life cycle assessment: transforming data into … · what is life cycle assessment? scientific tool...
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Life Cycle Assessment:
Transforming Data into Business
Value
Libby Bernick, P.E., LEED AP
Management consulting
expertise focused on
enabling companies to
understand sustainability,
improve performance, and
succeed in the marketplace
Premier provider of software tools for sustainability performance management: - GaBi Product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA),- SoFi Sustainability metrics collection, accounting, and reporting
2
Agenda
• What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?
• Demand for Sustainable Products and
Strategies – What is the context for LCA
• LCA Applications
• Challenges & Looking Ahead
3
What is Life Cycle Assessment?
Scientific tool to evaluate and quantify environmental
performance of products and services from cradle to
grave
Raw Material Extraction
Packaging
End of Life
Processing
Transportation
TransportationTransportation
Bottling
ISO 14040 & 14044
Use
Why use life cycle thinking?
DisposalUseRetail
Envir
onm
enta
l an
d s
oci
al i
mpac
ts
Opportunities for value creation through life
cycle thinking about environmental and
social performance
80% of current management effort covers only 20%
of the available opportunities for value creation
Upstream
Opportunities:
Building up better
alliances, access to
limited resources,
stability of supply, etc.
high
low
Product Chain
Manufacturing/
ProcessingTransportationProduction
Source: Adapted from WWF-UK 2003
Downstream
Opportunities:
Customer satisfaction
and loyalty, improved
brand image, etc.
Paper, film, adhesive component
manufacturing
Formulation
Label Printing and Packaging
Raw Material Sourcing
Distribution & Use
Disposal
Paper, film, adhesive component
manufacturing
Formulation
Label Printing and Packaging
Raw Material Sourcing
Distribution & Use
Disposal
New Jersey Plant Florida Plant
Organizational Footprint Corporate
Activities –Contributing to
Environmental Burden
Sales
R&D
OverheadCorporate
Travel
Production & Manufacturing
Product LCA –Contributing to
Environmental Burden
Product Footprint vs. Organizational Footprint
“Gate to
gate”
“Cradle to
grave”
21.10.2010
Goal and scope
definition
Inventory analysis
Impact assessment
Inte
rpre
tatio
n
LCA framework Direct applications:
• Product
development
and improvement
• Strategic planning
• Public policy making
• Marketing
• Other
ISO
14043
ISO 14041
ISO 14041
ISO 14042
Framework of LCA - The ISO 14040 series
• Inputs
– Materials & Resources
• Water
• Active Ingredients
• Fragrances
• Packaging
– Energy
• Electricity
• Natural Gas
• Outputs
• Product
• Shampoo
• Emissions
• Wastewater
• Stack Emissions
• Waste
• Packaging
Data Collection
21.10.2010
Goal and scope
definition
Inventory analysis
Impact assessment
Inte
rpre
tatio
n
LCA framework Direct applications:
• Product
development
and improvement
• Strategic planning
• Public policy making
• Marketing
• Other
ISO
14043
ISO 14041
ISO 14041
ISO 14042
Framework of LCA - The ISO 14040 series
HCFC Emissions
Ozone Depletion
Skin Cancer
Human Health
Examples of LCA Impact Categories
aka “Carbon Footprint”
Fossil Fuel Depletion –amount of energy extracted from the earth for non-renewable resources
Climate Change: measure of greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. CO2 , methane, etc.)
Examples of LCA Impact Categories
• Eutrophication - water quality
degradation caused by algae
growth from excess Nitrogen
and Phosphorus
• Acidification - emissions that
cause acidifying effects
Examples of LCA Impact Categories
• Smog: air pollution from
fumes and emissions
• Ozone Depletion: measure
of emissions that deplete
ozone layer within
stratosphere
• Others: USETox, Lanca – land
use, Water footprint, etc.
12
Typical LCA Profiles
Source: Ashby, 1998
Agenda
• What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?
