lca simulation

Sustainability Business Simulation Life Cycle Assessment Exercise

Step 1: Goal and Scope Definition Based on the decision to be made by your company, define the goal and scope of the life cycle assessment.

1) Define the functional unit of the product systems to be compared. In the companion spreadsheet, enter the number of products for each option in order to create an equivalent basis for comparison, and the period of performance (typically this is one year for most LCA studies but your study may have a longer time horizon).

2) Draw a high level diagram indicating the boundary of the two product systems.

3) Determine the relevant impact categories you would like to investigate. For the exercise you have a choice of 5 categories. Choose at least two categories: a. Energy b. Water take (use) c. Global warming potential d. Human health toxicity e. Ecological toxicity

Step 2: Data Gathering (Life Cycle Inventory) Using your spreadsheet tool, collect the following information to complete your life cycle inventory. Upstream Materials: For the materials in your product determine the amount of materials need to make one unit of product. The cradle-to-gate data (all of the energy, materials and emissions associated with that material) are provided. Facility Level Product Production: From spreadsheets provided collect the facility level data (energy use and emissions released associated with making the two products over the period of a year). You may have to allocate a portion of the facility energy data to the products under study. Also, there may be wastes associated with production. Use your professional judgment to determine the allocation. Transport: Enter the distance for the appropriate shipping mode for the manufactured product. The transport data will be converted to a weight-distance metric based on the weight of the materials specified for the product. Use Phase: Collect the necessary use phase information. The product systems examined may or may not have use phase impacts. If there is energy or material consumed during use, add them to the inventory. End-of-life: Determine how much of your product ends up directly in a landfill, or is incinerated and then placed in a landfill. If incinerated take a credit for displacing the energy that would have been produced, but make sure to add in the emissions associated with incineration. If a portion of your product is recycled take a credit for the production of virgin material displaced by recycling.

Step 3: Impact Assessment From the life-cycle impact assessment categories selected as relevant to your study, calculate the resulting impacts for the two product systems. List them in the table below.

Impact Assessment Results

Product System 1

Impact Assessment Results Product System 2

Step 4: Final interpretive statement From the assessment you have just completed, craft a short statement (2 to 3 sentences) that is both technically accurate, as well as readily understood to upper management. Marketing is very pleased with the innovative LCA study that you have done. Craft a marketing statement appropriate for a consumer audience. Remember, the consumer audience may include a very knowledgeable NGO –watch out for green washing.

Step 5: Limitations to the study Now that you are an LCA expert, list areas of the study that you feel need further improvement or are shortcomings – just in case that NGO comes knocking at your door.

Good Snacks, Inc.

Background: You work for a snack food company (primarily corn and potato chips) that sits on the outskirts of town. Good Snacks is a division of a Fortune 100, publicly traded company that emphasizes branding of products. Your plant employs 900 people and has corporate goals to grow by 10% per year over the next two years.

The plant manager, who really cares about quality of work-life issues, recently read an article about sustainability and is now convinced that this is something your company should pursue. You have been asked by the plant manager to head up the “sustainability effort,” even though you have no experience; she just knew you’re just very interested in environmental issues.

Recently, Wal-Mart has asked you to begin reporting on life-cycle based information of the packaging of your most popular slightly burnt potato chip product, “Nicely Done”. Currently you are shipping your product in 6 oz. snack bags consisting of Mylar film (97% polyethylene with a thin layer of aluminum). You are interested in investigating an alternative packaging solution using a bio-material plastic film made of poly lactic acid (PLA) polymers made from corn. The manufacturer of PLA has told you that there are no harmful environmental impacts associated with PLA. Because your Nicely Done product is your best selling brand (you sell 1,000,000 units*, representing 33% of sales), you need to investigate which packaging solution is best to use from an environmental life cycle perspective – just to make sure.

Hint: This is your functional unit.

After doing a preliminary data collection assessment you know the following:

Option 1: Mylar Option 2: PLA

Weight of packaging 100 gm 150 gm Material make-up packaging

97% PET, 3% Aluminum 100 gm PLA, 50gm PET

Facility Electricity 300,000 kWh annual ? no data Facility Heat 10,000,000 MJ natural gas ? no data Manufacturing discards due to inferior quality

1% of PET

10% of Aluminum

13% (new process, so discard rate is higher)

Shipping Nicely Done 99.9% Long Haul Truck – Western US (avg. 500 km)

0.1% Air Shipped – France (~10,000 km)

Assume same market

Recyclability of packaging

100% PET, 100% Aluminum 0% PLA, 100% PET

Make any assumption needed to complete the study and indicate them here:

Renaissance Lighting

Background: You are the owner and president of Renaissance Lighting; you have always tried to run a socially responsible company. You’ve recently learned about sustainability and really like the idea because it seems to provide clearer end-points, at least from the environmental perspective. You sell your products to retail lighting stores in a three state region. You employ 180 people and expect to grow by 10% over the next two years. At this time you are shipping 5,000 lamps per year*.

