共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 0 毫秒
1.
Thomas E. Graedev 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》1997,1(2):51-64
The goal of life-cycle assessment (LCA) is to conduct an inventory of the flows of materials and energy attributable to an industrial product and then to calculate the impacts of those flows on the environment, over the entire product life cycle from premanufacture to end of 1ife. A related technique, streamlined life-cycle assessment (SLCA), attempts to preserve the breadth of perspective in that approach while performing assessments more efficiently. A common failing of both techniques is that recommendations for actions to improve the environmental responsibility of products have rarely been related in an intellectually rigorous fashion to the environmental concerns they purport to ameliorate. In this article l propose that a framework for the way in which these relationships can be established is by a decision-making process that begins with the \"grand objectives,\" the common consensus of the vital goals for the maintenance and improvement of life on Earth. The grand objectives lead to the identification of crucial environmental concerns, and those, in turn, to determining societal activities that need to be examined. Actions related to those activities can then be designed to contribute to the achievement of the grand objectives. If and when such a consensus is established, LCAs and SLCAs can be undertaken with confidence that the actions they recommend will serve broad societal goals. 相似文献
2.
Parametric life-cycle assessment (LCA) models have been integrated with traditional design tools and used to demonstrate the rapid elucidation of holistic, analytical trade-offs among detailed design variations. A different approach is needed, however, if analytical environmental assessment is to be incorporated in very early design stages. During early stages, there may be competing product concepts with dramatic differences. Detailed information is scarce, and decisions must be made quickly.
This article explores an approximate method for providing preliminary LCAs. In this method, learning algorithms trained using the known characteristics of existing products might allow environmental aspects of new product concepts to be approximated quickly during conceptual design without defining new models. Artificial neural networks are trained to generalize on product attributes, which are characteristics of product concepts, and environmental inventory data from pre-existing LCAs. The product design team then queries the trained artificial model with new high-level attributes to quickly obtain an impact assessment for a new product concept. Foundations for the learning system approach are established, and then an application within the distributed object-based modeling environment (DOME) is provided. Tests have shown that it is possible to predict life-cycle energy consumption, and that the method could be used to predict solid waste, greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, winter and summer smog. 相似文献
This article explores an approximate method for providing preliminary LCAs. In this method, learning algorithms trained using the known characteristics of existing products might allow environmental aspects of new product concepts to be approximated quickly during conceptual design without defining new models. Artificial neural networks are trained to generalize on product attributes, which are characteristics of product concepts, and environmental inventory data from pre-existing LCAs. The product design team then queries the trained artificial model with new high-level attributes to quickly obtain an impact assessment for a new product concept. Foundations for the learning system approach are established, and then an application within the distributed object-based modeling environment (DOME) is provided. Tests have shown that it is possible to predict life-cycle energy consumption, and that the method could be used to predict solid waste, greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, winter and summer smog. 相似文献
3.
Teresa M. Shaft Rex T. Ellington Mark Meo Mark P. Sharfman 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》1997,1(2):135-148
Although business firms have improved their environmental performance, a variety of forces are pushing businesses toward adopting environmental management throughout the entire life cycle of their products and processes. In this article we discuss the information systems elements of an environmental management approach we call \"life-cycle-oriented environmental management\" (LCOEM).This approach requires the firm to manage the effects of its processes from the creation of inputs to the final disposal of outputs, that is, from cradle to grave. We present a framework of the classes of information systems needed, describe their use in an LCOEM setting and define their inter relationships. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of LCOEM information systems. 相似文献
4.
J. W. Owens 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》1997,1(1):37-49
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for systematically analyzing a product from cradle-to-grave, that is, from resource extraction through manufacture and use to disposal. LCA is a mixed or hybrid analytical system. An inventory phase analyzes system inputs of energy and materials along with outputs of emissions and wastes throughout life cycle, usually as quantitative mass loadings. An impact assessment phase then examines these loadings in light of potential environmental issues using a mixed spectrum of qualitative and quantitative methods. The constraints imposed by inventory's loss of spatial, temporal, dose-response, and threshold information raise concerns about the accuracy of impact assessment. The degree of constraint varies widely according to the environmental issue in question and models used to extrapolate the inventory data. LCA results may have limited value in two areas: (I) local and/ortransient biophysical processes and (2) issues involving biological parameters, such as biodiversity, habitat alteration, and toxicity. The end result is that impact assessment does not measure actual effects or impacts, nor does it calculate the likelihood of an effect or risk Rather, LCA impact assessment results are largely directional environmental indicaton. The accuracy and usefulness of indicators need to be assessed individually and in a circumstance-specific manner prior to decision making. This limits LCAs usefulness as the sole basis for comprehensive assessments and the comparisons of alternatives. In conclusion, LCA may identify potential issues from a systemwide perspective, but more-focused assessments using other analytical techniques are often necessary to resolve the issues. 相似文献
5.
