Page 155 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice and Prospects
142
The need to define and incorporate LCM into business and government decision-making is
multi-fold. First, individual LCA studies are time and resource intensive. Second, they are
invariably designed around a specific functional unit and particular questions that are tempo-
rally and spatially dependent. Third, they do not automatically lead to the embedding of life
cycle thinking into the operations of business and governments. The latter is essential if we are
to ensure that a full life cycle perspective is taken into account when designing and producing
products or policies which comply with sustainable development principles. LCM can be viewed
as a means by which the economic, technological and social aspects of products are integrated
and continuously optimised (Weidema n.d.). Improved product quality, new technological
innovations, opportunities to reduce costs, new or enhanced laws and regulations or pressure
from customers and suppliers for products and services with improved environmental perform-
ance are examples of factors by which an organisation may decide to integrate LCM within their
core activities. Furthermore, the successful implementation of LCM will require agreement on
corporate policies and strategies to reduce impacts, the development and use of environmental
assessment tools to guide decision-making, the integration of eco-design into product develop-
ment processes, the implementation of supply chain management, and environmental commu-
nications and reporting of processes, products and deliverables (James 2004).
The essential logic of LCM is that if LCAs could be undertaken quickly, simply and reliably,
and the information systematically collated and used in an active management system, then
LCA information could be more widely used in decision-making, leading to improved envi-
ronmental performance in a commercially efficient way. Interest in LCM tools has risen as the
need for easily accessible information on embodied energy of materials, greenhouse gas emis-
sions from processes, waste and recycling statistics and material selection continues to increase
in sectors such as the packaging industry, building and construction and furniture and fit-outs
(Verghese and Hes 2007). Software tools and calculators that provide these services have pro-
liferated to fill this need. These ‘quick’ LCA tools vary widely in size, shape, look and feel, and
areas of application, while they share core data and algorithmic combinations with LCA
methods and techniques. Ranging from simple spreadsheets to online software programs with
slick interfaces, they are increasingly used by engineers, environmental managers, designers,
non-specialists and lay people.
One specific and important role for ‘quick’ LCA tools lies with their potential to facilitate
widespread use of LCA information through the design process. The history of the design and
development of such tools is relatively recent and extends back to the application of ecologi-
cally sustainable design (‘eco-design’) principles in the 1980s. In order to optimise the use of
such principles within daily decision-making, some form of quick impact calculations were
needed. As an example, William McDonough collaborated with office furniture manufacturer
Herman Miller in the late 1990s to create one of the first practically applied product assess-
ment tools, in that case to evaluate progress towards cradle-to-cradle products (Rossi et al.
2006). Figure 11.1 illustrates how different departments within an organisation can contribute
to an LCM program.
One of the world’s leading aluminium companies, Alcan, uses LCM for various applica-
tions including benchmarking aspects of environmental performance of their products with
competitors, improving their internal and supply chain environmental performance, provid-
ing marketing information, and for strategic planning (Rebitzer and Buxmann 2005). Rebitzer
and Buxmann (2005) state that five indicators are typically reported from Alcan LCA studies:
primary energy demand, global warming potential, eco-indicator score (without energy and
global warming), waste generation, and water consumption. These have been selected as the
most relevant to the company, while being easily communicated to other parties and decision-
makers within the organisation.

100804•Life Cycle Assessment 5pp.indd 142 17/02/09 12:46:24 PM