How to start an LCA study What is LCA?

Resources Raw material extraction Manufacturing

Resources Emissions Emissions

Emissions Resources

Emissions Resources Distribution Disposal/Recycling Resources Emissions Resources

Emissions

Use. 2 Steps of an LCA

recall

3 Exercise –Where are the impacts?

Where do you think the main impacts are in the labelling supply chain?

Raw material extraction Manufacturing

Disposal/Recycling Distribution

Use Starting up an LCA study

How?

5 Goal & Scope Goal “The goal of an LCA states the intended application, the reasons for carrying out the study, the intended audience, and whether the results are intended to be used in comparative assertions to be disclosed to the public.”

• Examples: – Compare impact of different self‐adhesive labels to be used in marketing – Identify hotspots and improvement opportunities for a self‐adhesive labels considering the complete life cycle, for internal communication.

7 Scope This is what you need to specify in a ISO compliant LCA study: • The product system to be studied • The functions of the product system(s) • The functional unit and respective reference flow(s) • The system boundaries • Allocation procedures • Impact categories selected and LCIA method • Data requirements • Assumptions • Limitations • Initial data quality requirements • Type of critical review, if any • Type and format of the report required for the study

8 Life cycle self‐adhesive label

amount amount amount amount (kWh) (kWh) (kWh) (kWh)

distance Label stock Pinter‐ preprocessing distance distance waste (km) production distance converter Application (km) (km) (km)

Raw material Cradle-to-gate Printer-convertor Cradle-to-gate Cradle-to gate label stockCradle-to producerprinter-convertor grave

9 Function, functional unit and reference flow

• When comparing two or more products it is essential that they have the same function • A measure of this function is defined as functional unit (FU) • For example: 20 m2 wall completely covered with paint for a period of 30 years Functional unit Cradle‐to‐gate ‘1 m² of ready‐made self‐adhesive label stock material leaving gate label stock at the label stock manufacturer’ manufacturer Cradle to gate ‘1 m² ready‐made printed label leaving gate at the printer‐ printer‐ converter’ converter Cradle‐to‐grave ‘1 m² ready‐made printed label applied on package’

10 Exercise: Calculate reference flow

The amount of a product needed to fulfil the FU is the reference flow

area weight percentage Label stock production 1m2 80 grams Production losses 6% Matrix waste 15%

How much Input needed for 1 m2 ready‐made label on package

11 End of life allocation

• Material or energy recovery resulting from recycling or incineration: – Production of virgin material or electricity is avoided

Who gets the benefit and the burden???

Virgin

Virgin LC1 Recycling LC2 Waste Waste

12 End‐of‐life allocation: 100‐0 approach 100‐0 upstream allocation –it allocates the recycling activities and the Example of 0‐100 allocation: avoided virgin material to the life cycle using the recycled material • Also called “cut‐off approach” or “recycled content method” • If you use recycled content as an input for production (LC2), you account for both benefits and burdens of recycling

additives

recycling waste PET bottle floor tiles

13 End‐of‐life allocation: 0‐100 approach 0‐100 downstream allocation –it allocates the recycling activities and Example of 0‐100 allocation: the avoided virgin material to the life cycle using the recycled material • Also called “closed loop approximation method” • If you send a material to recycling (LC1), you account for the burdens of recycling activities and for the credit of avoiding virgin material production

additives

recycling waste PET bottle floor tiles

14 Gol Harmonized sector approach: 0‐100 approach

90 80 70 60 Recycled_0:100 50 Recycled_100‐0 40 Incinineration_0 100 30 Incinineration_100‐0 20 10 0 1

• Limited recycling in self‐adhesive industry • There is great potential for recycling • Therefore 0‐100 approach to demonstrate potential

15 Data inventory Build a flowchart

amount amount (kWh) (kWh) 88% reuse as cleaning cloths reuse

12% yarn distance weaving cotton roll distance household (km) (km) waste scenario distance waste (km)

fiber China the Netherlands

laundering

cotton seeds

17 Collecting data

• Start with a quick and rough screening – Use estimates, data of the wrong plastic if you don’t have the proper plastic data, etc. – Use input‐output data if no proxy can be found

• Data collection is needed for all relevant issues

• Types of data: – Foreground data – Background data

18 Foreground data

amount amount (kWh) (kWh) 88% reuse as cleaning cloths reuse

12% yarn distance weaving cotton roll distance household (km) (km) waste scenario distance waste (km)

fiber China the Netherlands

laundering

cotton seeds

19 Data collection First steps Flowchart Adapting data Collecting foreground data

• Foreground data is the data of the system itself and thus needs to be specific • Approach: – Establish a communication channel with your factories, suppliers, etc. – Ask for a flowchart – Understand the terminology and the way data is normally collected – Develop a questionnaire that is concise and understandable • Do not ask for background data • Build in questions for consistency check – Process your data with care • Check if the answers make sense • Ask for clarifications • Document the processing steps

20 Data collection First steps Flowchart Adapting data Foreground data‐ self‐adhesive label Label stock production Type of inputs and amounts, e.g. adhesive, silicone Laminating production process Energy consumption Water use Natural heat use Emissions Waste streams Transport distance raw‐materials/to printer Printer –converter Type of inputs, amounts, e.g. inks, varnish Production process Energy consumption Water use Natural heat use Emissions Waste streams Transport distance to brand owner Application Amount of electricity application 21 Destination liner waste Background data

amount amount (kWh) (kWh) 88% reuse as cleaning cloths reuse

12% yarn distance weaving cotton roll distance (km) (km) household waste scenario distance waste (km) China the Netherlands fiber

laundering

cotton seeds

22 Data collection First steps Flowchart Adapting data Collecting background data

• Use LCA database supplied with your software & literature

Raw materials Type of material Recycled material content) Raw materials extraction Energy consumption for pre‐processing Label stock Electricity grid production/ Printer – Natural heat production converter Water production Waste treatment processes