Thomas E. Graedel Elizabeth Saxton 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2002,7(4):219-224
Superior environmental performance has not traditionally been a goal of managers of telecommunications facilities, but there
is now considerable pressure to go ‘beyond compliance,’ even for facilities that have been in existence for many years. In
this regard, significant environmental improvement can be achieved by taking a life-cycle perspective. We have conducted a
streamlined life-cycle assessment on two existing telecommunications facilities, one providing installation and maintenance
services and the other network management services. With the results of this assessment as a basis, we propose a number of
generic steps that can be taken to improve the environmental performance of most existing telecommunications facilities. 相似文献
6.
Thomas E. Graedel 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》1997,1(4):57-70
Despite the dominant role service industries play in modern society, those industries have by and large not been involved in the strong efforts underway to create environmentally responsible operations. Part of the reason is that the role of these industries as driving factors in resource flows has not been recognized. Perhaps more important, no common framework for assessing the environmental responsibility of service industries has been established. This article provides such a framework and applies it to a generic service industry: automotive repair. Among the results are that evaluation must take different forms for different types of services, and that the approaches of service industries to the use of buildings and equipment will require innovative solutions quite unlike those advocated for the \"greening\" of manufacturing operations. 相似文献
7.
Chie Nakaniwa Thomas E. Graedel 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2002,7(2):95-102
Unstable market systems and consumer preferences for virgin oil have inhibited the development of waste oil re-refining in
Japan. In this papery comparative life cycle inventories were developed for re-refining waste oil and for the no-refining
case in which the waste oil is incinerated and needs are supplied with virgin oil. Total energy, CO2, NOx, and SO2 emissions were included during the re-refining and consumption (incineration) stages; all are lower in the case of re-refined
fuel use. In addition, by using a streamlined LCA matrix, we demonstrate that re-refining waste oil can reduce environmental
impacts compared with the case in which virgin oil is chosen. 相似文献
8.
9.
Traditional life-cycle assessment begins with a product and examines its environmental impacts throughout its life cycle.
An alternative approach is to proceed in reverse: to examine the need that the product is designed to fulfill, to determine
the minimal environmental impacts that could be engendered by filling that need, and thereby to design the “ideal green product”
for the purpose. This approach, termed reverse life-cycle assessment (RLCA), is demonstrated by examining the environmental
impacts attributable to a generic washing machine of current design, and then by reviewing other ways in which the provisioning
of clean clothing may be accomplished. RLCA, as used here, is shown to encourage systems thinking and to identify opportunities
for innovation in design and in marketing of environmentally-responsible products in ways that would be unlikely to arise
from a traditional LCA. 相似文献
10.
John R. Ehrenfeld 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》1997,1(2):41-49
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a new method for exploring the environmental implications of human action. Like all methods, it is analytically limited and consequently it must be used with caution. Recent papers have criticized LCA and caution against its use in all but a few narrow applications. Even while accepting many of these arguments, this article argues that LCAs, like other analytic frameworks used in the policy and planning domains, have important uses in shaping the processes by which both products and policies are designed. The arguments made against the use of LCAs omit comparisons to realistic appraisals of alternative and competing methods of environmental assessment. 相似文献
11.
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for evaluating various health and environmental impacts throughout a product's life. When used as a screening tool, LCA can potentially identify the processes and materials most likely to pose a threat to human health and the environment, and to determine where a risk assessment is warranted. The European Union has issued a ban on lead-based solder from use in electronic equipment beginning in July 2006. In response, the Lead-Free Solder Partnership, involving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, several electronics manufacturers, and the University of Tennessee afforded a vehicle for conducting a thorough LCA of leaded and lead-free solders used in the electronics industry. Sixteen impact categories were evaluated in the LCA, including human toxicity.