The local municipal recycling center has been collecting plastic soda bottles by the ton. By making your products out of recycled polypropylene (PP) you think you can close the material loop from a local source. Being a hands-on president who has problems delegating tasks, you’ve decided to conduct the life cycle assessment yourself so that you can get the rest of your organization to adopt sustainability as a strategic business issue.

Hint: This is the basis of your comparison but you need to assess the future production levels at 10% growth; however a brass lamp lasts longer than a plastic lamp. You need to make the comparison equivalent.


Option 1: Traditional Brass Lamp

Option 2: Recycled PP green lamp

Lifespan of Lamp 30 Years 10 Years Weight of lamp 2 Kg 1.7 kg Facility electricity requirements for this past year

30,000 kWh annual to produce 5,000 lamps

? no data

Facility heat requirements for this past year

10,000 MJ natural gas annual to produce 5,000 lamps

? no data

Manufacturing discards due to inferior quality

1% 2%

Shipping Continental US

There are two destinations:

#1: 80% of the time by Long haul truck, with avg. distance of 500km.

#2: 20% of the time by intermodal rail/short haul truck with avg. distance 1200km by train, 50km by truck.

? no data

Material make-up 75% Brass,

25% Aluminum

10% Virgin PP

75% Recycled PP

15% Brass Use Phase The traditional brass lamp

uses an incandescent, 60 watt bulb, used 8 hours a day, 300 days a year over the life of the lamp (30 years).

Uses innovative LED lights that consume 10 watts used 8 hours a day, 300 days a year over the life of the lamp (10 years).

Recyclability 100% for brass

100% for aluminum

100% for PP and recycled PP

100% for Brass

Make any assumptions needed to complete the study.

Think Geo, Inc.

Background: You are the marketing manager for a geothermal technology startup. You would like to make a splash in the competitive residential renewable energy market, however, your state has instituted a $25,000 tax rebate on solar panels, making your technology costlier to install, but cheaper to use in the long run. You believe that the geothermal technology is the way to go not only financially, but also environmentally and want to conduct an LCA study to prove you’re right.

Based on a 2,000 square foot home, you need a system that provides 625,000 btu’s/day. A 4x10 solar panel generates 40,000 btu’s / day. Additional details are provided on the opposite page.


Option 1: Geothermal Unit

Option 2: One 4x10 Solar Panel system

Materials 2000 kg steel pipe

20 kg brass fittings

5 kg Aluminum parts

2 kg Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) parts

0.5 kg brass fittings Energy output 500,000 Btu/day 75,000 Btu/day average Life of the system 30 year lifespan 20 year lifespan Mfg. Facility 50 MWh electricity and

40,000 MJ of NG annually to produce 16 geothermal units

500,000 kWh electricity and 40,000 MJ of NG annually to manufacture 1000 – 4’x10” panels


5% 1%

Location of Mfg. source 50 km from market 50 km from Market Installation & Use Energy

50 gallons of diesel fuel to drill well for piping

10 kWh of electricity to install

2400 watts per day to operate

10 kWh of electricity to install

60 watts per day per panel to operate

Water use 0.5 m3 year to recharge and flush

0.02 m3 year to recharge and flush

Recyclability 90% for steel

90% for brass

80% for aluminum

90% for brass

25% for PVC

Make any assumptions needed to complete the study and indicate them here:

Disposable Diaper Example

Background: In this example you will compare a disposable diaper versus a cloth diaper.


Option 1:Cotton Diaper Option 2:Disposable Diaper Weight of diaper 0.2 Kg Cotton diaper

0.10 kg Polypropylene (PP)

0.10 kg Cellulosic wood fiber Life diaper 2 year lifespan for the

cotton diaper 1 use only

Mfg. Facility Energy 10,000 kWh of electricity 5,000 MJ Natural Gas annually to weave and sew 10,000 cotton diapers

500,000 kWh of electricity and 50,000 MJ Natural Gas annually to manufacture 10,000,000 disposable diapers


10% for cotton diaper 1% for PP and Cellulosic Wood fiber

Shipping 10,000 km from Mfg. in China to store

1000km from Mfg. to store

Use 8 times a day with double up for overnight

4 times a day

Laundry electricity 10 kWh to wash a cotton diaper

n/a

Laundry water use 0.01 (m3) to wash a cotton diaper

n/a

Laundry drying 1000 MJ natural gas to dry a diaper

n/a

Recyclability 100% for cotton 100% for PP

100% for cellulosic wood fiber

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