Strategies for Life Cycle Thinking and Product...

Imagination at work

Strategies for Life Cycle Thinking and Product Sustainability at GE

Angela FisherSustainability LeaderEcoassessment Center of ExcellenceGE Global Operations – Resource & Environmental Strategies

National Association of Environmental ManagersDenver, Colorado | October 2016

Ecoassessment Center of Excellence

GE Diversity

Oil & Gas Power Energy Connections

TransportationHealthcare Aviation Lighting/Current

GE Renewables

Variety of internal stakeholders & productsDigital • Global Operations • Global ResearchGlobal Growth Organization • Capital

GE Ecoassessment Center of Excellence

Key Roles:• Expertise and guidanceLife cycle assessment (LCA)Life cycle management (LCM)Carbon, energy, water footprintSustainability strategiesEcoDesign/Design for environment

• Tools and resources• Education and awareness• Employee Engagement• External networks

Support:• GE businesses• Strategic customers• Drive business perspective on sustainability

• Create & maintain momentum toward change

Thought leadership

• Customize to business context• Identify opportunities for improvement

Drive eco further into product development

• Product LCA + LCM toolkits• Strategic and selective application

Technical credibility & product support

• Strategic engagement• Environmental and operational savings• Social license to operate

Deliver customer value

Position GE for evolving life cycle / product sustainability‐based regulatory / stakeholder expectations and competitor positioning

Protect access to market, support customer engagement, maintain credibility with external stakeholders (customers, investors, NGOs, governments, public, etc.)

Mission:


Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

More than just carbon footprint

Areas of protection (damage categories)

A method to understand the net environmental impact of a product/service across its value chain, how and where to make improvements

‐ Differentiate products‐ Evaluate alternatives‐ Prioritize opportunities for improvement‐ Mitigate environmental issues

Assess overall environmental impact throughout a product or service’s life cycle

Ecosystem quality

Natural resources

Human health


When Should a LCA be Performed? Customer

•Customers asking for LCA/carbon footprint data as part of their sustainability programs

•Customers requiring LCA/carbon footprint as part of RFP

•Opportunity to exert eco thought leadership at the customer or industry‐wide level through LCA

Competitor

•Competitor using LCA/carbon footprint to market 'green' product

•Competitor notusing LCA/carbon footprint (potential thought leadership opportunity for GE's advanced LCA capability)

Product

• ”Green” product•Primary environmental impacts are other than energy efficiency during product use

•Product development team plans to use Design for Environment (DfE) tools. LCA can provide the quantitative 'roadmap' for DfE efforts.

Environmental

•Product contains toxics, substances of concern, heavy metals, rare earth minerals, etc.

• Product exhibits environmental issues, benefits, or tradeoffs that may need to be quantified

•Product mitigates environmental issues (renewables, shale technologies, water treatment, etc.). LCA may be useful to convey the benefit.

Green Marketing

•Prepare for ecomagination product review (LCM and screening LCA)

•Product exhibits net environmental benefit, but benefit may be counterintuitive to the consumer

•Product involves environmental trade‐offs that may need to be quantified and communicated

•Product requires complex environmental messaging

•Eco‐labeling or Environmental Product Declaration

LCA Tools and Resources


Tools & ResourcesLCM Community Libraryo Support Central Repository

Product LCM Toolo Early awareness and directional guidance

LCA Screening Toolo Quickly assess relative magnitude of life cycle stages

EcoDesign Strategy Wheel (*publicly available)o Ecodesign principles and strategies

Water‐Energy Nexus Toolo Evaluate tradeoffs between energy and water

Value Creation Toolo Identify business value from eco

Other Tools & Resources• LCA Community Portal• GHG Emission Factors• Wind Tool• Supply Chain Prioritization• LCA 101 Reference

*http://www.okala.net/presentations/10%20chapter2%20Ecodesign%20Strategy%20Wheel.pdf


