Life cycle assessment of water-based acrylic floor finish maintenance programs

Aim, Scope, and Background Industrial and institutional (I and I) floor maintenance activities require regular use of chemical products and equipment. Different floor care systems require different maintenance products, activities, and frequencies which consume different levels of energy and material for product manufacturing, maintenance, and application. Therefore, selecting between floor maintenance products and programs requires comprehensive analysis of the entire floor maintenance system as well as any site-specific factors that can influence human and environmental health. In this paper, a probabilistic model for comparing the environmental life cycle implications of I and I floor maintenance programs is presented. The primary interest is in comparing programs that use different water-based acrylic floor finishes and in particular, programs using zinc-containing floor finishes compared to zinc-free floor finish systems. Zinc, used in some acrylic polymers as a polymer cross-linking agent, is regulated in some communities to minimize its impact on the aquatic environment. Method The life cycle assessment (LCA) model was developed in compliance with the ISO 14040 series of standards [1]. Furthermore, uncertain input variables were defined as probabilistic distributions and Latin Hypercube Sampling was used to propagate uncertainty through the model. The scope of the study includes the full life cycle of the materials, supplies, equipment, and activities associated with performing floor maintenance. The effects of maintaining higher lighting and temperature levels while performing floor maintenance are estimated using building energy system analysis. The life cycle inventory (LCI) element of the LCA was developed using product-specific data, publicly available data, and established life cycle inventory databases. Life cycle impact assessment was conducted using the Eco-Indicator 99 [2] and Impact 2002+ [3,4] impact assessment methods. Results Two floor maintenance scenarios were developed and analyzed to compare the environmental impact of programs using zinc-containing and zinc-free floor finishes. The results discussed herein are presented for a hypothetical retail store located in the Midwest region of the United States. Given the scenarios examined, zinc-free floor finish systems reduced the release of zinc ions to the environment, but the overall impact in all life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) categories was greater for the zincfree floor finish system primarily due to the increased frequency of maintenance. Discussion The impacts associated with operating the facility were orders of magnitude higher than those associated with producing or using floor care products, supplies, or equipment. This leads to the conclusion that for critical impacts, floor care product development should focus research efforts on innovative products that reduce application and maintenance time if significant reduction in these impacts is sought. Conclusions Adopting a stochastic modeling approach enabled incorporation of parameter uncertainty and analysis of uncertainty in model results. In the scenario shown here, the magnitude of overall impact in all LCIA categories was greater for the zinc-free floor finish system than the zinc-containing floor finish system. Perspectives Use of decision modeling software provided flexibility for developing scenarios and assessing floor maintenance programs under various operational and site-specific conditions.