Page 15 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice and Prospects
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perhaps most topically, what are the implications for climate change of different energy scenar-
ios, and how can we identify optimal services from ‘sustainable’ levels of impact?
In the post-World War 2 era, a new generation of energy technologies – nuclear, geother-
mal, modern wind and other ‘renewables’ – tested the energy balance question. Energy analysis
became increasingly complex, systemic and sophisticated through successive empirical devel-
opments. At first, the technique was typically used to assess production of a given unit of
energy in a given form, examining immediate inputs on site in the production system. Inevita-
bly, as more complex generation technologies were examined, so the analysis was extended.
For example, the question of whether a given nuclear generation technology produced more
energy than it consumed led researchers to look beyond the generation facilities themselves to
‘yellow cake’ production and uranium mining, long-term waste management, and even to the
impacts of transport (of personnel, materials and equipment) and associated research, devel-
opment, marketing and management services. This was a precursor to what became known as
‘life cycle analysis’, a systematic process-oriented approach to identifying energy inputs in the
production of energy services.
In the late 1960s, the first Resource Environmental Profile Analyses (REPAs) were under-
taken and these became the forerunners of modern LCA. Notably, Coca Cola Amatil commis-
sioned work by a group of researchers (later to become Franklin Associates) in the United
States of America (USA) to investigate the resources and environmental profile of different
packaging materials for their products (Hunt et al. 1974). Oil shortages in the early 1970s led to
a focus back on energy analysis. However, by the mid-1980s, multi-criteria systematic inquiry
had spread to include nappies, appliances, automobiles and housing. Interchangeable terms
were used to describe these studies including eco-balances, cradle-to-grave analysis, and life
cycle analysis. In 1990, the term ‘life cycle assessment’ was proposed and agreed upon by those
attending a workshop in Vermont, USA, held by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and
Chemistry (SETAC).
Rapid development followed, as LCA grew into a body of systematic, inclusive, analytical
approaches to environmental impact assessment. SETAC then embarked on the development
and extension of LCA, publishing various ‘best-practice’ guides (e.g. Barnthouse et al. 1997;
Kotaji et al. 2002; Udo de Haes et al. 2002) and advice on LCA simplification and methods (e.g.
Udo de Haes 1996; Christiansen 1997). Applications to public policy (Allen et al. 1997) and
particular sectors, such as building and construction (Kotaji et al. 2003), were also examined
as well as the application of LCA to more embedded management modes within organisations
(Hunkeler et al. 2004).
In 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and SETAC formed the
UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative to assist development and uptake of LCA. Building upon a
base of practice in several European countries, the USA and Japan, this initiative seeks to
enable users to put life cycle thinking into practice. This has generated focus on the ‘new’
manufacturing centres in Asia (including the subcontinent and eastern Asia), Africa and South
America. Hence, as the production centres of modern manufacturing shifted through the
effects of globalisation, so LCA practitioners followed, further developing methods and tech-
niques for calculating the environmental impacts of production and consumption systems.
The apparent interdependence of evolving LCA practice and demand across geographic regions
has specific implications in Australia.

1.2 LCA definition, standards and process
Although many definitions exist, LCA essentially comprises a systematic evaluation of envi-
ronmental impacts arising from the provision of a product or service. The original Interna-

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