Purpose
The purpose of this work was to present a methodology to assess the energy consumption, specifically the energy utilized in the washing and drying processes, of textile products in their use-phase with the help of statistical tools. Regardless of the environmental impacts associated with the use-phase of textile products, analysis of energy consumption in that phase is still lacking. There is a need to design methodology for identifying the hotspots and parameters influencing the energy consumption in the use-phase of textile products. A pragmatic method that consists of a life-cycle assessment (LCA) framework plus principle component analysis (PCA), extended by Procrustes analysis (PA), is used to determine the energy consumption and minimize the possible uncertainties in the use-phase of textile product systems.Methods
The LCA plus PCA-PA method employed in this work to analyze the energy consumption of textile products in the use-phase comprises two statistical tools. First, PCA was applied to find the key parameters affecting the results. As an extension of PCA, PA was performed to highlight the most prominent variables within the dataset and extract the maximum amount of information. Lastly, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was utilized for the classification of textile products on the basis of energy consumption variables and the similarity of their results.Results and discussion
Among various energy consuming parameters in the use-phase of a textile product, both geographical and physical aspects can be prominent variables that significantly can affect the results of the energy consumption. After the LCA plus PCA-PA methodology, country of the use-phase in the geographical aspect and in the physical aspect, the fiber type and weight of the products were the influential variables. Hotspots or influential parameters being identified, a number of steps can be taken that can play an important role in decreasing environmental impacts by reducing the energy consumption in the laundering process of textile products during the use-phase.Conclusions
The methodology of LCA plus PCA-PA for energy consumption in textile products was employed to study the gap in currently available assessments. Using this method, the main influencing energy consuming parameters or hotspots in the use-phase of a textile product system could easily be identified and potential improvements of sustainability can be proposed.Purpose
We investigate how the boundary between product systems and their environment has been delineated in life cycle assessment and question the usefulness and ontological relevance of a strict division between the two.Methods
We consider flows, activities and impacts as general terms applicable to both product systems and their environment and propose that the ontologically relevant boundary is between the flows that are modelled as inputs to other activities (economic or environmental)—and the flows that—in a specific study—are regarded as final impacts, in the sense that no further feedback into the product system is considered before these impacts are applied in decision-making. Using this conceptual model, we contrast the traditional mathematical calculation of the life cycle impacts with a new, simpler computational structure where the life cycle impacts are calculated directly as part of the Leontief inverse, treating product flows and environmental flows in parallel, without the need to consider any boundary between economic and environmental activities.Results and discussion
Our theoretical outline and the numerical example demonstrate that the distinctions and boundaries between product systems and their environment are unnecessary and in some cases obstructive from the perspective of impact assessment, and can therefore be ignored or chosen freely to reflect meaningful distinctions of specific life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. We show that our proposed computational structure is backwards compatible with the current practice of LCA modelling, while allowing inclusion of feedback loops both from the environment to the economy and internally between different impact categories in the impact assessment.Conclusions
Our proposed computational structure for LCA facilitates consistent, explicit and transparent modelling of the feedback loops between environment and the economy and between different environmental mechanisms. The explicit and transparent modelling, combining economic and environmental information in a common computational structure, facilitates data exchange and re-use between different academic fields.Purpose
It has been recognised that life cycle assessment (LCA) has a role in framing problem situations in environmental management. Yet relatively few studies have investigated whether the use of LCA does actually lead to the reconceptualisation of product systems as opposed to answering predefined questions. This paper discusses the experiences of six manufacturing firms that commissioned LCA studies as part of a life cycle management project managed by Landcare Research in New Zealand.Methods
The initial goal and scope of the study was developed by each company’s representative in a workshop that was organised as part of the LCM project. The scope for three of the studies was subsequently redefined by the LCA specialists at Landcare Research and agreed with senior managers at the company. The LCA specialists undertook the LCA studies and presented the results to the companies.Results and discussion
A significant reconceptualisation of the product system took place in three of the six LCA studies. This reconceptualisation would not have taken place if the scope of the LCA studies had been restricted to address the questions originally asked by the companies. The three companies showed some resistance to expanding the scope.Conclusions
Use of LCA can lead to reconceptualisation of product systems by companies and quite different priorities for improvement options. Initial resistance to expanding a study’s scope may be (partially) overcome by data collection activities and informal discussions between the LCA specialist and company staff during the process of undertaking the LCA study. 相似文献Purpose
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool that can be utilized to holistically evaluate novel trends in the construction industry and the associated environmental impacts. Green labels are awarded by several organizations based on single or multiple attributes. The use of multi-criteria labels is a good start to the labeling process as opposed to single criteria labels that ignore a majority of impacts from products. Life cycle thinking, in theory, has the potential to improve the environmental impacts of labeling systems. However, LCA databases currently are lacking in detailed information about products or sometimes provide conflicting information.Method
