Page 273 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

L1644_C06.fm Page 246 Monday, October 20, 2003 12:06 PM

TABLE 6.5
Applications for Consumers and Society in General

Optional
Application Example element

Education and Increased information available by all considered Possibly all
communication as applications optional
potential common elements
ground for
discussion
Eco-labeling and/or The system would be a quite accurate way to obtain Possibly
environmental relevant results about the environmental damages uncertainty
product caused by product systems, but at the moment it seems analysis
declarations not to be very practicable for this purpose.
Nevertheless, in the future this information might be
available due to advances in information technologies.

certain problematic industrial process chains such as the waste incineration that has
been part of the public discussion on environmental aspects for the last decade.
Another potential application could be in future eco-labeling and environmental
product declarations because the developed methodology would be a quite accurate
way of obtaining relevant results about the environmental damages caused by product
systems. At the moment, however, it seems to be not very practicable for this purpose.
Nevertheless, in the future this information might be available due to advances in
the information technologies.

6.7 EXAMPLE: NECESSARY TECHNICAL ELEMENTS
The methodology permits various linkages with other environmental management
tools and concepts as well as technical elements. In the previous chapters we have
seen several of them.
Since, the entire methodology is a combination of different analytical tools that,
in general, have been developed for other applications, the reader is asked to identify
those concepts, tools, and technical elements behind the presented framework.
In principle, the LCA methodology has been developed for the environmental
assessment of product systems. LCA is an important element for the LCI analysis
and LCIA methods and for providing region technology-dependent impact factors.
The next tool is the impact pathway analysis (IPA) that is the fruit of a project to
assess the externalities of electricity production. IPA is crucial for the fate and
exposure and consequence analysis, including the weighting and aggregation
schemes. Furthermore, ERA has its origin in assessment of the behavior of chemical
substances in the environment. It is, of course, relevant in the fate and exposure and
consequence analysis and has influenced not only IPA, but also the LCIA methods.
Other methods that are indirectly involved are cost-benefit analysis (CBA), accident
investigation and process simulation.

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