Is Expensive More Environment Friendly? Comparative LCA of Three Home Appliances

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Mobeen Shaukat ◽  
Hammad Masood ◽  
Neçar Merah ◽  
Fadi Al-Badour
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
High Price ◽  
Environment Friendly ◽  
Home Appliances ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Detailed List ◽  
Manufacturing Assembly ◽  
Component Manufacturing ◽  
Efficient Environment

Abstract Due to rise in income and living standards in the developing world, there is a substantial growth in the use of home appliances. This growth is responsible for several environmental issues. Hence, there is a growing demand for energy efficient, environment friendly, and sustainable appliances. This study compares the environmental impacts of three home appliances using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Three irons of same power rating but with different prices (low, medium, and high) were selected for this study. First, energy consumption of these irons was measured and then they were disassembled to generate a detailed list of components, materials, and processes used to manufacture them. Next, LCA was conducted using SimaPro to compare the environmental impacts of these irons. Life cycle stages including material extraction, component manufacturing, assembly, distribution, and use were considered in LCA. Both ReCiPe mid-point and end-point environmental impacts were calculated. The results of this study showed that high-price iron was more environment friendly than the low-price iron.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Thinking in the Use of Natural Resources

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.J. Koroneos ◽  
Ch. Achillas ◽  
N. Moussiopoulos ◽  
E.A. Nanaki
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Life Cycle Thinking ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Full Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Sustainable Consumption And Production

The continuous increase of production and consumption of material in the developed world and the increase of the standard of living of the developing countries leads to the increase of the use of natural resources and the degradation of the environment. Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is essential to sustainable consumption and production which will impact the use of limited resources. LCT is the process of taking into account in decision making both the resources consumed and the environmental and health pressures associated with the full life cycle of a product. It includes the extraction of resources, production, use, re-use, transport, recycling, and the ultimate waste disposal to provide goods and services and it helps in avoiding shifting the burdens among various life stages of a resource processing. It is important to use the life cycle thinking in analysing products because they may have different environmental impacts at different life cycle stages. It is important to note that some products have very high environmental impacts during the extraction and processing of their original natural resource but they may have minor environmental impacts when they are recycled. A good example is aluminium. The objective of this work is to analyze the importance of the life cycle thinking concept, and show its direct linkage to sustainability.

scholarly journals Assessment of environmental impacts and costs during life cycle stages of selected family houses

2021 ◽  
Vol 900 (1) ◽  
pp. 012017
Author(s):  
E Kridlova Burdova ◽  
S Vilcekova
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Family House

Abstract According to the European Green Deal, climate change and environmental degradation pose an existential threat to Europe and the world. Therefore, Europe needs a new “green” strategy to transform the EU into a modern and competitive, resource-intensive economy, with zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As a result, economic growth will be decoupled from resource use. The ever-increasing requirements for the urban environment to be carbon neutral lead to the rising needs for buildings from three dimensions of sustainability. It is well known that the construction and operation of buildings are the primary consumers of energy and material resources and significant polluters of the environment during all stages of their life cycle. This paper deals with analysing environmental impacts and life cycle cost of two family houses located in Kosice, eastern Slovakia. The total greenhouse gas emissions for family house 1 generates 45.89% more CO2 emissions during its life cycle. Discounted life cycle cost of a family house 1 is 74.33% higher and nominal even 77.22% higher than the nominal life cycle cost of a family house 2.

scholarly journals Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Thermal Insulation Tiles for Flat Roofs

Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 2595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raul Gomes ◽  
José D. Silvestre ◽  
Jorge de Brito
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Thermal Insulation ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Cradle To Gate ◽  
Flat Roofs

