Tech Brief: Buliding Block of Life-Cycle Thinking

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Tech Brief: Buliding Block of Life-Cycle Thinking TECH BRIEF: BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE-CYCLE THINKING What Is Life-Cycle Thinking? LCT provides a transparent methodology that can be used to support the decision-making processes for Life-cycle thinking (LCT) is a holistic approach to sustainability-related questions at the network, the considering the economic, environmental, and social conceptual design, the design, and the construction impacts across the complete life cycle of a product, stages of project development (see examples provided system, or service. The application of LCT allows for in call-out box below). In many cases, LCT can be used improved decision-making that can lead to reduced to investigate the impact of a design change when costs, reduced environmental impacts, and more compared to current practice, but it may also be used in favorable social outcomes; in essence, the LCT performing a policy evaluation, in the development of a philosophy works to employ sustainability strategies that pavement material or product, or in the procurement of minimize negative impacts and avoid unintended materials, products, and services. consequences. As applied to pavements, LCT involves two key steps: Example Applications of LCT 1. Identifying the goals and performance • At the Network Level: Prioritizing network metrics/priorities/values (economic, maintenance and preservation activities to environmental, and social) to be used in decision- minimize life-cycle costs and environmental impacts. making; for example, one agency goal might be to reduce life-cycle cost and negative environmental • In the Conceptual Design Stage: Evaluating impacts while ensuring similar (or enhanced) the option of adding a truck-only lane compared performance. to just increasing capacity to minimize life-cycle costs, reduce environmental impacts, and 2. Defining the life-cycle stages of the product or maximize safety. system being considered and conducting an analysis within the three pillars of sustainability • In the Design Stage: Selecting a pavement (economic, environmental, and social) using the design alternative based on life-cycle costs and appropriate tools for each (see figure 1). environmental impacts. • In the Construction Stage: Procuring pavement materials that meet performance criteria based on environmental impacts. What Should Be Considered In LCT? It is important to consider the entire life cycle so that all consequences of decisions are included and not just the initial impacts. This helps to identify opportunities at various points in the life cycle where negative impacts can be reduced or to inform and guide decision makers who are setting priorities for change. In this way, more meaningful comparisons can be made between two materials that, for example, may have different initial impacts and varying performance lives. The consideration Figure 1. Pillars of sustainability with methods for of the sustainability impacts over the complete life cycle of measurement and communication. the pavement project allows for the determination of the material that offers the lowest negative consequences. Why Use LCT? Examples of some of the metrics/priorities/values that may be considered in each individual pavement life-cycle Consumers, owner agencies, and regulators are stage are provided in figure 2. pressing for sustainability performance measures, and 1 Figure 2. Example sustainability elements associated with pavement life-cycle stages. What Tools Can Support LCT? There are several methods of measurement that are used to quantify the three pillars of sustainability listed in figure 1; these include: • Life-cycle planning (LCP), a network-level approach to managing transportation assets over their whole life. • Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA), which focuses on economic indicators. • Life-cycle assessment (LCA), which focuses on environmental indicators. - Environmental product declarations (EPDs) are a format to communicate the results of LCAs for specific materials or products (e.g., asphalt, cement, asphalt mixture, concrete mixture, pavement interlayers, etc.). • Social life-cycle assessment (S-LCA), which focuses on social LCA indicators. Although LCP, LCCA, LCA, and S-LCA cannot be used to analyze and quantify all aspects of sustainability performance, these methods of measurement can provide quantitative support for a wide range of questions and decisions and can work in concert with more qualitative performance assessment and rating systems. Additional information on these tools is provided in the following sections. 2 Life-Cycle Planning (LCP) Typical Applications Description • Determine the pavement type or treatment strategy that results in the lowest overall life-cycle costs at • LCP is a network-level approach to managing the required level of performance. transportation assets over their whole life. • Demonstrate the benefits of various treatment • For pavements, agencies would typically conduct an strategies or construction sequencing on the LCP analysis using their pavement management traveling public (e.g., vehicle operating costs, user system. delay costs, crash costs, etc.). • The objective of an LCP analysis is to determine the • Estimate the initial costs and support future agency most cost-effective strategy of managing a budget decisions for designing, constructing, and pavement network over a selected time period that maintaining a pavement at a specified performance will enable an agency to achieve or sustain a level over a predetermined time period. defined state of good repair. Typical Applications Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) • Provide a long-term view of pavement performance Description for an entire network or a subset of a network. • LCA is a technique for analyzing and quantifying the • Evaluate the impacts of a set of life-cycle strategies environmental impacts of a product, system, or at various funding levels on pavement performance process. over a selected analysis period. • An LCA is a comprehensive approach that examines • Provide objective data to support investment material and energy inputs and outputs over the life decisions. cycle of the product or process, from raw material • Demonstrate good stewardship to internal and production to end-of-life. external stakeholders. • An LCA can be used to generate a range of environmental indicators, such as ozone depletion, Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) acidification, eutrophication, and smog formation. Description • LCA results are context specific and should not be compared to other LCA studies since an LCA is • LCCA is an analytical tool to provide cost performed to address a specific question for a comparisons between two or more competing specific product or process that provides a specific alternatives on a project. function in a specific geographical location. • For pavements, LCCA provides a way of measuring Typical Applications the economic consequences of changes in design, materials, construction techniques, maintenance • Document and benchmark the environmental schemes, and end-of-life treatments over a impacts associated with current practices and prescribed analysis period. materials and identify key areas for improvement to meet environmental goals. • LCCA should be used as one indicator in the decision-making process, along with other key • Determine the pavement structural and mixture factors that cannot be easily quantified monetarily design with the lowest environmental impacts. (e.g., work zone safety, environmental impacts). • Evaluate the tradeoffs of implementing a policy such • Both direct agency costs and user costs can be as requiring recycled materials in all pavement considered and these may be expressed in terms of designs. net present value (NPV) or equivalent uniform • Develop an EPD for a specific product (such as annual costs (EUAC). asphalt binder or portland cement). • Demonstrate good environmental stewardship to internal and external stakeholders. 3 Environmental Product Declarations • Relevant indicators of an S-LCA are context-sensitive and are defined in collaboration with groups of Description stakeholders that can include workers, consumers, • EPDs are a transparent, verified report used to local communities, and others at the beginning of the communicate the environmental impacts of a planning process where a need has been identified specific material (e.g., asphalt binder, portland but a solution has not been determined. cement) or product (e.g., asphalt mix, concrete mix). • Current pavement sustainability rating systems • EPDs are needed to encourage the demand for, and (such as INVEST, ENVISION, and Greenroads) supply of, those products that promote more incorporate many topics that can be considered as sustainable use of finite resources and create less part of an S-LCA. stress on the environment. Over time, periodic updates of EPDs can show progress being made by Typical Applications manufacturer or an industry, and agencies can use • Determine and communicate employment factors, that information to track progress by their suppliers such as employment creation (type and number of in meeting agency goals. jobs) and quality of employment (wages vs. skill • EPDs are a life-cycle assessment developed by levels, working conditions). product manufacturers following the Product • Communicate health indicators, such as safety, Category Rules (PCR) that are developed with pollution exposure, and changes to active industry stakeholders and LCA experts and transportation. subjected to a critical review process. • Estimate quality of life indicators, such
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