How Green Is That Product Lecture Notes Week 9

How Green is That Product?
An Introduction to Life Cycle Environmental Assessment
Coursera Lecture Notes

March 2015
Prepared by:
Eric Masanet and Yuan Chang
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL, USA
Lecture Notes for How Green is That Product? 2015 Northwestern University.
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Table of Contents
About these lecture notes ...................................................................................................................... 3
Lecture 1: The life-cycle perspective and course goals .......................................................................... 4
Lecture 1 Supplement ............................................................................................................................ 8
Lecture 2: Understanding unit processes ............................................................................................. 10
Lecture 2 Supplement .......................................................................................................................... 16
Lecture 3: Constructing unit process inventories: Part 1 ..................................................................... 18
Lecture 4: Constructing unit process inventories: Part 2 ..................................................................... 25
Lecture 5: Energy flow basics ............................................................................................................... 33
Lecture 6: Mass balances .................................................................................................................... 39
Lecture 7: Goal definition ..................................................................................................................... 48
Lecture 8: Scope definition: functional units ....................................................................................... 52
Lecture 9: Scope definition: initial system boundaries ....................................................................... 59
Lecture 10: Scope definition: requirements for data and data quality ................................................ 67
Lecture 11: Scope definition: review and reporting............................................................................. 73
Lecture 12: Life cycle inventories: the basics ...................................................................................... 77
Lecture 13: Life cycle inventories: mass flows and cut off criteria ..................................................... 82
Lecture 14: Life cycle inventories: data estimation.............................................................................. 87
Lecture 15: Life cycle inventories: multi-functionality ........................................................................ 92
Lecture 16: Life cycle inventories: system expansion ....................................................................... 100
Lecture 17: Life cycle inventories: data quality assessment ............................................................. 109
Lecture 18: Life cycle inventories: Input-output (IO) methods ......................................................... 115
Lecture 19: Life cycle inventories: EIO-LCA ....................................................................................... 121
Lecture 20: Life cycle inventories: IO uses and limitations ................................................................ 127
Lecture 21: Life-cycle impact assessment: the basics ....................................................................... 131
Lecture 22: Life-cycle impact assessment: how it works .................................................................. 136
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Lecture 23: Life-cycle impact assessment: impact categories ........................................................... 142
Lecture 24: Interpretation: the basics ............................................................................................... 147
Lecture 25: Interpretation: completeness and consistency .............................................................. 151
Lecture 26: Interpretation: sensitivity check...................................................................................... 154
Lecture 27: Conclusions and parting thoughts .................................................................................. 158
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About these lecture notes

There are many useful resources for learning the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, including
books, websites, case studies, publicly-available lecture materials, and LCA standards and
guidebooks. Rather than choose one particular resource as the assigned reading, the course staff
has prepared this compendium of lecture notes, which will serve as your primary reference for this
course. These notes make use of elements of key online LCA resources that are available to
students, and refer you to them where appropriate for additional information on different LCA
topics. Additional readings will be assigned or suggested throughout our MOOC as part of the
homework assignments, through the discussion forums, and when discussing specific LCA case
studies.
Each chapter relates to a single video lecture. The first section in each chapter contains a full
transcript of the video lecture. These transcripts will allow you to read along with the lectures as
you watch them, to write down comments at different points in a lecture, and to refer to the lecture
content when you are offline.
In many chapters, a second section has been provided, which contains additional notes that expand
upon points made within the lecture and refer you to other LCA resources as appropriate. Because
Coursera video lectures are inherently short, weve made use of the additional notes sections to
provide you with supporting information that couldnt be included in the video lectures due to time
constraints. Weve also added additional notes to further discuss topics that proved particularly
interesting or challenging in past offerings of the MOOC. Within the transcript section, youll see
blue arrows in the left hand margin that look like this:
1.1
This symbol indicates that additional notes have been provided. Each additional note has been
assigned a number, which also appears in the blue arrow symbol (in our example above, this
number is 1.1). The numbered blue arrows will allow you to easily jump back and forth between the
transcript and the additional information that is relevant to a particular topic.
Lecture notes will be released on a week-by-week basis.
We hope these lecture notes can serve as a basic, useful reference for you in your learning
experience. Suggestions for improving or expanding these lecture notes for future offerings of this
course are heartily welcomed. We hope you enjoy our journey together learning about and applying
the LCA methodology. Lets get started!
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Lecture 1: The life-cycle perspective and course goals

