Lecture4

Question 1

What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

Answer 1

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
- Systematic method for analyzing environmental impacts of products, processes, and services.
Resource consumption and emissions (calculate the impact on the environment).
- Covers entire life cycle: resource extraction → production → use → disposal → transport.
- Purpose:
- Identify environmental hotspots and levers of change. Identify which actions have the most impact (environmental footprint).
- Quantify impacts and prioritize mitigation measures.
- Aid corporate environmental decision-making.
- it can be applied both to single products and entire companies alike.

Question 2

What are the Phases of LCA?

Answer 2

Four Phases of LCA
1. Scope and Goal Assessment:
- Define purpose, audience, system boundaries, and functional unit (e.g., 100 hours of light = always quantitative AND additive = scalable and addierbar).
2. Inventory Analysis:
- Compile emissions and resource use relative to functional unit. List all in and outputs.
- Use standard inventory databases for large datasets.
Results in a list (>100 resources and emissions
for the systems that we analyze)
3. Impact Assessment:
- Group emissions/resources into categories (e.g., greenhouse gases → climate change).
- Use equivalents (e.g., CO₂) for comparability within each group.
-> aggregate into 3-10 categories.
4. Interpretation:
- Analyze results, discuss uncertainties, and make recommendations.

Question 3

What are Application Areas of LCA?

Answer 3

Application Areas of LCA
- Comparison: Environmental impacts of products/processes with the same function.
- Improvement: Identify potential enhancements across the life cycle of products.

Question 4

What are the Limitations of LCA?

Answer 4

Limitations of LCA
- Data Challenges:
- Requires large datasets, prone to manipulation, and uncertainty.
-> Transparency and peer-review of data necessary!
- Neglected Aspects:
- Indirect impacts and rebound effects. (light bulb example -> increased use or consumption)
- Risks and non-environmental sustainability dimensions are not covered.
- Example: Nuclear energy scores well as accident risks are omitted.

Question 5

Case Study: Swiss Retailer LCA

Answer 5

Case Study: Swiss Retailer
- Goal: Reduce environmental impact of fruit/vegetable assortment.
- Key Findings:
- Early spring asparagus had a 15× higher footprint than seasonal asparagus.
- Measures:
- Shifted transportation from plane to ship.
- Promoted local sourcing and seasonal production.

Question 6

Good for:

Answer 6

Results of an LCA help to set priorities when trying to improve the environmental
performance of products or companies as a whole.