The Great LCA Roundtable: The Perspective of a Seasoned Practitioner

Transcription

1 The Great LCA Roundtable: The Perspective of a Seasoned Practitioner J. L. Sullivan

2 Why LCA There is a need to assess the environmental performance (EP) of product systems over their entire life cycles: including raw material acquisition, manufacturing, operation, & EOL activities Why? Not everything occurs where you think; many contributors LCA is the method of choice for such assessments: International recognized and standardized The scope is earth to earth It is a systems analysis tool. Not product but service focused Environmental improvement proposals can be evaluated For vehicles, it can be used to assess: The EP merits of new power trains, recycling, weight reduction, etc. System wide carbon emissions System wide energy consumption Resource consumptions, etc.

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4 How Does LCA Help and What is needed Because of its framework, LCA can reduce a complex array of environmental emissions and consumptions into a relevent set of environmental performance metrics. LCI is the quantitative edge of the method. Data bases are essential; otherwise the method is not practical More and more data sets are coming available, e.g. GREET NREL National LCI database is one example LCI data must be detailed Otherwise, its quality is uncertain Detail is necessary, e.g. all energies are not the same Energies should be speciated, kwh, m 3, gallons, etc. LCA can be applied to much more than the carbon evaluations. Due to its framework, it is aptly suited for many other environmental assessments

5 Current Use LCA is being used more and more for a wide range of applications: Advanced batteries Electric power sector: NGCC, IGCC, nuclear, geothermal, etc. Advanced vehicle technology evaluations: HEVs and PHEVs Mining industry Packaging Recycling Biofuels Interstate highway infrastructure and its upkeep. Materials production Manufacturing processes Office furniture Organic milk LCA is alive and well and will be increasingly used in the future. 6

6 LCA & Greenhouse Gas Accounting LCA Roundtable Laura Draucker, PhD World Resources Institute

7 LCA: A cradle cradle-to to-grave grave approach for assessing industrial systems Benefits of LCA: Avoids shifting or leaking of environmental burdens Allows companies to make informed decisions to improve the environmental impacts of: Product design & packaging Material consumption Energy sources End-of-life Use phase impacts EPA, 2006

8 Convened in 1998 by WRI and WBCSD A multi-stakeholder partnership of businesses, NGOs, governments and others Mission: Develop internationally accepted GHG accounting and reporting standards and promote their use worldwide GHG Protocol Initiative

9 Influence of LCA on Corporate GHG Accounting Corporate Scope 1 & 2 inventories provide useful information about a companies own operations Scope 3 gives a more complete picture by including the life cycle impacts of the products a company buys and sells

10 Influence of LCA on Product-Level GHG Accounting Scope 3 provides a big picture view of GHG impacts and reduction potentials Product-level GHG accounting focuses on impacts and reduction potentials within the life cycle of a product What is the difference between a GHG Inventory and LCA? GHG accounting does not consider multiple impacts GHG accounting allows for cradle-to-gate assessments of intermediate products

11 Life Cycle Tools for Sustainable Material Choices Louis Brimacombe Corus RD&T, Tata Steel Group

12 Life Cycle Assessment Life cycle assessment offers an holistic view of environmental impacts across materials, products, use phase and end of life stages. For example to assess the sustainability of new vehicle designs.

13 Life Cycle Inventories for Steel Products High quality steel data needed for full LCAs worldsteel committed to providing high quality data with consistent methodology worldsteel Life Cycle Inventory study: Cradle to gate data Global and regional average data (51 sites worldwide) Representative of current technologies (primary and secondary routes) Study critically reviewed to international standards on LCA 2010 update now available from

14 LCA Model Development for Steel Applications Full life cycle models in automotive, construction and packaging have been developed. Automotive model developed with the University of California with full critical review to ensure compliance with International Standards on LCA Flexible model which enables selection of materials, vehicle type, drive-train and methodology choices including newly developing vehicle technologies. These models allow the designer to gain insights into: Trade-offs between use phase and manufacture The benefits of recycling Analysis of consequential effects University of California

15 What do these models tell us? CO 2 eq Material manufacture Recycling benefit Vehicle Use (tail-pipe emissions) Mild Steel AHSS Aluminium Shows impact of different materials at each stage of the life cycle In automotive, results are sensitive to a wide range of assumptions (drive cycle, secondary savings and fuel type)

16 Complexity of LCA input data: Variability of fuel savings

17 Complexity of LCA input data: Variability of fuel savings

18 Making the Sustainable Choice Beyond environmental considerations, the functionality and economic performance of a material is crucial for making sustainable decisions. Profit viability/affordability Material choice Carbon footprint Safety/comfort Resources use LCA

19 Where are we heading Sustainable Development requires that social and economic dimensions are considered along with environment, and for the long term! Long term Aim Social Value = EnvironmentalImpact max

20 What are we doing about it The FutureSteelVehicle program is focused squarely on low carbon/fuel efficient vehicles: Lighter weight steel designs, which are used in unique ways to accommodate the new powertrains AND material selection decisions on the basis of life cycle assessment. As the fuel economy of vehicles increases (i.e. use phase emissions decrease) - it becomes even more important to evaluate material selection decisions on a life cycle basis. Maximise the social and economic value of vehicles (e.g. safety/cost/ affordability) with minimal environmental impact

21 Sustainability and the future How do we make this system more sustainable? Resource efficient design Improved levels of reuse Eliminate steel losses Make sure that any changes have full life cycle approach and consequential SAs. Make sure that all assumptions are fair, transparent and reflect reality