Life cycle approach to sustainability assessment : a case study of remanufactured alternators

Sustainability is an international issue with increasing concern and becomes a crucial driver for the industry in international competition. Sustainability encompasses the three dimensions: environment, society and economy. This paper presents the results from a sustainability assessment of a product. To prevent burden shifting, the whole life cycle of the products is necessary to be taken into account. For the environmental dimension, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been practiced for nearly 40 years and is the only one standardised by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (14040 and 14044). Life cycle approaches for the social and economic dimensions are currently under development. Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is a complementary implementation of the three techniques: LCA (environmental), life cycle costing (LCC - economic) and social LCA (SLCA - social). This contribution applies the state-of-the-art LCSA on remanufacturing of alternators aiming at supporting managers and product developers in their decision-making to design product and plant. The alternator is the electricity generator in the automobile vehicle which produces the needed electricity. LCA and LCC are used to assess three different alternator design scenarios (namely conventional, lightweight and ultra-lightweight). The LCA and LCC results show that the conventional alternator is the most promising one. LCSA of three different locations (Germany, India and Sierra Leone) for setting the remanufacturing mini-factory, a worldwide applicable container, are investigated on all three different sustainability dimensions: LCA, LCC and SLCA. The location choice is determined by the SLCA and the design alternatives by the LCA and LCC. The case study results show that remanufacturing potentially causes about 12% of the emissions and costs compared to producing new parts. The conventional alternator with housing of iron cast performs better in LCA and LCC than the lightweight alternatives with aluminium housing. The optimal location of remanufacturing is dependent on where the used alternators are sourced and where the remanufactured alternators are going to be used. Important measures to improve the sustainability of the remanufacturing process in life cycle perspective are to confirm if the energy efficiency of the remanufactured part is better than the new part, as the use phase dominates from an environmental and economical point of view. The SLCA should be developed further, focusing on the suitable indicators and conducting further case studies including the whole life cycle

ILCD Data Network and ELCD Database: current use and further needs for supporting Environmental Footprint and Life Cycle Indicator Projects.

The aim of this report is to investigate the current use and needs of the ILCD DN and of the ELCD supporting the EF and the LC Indicator projects providing a coherent data basis increasing usability and consistent application in the European context. Some recommended future development have been investigated and reported as well in this report.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen

Developing scientifically-sound Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules: development options, challenges and implications

The Environmental Footprint (EF), launched by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in cooperation with Directorate-General for the Environment, provides general guidance for comprehensive, scientifically-sound and consistent environmental assessment of products and organisations. The aim of the EF is to ensure science-based decision support for industry and policy making. To make the general-level rules of the EF more relevant and applicable to specific product categories and sectors, the EF guides provide requirements to develop the so called PEF Category Rules (PEFCRs) and OEF Sector Rules (OEFSRs). PEFCRs and OEFSRs are seen as corner stones for consistent and robust assessments instrumental to specific environmental communication forms, namely business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) intended to be used for comparisons. The focus of this paper is on the key challenges in developing PEFCRs.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen

Supporting information to the characterisation factors of recommended EF Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods: New methods and differences with ILCD

In 2013, the Environmental Footprint methodology has been established with a specific Recommendation (2013/179/EU), within the framework of the “Single Market for Green Products” communication (COM/2013/0196). The International Life Cycle Data system, developed since 2007, released in 2010 and continuously maintained by JRC, has been adopted in the EF framework. ILCD format and nomenclature were adopted as requirements for EF. Given the different needs and goals of the EF, some methods for the Life Cycle Impact Assessment have been changed compared to ILCD (and therefore the elementary flows have been adapted accordingly, and to some extent, the format has been expanded). The the LCIA methods are developed within the database as ILCD-formatted xml files to allow electronic import into LCA software; The LCIA methods are implemented as separate data sets which contain all the descriptive metadata documentation and the characterisation factors assigned to different elementary flows (that are also xml files within the DB). This document provide a view on the changes occurred within the methods for the mid-point impact assessment (the EF is considering for now only impacts at the level of potential changes, not at the potential damage level, which was captured in ILCD scheme for the methods at the end-point level). The changes and adaptations occurred within the ILCD scheme, that led to the creation of the current EF set of methods and a new package, based on ILCD format, containing new files for LCIA methods, can be summarized as follows: • 6 methods are completely new, or updated according to the newest releases of the old methods adopted in ILCD. • The elementary flow list has been fixed and expanded according to the needs of the new methods • Within the new methods several flows have been spatially differentiated (in ILCD format the location attribute is resolved at the method level, not at the elementary flow level) • For several flows that were not characterized (both in newly added methods and in the pre-existing ones that were not modified), a CF has been adopted, where a direct proxy for a specific substance/compartment was available. • Specific exceptions, integrations or corrections have been implemented in different methods. All these aspects are detailed within the document. Furthermore, additional files have been released, containing an exhaustive view of all the changes occurred in the transition phase between the ILCD and the EF scheme (see annex2). Additional updates will be released through the website of the European Platform on LCA (http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/). Other methods (e.g. those related to toxicity aspects) are under development, during the editing of this document; therefore an updated version will be released as soon as the new recommended methods are defined.JRC.D.1-Bio-econom

Energy use in the EU food sector: State of play and opportunities for improvement

