Strategies for Life Cycle Thinking and Product Sustainability at GE
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Strategies for Life Cycle Thinking and Product Sustainability at GE Angela Fisher Sustainability Leader Ecoassessment Center of Excellence GE Global Operations – Resource & Environmental Strategies National Association of Environmental Managers Denver, Colorado | October 2016 Imagination at work GE Diversity Power Energy Connections Oil & Gas GE Renewables Healthcare AviationTransportation Lighting/Current Digital • Global Operations • Global Research Global Growth Organization • Capital Variety of internal stakeholders & products Ecoassessment Center of Excellence GE Ecoassessment Center of Excellence Mission: Position GE for evolving life cycle / product sustainability‐based regulatory / stakeholder expectations and competitor positioning Protect access to market, support customer engagement, maintain credibility with external stakeholders (customers, investors, NGOs, governments, public, etc.) Technical credibility & product support Key Roles: • Product LCA + LCM toolkits • Expertise and guidance • Strategic and selective application Life cycle assessment (LCA) Life cycle management (LCM) Drive eco further into product development Carbon, energy, water footprint Sustainability strategies • Customize to business context EcoDesign/Design for environment • Identify opportunities for improvement • Tools and resources Deliver customer value • Education and awareness • Employee Engagement • Strategic engagement • External networks • Environmental and operational savings • Social license to operate Support: Thought leadership • GE businesses • Drive business perspective on sustainability • Strategic customers • Create & maintain momentum toward change Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Assess overall environmental impact throughout a product or service’s life cycle More than just carbon footprint A method to understand the net environmental impact of a product/service across its value chain, how and where to make improvements ‐ Differentiate products Ecosystem Natural Human ‐ Evaluate alternatives quality resources health ‐ Prioritize opportunities for improvement ‐ Mitigate environmental issues Areas of protection (damage categories) Ecoassessment Center of Excellence When Should a LCA be Performed? Customer Competitor Product Environmental Green Marketing • Customers asking • Competitor using • ”Green” product • Product contains • Prepare for for LCA/carbon LCA/carbon • Primary toxics, ecomagination footprint data as footprint to environmental substances of product review part of their market 'green' impacts are concern, heavy (LCM and sustainability product other than metals, rare screening LCA) programs • Competitor not energy earth minerals, • Product exhibits •Customers using LCA/carbon efficiency during etc. net requiring footprint product use • Product exhibits environmental LCA/carbon (potential • Product environmental benefit, but footprint as part of thought development issues, benefits, benefit may be RFP leadership team plans to or tradeoffs that counterintuitive • Opportunity to opportunity for use Design for may need to be to the consumer exert eco thought GE's advanced Environment quantified • Product involves leadership at the LCA capability) (DfE) tools. LCA • Product environmental customer or can provide the mitigates trade‐offs that industry‐wide level quantitative environmental may need to be through LCA 'roadmap' for issues quantified and DfE efforts. (renewables, communicated shale • Product requires technologies, complex water environmental treatment, etc.). messaging LCA may be • Eco‐labeling or useful to convey Environmental the benefit. Product Ecoassessment Center of Excellence Declaration LCA Tools and Resources Tools & Resources Other Tools & Resources • LCA Community Portal LCM Community Library • GHG Emission Factors • Wind Tool o Support Central Repository • Supply Chain Prioritization • LCA 101 Reference Product LCM Tool o Early awareness and directional guidance LCA Screening Tool o Quickly assess relative magnitude of life cycle stages EcoDesign Strategy Wheel (*publicly available) o Ecodesign principles and strategies Water‐Energy Nexus Tool o Evaluate tradeoffs between energy and water Value Creation Tool o Identify business value from eco Ecoassessment Center of Excellence *http://www.okala.net/presentations/10%20chapter2%20Ecodesign%20Strategy%20Wheel.pdf Life Cycle Roadmap: 4 Detailed LCA per ISO 14044 A Tiered Strategy 3 Streamlined LCA 2 Screening LCA Time Investment 1 Product LCM Tool Level of Detail / Extensiveness Strategic | Comprehensive | Efficient | Effective Ecoassessment Center of Excellence • Simple, quick, yet comprehensive 1 • Provides early awareness: Product LCM tool ‐opportunities & issues • Provides