A primary conclusion of the assessment for human and aquatic toxicity, across the entire life cycle of tin-lead solder, was the potential for impacts derived from the landfilling of lead. These results, based on broad assumptions about exposure, suggest that a more detailed risk assessment of the landfilling process would assist in better understanding the potential for health and environmental risks. We believe LCA data can be used to identify the need for focused risk assessments, allowing the two tools to effectively complement one another. Use of both methods could assist in understanding the effectiveness of the European ban on lead solder and its potential to improve public health. 相似文献
12.
Jane C. Bare 《人类与生态风险评估》2006,12(3):493-509
The historical parallels, complementary roles, and potential for integration of human health risk assessment (RA) and Life-Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) are explored. Previous authors have considered the comparison of LCA and risk assessment recognizing the inherent differences in LCA and risk assessment (e.g., LCA's focus on the functional unit, and the differences in perspective of LCA and risk assessment), and also the commonalities (e.g., the basis for the modeling). Until this time, however, no one has proposed a coordinated approach for conducting LCA and risk assessment using models consistent with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) handbooks, policies, and guidelines. The current status of LCIA methodology development can be compared to the early days of human health RA when practitioners were overwhelmed with the model choices, assumptions, lack of data, and poor data quality. Although methodology developers can build on the shoulders of the giant, LCIA requires more innovation to deal with more impact categories, more life-cycle stages, and less data for a greater number of stressors. For certain impact categories, LCIA can use many of the guidelines, methodologies, and default parameters that have been developed for human health RA, in conjunction with sensitivity and uncertainty analysis to determine the level of detail necessary for various applications. LCIA can then identify “hot spots” that require the additional detail and level of certainty provided by RA. A comparison of the USEPA's Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts (TRACI) and the USEPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) will be explored. 相似文献
13.
Eva Heiskanen 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》2000,4(4):31-45
The widespread popularity of life-cycle assessment (LCA) is difficult to understand from the point of view of instrumental decision making by economic agents. Ehrenfeld has argued, in a 1997 issue of this journal, that it is the world-shaping potential of LCA that is more important than its use as a decision-making tool. The present study attempts to explore the institutionalization of this \"LCA world view\" among ordinary market actors. This is important because environmental policy relies increasingly on market-based initiatives. Cognitive and normative assumptions in authoritative LCA documents are examined as empirical data and compared with data from focus group interviews concerning products and the environment with \"ordinary\" manufacturers, retailers, and consumers in Finland. These assumptions are (1) the \"cradle-to-grave\" approach, (2) the view that all products have an environmental impact and can be improved, (3) the relativity of environmental merit, and (4) the way responsibility for environmental burdens is attributed. Relevant affinities, but also differences, are identified. It is argued that life-cycle thinking is not primarily instrumental, but rather is gaining a degree of intrinsic value. The study attempts to establish a broader institutional context in which the popularity of LCA can be understood. From the point of view of this broader context, some future challenges for the development of LCA and life-cycle thinking are suggested. 相似文献
14.
William F. Hoffman III 《Journal of Industrial Ecology》1997,1(1):131-140
Motorola is a large electronics company that uses design for environment (DfE) t o address our customers' environmental needs. In working to integrate environmental considerations into product design, Motorola has encountered new challenges in product design, and as a result has had to develop new frameworks and employ new analytical tools. This article describes those challenges and Motorola's efforts to date. The examination of how products are designed in Motorola led to the realization that there are distinct phases in design: concept development, detail design, and prototype manufacture. In the earlier phases where the greatest flexibility for product reconfiguration exists, there is the least amount of detailed information available for use in making environmental assessments. In an effort to match the data availability to the environmental assessment needs, Motorola developed a tiered approach to DE using a matrix-based abridged life-cycle assessment (LCA) in the concept development stage, a scoring system based in part on multiattribute value theory in the detail design stage, and potentially full-scale life-cycle assessment in the prototype manufacturing stage. 相似文献
15.
