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This article reviews efforts made by the United Nations Environment Programme to assess the progress in life cycle assessment
(LCA) implementation worldwide. The effort was approached in two stages. First, research was carried out which included a
document search and a survey of LCA practitioners. Secondly, an expert workshop of LCA practitioners was held to review the
survey results and to develop recommendations for action. Results highlight that there is significant and growing interest
in LCA and that its use is increasing. To foster better LCA adoption, industry, government and other societal groups will
have to address barriers due to a lack of: a perceived need for LCA, of expertise or know how, of funding and a lack of data
and methodology. 相似文献
4.
Günter Fleischer Wulf-Peter Schmidt 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1997,2(1):20-24
A screening and simplified LCA method, is essential necessary to include environmental aspects in the stage of Research and
Development (R&D) of products and processes. An interactive, iterative and integrative eco-design tool using the top-down
approach in the identification of advanced materials is being developed in a joint project performed by six research institutes.
The principles and methods as well as some examples for the validation of the screening LCA as well as its application in
eco-design in case studies are presented in this article. 相似文献
5.
Karin Andersson 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2000,5(4):239-248
This article is a summary of my dissertation in which LCA was applied to food products and production systems. The overall
objectives were: (1) to learn more about the feasibility and limitations of LCAs of systems for the production and consumption
of foods (food systems); and (2) to generate information on the environmental impact of such systems. Case studies of tomato
ketchup and white bread were carried out. The main conclusion is that LCA is very valuable for incorporating environmental
aspects in the development of more sustainable food systems. One of the major problems encountered was the great scarcity
of environmental data. It was found that there is a need for simplified methods that can be used as a compass to show the
direction towards sustainability. Accordingly, the feasibility of combinng the concept of sustainabiliry principles and LCA
for product development was examined and discussed. This combination was found to yield a simplified method well suited for
screening analysis and product development. 相似文献
6.
LCA in Japan: policy and progress 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
David Hunkeler Itaru Yasui Ryoichi Yamamoto 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1998,3(3):124-130
A summary of the current Japanese activities related to Life Cycle Assessment are presented with a specific comparison of Life Cycle Impact Assessment in relation to European tendencies. Japanese organizations involved in LCA, recent legislation impacting LCA activities and LCA case studies are also tabulated. The LCA priorities of policy makers and industrialists are discussed in comparison and compared to those in the United States. Projects within the Life Cycle Assessment Society of Japan and the Man-Earth Project are highlighted including the construction of a public LCI data base and the prediction of 21st century environmental crises. 相似文献
7.
Bruno Notarnicola Gjalt Huppes Nico W. van den Berg 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1998,3(5):289-300
LCA aims to help direct decisions in an environmentally sustainable direction. It indicates the environmental effects of choices
and evaluates these against this background. Approaches to evaluation in LCA differ substantially, related to the way of modelling
environmental effects and to the way these effects are combined into an overall judgement on alternative options. Several
approaches are now operational, which are linked to different paradigms in decision making. It is shown that the choice of
paradigm is quite decisive on the outcome of the analysis. Also within similar paradigms, different methods now operational
may lead to different outcomes. These latter differences may be alleviated more easily than those related to paradigmatic
choices, as they are partly a matter of refinement, and they partly result from legitimate differences in subjective priorities.
The more basic paradigmatic differences can hardly be bridged. The practical relevancy of the subject is proven by applying
different operational methods to one case, showing widely differing outcomes. The paradigm behind evaluating environmental
effects is either values based, directly or through policy decisions, or economics based, as individual preferences measured
in the monetary terms of willingness-to-pay. Accordingly, the different methods are “policy-oriented” or “monetary”. It may
be doubted if the differences between these can be overcome in standardisation. 相似文献
8.
Arnold Tukker 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2000,5(3):177-186
Current LCA implicitly assumes that a single rational truth can be found. Mainstream policy sciences has taken a different
starting point when analysing decision making in complex and controversial societal debates for already several decades. In
such debates, in general, more than one reasonable conceptualisation or ‘framing’ of the problem is at stake which forms the
core of the controversy. This paper analyses the Dutch chlorine debate and the Swedish PVC debate and shows that (three) frames
also play a role in toxicity controversies: the risk assessment frame, the strict control frame, and the precautionary frame.