Life Cycle Roadmap:A Tiered Strategy

Screening LCA2

Streamlined LCA3

Detailed LCA per ISO 140444

Product LCM Tool1

Level of Detail / Extensiveness

Time Investmen

t

Strategic | Comprehensive | Efficient | Effective


Product LCM tool

Qualitative inputs organized by life cycle stage• Topic areas based on external stakeholder mapping

• Compare baseline vs. new product

• Compare product design alternatives

Customizable business context filters• Calibrate tool responses based on relevancy per product category or business application

Graphical results• Quickly identify opportunities or problem areas

• Results organized by: • (1) life cycle stage• (2) impact categories: energy, GHGs, water, wastes & emissions, toxicity, land, natural resources, EHS

1• Simple, quick, yet comprehensive• Provides early awareness:‐opportunities & issues

• Provides directional guidance:‐when to dig deeper‐where to seek answers and support


LCM Factsheets Factsheets:•Biodiversity•Biofuels•Chemical regulatory compliance•Circular Economy•Climate Change•Design for Environment•Ecosystem Services•Energy Efficiency•Environmental Labeling•Green Advertising Guides•Green Buildings•Greenhouse Gases•Green Supply Chain•Hazardous Materials•Hazardous Chemicals•Landfill & Incineration•Material Recovery•Material Scarcity•Nanomaterials Stewardship•Noise, Odor, Vibration, Dust•Ozone Depleting Substances•Packaging•Product Regulatory Compliance•Product Stewardship•Remanufacturing•Renewable Energy•Sustainable Harvesting•Toxics, Heavy Metals, Persistent Compounds•Transport Logistics•Water Footprint Reduction•Water Stress


GE LCA screening tool

Key design insight• Use broad materials categories to prevent over‐collection of data

• Develop average impact factors per materials category

Tool features• Rapidly assess relative magnitude of life cycle stages

• Enter % material composition based on broad materials categories

• Automatically self‐populates with manufacturing process impacts based on materials type

2

Tool intended for high‐level screening • 1st entry point into LCA • LCC added in 2016


Streamlined and Detailed LCA

LCA Experts Needed | Commercial LCA Software and Datasets

Streamlined LCA

Detailed LCA per ISO 14044

3

4

LCA tools infrastructure•Commercial LCA software• Secondary LCI data sets

Trained expertise required•GE Ecoassessment COE• External network


Ecodesign Tools & Strategies

LCA case studies


GE LCA EffortsPower Oil & Gas

2.5xl Wind turbine

Thin film solar

7FA gas turbine + 7FH2B generator

9FB gas turbine + 330H generator

1.6‐100 Wind turbine

A‐14 steam turbine / 7FH2 generator 6‐7 MC7E steam turbine

Smart Meter

Nanostructured ferritic alloys

Unconventional gasBiomass gasification –Jenbacher

Micro LNG

CNG in a Box™

Ammonia SCR vs. DLN

ZeeWeed 1000‐60 Ultrafiltration

Biomass/coal gasification

Energy Connections

Low‐current circuit breakers

Waterless fracking

7F.05 gas turbine

LM2500 aeroderivative


Healthcare

GE LCA EffortsTransportation

Aviation

GE Lighting

Durathon™ battery

Bio‐oils to jet fuel (DARPA)

CFL, LED, incandescent, halogen

LEAP engine / composite fan blades

Wave and ReadyToProcess™

+PLUSPAK™ contrast agent vials

Hercules X‐ray tube

‘Soft Cuff’ blood pressure cuff

LCA Screening Tool:• Ultrasound• MR• CT• Digital X‐ray• Nuc (PET)• MR coolants• HC IT

LCA Screening Tool:• Evolution locomotive• Remanufactured parts for Evo loco

Outdoor LED lighting

US DoD SLCA/LCC Methodology Pilot

Additive manufacturing

Indoor LED lighting


GE 2.5MW Onshore Wind Turbine

Product OverviewGE’s 2.5xl onshore wind turbine

Purpose/Driver of LCAWRI / WBCSD* GHG Protocol Initiative’s Product Standard Road Testing• Provide detailed feedback to WRI/WBCSD prior to final release of the standard• Develop life cycle eco profile of wind turbine to support customer requests