The amount of energy necessary to cultivate, process, pack and bring the food to European citizens tables accounts for the 17 % of the EU's gross energy consumption, equivalent to about 26 % of the EU's final energy consumption in 2013. Challenges and solutions for decreasing energy consumption and increasing the use of renewable energy in the European food sector are presented and discussed.JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficienc

The Glasgow consensus on the delineation between pesticide emission inventory and impact assessment for LCA

Purpose: Pesticides are applied to agricultural fields in order to optimise crop yield and their global use is substantial. Their consideration in Life cycle assessment (LCA) is currently affected by important inconsistencies between the emission inventory and impact assessment phases of LCA. A clear definition of the delineation between the product system model (life cycle inventory, technosphere) and the natural environment (life cycle impact assessment, ecosphere) is currently missing and could be established via consensus building. Methods: A workshop held on the 11 May 2013, in Glasgow, UK, back to back with the 23rd SETAC Europe meeting had the goal of establishing consensus and creating clear guidelines where the boundary between the emission inventory and the impact characterisation model should be set in all three spatial dimensions and time when considering application of substances to an open agricultural field or in greenhouses, and consequent emissions to the natural environment and their potential impacts. More than 30 specialists in agrifood LCI, LCIA, risk assessment, and ecotoxicology, representing industry, government, and academia from 15 countries and four continents met to discuss and reach consensus. The resulting guidelines target LCA practitioners, data (base) and characterisation method developers, and decision makers. Results and discussion: Although, the initial goal was to define recommendations concerning boundaries between technosphere and ecosphere, it became clear that these strongly depend on goal and scope of an LCA study. Instead, the focus was on defining a clear interface between LCI and LCIA, capable of supporting any goal and scope requirements while avoiding double counting or exclusion of important emission flows and their potential impacts. Consensus was reached accordingly on distinct sets of recommendations for LCI and LCIA respectively, recommending for example that buffer zones should be considered as part of the crop production system and the change in yield per ha be considered. While the spatial dimensions of the field were not fixed, the temporal boundary between dynamic LCI fate modelling and steady-state LCIA fate modelling needs to be defined. Conclusions and recommendations: For pesticides application, the inventory should report: pesticide identification, crop, mass applied of each active ingredient, application method or formulation type, presence of buffer zones (y/n), location/country, application time in days before harvest and crop growth stage during application, adherence with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), and whether the field is considered part of the technosphere or the ecosphere. Additionally, emission fractions to defined environmental media on-field and off-field should be reported. For LCIA, the directly concerned impact categories were identified as well as a list of relevant fate and exposure processes. Next steps and future work were identified: 1) establishing default emission fractions to environmental media for integration into LCI databases, and 2) interaction among impact model developers to extend current methods with new elements/processes mentioned in the recommendations, including targeted technical workshops on “how to” model specific processes.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen

Environmental life cycle assessments of fish food products with emphasis on the fish catch process

Sustainable development embraces economics, society and nature and is the global context for this PhD-thesis. Modern fishery is dependent on fossil fuels, which use is the antithesis of sustainable fishery. Environmental degradation is closely related to health aspects, which are increasingly important to consumers and other stakeholders. For the fish food product (FFP), the main focus of prior research has been on threatened stock populations. Less attention has been focused on environmental problems related to the use of energy and material, not only by the fishing vessel, but for the whole life cycle of the FFP. This PhDproject is a contribution to closing this gap. The overall goal of the research behind this thesis is to demonstrate a methodology for systematic environmental life cycle assessments (LCA) of FFP with an emphasis on fishery. LCA has been developed for commodity products and this work contributes to expanding the application to food products. LCA is the basis for creating an environmental product declaration (EPD) by following the product category rules (PCR). Systems engineering principles and processes provide the tools to systematize the analysis of the life cycle of the FFP, by modelling the fish food production systems. Systems engineering with input from LCA, stakeholder analysis and eco-labelling is used to develop a methodology presented as a framework for environmental analysis of the FFP. Three studies are combined into a single case study resulting in an LCA of fish products that has been used to develop an EPD for Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) based on the PCR developed for wild caught fish. Environmental performance indicators relevant for FFP have been explored and a number of parameters are recommended for use in communicating the environmental impact of a FFP. Greatest attention has been on the fishing vessels because their energy consumption accounts for the largest environmental impacts of the FFP. The research results contribute to better transparency about the environmental impact of the life cycle of FFP and thereby support more sustainable decision-making in the fishery sector. In the future, the framework developed for environmental life cycle assessment of FFPs, could be expanded to other food products and so be used to compare different food products against each other

The need for a comprehensive and consistent approach in sustainability assessment of buildings - the EC Product Environmental Footprint

To date a proliferation of sustainability claims in architecture is noticed with a main focus on energy during the use stage of buildings. Although this is highly relevant, a more comprehensive life cycle approach is needed to support decision making in order not to overlook relevant environmental burdens such as respiratory effects and land use. As a base for addressing the current confusion in the market, the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) was developed and has recently been adopted by the European Commission. This method provides specific guidance for comprehensive, robust and consistent environmental assessment of products. It is based on four main principles: (1) multi-criteria, (2) life cycle thinking, (3) consistency and (4) ensuring maximally physically representative modeling. This paper presents the PEF in the specific context of buildings.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen