scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment Tool in Product Development: Environmental Requirements in Decision Making Process

Procedia CIRP ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 202-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rossella Luglietti ◽  
Paolo Rosa ◽  
Sergio Terzi ◽  
Marco Taisch
2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Srinivas Kota ◽  
Amaresh Chakrabarti

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to estimate a product’s environmental impact. Using LCA during the earlier stages of design may produce erroneous results since information available on the product’s lifecycle is typically incomplete at these stages. The resulting uncertainty must be accounted for in the decision-making process. This paper proposes a method for estimating the environmental impact of a product’s life cycle and the associated degree of uncertainty of that impact using information generated during the design process. Total impact is estimated based on aggregation of individual product life cycle processes impacts. Uncertainty estimation is based on assessing the mismatch between the information required and the information available about the product life cycle in each uncertainty category, as well as their integration. The method is evaluated using pre-defined scenarios with varying uncertainty.


Author(s):  
Amlan Mukherjee ◽  
Heather Dylla

The objective of this paper is to discuss the challenges encountered in creating an environmental product declaration (EPD) program for asphalt mixtures that ensures the consistent, transparent, and reliable communication of life-cycle assessment (LCA) results between stakeholders in the paving industry. The formal process outlined in ISO 14025 for developing an EPD program has partially ameliorated the challenges that have deterred the adoption of LCA by requiring stakeholder participation and industrywide agreement on assumptions that define an LCA. This requirement has led to a new set of challenges, both technical and organizational, in addressing issues of data quality, validation, consistency, and transparency during the product category rules (PCR) development process. The paper provides an overview of the EPD program development process and establishes the role played by stakeholders in the decision-making process given their affiliations and relationship to the asphalt materials industry. Some of the LCA results that supported the decision-making process in developing the PCR are discussed. In addition, the paper highlights how the analysis supporting an EPD can also be used to improve plant operational efficiencies, while providing insights into the asphalt mixture design process, accounting for performance and environmental impacts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Ji ◽  
Bob McCullouch ◽  
Zhi Zhou

Snow and ice removal are important tasks during the winter season and large amounts of anti-icing and de-icing chemicals are used and there is a critical need to review and synthesize information from the literature to compare and contrast anti-icing and de-icing chemicals to understand their environmental impact and support decision making. The effectiveness, costs, and environmental impact of commonly used and alternative anti-icing and de-icing chemicals were reviewed in this study. Application of anti-icing and de-icing chemicals may increase ion concentrations in soils and change nitrogen cycle, soil pH, and trace metal concentrations, affect surface water and groundwater, and increase public health risks. Life cycle assessment was conducted to quantitively evaluate environmental impact of selected anti-icing and de-icing chemicals. A decision support tool on environmental impact was developed to evaluate environmental impact of anti-icing and de-icing chemicals in ten different environmental impact categories. The results showed the environmental life cycle assessment tool developed in this study can be used to compare multiple environment impacts to support decision making for winter operation chemicals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 106519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Salvador ◽  
Murillo Vetroni Barros ◽  
Giovani Elias Tagliaferro dos Santos ◽  
Karen Godoi van Mierlo ◽  
Cassiano Moro Piekarski ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 01006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Břetislav Teplý ◽  
Tomáš Vymazal ◽  
Pavla Rovnaníková

Efficient sustainability management requires the use of tools which allow material, technological and construction variants to be quantified, measured or compared. These tools can be used as a powerful marketing aid and as support for the transition to “circular economy”. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) procedures are also used, aside from other approaches. LCA is a method that evaluates the life cycle of a structure from the point of view of its impact on the environment. Consideration is given also to energy and raw material costs, as well as to environmental impact throughout the life cycle - e.g. due to emissions. The paper focuses on the quantification of sustainability connected with the use of various types of concrete with regard to their resistance to degradation. Sustainability coefficients are determined using information regarding service life and "eco-costs". The aim is to propose a suitable methodology which can simplify decision-making in the design and choice of concrete mixes from a wider perspective, i.e. not only with regard to load-bearing capacity or durability.


2021 ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Abeer Ali Khan

As the high demand of energy of the developing countries is met by importing energy and different energy technology, it has become increasingly necessary to discuss the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of those technologies and make better decisions. Developed in the late 1960s, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become a wide-ranging tool used to determine impacts of products or systems over several environmental and resource issues. The LCA approach has become more prevalent in research, industry and policy with growing concern for the environment. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to introduce the use of LCA in the decision-making process while selecting an energy technology. In this way, more environmentally conscious decisions will be made as LCAs can provide a better basis for this process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document