Scope of LCACradle‐to‐grave, performed to WRI/WBCSD product GHG standardAdditional data collected to support multi‐impact category LCA

Based on site capacity factor of 0.35 for a wind turbine installation in Sweden

Value creation = Satisfy customer requests & expectations

*World Resources Institute / World Business Council for Sustainable Development


LED Roadway Luminaire LCAScopeAnalyze the life cycle environmental impacts of several innovative LED solutions relative to the incumbent HID technology

• design trade‐offs (e.g., materials choices, recycled content) and • end‐of‐life recovery scenarios (e.g., recycling, product takeback, closed loop, etc.)

Value Creation = Thought Leadership, Brand Image, Technical Credibility, Market Share

Cradle‐to‐Grave Cradle‐to‐Gate

Preliminary results – 3rd party critical review is underway

*representative results shown above are for the ERL1 LED luminaire; similar results were observed for HID and other LED models


GE Supply Chain Priority AssessmentBig Data Methodology

Goals• Gain high‐level insights and prioritize meaningful opportunities for environmental improvement throughout the supply chain

• Pinpoint industry sectors, suppliers, and regions to establish symbiotic partnerships and collaborations

Tool features• Based on Environmental Economic Input‐Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO‐LCA)• Utilizes company‐wide GE spend across more than 130 sectors• Estimates GHGs and water consumption impacts (with potential to easily expand to more environmental impact categories as desired

• Filterable by: Direct vs. indirect spend, GE business unit, NAICS sector, country, supplier

Results Prioritization• Focus on sectors with largest environmental impacts• Identify strategic supplier relationships • Increase mutual competitiveness and reduce risks

The environmental EIO‐LCA method uses information about industry transactions (purchases) of materials by one industry from other industries, and the information about direct environmental emissions of industries to estimate the environmental emissions throughout the supply chain.


Tiered LCA Communication StrategyBrochures:• customers• procurement managers• easily understandable• 2‐pages

White paper:• customers• procurement managers• other external stakeholders• easily understandable synopsis, but with depth• ~10‐pages• also serves as ‘Executive Summary’ in detailed report Detailed report:

• required by ISO 14044• super technical• may be company internal• >80 pages

Reach the right audienceConvey appropriate level of technical detail

Satisfy ISO 14044 requirements

Strategy & Enabling Principles


Enabling Business Success through Sustainability

PeopleSocial

PlanetEnvironmental

ProfitEconomic

• Addresses customer desires & requirements for sustainable products

• Engages stakeholdersthat can influence at the industry and/or policy level

• Stimulates innovation and engages employees, especially Millennials*

• Contributes to GE’s dedication to sustainability and its social/environmental goals

• Conserves resources (and costs) such as water, energy and materials

• Provides increased transparency on product’s environmental impacts

• Enhances or validates product brand image

• Offers product differentiation through environmental attributes can gain market share and/or price premium

• Avoids risks and costs by staying ahead of regulations or resource scarcity

* On average, Millennials believe their organizations underperform on social and environmental benefits by 12% and environmental impact/CSR is considered a top value. Source: The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2016


Enabling Principles

Be strategic and selectiveFocus on value creationCustomize to business context

•Identify opportunities for meaningful improvement•Create and maintain momentum toward real change•Incentivize game‐changing products, technologies and solutions

•Drive resource optimization across the value chain

GE’s view on Life Cycle Management:•We believe the world’s most pressing challenges present an opportunity to do what we do best: imagine and build innovative solutions that benefit our customers and society at large

•LCA, applied in a strategic and selective manner, presents an opportunity for us to create even greater value for our customers by considering the impact across the value chain

•As such, we tailor our application of LCA & LCM to address the breadth of GE’s solutions and customers as well as evolving stakeholder expectations

Identify Areas for Real Improvement | Create Value | Avoid DistractionIdentify Areas for Real Improvement | Create Value | Avoid Distraction

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

– Thomas Edison

Thank You!

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