Life Cycle Thinking

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Life Cycle Thinking

• LCA, tools, data, limitations

Eco-Serve workshop task 2, March 18 2003
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Clusters need to know

• Which indicators represent sustainability for
  their cluster topic
• Which data to collect

• You will learn in the next hour
• Which indicators there are in general
• The way of thinking

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What is sustainability?

• in the whole life cycle (cradle to gate)

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(1) People health, safety, society

• Indicators
• Working environment
• Local impacts
• Indoor climate
• Social security
• Shelter
• Employment
• Equity
• ()

• Tools (methods)
• various

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(2) Planet external environment

• Indicators
• Resources (raw materials, water, land)
• Global warming
• Ozone layer depletion
• Acidification
• Eutrophication
• Toxicity
• Smog
• Energy, waste,
• Risks
• Nuisance
• ()

• Tools
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Various others

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(3) Profit

• Tools
• Life Cycle Costing (LCC)
• Various others

• Indicators
• Direct costs
• Indirect costs
• Competitiveness
• Productivity
• Quality
• Image
• Durability
• ()

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Analysis of the whole life cycle
Eco-Serve material related
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Building
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Benefits of integratedLife Cycle thinking

• Prevents shifts to
• Other life cycles stages, e.g.
• benefit in resource can influence recyclability
• product improvement can influence durability
• Other effects
• e.g. benefit on waste while increasing energy use
• Focuses on the most important parameters
• e.g. environmental improvement of concrete
  composition by optimising the cement content

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Example recycling systemsconcrete

• Recycling stony material
• More energy
• Less waste
• Less land use

Closed Building Cycle system LCA. A comparison
of the autonomous development and Closed Building
Cycle system situation in 2005, INTRON, January
31, 2002.
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Steps in Life Cycle thinking

• Step 1 Goal Scope
• what to do, why, how, etc
• Step 2 Inventory
• Data collection
• Step 3 Impact assessment
• Calculation indicators
• Step 4 Interpretation
• Evaluation
• Conclusions

• Functional unit
• Products to be analysed
• Process tree
• Which data
• Indicators

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(1) Functional unit / products
Function
B25 composition Y
B25 composition X
1 m3 of concrete type according to environmental
class () in EN-206
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Functional units definition

• Which question must be answered?
• Which systems should be covered by the FU?

• Example
• 1 ton of cement
• 1 ton of cement and the treatment of waste type xx

limestone
waste
clinker
fuel
incinerated
cement
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(2) Inventory
Construction
Product in function
Process tree
inputs / outputs for each process
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Inventory parameters (example)
INPUT t clinker t fly ash etc kWh
elektricitity Nm3 gas tkm transport
OUTPUT kg CO2 kg NOx kg SO2 kg dust
etc kg waste
PRODUCT 1 ton product
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Inventory parameters (example)
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(3) From data to indicatorsExample LCA
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(4) Interpretation

• Which processes contribute most?
• Which substances contribute most?
• What is the sensitivity of the conclusions?

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CO2- emission - 74 years
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Contribution of leaching(concrete tiles)
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Experiences from LCAs
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Analysis on each level fromprocess to effect to
substance

• Example concrete mixture

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Indicators on which level?
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Data collection
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Steps in Eco-Serve

• Functional units are defined for each cluster
• Experience from former studies is used to
  establish indicators
• Life cycle data are collected by the clusters
• Indicator values are calculated and mapped