Page 61 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

L1644_C02.fm Page 38 Tuesday, October 21, 2003 3:07 PM

2.1.2 HISTORY OF LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT
An overview of LCA history can be found in Assies (1992), Vigon et al. (1993),
Pedersen (1993), Boustead (1992) and Castells et al. (1997). It is not easy to
determine exactly when studies related to the methodology that would later be known
as life-cycle assessment started. In the opinion of Vigon et al. (1993), one of the
first studies was H. Smith’s, whose calculations of energy requirements for manu-
facturing final and intermediate chemical products entered the public domain in
1963. Later, other global studies such as those by Meadows et al. (1972) and the
Club of Rome (1972) predicted the effects of an increase in population and energy
and material resources. These predictions (which foretold fast consumption of fossil
fuels and the climate changes resulting from it), together with the oil crisis of the
1970s, encouraged more detailed studies, focused mainly on the optimum manage-
ment of energy resources. As explained by Boustead and Hancock (1979), because
of the necessity of solving material balance in the process in order to undertake such
assessments, it was necessary to include raw material consumption as well as waste
generation. The so-called “energy assessments” date back to these years; Assies
(1992) quotes, Boustead (1974) and IFIAS (1974). Although these studies focused
basically on the optimization of energy consumption, they also included estimations
on emissions and releases. More references about these assessments can be found
in Boustead (1992).
Vigon et al. (1993) highlighted the 1969 Coca-Cola study carried out by the
Midwest Research Institute (MRI) aimed at determining the type of container with
the lowest environmental effect. However, Assies (1992) considers MRI’s assessment
conducted by Hunt (1974) for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in
order to compare different drink containers to be the forerunner of LCA studies.
This study uses the term “resource and environmental profile analysis” (REPA) and
is based on the analysis of a system following the production chain of the researched
products from “cradle” to “grave” in order to quantify the use of resources and
emissions to the environment. The study was also to develop a procedure enabling
comparison of the environmental impacts generated by those products.
In 1979 the SETAC (Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry), a
multidisciplinary society of professionals with industrial, public and scientific rep-
resentatives, was founded. One of SETAC’s goals was, and continues to be, the
development of LCA methodology and criteria. In the same year, Boustead and
Hancock (1979) published a study describing the methodology of energy assessment
with the idea of making energy treatment more systematic and establishing criteria
to compare various energy sources.
In 1984 the EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and
Research) conducted research that added the effects on health to emission studies
and took into account a limited number of parameters, thus simplifying assessment
and decision-making. Products were assessed on the basis of their potential envi-
ronmental impact expressed as energy consumption, air and water pollution, and
solid wastes. It also provided a comprehensive database with access to the public
that, according to Assies (1993), catalyzed the implementation of LCA (EMPA,
1984; Druijff, 1984).

© 2004 CRC Press LLC