LCA and Energy Efficiency

Question 1

How is an EIOLCA conducted?

Answer 1

• Financial approach to emissions allocation
• EIO tables produced by govt specifies flow of money between sectors
• Each sector has a known total impact associated to it
• For a given purchase, emissions can be allocated based on the value of the purchase relative to the total sector value
• Repeated up the supply chain

Question 2

When is an EIOLCA valid/preferred?

Answer 2

• When a result is needed quickly

- To get a broad brush answer

Question 3

When is allocation required?

Answer 3

• Required for products/services/processes that share the same LCA process
• An appropriate method for sharing the environmental load between the products/services/processes is required

Question 4

What is the difference between a consequential and attributional LCA?

Answer 4

Consequential:

Aims to understand how the environmentally-relevant flows change in response to a possible decision.

Attributional:

Aims to sum all of the environmental impacts that can be attributed to the given functional unit.