ISO: 14040 Flashcards
What is the definition of an LCA?
Life Cycle Assessment - cover environmental impact over a products life
What are the key principles of an LCA?
- Quantative - figure to say whether a process is bad or not
- Assessment - grade a process or product on how good or bad it is.
- Compare - compare multiple products impacts
- Environmental - most LCA’s are environmental
- Product
- Life cycle
What are the benefits of an LCA?
- Identify the most impactful stage of a products life cycle
- Can be good for comparing product or transportation.
- Communication of environmental impact of product
- Find gaps in existing information available
What are the limitations of an LCA?
- Take a long time to complete
- Out of date data or resources
- Scope of LCA limited by time and data available
- Use stage is not an accurate representation of the actual use of the product
- Takes lots of resources to collect data for LCA
- Geographic causes. Water usage of factory in desert vs factory in wet area
What is the LCA time cost quality conundrum?
Data availability vs data cost vs data accuracy (all change with time)
What are the key stages of an LCA?
Goal and Scope
LCI: Inventory Analysis
LCIA: Impact Assessment
Interpretation
What are the variations of an LCA?
Cradle to grave - from manufacture to disposal
Cradle to gate - from manufacture to factory gate
Cradle to Cradle - Regenerative process
Well to Wheel - fuel efficiency for vehicles.
What are examples of impact categories in an LCA?
- Climate change
- Acidification
- Ozone Depletion
What is included in the goal of an LCA?
purpose & type of study
intended use
audience (public disclosure?)
What is included in the scope of an LCA?
- Product system, function and boundary
- Functional unit
- Data requirements, quality and type
- Assumptions, allocation and procedures
- Assessment method, impact categories
What is data specificity?
- the breadth of data sources
What is data granularity?
- Depth or detail of data
What are data Quality requirements?
Specify the type of data needed for the LCA
What is a functional unit?
Quantifies a product function.
What are the system boundary stages?
- raw material acquisition and energy
- Manufacturing, formulation and processing
- Packaging, transportation and sales
- Use, reuse and maintenance
- Recycle and waste management