This study compares generic and green-labeled carpets, paints, and linoleum flooring using the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) LCA database. The results from these comparisons are not intuitive and are contradictory in several impact categories with respect to the greenness of the product. Other data sources such as environmental product declarations and ecoinvent are also compared with the BEES data to compare the results and display the disparity in the databases.Results
This study shows that partial LCAs focused on the production and transportation phase help in identifying improvements in the product itself and improving the manufacturing process but the results are uncertain and dependent upon the source or database. Inconsistencies in the data and missing categories add to the ambiguity in LCA results.Conclusions
While life cycle thinking in concept can improve the green labeling systems available, LCA data is lacking. Therefore, LCA data and tools need to improve to support and enable market trends. 相似文献Purpose
Life cycle assessment aims to evaluate multiple kinds of environmental impact associated with a product or process across its life cycle. Objective evaluation is a common goal, though the community recognizes that implicit valuations of diverse impacts resulting from analytical choices and choice of subject matter are present. This research evaluates whether these implicit valuations lead to detectable priority shifts in the published English language academic LCA literature over time.Methods
A near-comprehensive investigation of the LCA literature is undertaken by applying a text mining technique known as topic modeling to over 8200 environment-related LCA journal article titles and abstracts published between 1995 and 2014.Results and discussion
Topic modeling using MALLET software and manual validation shows that over time, the LCA literature reflects a dramatic proportional increase in attention to climate change and a corresponding decline in attention to human and ecosystem health impacts, accentuated by rapid growth of the LCA literature. This result indicates an implicit prioritization of climate over other impact categories, a field-scale trend that appears to originate mostly in the broader environmental community rather than the LCA methodological community. Reasons for proportionally increasing publication of climate-related LCA might include the relative robustness of greenhouse gas emissions as an environmental impact indicator, a correlation with funding priorities, researcher interest in supporting active policy debates, or a revealed priority on climate versus other environmental impacts in the scholarly community.Conclusions
As LCA becomes more widespread, recognizing and addressing the fact that analyses are not objective becomes correspondingly more important. Given the emergence of implicit prioritizations in the LCA literature, such as the impact prioritization of climate identified here with the use of computational tools, this work recommends the development and use of techniques that make impact prioritization explicit and enable consistent analysis of result sensitivity to value judgments. Explicit prioritization can improve transparency while enabling more systematic investigation of the effects of value choices on how LCA results are used.Purpose
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool for quantifying the overall environmental impacts of a product, process, or service. The scientific scope and boundary definition are important to ensure the accuracy of LCA results. Defining the boundary in LCA is difficult and there are no commonly accepted scientific methods yet. The objective of this research is to present a comprehensive discussion of system boundaries in LCA and to develop an appropriate boundary delimitation method.Methods
A product system is partitioned into the primary system and interrelated subsystems. The hierarchical relationship of flow and process is clarified by introducing flow- and process-related interventions. A system boundary curve model of the LCA is developed and the threshold rules for judging whether the system boundary satisfies the research requirement are proposed. Quantitative criteria from environmental, technical, geographical and temporal dimensions are presented to limit the boundaries of LCA. An algorithm is developed to identify an appropriate boundary by searching the process tree and evaluating the environmental impact contribution of each process while it is added into the studied system.Results and discussion
The difference between a limited system and a theoretically complete system is presented. A case study is conducted on a color TV set to demonstrate and validate the method of boundary identification. The results showed that the overall environmental impact indicator exhibits a slow growth after a certain number of processes considered, and the gradient of the fitting curve trends to zero gradually. According to the threshold rules, a relatively accurate system boundary could be obtained.Conclusions
It is found from this research that the system boundary curve describes the growth of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results as processes are added. The two threshold rules and identification methods presented can be used to identify system boundary of LCA. The case study demonstrated that the methodology presented in this paper is an effective tool for the boundary identification. 相似文献The novelty of the O-LCA method and the existing differences with the established product LCA practice, as well as the unique structure each organization, pose a broad range of methodological and application challenges, in addition to the general methodological gaps in LCA. In order to provide practitioners with lessons learned for future applications and boost future method development efforts, the paper discusses those challenges.
MethodsThe challenges included in this paper were mainly identified from a survey administered to the road testers and from experiences during the piloting process. These are complemented with case studies from literature. The focus of the paper is on challenges exclusive to the organizational approach, although some additional issues common to product LCA but intensified in organizational LCA are also included. Each issue is characterized and exemplified, recommendations of reference standards are analyzed, and possible solutions discussed.