The latter frame, adhered to by the environmentalists, seeks to judge substances mainly on their inherent safety. The cases
show that this logic may be defended as at least being equally reasonable to the emission-effect calculations that form the
core of Risk Assessment and Life-cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). As predicted by policy sciences, this finding implies that
the political neutrality of tools like LCIA is questionable. In summary, the approaches and procedures developed for LCA have
to be reconciled with key lessons from policy science and philosophy of science, i.e. considering the fact that multiple realities
play a key role in many decision making processes. This paper suggests some alternative indicators for toxicity evaluations,
and indicates the implications of LCA method development. 相似文献
9.
Karen G. Shapiro 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2001,6(2):121-123
The goal of LCA is to identify the environmental impacts resulting from a product, process, or activity. While LCA is useful
for evaluating environmental attributes, it stops short of providing information that business managers routinely utilize
for decision-making — i.e., dollars. Thus, decisions regarding the processes used for manufacturing products and the materials
comprising those products can be enhanced by weaving cost and environmental information into the decision-making process.
Various approaches have been used during the past decade to supplement environmental information with cost information. One
of these tools is environmental accounting, the identification, analysis, reporting, and use of environmental information,
including environmental cost data. Environmental cost accounting provides information necessary for identifying the true costs
of products and processes and for evaluating opportunities to minimize those costs. As demonstrated through two case studies,
many companies are incorporating environmental cost information into their accounting systems to prioritize investments in
new technologies and products. 相似文献
10.
Angeline S. H. de Beaufort Ueli Stahel 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1998,3(6):317-320
FEFCO, Groupement Ondulé and Kraft Institute have integrated the data from their recently published updated “European Database
for Corrugated Board Life Cycle Studies” into a software tool that has been developed especially for the corrugated board
industry. The tool links input and output data reported in the Database to average European data for upstream and downstream
processes from BUWAL 250 [3]. The tool is intended to support environmental management of companies since it provides a possibility
to find opportunities for improvements and to take environment into consideration when designing corrugated board boxes.
The entire system of corrugated packaging is the basis for the calculations. It is assumed that the fibres that are used for
the production of the corrugated base papers are produced and recycled only within this system. This simplified so-called
closedloop approach, which is described in detail in the Database report, avoids the problem of allocating impacts caused
by primary fibre production and the final treatment of corrugated packaging that is not recycled between primary and recovered
fibre based paper grades. This means that with the software tool it is not possible to make comparisons between the production
of primary fibre and recovered fibre based materials as such.
The tool enables the user to vary parameters such as transport, box design, logistics and waste management according to his
personal circumstances. In this way he can use the tool to introduce parameters for possible alternatives he wants to investigate.
The LCA results of these alternative cases can then be compared and analysed at inventory, characterisation, normalisation
and weighing level. The user cannot change the basic data nor the methodology. 相似文献
11.
Application of uncertainty and variability in LCA 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
As yet, the application of an uncertainty and variability analysis is not common practice in LCAs. A proper analysis will
be facilitated when it is clear which types of uncertainties and variabilities exist in LCAs and which tools are available
to deal with them. Therefore, a framework is developed to classify types of uncertainty and variability in LCAs. Uncertainty
is divided in (1) parameter uncertainty, (2) model uncertainty, and (3) uncertainty due to choices, while variability covers
(4) spatial variability, (5) temporal variability, and (6) variability between objects and sources. A tool to deal with parameter
uncertainty and variability between objects and sources in both the inventory and the impact assessment is probabilistic simulation.
Uncertainty due to choices can be dealt with in a scenario analysis or reduced by standardisation and peer review. The feasibility
of dealing with temporal and spatial variability is limited, implying model uncertainty in LCAs. Other model uncertainties
can be reduced partly by more sophisticated modelling, such as the use of non-linear inventory models in the inventory and
multi media models in the characterisation phase. 相似文献
12.