Envelope insulation and protection is an important technical solution to reduce energy consumption, exterior damage, and environmental impacts in buildings. Thermal insulation tiles are used simultaneously as thermal insulation of the building envelope and protection material of under layers in flat roofs systems. The purpose of this research is to assess the environmental impacts of the life cycle of thermal insulation tiles for flat roofs. This research presents the up-to-date “cradle to gate” environmental performance of thermal insulation tiles for the environmental categories and life-cycle stages defined in European standards on environmental evaluation of building. The results presented in this research were based on site-specific data from a Portuguese factory and resulted from a consistent methodology that is here fully described, including the raw materials extraction and production, and the modelling of energy and transport processes at the production stage of thermal insulation tiles. These results reflect the weight of the raw-materials within the production process of thermal insulation tiles in all environmental categories and show that some life cycle stages, such as transportation of raw materials (A2) and packaging and packaging waste (A3.1 and A3.3, respectively), may not be discarded in a cradle to gate study of a construction material because they can make a significant contribution to some environmental categories. Moreover, complementary results regarding the economic, environmental, and energy performance Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of flat roofs solutions incorporating the thermal insulation tiles studied showed that the influence of the economic costs on the total aggregated costs of these solutions is much higher than that of the environmental costs due to the lower environmental costs of the thermal insulation tiles at the product stage (A1–A3). These costs influenced the corresponding percentage of the environmental costs (between 14% and 18%) and the percentage of the economic costs (between 70% and 75%) in the total aggregated (environmental, economic, and energy) net present value (NPV). Finally, a complementary “cradle to cradle” environmental LCA discussion is presented including the following additional life cycle stages: maintenance and replacement (B2–B4), operational energy use (B6), and end-of-life stage and benefits and loads beyond the system boundary (C1–C4 and D).

scholarly journals Environmental impacts of seaweed cultivation: kelp farming and preservation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste Thomas ◽  
◽  
José Potting ◽  
Fredrik Gröndahl ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Future Trends ◽  
Lca Methodology ◽  
Seaweed Cultivation ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Kelp Farming ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Storage

This chapter provides an overview of the environmental impacts of the supply chain for preserved seaweed. The supply chain includes the hatchery, marine infrastructure, deployment of juveniles and monitoring during cultivation (grow-out of seaweed), harvest, transport back to shore and preservation of the biomass. The chapter starts with a short overview of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, and how it can be used to quantify the environmental impacts of seaweed supply chains. After a discussion of the overall environmental impacts of the preserved seaweed supply chain, the chapter focuses on specific life cycle stages: spore preparation and seeding of juvenile seaweed onto string in the hatchery, seaweed cultivation, harvesting preservation and storage of harvested seaweed. The chapter ends with a summary and discussion of future trends in the subject.

scholarly journals Environmental Impacts of a Pet Dog: An LCA Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3394
Author(s):  
Kim Maya Yavor ◽  
Annekatrin Lehmann ◽  
Matthias Finkbeiner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Pet Food ◽  
Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
Freshwater Eutrophication

The number of pet animals in the European Union is increasing over the last decades. Few studies with a limited focus in terms of impacts and life cycle stages exist that assess the environmental impacts of dogs. This paper addresses the entire life cycle of a dog. An LCA study on an average dog was conducted considering the pet food and dog excrements, i.e., urine and feces. Fifteen impact categories were analyzed. An average dog has a climate change and freshwater eutrophication potential of around 8200 kg CO2eq and 5.0 kg Peq., respectively. The main contribution to most impact categories over the dog’s life is caused by pet food. Freshwater eutrophication is mainly determined by the dog´s urine and feces. Feces also have a significant contribution to the category of freshwater ecotoxicity. Impacts increase significantly with increasing weight and a longer lifetime of the dog as well as low collection rates of the feces. This LCA study reveals that pet dogs can have a significant environmental impact, e.g., around 7% of the annual climate change impact of an average EU citizen. Optimizing pet food and increasing the feces´ collection rate can reduce the impacts.

scholarly journals A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) and Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Pavement: A Case Study in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hui Ma ◽  
Zhigang Zhang ◽  
Xia Zhao ◽  
Shuang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Hot Mix Asphalt ◽  
Warm Mix Asphalt ◽  
Environment Friendly ◽  
Long Term Performance ◽  
Term Performance

Generally, the warm mix asphalt (WMA) technology can reduce the mixing and paving temperature effectively as compared with that of hot mix asphalt (HMA), which is considered more environment-friendly. In this study, the environmental impacts and resource consumptions of WMA and HMA pavements were analyzed comparatively using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. A LCA model of pavement was built; meanwhile, the relevant life cycle inventory (LCI) of WMA and HMA pavements was also collected and analyzed. The midpoint impact categories including Global Warming Potential (GWP), Chinese Abiotic Depletion Potential (CADP), and Particulate Matter Formation (PMF) were assessed for five cases. The assessment results showed that the resource consumptions of both WMA and HMA pavements in entire life were almost at the same level, while the environmental impacts of WMA pavement related to greenhouse gases and PM2.5 emissions were significantly less than that of HMA pavement, except for the case where the long-term performance of WMA pavement is much worse than that of HMA pavement. In final, it could be concluded that WMA pavement is more environment-friendly compared with HMA pavement although they have the same-level resource consumptions.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of an Oscillating Wave Surge Energy Converter

