Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment of Products
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Transcript of Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment of Products
Life-Cycle Based Sustainability Assessment of Products
Walter Klöpffer
LCA Consult & Review
Frankfurt am Main
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
Social or Societal LCA?
• Societal refers to microeconomics
• Social refers to macroeconomics
• Thus “Societal” is more appropriate to the assessment of products, in order to distinguish the method from broader concepts
(Hunkeler 2006)
Prerequisites
• Equal and consistent system boundaries for the three life-cycle methods, including
• Physical instead of marketing life cycle in LCC
• Identical or 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 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
• ISO 14040-14043 (1996-2000)
• ISO/FDIS 14040+14044 (2006) will supersede (soon) 14040-14043
• Research and testing needed for difficult impact categories, I/O, regionalization, consequential LCA etc.
Status of LCC
• SETAC working group 2003-2005
• Book under review for SETAC Press
• LCC Draft guideline writing group started May 2006:
• To be finished for final discussion at the next SETAC World Congress July 2008 in Sidney
Status of SLCA
• Although the idea is not new (Oekoinstitut 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
One Assessment or three?
Option 1:
• SustAss = LCA + LCC + SLCA
Main advantage: transparency, no meaningless “sustainability points”
Clear attribution of advantages and disadvantages in comparative assessments, no compensation
One Assessment or three?
Option 2:
• SustAss = “LCA new” (including LCC and SLCA as additional impacts in LCIA)
Question:
• is Option 2 compatible with ISO?
ISO/FDIS 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 other aspects.