Application Electricity grid Waste treatment processes End of life Waste treatment process & percentages

23 Default data

• Application and drying label • Transport distances and modes • Default waste percentages and routes

24 Impact assessment Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Results

• LCI results is a long list with inputs from and outputs to nature • Not easy to draw conclusions from this LCI result Land Water Oil Cu CFC

China the Netherlands Pb

N2O P

PM2.5 …

26 Steps of LCIA

Classification Characterization Normalization Weighting

27 1. Classification LCI result Impacts

Land Land use

Water Water depletion

Oil Resource depletion

Cu Climate change

CFC Ozone layer depletion

Pb Human toxicity

CO2 Eutrophication P Particulate matter formation

PM2.5 …

28 Steps of LCIA Why LCIA IAM selection ReCiPe Cause‐effect pathway shows the causal relationship between the intervention and its potential effects

• Example: climate change Emissions into the atmosphere

Time integrated concentration

Radiative forcing

Climate change

Effects on Effects on ecosystems humans

Net primary Changing Wild Other Mal‐ Infectious Heat Flooding production biomes fires impacts nutrition diseases stress

Decreasing biodiversity

29 2. Characterization

• Next step is to quantify how much impact a product or service has in each impact category • All interventions are multiplied by a factor (characterization factor) which reflects their relative contribution to the environmental impact

30 Steps of LCIA Why LCIA IAM selection ReCiPe 2. Characterization

LCI results Climate change Acidification Particulate matter

1000 g CO2 x1 = 1000

10 g SO2 x 1.31 = 13.1 x 0.061 = 0.61

5 g N2O x298 = 1490 x 0.74 = 3.7 x 0.0072 = 0.036

4 g PM2.5 x 1 = 4 + + +

+ Characterized results 2.49 kg CO2‐eq. 0.0168 mol H ‐eq. 0.0046 kg PM2.5‐eq.

31 Steps of LCIA Why LCIA IAM selection ReCiPe Characterization

100

90

80

70 Application 60 Inks supply End of Life 50 Printing Manufacturing label 40 Transport 30 Material Supply

20

10

0 CC OD Htox POF PMF IR TA FE Ttox Ftox Mtox ALO ULO NLT MD FD

32 3. Normalization

• Characterized results have different units • One way to make interpreting such scores easier is to normalize them: dividing your scores by a reference situation’s scores • This reference situation could be one person’s (“average Joe”) resource use and emissions released in the world during one year

33 3. Normalization

LCI results Climate change Acidification Particulate matter

1000 g CO2 x1 = 1000

10 g SO2 x 1.31 = 13.1 x 0.061 = 0.61

5 g N2O x298 = 1490 x 0.74 = 3.7 x 0.0072 = 0.036

4 g PM2.5 x 1 = 4 + + +

+ Characterized results 2.49 kg CO2‐eq. 0.0168 mol H ‐eq. 0.0046 kg PM2.5‐eq.

kg CO ‐eq. mol H+‐eq. kg PM ‐eq. 6803 2 49.44 2.746 2.5 Normalization factor person*year person*year person*year

Normalized results 0.000366 person*year 0.00034 person*year 0.00169 person*year

34 Normalisation

2,00E‐04

1,50E‐04

matrix 1,00E‐04 Ink supply Liner Application

5,00E‐05 End of Life printing‐converter Label stock producion

0,00E+00 transport Label stock supply

‐5,00E‐05

35 4. Weighting

• Optional fourth and final step –most debated step!

Applying a value judgment to your LCA results • Multiplying the normalised results of each of the impact categories with a weighting factor that expresses the relative importance of the impact category • The weighted results can be summed to create a single score

36 4. Weighting LCI results Climate change Acidification Particulate matter

1000 g CO2 x1 = 1000

10 g SO2 x 1.31 = 13.1 x 0.061 = 0.61

5 g N2O x298 = 1490 x 0.74 = 3.7 x 0.0072 = 0.036

4 g PM2.5 x 1 = 4 + + +

+ Characterized results 2.49 kg CO2‐eq. 0.0168 mol H ‐eq. 0.0046 kg PM2.5‐eq.

Normalized results 0.000366 person*year 0.00034 person*year 0.00169 person*year

Weighting factor x23 x4.2 x6.6 +

Weighted results 0.021 pt

37 Weighting

50

Fossil depletion Metal depletion 40 Natural land transformation Urban land occupation Agricultural land occupation 30 Marine ecotoxicity Freshwater ecotoxicity Terrestrial ecotoxicity 20 mPt Freshwater eutrophication Terrestrial acidification Climate change Ecosystems 10 Ionising radiation Particulate matter formation

0 Photochemical oxidant formation Human toxicity Ozone depletion

‐10 Climate change Human Health

38 Harmonized sector approach

• Recommended method: ReCiPe & IPPC 2013

• Impact categories – Fossil depletion – Climate change – Water resources – Land use – Human toxicity

• Emissions of (VOC) and (HAP) to air. • Total solid waste production Total energy consumption. • Recycled content in product.

39