• Demand for Sustainable Products and
Strategies – What is the context for LCA
• LCA Applications
• Challenges & Looking Ahead
13
Societal
Consciousness
Growing media,financial
(CDP) and consumer
focus on environment
and climate change
Retail Revolution
Reduce suppply chain
costs, footprint and
sourcing/developing
green products
Government
Activity
Reduce impacts of
production, resource
conservation, reduce
waste to landfill, enhance
competitiveness, ...
Competitive
positioning of
materials,
technologies,
products &services
Providing
environmnetally and
socially responsible
solutions
14
Converging Interests in Demand for Sustainable Products
Corporate Strategic Approaches to Sustainability
© Five Winds International
Product Strategies
Deep Green
e.g. Momentum,
Tom’s of Maine
Opportunistic (light)
Green
e.g. Estee Lauder
(Aveda)
Transformative
e.g. Interface, HM
Timberland
All Products
designed green
from concept stage
Niche Products to
target market
segment
All New Products
plus legacy
products over time
Disruptive Innovators -
Need to ensure
materials, processes,
transport, logistics etc –
all environmentally
sound from day one –
whole Company has
green brand
Fast followers - Need to
manage perception of
non-green products and
ensure green products
are branded separately
Typically sector leaders
- Need deep green type
process for new
products and a strategy
for bringing along legacy
products
Values Driven
Leadership Driven
Market Driven
Life Cycle Assessment in Context of Business
Strategies
CorporateBrand & Strategy
Sustainability Management Systems
Sustainable Business Priorities (risks and opportunities )
Programs and ActivitiesDesign for Sustainability , eco-efficiency, energy
& carbon management, EH&S, community engagement…
Tools and Data
LCA data and information, business unit and corporate data, Risk assessment, etc.
Organizations today must
understand their
sustainability performance
(corporate and product
footprints)
17
"A lot of companies publish how green their
building is, but it doesn't matter if you're
shipping millions of power-hungry products
with toxic chemicals in them," says CEO Steve
Jobs in an interview. "It's like asking a
cigarette company how green their office is.”
Apple CEO Steve Jobs
Source: Businessweek 2010
• USEPA “Listening” Session and Open
Docket, 9/24/10
– Product Stewardship, Use of LCA, open
source LCA data, Sustainable Product
Database, etc.
• French Assembly
– Article 85 of Grenelle 2 outlines a program
on environmental/carbon declaration
labels for consumer products
Government & Regulatory Trends
“consumers should be informed by way of
marking, labelling, posting or any other
“suitable” manner of the carbon content of
products and their packaging, as well as the
consumption of natural resources or the
environmental impact during the life cycles of
those products”
Retailer Trends – Sustainability Index
19
Retail - Sustainability Measurement & Reporting System
20
Environmental Marketing Claims – UK’s DEFRA Guidance
21
Agenda
• What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?
• Demand for Sustainable Products and
Strategies – What is the context for LCA
• LCA Applications
• Challenges & Looking Ahead
22
LCA Applications
Internal External
Strategic
Responding/
Reactive
Technology
assessments
Material
selection/
screening
Process
performance
improvement
Packaging
system analysis
Industrial
Ecology
analysis
Carbon Footprint
Design support
Eco-labelling &
Environmental
Product
Declarations
Marketing
Product
branding
Sales support
Product
Disclosure/
communications
Environmental
reporting
Most Common
Applications
Less common or emerging
applications
23
• 1 million litres of water saved,
• During transport 500,000 litres of
diesel is saved,
• If replacement of traditional
shopping bags then save up to
275 tons of plastic.
24
• ~8,500 tons less paper will be
consumed,
• 20 million Megajoules of
electricity saved,
• 1 million litres less of fuel oil use,
Puma: Packaging LCA and Redesign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwRulz8hPKI
Use of LCA: Product Innovation and Material
Savings(VIDEO LINK)
Use of LCA: Competitive Advantage & Brand Equity
25
26
- Results “critical” in attracting over $30 million in capital from investors
- Foundation for how customers sell products made with AirDyetechnology.
