Sustainability Management

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) & Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

Example of Life Cycle Assessment Diagram

A standardized management tool (ISO 14040 - 44) for appraising and quantifying the total environmental impact of products or activities over their entire life cycle of particular materials, processes, products and technologies , services or activities.

For instance in the case of manufactured product, environmental impacts are assessed from raw material extraction and processing (cradle), through the product’s manufacture, distribution and use, to the recycling or final disposal of the materials composing it (grave).

An LCA study involves a thorough inventory of the energy and materials that are required across the industry value chain of the product, process or service, and calculated the corresponding emissions to the environment.

LCA thus assesses cumulative potential environmental impacts.

The aim is to document the potential environmental impacts and improve the overall environmental profile of the product.

Therefore the goal of LCA is to compare the full range of environmental effects assignable to products and services by quantifying all inputs and outputs of material flows affecting the environment.

This information is used to improve processes, support policy and provide a sound basis for informed decisions.

Main Phases of LCA

LCA is carried out in 4 different stages of parameters

Goal and Scope of the study

The goal of the study begins with an explicit statement of the goal, it sets out the context of the study and explains how and to whom the results are to be communicated. The scope of the study is set to describe the detail and the depth of the study and demonstrate that the goal can be achieved within the stated limitations.

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)

Life cycle inventory involves creating an inventory of flows « from » and « to » nature (ecosphere) for a product system. It is the process of quantifying raw material and energy requirements, atmospheric, land and water emissions, resources uses and other releases over the life cycle of a product or process. It is recommended to create a flow model of the technical system, using data on inputs and outputs of the product system and is illustrated with the flow diagram.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)

This parameter evaluates the potential « environmental and human » health impact, resulting from the elementary flows determined by LCI. (Selection, Classification, Characterisation) These impacts can be divided into first impacts (ex.extraction of raw materials), use impacts and end of life impacts (ex. recycling of the product)

Interpretation

It is a systematic technique to identify, quantify, check and evaluate information from the results of the life cycle inventory and/or the life cycle impact assessment. These parameters summarizes the previous steps. The outcome of the interpretation is a set of conclusions and recommendations.

Most importants variants of LCA

*Cradle-to-grave : full Life Cycle Assessment from resource extraction (« cradle » ) to use phase and disposal phase ( « grave » ).

*Cradle-to-gate : an assessment of partial product life cycle from resource ( cradle ) to factory gate (before transport to the customer).

The use phase and disposal phase are omitted in this case.

*Cradle-to-cradle or closed loop production: a specific kind of cradle to grave assessment where the end of life disposal step for the product is recycling process.

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

An EPD – environmental product declaration – is a document which presents the environmental performance of a product. EPD’s are a formal and internationally recognized way to present these impacts. Typically, Life Cycle Assessment is the method to calculate the impact data that supports the EPD.

The completed EPD therefore serves as an environmental label or declaration.

The LCA Data Calculations behind an EPD use Life Cycle Inventory analysis.

These calculations and processes follow the ISO 14040 standard. The ISO 14040 is the standard developed to describe the principles and framework of conducting LCA.

There are also specific standards for developing the declarations and labels of LCA are used to support. In the context of EPD’s, this is commonly the ISO 14025 environmental labels and declarations – Type III environmental declarations.

EPD’s have the following goals4>

Goal 1

To objectively and transparently communicate information of the environmental aspects of products according to the life cycle stages of a product.

Goal 2

Allow purchasers and or users to make a fair comparison of the environmental performance of products within the life cycle perspective.

Goal 3

They encourage improvement of environmental performance.

EPD’s are subject to different validity periods, though most are valid for 5 years.

EPD’s are mainly relevant in business-to-business communication, business-to-customer communication , eco-design and green public procurement.

ISO Regulations

Reflections about the cycle of life

ISO 14040

Environmental management - Life Cycle Assessment - Principles and Framework

ISO 14025

Environmental labels and declarations - Type Environmental Declarations

ISO 14044

Environmental management - Life Cycle Assessment - Requirements and Guidelines

ISO 14067

Carbon Footprint of Products (under development)

ISO 14021

Self - declared environmental claims - Type II Environmental Labelling