In response to “Criteria for the evaluation of life cycle assessment software packages and life cycle inventory data with application to concrete” by Seto et al. (2016)

The production stage of a product's life cycle can significantly contribute to its overall environmental impact. Estimates of environmental impact for a product are typically produced using life cycle assessment (LCA) methods. These methods rely on life cycle inventory (LCI) data containing impact estimates of manufacturing processes and other operations that contribute to a product's creation. The accuracy of LCI data is critical for quality assessments; however, these data are often insufficient in the types and varieties of manufacturing processes covered and are often only a coarse estimate of actual impacts. At the same time, much manufacturing research focuses on how to model, measure, assess, and reduce the environmental impacts of manufacturing processes. Recent standards emerging from ASTM International define a structured format for presenting these studies in a reusable way. In this paper, we investigate the potential for using the ASTM E3012-16 format to generate LCI datasets suitable to perform LCA by mapping from the ASTM standard into the widely adopted ecoSpold2 format. A process is presented for generating LCI datasets from ASTM models, and overlaps and gaps between the two standards are identified.

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The Footprint of Things: A hybrid approach towards the collection, storage and distribution of life cycle inventory data

10.29007/8pnj ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Guido van Capelleveen ◽

Johanna Pohl ◽

Andreas Fritsch ◽

Daniel Schien

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

System Design ◽

Life Cycle Inventory ◽

Hybrid Approach ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Inventory Data ◽

Life Cycle Inventory Data ◽

Narrow Scope ◽

Central Repository

Life cycle assessment is a well-established methodology for assessing the environmental impacts of products and services. Unfortunately, an essential part of this life cycle assessment method, col- lecting inventory data, is extremely time consuming. The quality of manually conducted LCA studies is often limited by uncertainty in the inventory data or narrow scope. Past attempts to overcome these challenges through automation of data collection utilizing the Internet of Things have relied on fully centralized architectures. The drawback of a central repository is the complex coordination between all involved actors in supply chains of products and services. This paper proposes an alternative hybrid approach combining a primary distributed system supplemented with a central repository reducing the need for coordination. This hybrid approach is named "the Footprint of Things". We present a system design that embeds the automatic reporting of life cycle inventory data, such as energy and material flows, into all product components involved in a service delivery. The major strength of our novel system design, among others, is its capacity for real-time and more precise impact calculation of ICT services.

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