1. ASP Course Global change and sustainability Life Cycle Assessment Giovanni Dotelli, Dipartimento di Ingegnerica Chimica “G. Natta” Paco Melià, Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione Part 1: An overview of LCA

2. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 2 ] Life cycle perspective: from nature to nature the life cycle of a product comprises: raw material extraction and acquisition energy and material production and manufacturing use end-of-life treatment final disposal

3. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 3 ] Washing machine: from cradle to gate iron ore mining steel production transport washing machine production power plant: electricity

4. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 4 ] Washing machine: from gate to grave transport washing machine manufacturing plant shopping centre userecycling power plant: electricity

5. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 5 ] What is missing? the life cycle of the washing machine sketched here is a simplified approach; raw materials other than iron, ancillary products and fuels are missing, for instance......the door and consequently the glass, the plastic gasket and so on...

6. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 6 ] LCA definition according to SETAC (1993) "Life Cycle Assessment is a process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, process, or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment; to assess the impact of those energy and materials used and releases to the environment; and to identify and evaluate opportunities to affect environmental improvements. The assessment includes the entire life cycle of the product, process or activity, encompassing, extracting and processing raw materials; manufacturing, transportation and distribution; use, re-use, maintenance; recycling, and final disposal". (The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, SETAC)

7. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 7 ] Rephrasing, Life Cycle Assessment …. … is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product by  compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs of a product system  evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with those inputs and outputs

8. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 8 ] ISO standardisation the first European standard was published in 1997 ISO 14040: Environmental management – Life Cycle Assessment – Principles and Framework other standards completed the series: ISO 14041 to 14043. in 2006 there was the last revision: ISO 14044

9. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 9 ] Phases of an LCA LCA studies comprise four phases: goal and scope definition inventory analysis (life cycle inventory) impact assessment (life cycle impact assessment) interpretation (life cycle interpretation)

10. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 10 ] Stages of an LCA according to ISO 14040

11. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 11 ] Goal and scope goal must answer the question: why are you carrying out the study? scope explains the product system to be studied, its function and boundaries, the functional unit, the impact categories selected functional unit is the reference unit used in the study to quantify the performance of the product system

12. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 12 ] A product system for the LCA

13. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 13 ] Unit processes

14. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 14 ] Inputs and outputs: the inventory raw materials (iron ore, petrol, water,...) ancillary products ( lubricants,...) energy (electricity,...) emissions to air (CO 2, NOx,...) emissions to water (detergents, NH 4 + ) emissions to soil (heavy metals,...) solid waste

15. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 15 ] Impact assessment

16. ASP Course Global change and sustainability Life Cycle Assessment Giovanni Dotelli, Dipartimento di Ingegnerica Chimica “G. Natta” Paco Melià, Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione Part 2: Impact indicators for LCA

17. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 17 ] From consumptions to impacts material and energy flows  comprehensive evaluation of consumption, yet only indirectly linked to impacts 1-dimensional approach:  cost-benefit analysis: all (?) impacts  money  ecological footprint: some impacts  biologically productive land  carbon footprint: climate impacts  CO 2 equivalent  water footprint: freshwater consumptions but: some impacts are difficult to translate into a single indicator (e.g. human health to money) multi-objective approach:  eco-indicators, DSS based on multi-criteria analysis

18. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 18 ] The DPSIR framework

19. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 19 ] Indicators and indices indicator:  a quantity identifying a specific feature of a system that can be observed and/or quantified and is representative of a phenomenon, generally expressed in physical units  e.g.: temperature (°C), NO 3 concentration (mg/l), VOC (µg/m³), traffic volume (vehicles/h) index:  a rational or empirical aggregation of different measures and/or indicators, generally expressed in conventional units (e.g. ranging between 0 – 1, 0 – 100, 0 –  )  e.g.: Shannon Index, EBI (Environmental Benefits Index), IBI (Index of Biotic Integrity)

20. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 20 ] Why using indicators/indices? to represent complex problems in a simple and synthetic way to investigate relationships between different phenomena at the same scale or between phenomena at the local and the global scale to identify and analyse changes, trends, priorities, risks in a systematic way to make a balance of adopted actions and monitor their effectiveness

21. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 21 ] Properties of a good indicator a good indicator should be  unambiguous and measurable (possibly quantitatively, but also qualitatively)  relevant (or significant), i.e. provide useful information on decision outcome  reliable, i.e. repeatable and not influenced by who collects the data  feasible, i.e. based upon data that can be collected easily, rapidly and cost-effectively

22. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 22 ] Monetary valuations: the ExternE project ExternE = Externalities of Energy aimed at evaluating the impacts of electricity production and transport on human health, crops, materials, global warming in monetary terms uses an impact pathway approach References: European Commission (2003) External Costs. Research results on socio-environmental damages due to electricity and transport. EUR 20198. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities European Commission (2005) ExternE – Externalities of Energy – Methodology 2005 Update. EUR 21951 EN. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities http://www.externe.info/

23. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 23 ] Monetary valuations: ecosystem services gas regulation1341 G$/yr climate regulation684 G$/yr disturbance regulation1779 G$/yr water regulation1115 G$/yr water supply1692 G$/yr erosion control576 G$/yr soil formation53 G$/yr nutrient cycling17075 G$/yr waste treatment2277 G$/yr pollination117 G$/yr biological control417 G$/yr habitat / refugia124 G$/yr food production1386 G$/yr raw materials721 G$/yr genetic resources79 G$/yr recreation815 G$/yr cultural3015 G$/yr 33268 G$/yr world GDP: ~18000 G$/yr Source: Costanza R. et al. (1997) The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387: 253-260

24. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 24 ] producing and consuming goods and services requires ecological systems providing energy and materials and absorbing waste Ecological Footprint: a measure (usually expressed in global hectares) of how much biologically productive land and water a country requires  to produce all resources (energy and materials) it consumes  to absorb the waste it generates using prevailing technology and independently from its geographic location human demand can be directly compared to nature’s supply (biocapacity) Reference:Wackernagel M & Rees W (1996) Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers The Ecological Footprint

25. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 25 ] From consumptions to productive land Source: http://www.bestfootforward.com/ecological_footprint

26. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 26 ] Italy’s ecological footprint EF of an average Italian in 2005: 4.8 ha 2.77 (carbon uptake) + 1.19 (cropland) + 0.22 (grazing land) + 0.43 (forest) + 0.06 (fishing ground) + 0.10 (built-up land) against an available biocapacity of 1.2 ha Italy’s ecological deficit: 1.2 – 4.8 = – 3.6 ha

27. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 27 ] Italy’s ecological footprint

28. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 28 ]...what about the rest of the world? Country EF (ha per capita) United Arab Emirates9.5 USA9.4 France4.9 Italy4.8 China2.1 Afghanistan0.5 World2.7 biocapacity2.1 Source: WWF (2008) Living Planet Report 2008 ?

29. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 29 ] EF global trends Source: WWF (2008) Living Planet Report 2008

30. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 30 ] it calculates the impact of human activities on climate change by measuring all greenhouse gases produced (expressed in kg of CO 2 equivalent) is is a subset of the ecological footprint (yet expressed in different units) the impact of products is calculated through an LCA approach (cradle-to-grave)  primary footprint: related to direct carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning  secondary footprint: indirect emissions from the whole lifecycle of products The carbon footprint

31. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 31 ] the total amount of freshwater used to produce the goods and services consumed by an individual or a country it is the sum of  direct water use  virtual water: the amount of water required to produce a good that can be exported or imported (thus carrying with it a specific water footprint) the measure is not univocal: actual impacts depend upon specific features of the water cycle at the local and regional scale The water footprint Source: www.waterfootprint.org

32. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 32 ] The eco-indicator approach Source: www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

33. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 33 ] Impact on human health: the DALYs DALY: Disability-Adjusted Life Year 1 DALY = one year of healthy life lost DALY = YLL + YLD YLL = N × LEYears of Life Lost Nnumber of deaths LEstandard life expectancy at age of death (years) YLD = I × DW × LYears Lost due to Disability Inumber of incident cases DWdisability weight (0: perfect health; 1: death) Laverage duration of the case until remission or death (years) Reference:Murray CJL & Lopez AD (1996) Evidence-Based Health Policy – Lessons from the Global Burden of Disease Study. Science 274: 740-743

34. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 34 ] Impact on ecosystems: PAF and PDF PAF: Potentially Affected Fraction the fraction of species exposed to a concentration ≥ NOEC (No Observed Effect Concentration) PDF: Potentially Disappeared Fraction the fraction of species with a high probability of no occurrence in a region due to unfavourable conditions how to combine PAFs and PDFs?...just sum them up, given that PDF = PAF/10 (!) Reference:Goedkoop M & Spriensma R (2001) The Eco-indicator 99 – A damage oriented method for Life Cycle Assessment. Methodology Report. Pré Consultants

35. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 35 ] Impact on resources when non-renewable resources are extracted, the quality of the remaining resource stocks decreases and the energy to extract a given amount of resource (or an equivalent amount of a substitute resource) increases  surplus energy minerals:  marginal increase of energy needed to extract the same resource amount due to decreasing concentration of the mineral fossil fuels:  marginal increase of energy needed to extract an equivalent amount of a substitute resource (e.g. coal from anthracite vs. lignite) Reference:Goedkoop M & Spriensma R (2001) The Eco-indicator 99 – A damage oriented method for Life Cycle Assessment. Methodology Report. Pré Consultants

36. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 36 ] The eco-indicator methodology Source: www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

37. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 37 ] Normalizing, weighting and ranking results can eventually be  normalized (with respect to a reference system)  weighted (to account for the relative importance of the 3 impact dimensions)  aggregated into a single score (that can be used to rank different alternatives) however, according to ISO standards, these are optional steps of the LCA that cannot be used in public comparisons Source:modified from Goedkoop M & Spriensma R (2001) The Eco-indicator 99 – A damage oriented method for Life Cycle Assessment. Methodology Report. Pré Consultants

38. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 38 ] The weighting problem: social perspectives

39. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 39 ] Case studies 1.Assessing environmental sustainability of waste management strategies through LCA 2.The role of materials in the reduction of GHGs emissions in the building sector: the LCA approach 3.Food packaging materials: sustainability analysis through LCA 4.LCA comparison of alternative technologies for domestic lighting

40. ASP Course Global change and sustainability  G Dotelli & P Melià: Life Cycle Assessment[ 40 ] Formalizing the problem system boundaries stakeholders  which are the actors involved in the decision process? individuals, groups, lobbies... and their relevant viewpoints objectives  how do different viewpoints translate into specific goals? indicators/indices  how to measure the achievement of the goals? decision variables  what are the variables the decision can affect? constraints  physical, economic, technological, political...