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Maria Apolonia ◽  
Teresa Simas
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Ecoinvent Database ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Background Data ◽  
Final Design

So far, very few studies have focused on the quantification of the environmental impacts of a wave energy converter. The current study presents a preliminary Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the MegaRoller wave energy converter, aiming to contribute to decision making regarding the least carbon- and energy-intensive design choices. The LCA encompasses all life cycle stages from “cradle-to-grave” for the wave energy converter, including the panel, foundation, PTO and mooring system, considering its deployment in Peniche, Portugal. Background data was mainly sourced from the manufacturer whereas foreground data was sourced from the Ecoinvent database (v.3.4). The resulting impact assessment of the MegaRoller is aligned with all previous studies in concluding that the main environmental impacts are due to materials use and manufacture, and mainly due to high amounts of material used, particularly steel. The scenario analysis showed that a reduction of the environmental impacts in the final design of the MegaRoller wave energy converter could potentially lie in reducing the quantity of steel by studying alternatives for its replacement. Results are generally comparable with earlier studies for ocean technologies and are very low when compared with other power generating technologies.

scholarly journals Proposal of Package-to-Product Indicator for Carbon Footprint Assessment with Focus on the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 3034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markéta Šerešová ◽  
Vladimír Kočí
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Individual Product ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Vegetable Products ◽  
Carbon Footprint Assessment

Today, packaging is an integral part of most foods and beverages. However, excessive and just one-time applications of packaging can bring about indisputable environmental impacts in the form of large amounts of waste generated. If we want to monitor the environmental impacts of packaging materials, it is advisable to assess them in a complex way including not only the specific packaging but also specific products. No universal methodology currently exists that would enable this type of complex assessment regarding the environmental impacts of packaging in relation to particular products. Therefore, the aim of our study was to develop and test a Package-to-Product (PtP) indicator. For this purpose, the life cycle assessment (LCA) was employed to analyse four selected products considering different life cycle stages of packaging and their impacts on the climate change category. The results of the study confirm that the values of the PtP indicator significantly differ for various products, thus emphasising the need to establish a uniform methodology for individual product groups, such as meat, dairy and vegetable products or beverages. The application of this indicator, however, enables a clear impact assessment of different packaging materials and allows the packaging manufacturers to reduce their overall environmental impacts.

scholarly journals Assessing Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Impacts of Building Construction Solutions with BIM

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8914
Author(s):  
José Pedro Carvalho ◽  
Fernanda Schmitd Villaschi ◽  
Luís Bragança
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Functional Performance ◽  
Building Construction ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Need To Evaluate ◽  
High Performance Buildings ◽  
Building Life Cycle

Worldwide authorities are increasingly concerned about construction’s efficiency and sustainability, leading to the development of high-performance buildings. However, such facts have shifted a significant percentage of the building life cycle environmental impacts from the operation to the product and construction phases. Thus, the need to evaluate and select more sustainable materials and construction solutions arises, to also minimize impacts from these stages. To evaluate those impacts, LCA and LCC analysis are usually applied to assess the building impacts and costs, through the different life cycle stages. Despite the usefulness of LCA and LCC methods during the project phase, they are usually evaluated in the project later stages. It is too complex and time-consuming to gather and process all the required data during the project early stages. With the recent deployment of BIM, the opportunity to automate and shift LCA and LCC analysis to project early stages stands out. Facing the research gap, this study aims to develop a BIM-based decision-making tool for designers to evaluate the environmental, economic, and functional performance of different building construction solutions. To do so, 18 different simulation scenarios have been created in Autodesk Revit with different combinations of external walls, roofs, and floors. Then, a framework was developed in Dynamo to automatically characterize the building elements life cycle environmental impacts and costs, as well as to automate the LCA and LCC analysis during the project early stages. The outcomes can significantly reduce the required time, errors and efforts when performing LCA and LCC analysis, providing designers with real time decision support data and making an important contribution to the use of BIM for sustainability purposes.

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