Life Cycle Assessment

Eco-Indicator 99
 Goal & Scope

 Comparison of two products or services

 Identification of life cycle stage with greatest impact
 Boundary definition
 Functional unit

Inventory

 List of all components and processes

 Process Tree
 Across all ‘life’ stages
 Process Tree - Example
coffee poly-
paper aluminium sheet steel glass
bean styrene

roasting filter pro- injection extrusion

stamping forming
duction moulding forming

assembly
+ transport

packaging
electricity

use
water

disposal of disposal in
filters + coffee municipal
in org. waste waste
 Life Cycle IMPACT Assessment (LCIA)
LCI results are aggregated and adjusted to describe their
relevance in a more meaningful way.

 Classification
 Defines the impact categories and their substances.
 Characterization
 Reflects the relative contribution of a LCI flow (a substance) to
the impact category result.
 Normalization
 Defines the extent to which an impact category contributes to the
total environmental burden.
 Weighting
 Process by which indicators are aggregated into a single score.
Uses subjective weighting factors.
Production of non ferrous metals (in millipoints per kg)

Indicator Description

Aluminium 100% Rec. 60 Block containing only secondary material

Aluminium 0% Rec. 780 Block containing only primary material

Chromium 970 Block, containing only primary material
Copper 1400 Block, containing only primary material
Lead 640 Block, containing 50% secondary lead
Nickel enriched 5200 Block, containing only primary material

Palladium enriched 4600000 Block, containing only primary material

Platinum 7000000 Block, containing only primary material

Rhodium enriched 12000000 Block, containing only primary material

Block, containing only primary material (plating
Zinc 3200 quality)
 Process Tree for an Electric Kettle
Product or component Project

Date Author

Notes and conclusions

Production
Materials, treatments, transport and extra energy
Measure
Material or process Amount Indicator Result
unit

Total [mPt] 0.00

Use
Transport, energy and possible auxiliary materials
Measure
Process Amount Indicator Result
unit

Total [mPt] 0.00

Disposal
Disposal processes for each material type
Material and type of Measure
Amount Indicator Result
processing unit

Total [mPt] 0.00

Total [mPt] (all phases) 0.00
 “Dust to dust” report
 Hummer H3 has lower life-cycle cost
than a Prius, considering energy
cost of production and use
 Joe Romm on
“Dust to dust: the energy cost of new vehicles”
 I am mocking this report because it is the most
contrived and mistake-filled study I have ever
seen — by far (and that’s saying a lot since I
worked for the federal government for five years).
 I am not certain there is an accurate calculation in
the entire report.
 I say this without fear of contradiction because this
is also the most opaque study I have ever seen —
by far.
 I defy anyone to figure out what their methodology
was.
 Coffee cups?

 Four cups are compared:

 a reusable Polycarbonate cup (PC),
 three single use cups;
 polypropelene (PP),
 polyethelene (PE) coated cardboard and
 polylactide (PLA) also known as ʻbiodegradableʼ cups.
 The study plotted environmental profiles for each of
the four types of cups over their life cycle, the life
cycle of the reusable cup was studied at 20 and 45
uses, disposable cups were studied at a single use.
 All four cups varied in their environmental impacts.
 PP cups consumed the most Fossil fuels,
 LC cups consumed the most Minerals,
 PLA cups created the most Acidification,
 LC cups rated the worst on Exotoxicity,
 the Ozone layer was the most impacted by PC cups,
 the climate change rating was the best for LC cups.
 The study found that none of the cups had consistently the
lowest or the highest environmental score.
 The study then used the Eco-indicator 99 method (Goedkoop,
2000) to create one indicator for all the environmental impacts.
 The study concludes that in the single indicator the re-usable
PC cup system has the most favourable score, even at the
lower boundary of 20 uses.