An increasing number of software tools support designers and other decision makers in making design, production, and purchasing decisions. Some of these tools provide quantitative information on environmental impacts such as climate change, human toxicity, or resource use during the life cycle of these products. Very little is known, however, about how these tools are actually used, what kind of modeling and presentation approaches users really want, or whether the information provided is likely to be used the way the developers intended. A survey of users of one such software tool revealed that although users want more transparency, about half also want an easy-to-use tool and would accept built-in assumptions; that most users prefer modeling of environmental impacts beyond the stressor level, and the largest group of respondents wants results simultaneously on the stressor, impact potential, and damage level; and that although many users look for aggregated information on impacts and costs, a majority do not trust that such an aggregation is valid or believe that there are tradeoffs among impacts. Further, our results show that the temporal and spatial scales of single impact categories explain only about 6% of the variation in the weights between impact categories set by respondents if the weights are set first. If the weights are set after respondents specify temporal and spatial scales, however, these scales explain about 24% of the variation. These results not only help method and tool developers to reconsider some previous assumptions, but also suggest a number of research questions that may need to be addressed in a more focused investigation. 相似文献
16.
17.
James A. Fava 《人类与生态风险评估》1998,4(4):1003-1017
The purpose of this paper is to describe how one pollution prevention tool, life-cycle assessment, can be used to identify and manage environmental issues associated with product systems. Specifically, this paper will describe what life-cycle assessment is, determine the key players in its development and application, and present ideas on how life-cycle assessment can be used today. LCA provides a systematic means to broaden the perspective of a company's decisionmaking process to incorporate the consideration of energy and material use, transportation, post-customer use, and disposal, and the environmental releases associated with the product system. LCA provides a framework to achieve a better understanding of the trade-offs associated with specific change in a product, package, or process. This understanding lays the foundation for subsequent risk assessments and risk management efforts by decision-makers. 相似文献
18.
《Journal of Industrial Ecology》2006,10(1-2):61-77
Sustainable management of materials and products requires continuous evaluation of numerous complex social, ecological, and economic factors. A number of tools and methods are emerging to support this. One of the most rigorous is life-cycle assessment (LCA). But LCAs often lack a sustainability perspective and bring about difficult trade-offs between specificity and depth, on the one hand, and comprehension and applicability, on the other. This article applies a framework for strategic sustainable development (often referred to as The Natural Step (TNS) framework) based on backcasting from basic principles for sustainability. The aim is to foster a new general approach to the management of materials and products, here termed "strategic life-cycle management". This includes informing the overall analysis with aspects that are relevant to a basic perspective on (1) sustainability, and (2) strategy to arrive at sustainability. The resulting overview is expected to help avoid costly assessments of flows and practices that are not critical from a sustainability and/or strategic perspective and to help identify strategic gaps in knowledge or potential problems that need further assessment. Early experience indicates that the approach can complement some existing tools and concepts by informing them from a sustainability perspective-for example, current product development and LCA tools. 相似文献
19.
主要分析了我国生命周期评价的理论与实践研究进展与数据库构建现状,针对当前我国生命周期评价理论与应用研究的关键薄弱环节即不确定性分析、本土化数据库构建、本土化生命周期环境影响评价模型构建,指出了利用泰勒系列展开模型进行符合我国产业链生产现状的精确、完整、具有代表性、具有时空动态特征的生命周期数据库构建的必要性;并指出需要根据我国国情(例如:环境、地理、人口、暴露等)来构建生命周期环境影响评价模型的紧迫性。 相似文献
20.
A Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) and Assessment (LCA) database for laundry detergents of the Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) was
constructed using SimaPro software. The input data needed to conduct a product LCI came from several different, supporting
databases to cover supplier (extraction and manufacturing of raw materials), manufacturing of the detergent product, transportation,
packaging, use and disposal stages. Manufacturing, packaging and transportation stages are usually representative of European
conditions while the use and disposal stages are country specific and represent how consumers are using a specific product
and how wastes are disposed of. The database has been constructed to allow Procter & Gamble managers to analyse detergent
products from a system-wide, functional unit point of view in a consistent, transparent and reproducible manner. For demonstrative
purpose, a life cycle inventory and a life cycle impact assessment of a P&G laundry detergent used in Belgium is presented.
The analysis showed that more than 80% of the energy consumption occurs during the consumer use stage (mainly for heating
of the water). Air and solid waste follow the same pattern, most of these being associated with die energy generation for
the use stage. More than 98% of the biological oxygen demand, however, is associated with the disposal stage even after accounting
for removal during treatment. Future challenges are the completion and/or updating of all detergent ingredient inventories. 相似文献