1. Why is LCA needed?
Life Cycle Assessment is used to measure the life cycle carbon footprint of a product.
LCA provides the manufacturer and material suppliers such as vendors with information to reduce life cycle greenhouse gases emissions.
LCA also informs possible dangers to consumers of the greenhouse gases emissions associated with the product.
Manufacturing companies take advantage of this life cycle assessment to make manufacturing processes, operating procedures & Supply chain decisions more environment friendly.
Lots of industries got influenced by LCA program by providing greener products & greener processes. Green product is one that has less of an environmental impact or is less detrimental to human health than the traditional
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Manufacturing
3. Use/reuse/maintenance
4. Recycle/waste management
Life cycle assessment has four linked components:
1. Identifying the purpose behind LCA & expected products of the study
2. Raw material acquisition: measuring the energy and raw material inputs and environmental releases associated with each stage of production
3. Impact analysis: assessing the impacts on human health and the environment associated with energy and raw material inputs and environmental releases quantified by the inventory
4. End of treatment & Improvement analysis: evaluating opportunities to reduce energy, material inputs, or environmental impacts at each stage of the product life-cycle.
LCA helps to interpret the situation & make a decision which saves the environment.
3. What are benefits of LCA?
LCA helps to identify significant environmental impacts of products at all stages of their lifecycle.
LCA is used to assess your product & process against those of your competitors.
It helps to shape corporate sustainable strategy & allow company to target supply chain improvements.
LCA helps to avoid shifting environmental problems from one place to
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It’s not always possible that the financial resources required to perform the life cycle assessment are worth enough against the projected benefits of the LCA.
The accuracy of the results is based upon the data collected by user. So, human error can affect the result of life cycle assessment.
5. What is history of LCA?
The concept of life cycle assessment was put up in the year 1960. During this period, about a dozen studies were performed to estimate costs and environmental implications of alternative sources of energy.
In 1969, The Coca-Cola Company laid the foundation for the current methods of life cycle inventory analysis in the United States.
From 1975 through the early 1980’s, as interest in these comprehensive studies waned because of the fading influence of the oil crisis, environmental concerns shifted to issues of hazardous and household waste management.
When solid waste became a worldwide issue in 1988, LCA again emerged as a tool for analyzing environmental problems.
The need to move beyond the inventory to impact assessment has brought LCA methodology to another point of evolution (SETAC 1991; SETAC 1993; SETAC
your carbon footprint is to look closely at each product you use, and find a more carbon efficient version.
Stasinopoulos, Peter, Paul Compston, Barry Newell, and Haley M. Jones. "A System Dynamics Approach in LCA to Account for Temporal Effects—a Consequential Energy LCI of Car Body-in-whites." The International Journal Of Life Cycle Assessment 17 (2012): 199-207. Springer Online Journals Complete. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. .
Environmental criteria are developed for procurement. For example, purchase environmentally preferable good and service from local suppliers. This also generate economic benefits to NZ local farms and businesses.
for a product over a period of time. It shows the revenue by a product. from its introduction to its eventual decline. There are four stages to the product life cycle: Introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Research and development is the first stage of the product life cycle.
Environmental analysis is integral to understanding how the organization operates within the organization itself, within the industry and within the macroeconomic environment. For this analysis, the subject organization will be IKEA. “IKEA Group is one of the world’s largest privately owned companies, engaged in the retail of flat-packed home furniture and other house wares. Operating over 150 large-scale stores in over 30 countries, and with a mail order division, IKEA sells a range of furniture, which is made by over 2,000 suppliers in more than 55 countries. The company is headquartered in Helsingborg, Sweden”.
Life-cycle costing and net present value analysis perfectly encourage housing developers to build a green, affordable housing. They can truly see the results through the model. Although every model has weakness and limitation, but outcomes of benefits and savings can help developers to make the right decision, to bring a more green, sustainable building to residents.
The next part of Audit process is to understand the business environmental aspects of the company. As part of the marketing audit project the author is going to analyze and provide detailed information on the following key environmental aspects
Dell’Isola, Alphonse and Stephen Kirk. Life Cycle Costings for Design Professionals. New York, McGraw-Hill. 1981, Print.
The idea of possible impact assessment was started by US Army Corp of Engineers in 1870.From which EIA was later evolved with action forcing provision of US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969.
First I am focusing on EIA. EIA is determined is a preventive and proactive measure to deal with the environmental problems and threats. EIA is important in order to create
Environmental analysis is a strategic tool. It is a process of identifying all the external and internal elements, which can affect the organization’s performance. The analysis entails assessing the level of threat or opportunity the factors might present. These evaluations are later translated into the decision-making process. The analysis helps align strategies with the firm’s environment.
...onsidering that some of the projects may fail to incorporate EIA in their implementation process, it should be noted that such developments have significant negative consequences on the public and the environment.
The sustainability of ecosystems on which the global economy depends must be guaranteed. And the economic partners must be satisfied that the basis of exchange is equitable” (World). This quote demonstrates the complexities of sustainability. Another thing corporations should focus on when trying to be sustainable is their environmental impact. Annie Leonard in her book The Story of Stuff says that companies can significantly reduce their toll on the environment by changing their design. The design determines “the amount of energy used in making and using the product,” “the length of the product’s life span” and “its ability to be recycled” (Leonard). All these things determine the amount of resources a company must use, so simply changing a product’s design is one way a company can have a large impact on the sustainability of the environment in which it operates. One example of this is that “Wal-Mart attributed more that $100 million of its 2009 revenue to a decision to switch to a recyclable variety of cardboard in shipments” which it sells to a recycler instead of paying to send it to a landfill
"Recycling | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. .
White, P. & Franke, M., 1999: Integrated solid waste management: a lifecycle inventory. Gaithersburg, Md.: Aspen.