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ASSESSING GLOBAL PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY of CONSUMER ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS •Fi DEVELOPMENT of an INTEGRATED APPROACH

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ASSESSING GLOBAL PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY of CONSUMER ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS •Fi DEVELOPMENT of an INTEGRATED APPROACH University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Master's Theses 2014 ASSESSING GLOBAL PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY OF CONSUMER ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS – DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH Richard Poenitz University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses Recommended Citation Poenitz, Richard, "ASSESSING GLOBAL PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY OF CONSUMER ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS – DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH" (2014). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 366. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/366 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ASSESSING GLOBAL PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY OF CONSUMER ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS – DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH BY RICHARD POENITZ A MASTER’S THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2014 MASTER OF SCIENCE THESIS OF RICHARD POENITZ APPROVED: Thesis Committee: Major Professor Manbir Sodhi David Taggart Mercedes Rivero-Hudec Geoff Bothun Nasser H. Zawia DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2014 ABSTRACT This Thesis will develop – on the basis of an extensively conducted literature review – a concept with which it shall be possible to better measure, assess and examine sustainability in general and sustainability impacts of (electronic) products. Against this background, the main goals of this thesis are threefold. The first key objective is to conduct a thorough literature review that will help create a solid foundation to this and all subsequent work dealing with assessing a product’s impacts in its various life cycle stages. Light shall be shed to and clarity be achieved in a field of study that teems with papers and information, which have caused it to be rather impenetrable and difficult to access. Based upon this, it is this study’s second key objective and primary goal to develop and provide a concept that is capable of addressing one aspect and challenge of assessing sustainability (of products) that has not yet received much attention: The fair allocation of sustainability impacts among the various actors of a supply chain. The literature review will be of help in determining and proposing a method of how to assess sustainability in an integrated fashion, which will then serve as an input for the subsequent allocation. Last but not least and thirdly, it is the goal of this thesis to ideally put this developed concept to use in the consumer electronics sector and assess one majorly significant device of this particular industry for its sustainability impacts. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It has been a truly terrific experience spending the entire student year as part of the exchange program run by University of Rhode Island (URI) and Technical University Braunschweig completing my Master’s thesis in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. First and foremost I would like to dearly thank Dr. Manbir Sodhi for his always very helpful guidance, encouragement and assistance in both professional and personal situation. A common educational journey to India organized through URI was a milestone in what has been a great pleasure knowing him and working with him. I would also like to thank the committee members Dr. Taggart, Dr. Rivero-Hudec and Dr. Geoff Bothun for their valuable time and agreeing to be part of my committee, thus reviewing and evaluating my thesis. Additionally, I would like to use this space to thank my German roommates Alexander, Eike and both Fabians for their continuous encouragement and moral support. It has been fantastic to have your back covered. Last but not least, I want to affectionately thank my parents Ingolf and Saskia. If it was not for them and their unlimited love and support, I would not be where I am in life right now, let alone in beautiful Rhode Island. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...................................................................................... xii LIST OF SYMBOLS .................................................................................................. xiv 1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background and Motivation............................................................................ 1 1.2 Objective and Structure ................................................................................... 3 2 Theoretical Foundation: Definitions & Explanations .............................................. 6 2.1 The Concept of Sustainability ......................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Historical Background of Sustainability .................................................. 8 2.1.2 Towards Definition: The Term (Global) Sustainability......................... 10 2.1.3 A new approach: Sustainable Development .......................................... 14 2.1.4 Criticism of the definition ...................................................................... 18 2.1.5 Towards definition: The term Global Product Sustainability ................ 20 2.2 Assessing Sustainability ................................................................................ 27 2.2.1 Defining major terms in the field of sustainability assessment.............. 32 iv 2.2.2 A progressive framework to structure sustainability assessment........... 38 2.2.3 Popular methods to assess the three main dimensions of sustainability 45 2.3 Explaining Externalities ................................................................................ 82 3 Requirements to assess GPS .................................................................................. 85 3.1 General Requirements ................................................................................... 87 3.2 Specific Requirements................................................................................... 90 4 Developing a concept to assess Global Product Sustainability.............................. 92 4.1 Methodological approach applied for the development ................................ 95 4.2 The Basic Concept: Characteristics Inherited from Overhead Allocation .. 102 4.3 Introducing the Concept .............................................................................. 117 4.3.1 Framework and structure of concept.................................................... 118 4.3.2 Assessing the three main dimensions of sustainability........................ 123 4.3.3 Allocating the impact throughout the entire supply chain ................... 129 4.3.4 Alternative approach to assess sustainability....................................... 141 5 Case study: The consumer electronics (CE) sector.............................................. 144 5.1 An introduction to consumer electronics and the particular industry.......... 145 5.2 Making consumer electronics and its supply chain..................................... 155 5.3 Application of the developed concept on the ECG sector........................... 163 5.4 Presentation of selected case studies ........................................................... 174 5.5 More detailed life cycle assessment of laptop computers ........................... 185 5.6 Excursus into development of CE industry and overview of location decisions ................................................................................................................. 205 6 Summary and Conclusions................................................................................... 212 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1: Overall procedure of the study.................................................................... 5 Figure 2-1: Closed-loop life-cycle paradigm ............................................................... 23 Figure 2-2: Number of publications according to SCOPUS........................................ 28 Figure 2-3: Relationship between key terms in the realm of sustainability assessment ...................................................................................................................................... 37 Figure 2-4: Categorization structure as proposed by NIST ......................................... 39 Figure 2-5: Number of indicators in main- and sub-categories of NIST’s indicator repository ..................................................................................................................... 41 Figure 2-6: The LCA-framework according to ISO 14040 ......................................... 49 Figure 2-7: Overall UNEP/SETAC scheme of the environmental LCA framework, linking midpoint to damage categories .......................................................................
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