Matthias Finkbeiner Konrad Saur Peter Eyerer Yasunari Matsuno Atsushi Inaba 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1999,4(3):127-132
Sustainable development can only be achieved if industry adoptsboth product related and organisation related environmental management tools, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental
Management Systems (EMS). In Japan, EMS (ISO 14001) is more widely applied than LCA (ISO 14040). Therefore,one means by which Japanese industries could be motivated to adopt and use LCA is to relate LCA-activities to the policies and
instruments of ISO 14001. The potential of such a comprehensive approach was analysed by a survey of 270 Japanese enterprises
(response rate 45%). The results indicate that 19% of the responding representatives had responsibilities for both LCA and
EMS, while the remaining only work in one of both fields. A statement in the company’s/ plant’s Environmental Policy of ISO
14001, stating that LCA is to be used as part of the EMS, was found in 42% of all companies. A surprising number (39%) either
already use, or plan to use, LCA and EMS as combinated/integrated tools. A strong argument for the establishment of a comprehensive
approach can be seen in the perception of the usefulness of LCA, which was rated significantly higher in companies that acknowledged
the complementary potential of LCA and EMS. 相似文献
13.
Gregory A. Norris 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2001,6(2):118-120
The private sector decision making situations which LCA addresses mustalso eventually take theeconomic consequences of alternative products or product designs into account. However, neither the internal nor external economic
aspects of the decisions are within the scope of developed LCA methodology, nor are they properly addressed by existing LCA
tools. This traditional separation of life cycle environmental assessment from economic analysis has limited the influence
and relevance of LCA for decision-making, and left uncharacterized the important relationships and trade-offs between the
economic and life cycle environmental performance of alternative product design decision scenarios. Still standard methods
of LCA can and have been tightly, logically, and practically integrated with standard methods for cost accounting, life cycle
cost analysis, and scenario-based economic risk modeling. The result is an ability to take both economic and environmental
performance — and their tradeoff relationships — into account in product/process design decision making. 相似文献
14.
Mathias Borg Jacob Paulsen Wolfram Trinius 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2001,6(4):219-230
Application and development of the LCA methodology to the context of the building sector makes several building specific considerations
necessary, as some key characteristics of products in the building sector differ considerably from those of other industrial
sectors. The largest difference is that the service life of a building can stretch over centuries, rather than decades or
years as seen for consumer products. The result of the long service life is that it is difficult to obtain accurate data and
to make relevant assumptions about future conditions regarding, for example, recycling. These problems have implications on
the issue of allocation in the building sector, in the way that several allocation procedures ascribe environmental loads
to users of recycled or reused products and materials in the future which are unknown today. The long service life for buildings,
building materials and building components, is associated with the introduced concept of a virtual parallel time perspective
proposed here, which basically substitutes historical and future processes and values with current data. Further, the production
and refining of raw material as a parallel to upgrading of recycled material, normally contains several intermediate products.
A suggestion is given for how to determine the comparability of intermediate materials. The suggested method for allocation
presented is based on three basic assumptions: (1) If environmental loads are to be allocated to a succeeding product life
cycle, the studied actual life cycle has to take responsibility for upgrading of the residual material into secondary resources.
(2) Material characteristics and design of products are important factors to estimate the recyclable amount of the material.
Therefore, a design factor is suggested using information for inherent material properties combined with information of the
product context at the building level. (3) The quality reduction between the materials in two following product life cycles
is indicated as the ratio between the market value for the material in the products. The presented method can be a good alternative
for handling the problem of open-loop recycling allocation in the context of the building sector if a consensus for the use
of the fictive parallel time perspective and the use of the design factor can be established. This as the use of the time
perspective and design factor is crucial to be able to deal with the problem of long service lives for buildings and building
materials and the specific characteristics of the same building materials and components built into different building contexts. 相似文献
15.