Results and discussionWith the goal and scope of O-LCA, some challenging issues were to select part of an organization as the reporting organization, and the operability of the reporting flow. Regarding the system boundary, the challenges were which parts of the supply chain should be included in the study, problems when setting the system boundary for the service sector, how to include supporting activities, and how to prepare the right system boundary diagrams. Regarding the inventory stage, the discussion starts with alternatives to the categorization of the inventory into activities and the aggregation of those activities into groups. It includes an equivalence table for an easier transfer from other organizational frameworks (ISO 14069 and the GHG Protocol). Some challenges during impact assessment and interpretation were the assessment of local impacts, scoping performance tracking, and the use of O-LCA results for an organization’s strategy.
ConclusionsThe review of challenges is not meant as a complete overview of all possible challenges—new challenges may arise in future case studies. Further application testing is needed, along with research to support a future revision of the O-LCA Guidance, in line with the issues highlighted in this paper and new challenges may arise in future case studies. O-LCA has the potential to contribute in the future implementation of the life cycle concept in environmental management systems, in the development of organizational footprint metrics for region-specific impacts, and in the social dimension of life cycle assessment.
相似文献Background, aim and scope
Life cycle assessment (LCA) enables the objective assessment of global environmental burdens associated with the life cycle of a product or a production system. One of the main weaknesses of LCA is that, as yet, there is no scientific agreement on the assessment methods for land-use related impacts, which results in either the exclusion or the lack of assessment of local environmental impacts related to land use. The inclusion of the desertification impact in LCA studies of any human activity can be important in high-desertification risk regions. 相似文献Purpose
As highlighted in recent reviews, there is a need to harmonise the way life cycle assessment (LCA) of perennial crops is conducted. In most published LCA on perennial crops, the modelling of the agricultural production is based on data sets for just one productive year. This may be misleading since performance and impacts of the system may greatly vary year by year. The purposes of this study are to analyse how partial modelling of the perennial cycle through non-holistic data collection may affect LCA results and to make recommendations.Methods
Three modelling choices for the perennial crop cycle were tested in parallel in two contrasted LCA case studies: oil palm fruits from Indonesia, and small citrus from Morocco. Modelling choices tested were as follows: (i) a chronological modelling over the complete crop cycle of orchards, (ii) a 3-year average from the productive phase, and (iii) various single years from the productive phase. In both case studies, the system boundary was a cradle-to-farm gate with a functional unit of 1 kg fresh fruits. LCA midpoint impacts were calculated with ReCiPe 2008 in Simapro©V.7. We first analysed how inputs, yields and potential impacts varied over time. We then analysed process contributions in the baseline model, i.e. the chronological modelling, and finally compared LCA results for the various perennial modelling choices.Results and discussion
Agricultural practices, yields and impacts varied over the years especially during the first 3–9 years depending on the case study. In both case studies, the modelling choices to account or not for the whole perennial cycle drastically influenced LCA results. The differences could be explained by the inclusion or not of the yearly variability and the accounting or not of the immature phase, which contributed to 7–40 or 6.5–29 % of all impact categories for oil palm fruit and citrus, respectively.Conclusions
The chosen approach to model the perennial cycle influenced the final LCA results for two contrasted case studies and deserved specific attention. Although data availability may remain the limiting factor in most cases, assumptions can be made to interpolate or extrapolate some data sets or to consolidate data sets from chronosequences (i.e. modular modelling). In all cases, we suggest that the approach chosen to model the perennial cycle and the representativeness of associated collected data should be made transparent and discussed. Further research work is needed to improve the understanding and modelling of perennial crop functioning and LCA assessment.Despite the wide use of LCA for environmental profiling, the approach for determining the system boundary within LCA models continues to be subjective and lacking in mathematical rigor. As a result, life cycle models are often developed in an ad hoc manner, and are difficult to compare. Significant environmental impacts may be inadvertently left out. Overcoming this shortcoming can help elicit greater confidence in life cycle models and their use for decision making.
MethodsThis paper describes a framework for hybrid life cycle model generation by selecting activities based on their importance, parametric uncertainty, and contribution to network complexity. The importance of activities is determined by structural path analysis—which then guides the construction of life cycle models based on uncertainty and complexity indicators. Information about uncertainty is from the available life cycle inventory; complexity is quantified by cost or granularity. The life cycle model is developed in a hierarchical manner by adding the most important activities until error requirements are satisfied or network complexity exceeds user-specified constraints.
Results and DiscussionThe framework is applied to an illustrative example for building a hybrid LCA model. Since this is a constructed example, the results can be compared with the actual impact, to validate the approach. This application demonstrates how the algorithm sequentially develops a life cycle model of acceptable uncertainty and network complexity. Challenges in applying this framework to practical problems are discussed.
ConclusionThe presented algorithm designs system boundaries between scales of hybrid LCA models, includes or omits activities from the system based on path analysis of environmental impact contribution at upstream network nodes, and provides model quality indicators that permit comparison between different LCA models.
相似文献