Page 24 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

ENVIRONMENTAL LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT 5

1.4 Micro Applications of LCA Rising

The last decades have seen a startling rise in the production of LCAs. There are
consultants in virtually all countries, many with an international orientation.
Databases and software have become widely available. There also are interest-
ing in-firm developments. Two Netherlands-based firms we happen to know
have their internal LCA capacity well developed, Philips and Unilever. Procter
and Gamble contributes a chapter to this book on their LCA operations. The
Unilever example is enlightening. They regularly produce internal LCAs on
virtually all of their products, having produced well over a thousand LCAs
by now. They use the LCAs for product system improvement, reducing easily
avoidable impacts. These may seem tiny per product, but may be substantial
from a dynamic improvement point of view. Tea bags used to have zinc plated
iron staples to connect the bag and the carton handle to the connecting thread.
This gave a dominant contribution to the overall life cycle impact of the tea bag
system. The staples were first replaced by a glue connection and in many cases
now by a sewing connection. Such product system improvement forms the
core of LCA use. However, when having so many equivalent LCAs, new more
strategic applications become possible. Can strategies be developed to reduce
environmental impact covering more than one product, with more general
guidelines for product development? Such applications are now developing
in Unilever, see the box. Similarly, Philips has developed strategic guidelines
at an operational level regarding the use of materials, reducing the number in
each product and phasing out those with the largest contribution to environ-
mental impacts.
LCA, in its micro level application, is now a two decade-old success story.
With all caveats following, we should not throw out the baby with the bath
water. LCA is here to stay, and the child is still growing.

1.5 The Micro-Macro Divide

The core goal of environmental LCA as was established in the Nineties was
to help improve environmental quality, with product policy - internalized,
private, and also in public regulations - as one entry into environmental pol-
icy. That role is based on the assumption that improved micro environmental
performance of a product-function system corresponds to an environmental
improvement at the macro level. That macro level in principle is global society
at large in its environmental impacts, as product systems increasingly span the
world. When looking at the mechanisms that link shifts or developments in
micro level behavior to macro level performance it is perfectly clear that there
is no direct correspondence. Cycling as mode of transport has a minor fraction
of the impacts of car transport per kilometer traveled, but also has a minor
fraction of the costs. Some elements of this discrepancy may be covered by
eco-efficiency analysis of these transport systems, expressing environmental
impacts not per functional unit but per Euro spent. Such micro level scores