- Ability to demonstrate, quantitatively, the impact of AirDye® technology - a key element in consumer acquisition
Use of LCA: Access to Capital & Competitive Advantage for New Technology
Global Warming Potential - Cradle to Gate
0
10000000
20000000
30000000
40000000
50000000
60000000
70000000
80000000
BAP Base Case BAP Upgrade
kg
CO
2-e
qu
ivale
nt/
6 m
on
ths
op
era
tio
n
Mining
Optibor Plant
Global Warming Potential - Optibor Plant
Breakdown (BAP Upgrade)
Steam
74%
Power
8%
Sulphuric acid
18%
Transport
0%
Others
0%
Use of LCA: Supporting CapEx Decisions
27
Use of LCA: Product Differentiation & Marketing
• Using LCA data to provide
information about your companies’
products to customers and the
marketplace in general
• Case studies on external corporate
website
• Providing LCI profiles upstream in
supply chain
• Examples: Unilever’s product
profiles
28
June 2008 Carbon
Footp
29
Use of LCA: Communicating Product Performance –Boots Shampoo
30
Use of LCA: Understanding Corporate Performance
Hot Spot Screening: Comparative Study of 9 Home & Personal Care Products
31Source: Koehler, et al. 2009. ES&T
Henkel AG: Consumer Communication & Education
32Source: Henkel AG, Nov. 2008, Case Study of PCF Pilot Project
33
Henkel AG: Consumer Communication & Education
Evonik & Novazyme
34
Agenda
• What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?
• Demand for Sustainable Products and
Strategies – What is the context for LCA
• LCA Applications
• Challenges & Looking Ahead
35
LCA Challenges & Opportunities for Personal Care Products
Data: quality assured, publicly available,
geographic relevance, reference
year, etc.
– Personal care product LCAs primarily
for internal use
– Commercial databases (e.g., Gabi)
more recent, robust than others
– Fragrances and proprietary
ingredients – below cutoffs?
– Proxy values
– Trade association - industry wide
data sets?
36
Social Factors
Supply chain
Labor/food
production
Health and
safety
LCA & Product Sustainability – Data Needs
Life cycle impacts
– GWP, ODP
Primary energy
Waste
…
Technical Assessment
Fit for purpose
functionality
- Safety
- Transport
- Storage, Cold Chain
…
Risk Assessment
Eco-toxicity
Human Health
Material attributes
- sustainability
Life Cycle Costs
materials, capital
equipment
, product loss,
recycling
infrastructure
Typical level of information available
High Low
LCA Challenges & Opportunities for Personal Care Products
• Packaging vs. Product?
38
• Screening
• Identify product “hot spots” – prioritizing R&D,
NPD, etc.
• Retail Buyer sourcing profiles
• Assess standards & ecolabel coverage
LCA Challenges & Opportunities for Personal Care Products – Hot Spot Profiles
39
LCA Challenges & Opportunities in Personal Care Products
• Toxicity
– USETox methodology recently released
– LCA and risk assessment: complimentary tools
• Water Footprinting
– Varying methodologies
– Product specific issues
• Biobased Materials –key impact considerations include
agricultural based products: carbon, water, & land use
• Marketing, Branding – opportunity to use LCA as tool to
communicate product performance has not been fully
leveraged by home & personal care companies (compared to
some other sectors)40
Summary
• Life Cycle thinking is critically important – hardwire
into product development process
• Life Cycle Assessment
– key tool for evaluating environmental performance
of product systems – need additional information for
complete sustainability performance
– Business value has been demonstrated
– Tools and data increasingly available
• Credible approaches use ISO standards and
reputable data and software, involve stakeholders,
with careful communications
41
Living Our Values
Five Winds is a Carbon Neutral Company
and follows a Sustainable Purchasing Policy
October 21, 2010