory)
process
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Phase 2: Inventory analysis
• Inventory analysis is the LCA phase involving the compilation
and quantification of inputs and outputs for a given product
system throughout its life cycle.
• Steps:
– preparing for data collection
– data collection
(both described in ISO 14041)
– calculation procedures
– allocation and recycling
(both described in ISO 14042)
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Phase 2: Inventory analysis
• Central position for unit process
– smallest portion of a product system for which data are
collected
• Typical examples:
– electricity production by coal combustion
– PVC production
– use of a passenger car
– recycling of aluminum scrap
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Phase 2: Inventory analysis
• Data collection for unit processes:
– flows of intermediate products or waste for treatment
– elementary flows from or to the environment
coal electricity
electricity production
generator fly ash
Phase 2: Inventory analysis
equipment steel
• Combination of
unit processes
into a product coal mining generator production
system
• Graphical
coal generator
representation in
a flow diagram
electricity production
product system
fly ash
system boundary fly ash treatment reference flow
gypsum
electricity
Phase 2: Inventory analysis
Source: http://www.fibersource.com/f-tutor/LCA-Page.htm
Phase 2: Inventory analysis
• Calculation procedures
– relate process data to the functional unit (matrix algebra)
– allocation of multiple processes (multiple outputs, multiple
inputs, re-use and recycling)
coal electricity
electricity production
with cogeneration heat
of heat (CHP)
generator fly ash
– aggregation over all unit processes in the inventory table
Phase 2: Inventory analysis
• Inventory table
Elementary flow Incandescent lamp Fluorescent lamp
CO2 to air 800000 kg 50000 kg
SO2 to air 1000 kg 80 kg
Copper to water 3g 20 g
Crude oil from earth 37000 kg 22000 kg
etc … …
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
• Impact Assessment is the LCA phase that evaluates the
importance of the potential environmental effects with the
aid of the results of the inventory analysis.
• Steps:
– selection and definition of impact categories, indicators
and models
– classification
– characterisation
– normalisation
– aggregation and/or weighing
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
Example
Cd, CO2, NOx, SO2, etc.
Life cycle inventory results
(kg/functional unit)
Impact Acidification
category
Acidifying emissions
LCI results assigned to
(NOx, SO2, etc.
impact category
assigned to acidification)
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Characterisation model
Proton release
Category indicator
(H+ aq)
Environmental relevance
- forest
Category endpoint(s) - vegetation
- etc.
Phase 3: Impact assessment
• Example of a category indicator
Global Warming: Global Warming Potential (GWP): measure
for Global Warming in terms of radiative forcing of a mass-unit
Example calculation:
5 kg CO2 (GWP = 1)
+
3 kg CH4 (GWP = 21)
=
1 x 5 + 21 x 3 kg CO2 equivalents = 68 kg CO2 equivalents
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
• Characterisation:
• Simple conversion and aggregation of GHGs:
IndicatorResult cat = ∑ CharFactcat ,subs × InventoryResult subs
subs
GWP (1 and 21) 5 and 3 kg
CO2, CH4
68 kg CO2-eq
climate change
IPCC climate model
infrared radiative forcing
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
Example impact categories, characterisation models, factors & units
Impact Indicator Characterisation Characterisation Equivalency
category model factor unit
Abiotic Ultimate reserve/ Guinee & Heijungs 95 Abiotic depletion kg Sb eq.
depletion annual use potential
Climate change Infrared International Panel on Global warming kg CO2 eq.
radiative forcing Climate Change potential
Stratospheric Stratospheric World Meteorological Stratospheric ozone layer kg CFC-11eq.
ozone depletion ozone breakdown Organization model depletion potential
Human toxicity Predicted daily intake, EUSES, California Human toxicity kg 1,4-DCB eq.
Accepted daily intake Toxicology Model potential
Ecological PEC, PNEC EUSES, California AETP, TETP, etc. kg 1,4-DCB eq.
toxicity Toxicology Model
Photo-oxidant Tropospheric UN-ECE Photo-oxidant kg C2H6 eq.
smog formation ozone production trajectory model chemical potential
Acidification Deposition/ Regional Acidification Acidification kg SO2 eq.
critical load Information & Simulation potential
... ... ... ... ...
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
Impact category Incandescent lamp Fluorescent lamp
Climate change 120000 kg CO2-eq. 40000 kg CO2-eq.
Ecotoxicity 320 kg DCB-eq. 440 kg DCB-eq.
Acidification 45 kg SO2-eq. 21 kg SO2-eq.
Depletion of resources 0.8 kg antimony-eq. 0.3 kg antimony-eq.
etc … …
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
• Impact category results still difficult to understand:
– difference in units
– difference in scale
• Normalisation relates the results to a reference value
– for example, total world impacts in 2002
– result is often referred to as the normalised environmental
profile
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
Impact category Incandescent lamp Fluorescent lamp
Climate change 1.2×10-11 yr 4×10-12 yr
Ecotoxicity 1.6×10-10 yr 2.2×10-10 yr
Acidification 9×10-11 yr 4.2×10-11 yr
Depletion of resources 24×10-12 yr 9×10-13 yr
etc … …
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
Even after normalisation, there is no clear answer.
– aggregation of (normalized) impact category results into a
single index
– subjective weighting factors increase the priority given to
impact categories we think are important, and decrease
the priority given to those we think are unimportant
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Phase 3: Impact assessment
Example of a weighted environmental index
Weighed index Incandescent lamp Fluorescent lamp
Weighted index 8.5×10-10 yr 1.4×10-10 yr
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Phase 4: Interpretation
Conclusions, recommendations, analysis:
all relate to the goal and scope of the research.
– Interpretation should be based on an evaluation of data
quality and sensitivity analysis.
– Review by independent experts is important.
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Phase 4: Interpretation
Example of a contribution analysis
Process Incandescent lamp Fluorescent lamp
Electricity production 88% 60%
Copper production 5% 15%
Waste disposal 2% 10%
Other 5% 15%
Total climate change 120000 kg CO2-eq 40000 kg CO2-eq
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Phase 4: Interpretation
Example of an uncertainty analysis
climate change
160000
140000
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
Incandescent lamp Fluorescent lamp
You may want to review some • What is LCA?
segments of this module that
describes the structure of LCA.
• Why LCA?
• The ISO 14040 framework
– Goal and scope definition
– Inventory analysis
– Impact assessment
– Interpretation
Module contents
This is an overview of c Goal and scope definition
the remaining modules d Inventory analysis
in the toolkit.
e Impact assessment
f LCA interpretation
g Allocation in LCA
h LCA mathematics
i LCIA mathematics
j Life cycle costing
k Uncertainty in LCA
l Carbon footprint
