writing a reflection
Practical Sustainability
Threat
Opportunity
Why should Businesses care?
ETS
Levies
Trade Barriers
Legislation
Environmental Watchdogs
Spills
Global Warming
Threats
LOHAS
Competitive Advantage
Clean Green NZ
100% Pure
Opportunities
Complexity
Multiple Stakeholders
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Management Attitude
A system for planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the actions an organization takes to meet its environmental obligations.
Environmental Management System
Practical Guide #1
Be Holistic
Include all aspects of your business in the system
Practical Guide #2
Be Systematic
Break the system into manageable segments
Practical Guide #3
Be Inclusive
Delegate responsibility of each segment to its main stakeholders
Practical Guide #4
Manage Projects
Treat each segment as a project and break it down to manageable objectives
Practical Guide #5
Be Transparent
Communicate to all stakeholders regularly and provide them with access to all the information required
Practical Guide #6
Match International Standards
Work towards and acquire international standards that matter to your industry and customers
Practical Guide #7
Tell everyone
Communicate your programme objectives and your achievements to all your stakeholders
Some Tools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdZwuR0daso
Step 1: Goal Definition & Scope (ISO 14040)
Step 2: Inventory Analysis (ISO 14041)
Step 3: Impact Assessment (ISO 14042)
Step 4: Improvement Assessment / Interpretation (ISO 14043)
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
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Domestic Coffee Maker Example
Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/coffee-maker.htm
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Step 1: Goal Definition & Scope
Establish purpose & goal
Define decision criteria, function & functional unit
Define system boundaries
Life cycle stages
Time
Place
Determine required data quality
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Step 1: Coffee Maker
Purpose of LCA?
Determine how to improve the environmental performance of a coffee maker
Decision criteria?
Total energy consumed, equivalent CO2 produced, eco-indicator 99 score
Function of coffee maker? Functional units?
Cups of coffee poured, Time coffee is warmed
System boundaries?
Five years of use, Europe, production, use & end-of-life stages
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Difficulties & Limitations of Step 1
How do you compare different products that provide similar functions or services?
How do you compare similar products that provide multiple functions or services?
How do you define more abstract functional units such as entertainment from toys or higher self-esteem?
Where do you stop drawing the bounds to your system?
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Step 2: Inventory Analysis
Make process tree or flow chart classifying events in a product’s life cycle
Determine all mass and energy inputs and outputs
Collect relevant data
Make assumptions for missing data
Establish (correct) material and energy balance(s) for each stage and event
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Step 2: Inventory Analysis (cont.)
Input/output diagram for single stage or unit operation
Source: EPA Life-Cycle Design Guidance Manual, EPA Report no. EPA/600/R-92/226, p. 104.
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Step 2: Coffee Maker
Understand the product components & materials first
Top (internal) View
Heater View
Rested (bottom) View
Bottom (internal) View
Good View
Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/coffee-maker.htm
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Step 2: Coffee Maker
Simplified process tree for coffee maker
Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf
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Step 2: Coffee Maker (cont.)
Lifecycle inventory for coffee maker
White boxes are not included in assessment/inventory
Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf
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Difficulties & Limitations of Step 2
Finding data is hard and usually very time-consuming
Published data on material loads exists, but is often inconsistent and/or not directly applicable
Obtained data is usually discrete, static and linear (makes many simplifying assumptions)
Mistakes are easily made in quantification
Mass and energy balances may not be correct
Results can be generalized improperly
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Step 3: Impact Analysis
Define impact categories
Determine which loads affect different impact categories
Assign indicators to impact categories
Weigh importance of each category
Environmental Impact
Environmental Load
greenhouse effect
ozone layer depletion
eutrophication
depletion of abiotic resources
(summer) smog
acidification
copper
CO2
CFC
SO2
NOx
phosphorous
volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
heavy metals
PCB
pesticides
styrene
eco-toxicity
depletion of biotic resources
human toxicity
odour
Scalar Indicator
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Step 3: Paper or Plastic?
Which is better?...
This is one reason why some folks prefer scalar vectors…
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Step 3: Coffee Maker
Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf
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Difficulties & Limitations of Step 3
Subjective, subjective, subjective
Impact categories chosen
Indicators chosen for impact categories
How metrics / load affect impact indicators
Weightings used for impact categories
Where are the impacts occurring?
U.S., Europe, Brazil?
Is there damage already in the area being impacted?
How much can that area take before it breaks down? Or can it handle it without any problems?
How are managers and engineers supposed to know the effects of every load on the different impacts?
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Step 4: Improvement Analysis
Identify areas & opportunities for improvement
Evaluate wrt original goal definition
Target lifecycle areas/processes/events with large impacts
Large amounts w/ low hazard
Small amounts w/ high hazard
Ask yourself:
What are the resources required and risks involved?
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Step 4: Coffee Maker
How to improve coffee maker? Where should we focus?
Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf
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General Comments
Domestic coffee maker is simple product
How would it be different from a commercial coffee maker (Starbucks)?
It is fairly representative of appliances - main impact is use phase
What other products is their main impact the use phase?
Which products is their main impact the production or disposal phase?
Table Source & Figures from 1st Slide: Ashby and coauthors, 2004, “The CES Eco-Selector – background reading”, 2nd edition, University of Cambridge and Granta Design, pp. 1-32.
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Material
Processing
Disposal
Material
Demanufacture
Product
Manufacture
Distribution
Product
Demanufacture
Use &
Service
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Extraction
Environment:
air, sea, land
Product
Takeback
Recycling
/ Reuse
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Demanufacture
Raw material
generation
Energy recovery
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greenhouse
effect
ozone layer
depletion
acidification
eutrophication
heavy metals
carcinogens
winter smog
summer smog
pesticides
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LDPE bag