directional guidance: ‐when to dig deeper ‐where to seek answers and support Qualitative inputs organized Customizable Graphical results by life cycle stage business context • Quickly identify opportunities or • Topic areas based on external filters problem areas stakeholder mapping • Calibrate tool responses • Results organized by: • Compare baseline vs. new based on relevancy per • (1) life cycle stage product product category or • (2) impact categories: energy, • Compare product design business application GHGs, water, wastes & emissions, alternatives toxicity, land, natural resources, Ecoassessment Center of Excellence EHS LCM Factsheets Factsheets: •Biodiversity •Biofuels •Chemical regulatory compliance •Circular Economy •Climate Change •Design for Environment •Ecosystem Services •Energy Efficiency •Environmental Labeling •Green Advertising Guides •Green Buildings •Greenhouse Gases •Green Supply Chain •Hazardous Materials •Hazardous Chemicals •Landfill & Incineration •Material Recovery •Material Scarcity •Nanomaterials Stewardship •Noise, Odor, Vibration, Dust •Ozone Depleting Substances •Packaging •Product Regulatory Compliance •Product Stewardship •Remanufacturing •Renewable Energy •Sustainable Harvesting •Toxics, Heavy Metals, Persistent Compounds •Transport Logistics •Water Footprint Reduction •Water Stress Ecoassessment Center of Excellence 2 GE LCA screening tool Key design insight • Use broad materials categories to prevent over‐collection of data • Develop average impact factors per materials category Tool features • Rapidly assess relative magnitude of life cycle stages • Enter % material composition based on broad materials categories • Automatically self‐populates with manufacturing process impacts based on materials type Tool intended for high‐level screening • 1st entry point into LCA • LCC added in 2016 Ecoassessment Center of Excellence Streamlined and Detailed LCA 3 Streamlined LCA 4 Detailed LCA per ISO 14044 LCA tools infrastructure • Commercial LCA software • Secondary LCI data sets Trained expertise required • GE Ecoassessment COE • External network LCA Experts Needed | Commercial LCA Software and Datasets Ecoassessment Center of Excellence Ecodesign Tools & Strategies Ecoassessment Center of Excellence LCA case studies GE LCA Efforts Power Oil & Gas A‐14 steam turbine / 6‐7 MC7E steam turbine 2.5xl Wind turbine 7FH2 generator Micro LNG 1.6‐100 Wind ZeeWeed 1000‐60 turbine Ultrafiltration CNG in a Box™ Thin film solar Biomass gasification – Unconventional gas LM2500 aeroderivative Jenbacher Waterless fracking 7FA gas turbine + Ammonia SCR vs. DLN 7FH2B generator Energy Connections 9FB gas turbine + Biomass/coal 330H generator gasification Smart Meter 7F.05 gas turbine Nanostructured ferritic Low‐current circuit alloys breakers Ecoassessment Center of Excellence GE LCA Efforts Healthcare Transportation GE Lighting Wave and Durathon™ battery Outdoor LED lighting ReadyToProcess™ +PLUSPAK™ contrast LCA Screening Tool: Indoor LED lighting agent vials • Evolution locomotive • Remanufactured parts ‘Soft Cuff’ blood for Evo loco CFL, LED, pressure cuff incandescent, Hercules X‐ray tube halogen Aviation LCA Screening Tool: LEAP engine / • Ultrasound composite fan blades • MR • CT Bio‐oils to jet fuel • Digital X‐ray (DARPA) • Nuc (PET) US DoD SLCA/LCC • MR coolants Methodology Pilot • HC IT Additive manufacturing Ecoassessment Center of Excellence GE 2.5MW Onshore Wind Turbine Product Overview GE’s 2.5xl onshore wind turbine Purpose/Driver of LCA WRI / WBCSD* GHG Protocol Initiative’s Product Standard Road Testing • Provide detailed feedback to WRI/WBCSD prior to final release of the standard • Develop life cycle eco profile of wind turbine to support customer requests Scope of LCA Cradle‐to‐grave, performed to WRI/WBCSD product GHG standard Additional data collected to support multi‐impact category LCA Value creation = Satisfy customer requests & expectations *World Resources Institute / World Business Council for Sustainable Development Based on site capacity factor of 0.35 for a wind turbine installation in Sweden Ecoassessment Center of Excellence LED Roadway Luminaire LCA Scope Analyze the life cycle environmental impacts of several innovative LED solutions relative to the incumbent HID technology • design trade‐offs (e.g., materials choices, recycled content) and • end‐of‐life recovery scenarios (e.g., recycling, product takeback, closed loop, etc.) Cradle‐to‐Grave Cradle‐to‐Gate *representative results shown above are for the ERL1 LED luminaire; similar results were observed for HID and other LED models Value Creation = Thought Leadership, Brand Image, Technical Credibility, Market Share Ecoassessment Center of Excellence Preliminary results – 3rd party critical review is underway GE Supply Chain Priority Assessment Big Data Methodology Goals • Gain high‐level