Page 162 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Accelerating life cycle assessment uptake: life cycle management and ‘quick’ LCA tools

Table 11.1 Selection of packaging decision-support tools (Verghese et al. 2006) 149
Name of tool Features of tool
Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Evaluates all stages of the life cycle for the complete
Tool (PIQET) packaging system and all its packaging components per
pallet. Reports against key environmental indicators and
packaging specific indicators (refer to Table 11.2). Delivered
as a web-based tool.
Tool for environmental Evaluates packaging in conjunction with the product in
Optimisation of Packaging design light of the essential requirements of the EU directive.
(TOP) Indicators considered: product-packaging combination,
added value, logistics efficiency, heavy metals, reuse and
recovery, material consumption, environmental impact.
Delivered in a spreadsheet format.
MERGE™ (also known as Focuses on formulated goods such as personal care items
COMPASS) tool by Environmental and household/professional cleaning and maintenance
Defense (also referred to as The products. Metrics for packaging include: resource
Sustainable Packaging Coalition) in consumption, energy consumption, virgin materials
the USA now has exclusive license content, non-recyclable materials content, ‘bad-actor’
for the packaging design aspect of packaging, greenhouse gases and pallet inefficiency.
this tool
Wal-Mart Scorecard Aim is to increase the percentage of packaging made from
renewable resources by replacing non-recoverable
materials. The tool calculates raw scores of packaging based
on: packaging material, production, transportation. Other
factors considered include: recycled content, renewable
energy resources. Limitations are that the tool gives raw
score, rank and weight, which are not readily transparent.

Following from the above discussion, any quick LCA tool should be able to differentiate
between packaging options on the basis of key environmental impacts, such as materials and
energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. It should be quick and accurate enough to be able to
be used by packaging technologists, designers and manufacturers in making early design and
manufacturing decisions. It should also provide information in clear, simple, accessible and
independent ways, with the potential also to provide useful information for environmental
managers, policy makers and consumers. Finally, it should provide businesses with the means
to comply with regulations and codes of environmental performance (e.g. those relating to
packaging and waste reduction). This latter point is important, since such regulations have
developed in various countries in recent years, but companies still have limited access to infor-
mation on the life cycle impacts of their packaging without a straightforward, efficient scien-
tific way of strategically addressing packaging sustainability.
Not surprisingly, there have been a range of attempts to fill this gap. A range of decision-
support tools have been developed to assist those in the packaging supply chain to consider the
environmental impact of packaging options. A selection of tools produced worldwide by
industry associations in conjunction with individual companies, government departments or
by individual firms are presented in Table 11.1.
The Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool (PIQET) project began in November 2004
with the aim of demonstrating through direct application to a sponsoring company’s case
studies that rapid and credible environmental assessment can be performed for food packaging
systems within the Australian context (Horne et al. 2005; Verghese et al. 2006). The Sustainable
Packaging Alliance (SPA) developed a stakeholder group of sponsors and advisors that included
Sustainability Victoria, Cadbury Schweppes, Lion Nathan, Nestle Australia, MasterFoods

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