Marlo Raynolds Roydon Fraser David Checkel 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》2000,5(1):37-46
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is being used more and more as a decision making tool to compare alternative systems of providing a given product or service. Each system is theoretically made up of a near infinite number of elements or unit processes to produce the product or service. In practice, time and resources to complete an LCA are limited, hence the need to draw practical boundaries on the systems being analyzed. However, how does the LCA practitioner draw fair boundaries on two or more different systems being compared? In other words, how does one decide which unit processes to include in each system? A consistent quantitative method of selecting boundaries is essential for comparative LCA studies. This paper first outlines the requirements for a system boundary selection methodology and then demonstrates the shortfalls of existing methods. The primary objective is to present the Relative Mass-Energy-Economic (RMEE) method for system boundary selection. This concise, repeatable and quantitative method for selecting system boundaries for LCA is demonstrated on a life-cycle system for ethanol fuel. Unlike many other methods of selecting system boundaries, the RMEE method is practical to use and quantitatively ensures different systems have similar system boundaries to ensure a fair comparison between options. The RMEE method has been designed specifically for LCA studies of energy systems 相似文献
16.
The application of the methodology Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is time-consuming and expensive. A definite interpretation,
furthermore, is not always derivable from the determined results. The reason for the leeway of interpretation is frequently
due to the imprecision and uncertainty of the ingoing data. An improved clearance of interpretation is to be expected by an
ecological evaluation of methodology with the support of fuzzy-sets. The influence of uncertainties of ingoing data on evaluation
results becomes transparent through a representation as fuzzy-sets. Thus, the interpretation of an uncertainty of assessment
results is reduced in comparison to usual procedures for environmental LCA thus far. Time and cost saving is to be expected
from the fact that the extensive quantification of many energy and mass flows is replaced by a fuzzy-set supported iteration
loop, with which only the exact quantification of a few important flows is necessary. 相似文献
17.
A study has been performed on Danish industry’s experiences with LCA. Twenty-six enterprises from different sectors conpleted
a questionnaire. The enterprises are still in an adoption and learning phase, and experiences with full-blown LCA’s are sparse.
Expectations of future market pressure to supply more environmentally friendly products is the most important incentive for
the enterprises to engage in LCA activities. This pressure, however, has not yet emerged and the enterprises have not achieved
the expected competitive advantages. LCA work has revealed new environmental aspects of the products with subsequent new priorities
in the environmental efforts. Only a few enterprises have built up in-house LCA competence, whereas consultants are heavily
involved in LCA work. In large enterprises, LCA work is predominantly carried out by environmental staff members, but the
product development staff is also involved. The nature of the co-operation and distribution of roles between these two actors
is not clear, and should therefore be studied further. 相似文献
18.
Göran Finnveden 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1997,2(3):163-169
It is generally recognised that the valuation in LCA requires political, ideological and/or ethical values (hence the term).
These values, however, are seldom discussed, and this paper may he seen as an early attempt. One result is that not only the
valuation weighting factors, but also the choice of valuation methodology and the choice of using a valuation weighting method
at all, are influenced by fundamental ethical and ideological valuations. Since there is no societal consensus on these fundamental
values, and never will be one in an open democratic society, there is no reason to expect consensus either on valuation weighting
factors, or on the valuation method or even on the choice of using a valuation weighting method at all. Another result of
the discussion on values is that the ethical and ideological valuations are often made implicitly in the choice of method,
data, etc., thus making it difficult to discuss the values and the implications of different standpoints. Although this paper
focus on the valuation methods within LCA, it is expected that much of the discussion and the conclusions are of relevance
for other environmental management tools, e.g. Environmental Impact Assessment. 相似文献
19.
Wolfram Krewitt Petra Mayerhofer Alfred Trukenmüller Rainer Friedrich 《The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment》1998,3(2):86-94
Current LCA practice is mass oriented, i.e. is focused on the amount of chemicals released, disregarding place and time of
release. Life cycle impact assessment aims at evaluating potential impacts, and a variety of weighting schemes is discussed
to he used for ranking and aggregation of impacts. To establish a closer link between the quantity of a burden released and
a decision making context, we propose to follow a detailed impact pathway analysis to estimate actual impacts for some priority
impact categories, and use measured individuals’ preferences for impact valuation. Results from a case study illustrate the
relevance of site specific impact assessment in the context of LCA. 相似文献