Transcript
Hello, and welcome to How Green is that Product? An Introduction to Life Cycle Assessment. Im
Eric Masanet, and Ill be your instructor for this course. I hope youve been looking forward to this
as much as I have.
This course will provide you with a basic working knowledge of life cycle assessment, or LCA for
short. Now, you wont become a certified LCA practitioner in only nine weeks. However, you will
learn how to construct LCA studies that provide transparent results, to build basic LCA models in
spreadsheets, and to collect, analyze, and interpret environmental data in a structured manner for
better decisions.
But perhaps most importantly, youll learn that -- whatever the product -- everything has
environmental impacts and that understanding these impacts requires sound data and thorough
analysis. If you stick with me, youll be equipped with the basic skills to conduct such analyses and
begin answering environmental questions of your own.
So what exactly is LCA? LCA is a method to assess the environmental impacts of a product, process,
or service that involves four major steps:
1. Determine the goals and scope of the LCA;
1.1
2. Compile an inventory of energy and mass

inputs and outputs across all relevant life
cycle stages;
3. Evaluate relevant environmental impacts
associated with the life-cycle inputs and
releases; and
4. Interpret the results to lead to a more
informed decision.
Lets first discuss what is meant by life cycle stages using this plastic bag as an example. In this
course, well refer to five distinct stages of the product life cycle:
1.2
1. Raw materials acquisition, which includes processes related to raw materials extraction and
refining. For our plastic bag, which is made of a plastic called high-density polyethylene or
HDPE for short, raw materials acquisition would include extracting and processing natural
gas and transporting it to a chemicals plant.
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2. Manufacturing, which includes processes that convert raw materials to finished products.
In our case, plastic bags are manufactured by producing plastic pellets, melting them into a
film, and forming the bags.
3. Distribution, which includes transporting and stocking products for consumption. For
example, our plastic bag will be shipped from the manufacturer to a grocer.
4. Use/reuse, which is the stage where products perform a useful service to the consumer. In
our case, the plastic bag will carry our groceries home. Some consumers might also reuse
the bag for additional shopping trips or as a garbage can liner, which is why we often include
reuse in the use phase as well.
5. Stage 5 is the end of life stage, where products enter the waste management system.
Depending on local waste management practices, the plastic bag might be recycled,
landfilled, or incinerated to generate energy.
1.3
So what is meant by relevant impacts? As youll learn in this course, an environmental impact is a
consequence associated with inputs and outputs of energy and mass across the product life cycle.
For example, the combustion of diesel fuel in the trucks that transport plastic bags to the grocer
releases carbon dioxide, which leads to global warming. When conducting an LCA, we strive to
include all non-negligible impacts so that informed decisions can be made and any tradeoffs
between impacts are made explicit.
Consider again this plastic bag. Many jurisdictions have banned plastic
bags at grocery stores in an effort to reduce litter. However, several
LCA studies have shown that if consumers shift to paper bags, more
diesel trucking might be required. Why is that? Its because a paper
bag takes up more space than a plastic bag, and therefore more trucks
might be required to bring the same number bags to the grocer. So in
this case, one tradeoff of a shift from plastic to paper grocery bags
might be that plastic litter is reduced but diesel fuel use and emissions
are increased.
This case teaches us two important lessons. First, an LCA can reveal that, while we think were
making a green choice, environmental impacts may shift based on the consumption choices we
make. Thats why its important to consider all relevant impacts in an LCA; otherwise such shifts in
impacts might be missed when were evaluating our options. Second, consideration of all life cycle
stages allowed for identification of unintended consequences. That is, a reduction in plastic litter in
the end of life stage might come at the cost of increased diesel fuel use in the distribution stage. If
we just focused on non-biodegradable litter, surely paper bags would look greener than plastic. Its
only by looking at all life cycle stages did we see that paper bags might make things worse in the
distribution stage. So you see that even the simple case of plastic versus paper bags involves
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environmental tradeoffs. With proper application of the LCA method, however, these tradeoffs are
made visible so we can make the most informed decisions.
You may be wondering how LCA is used in the real world, or, more directly, how you might use LCA
after completing this course. If youre an engineer, LCA can help you choose materials and design
features that lead to greener products and technologies. If youre a policy maker, LCA can help you
design public policies and incentives that improve sustainability without simply shifting
environmental problems from one type of impact to another. If youre a consumer, LCA can arm you
with data and results that guide you to greener purchasing decisions. And no matter what you do,
LCA can give you a healthy degree of skepticism of the environmental claims that are so often made
without hard data and through analysis to back them up.
1.4
Lets wrap up with an overview of what you can expect. Each lecture will
introduce a new concept, which will be reinforced through online quizzes,
homework, and the course notes. I believe LCA is best learned by
jumping in hands on, so in this course youll build an LCA model of a
simple product that you should all be familiar with a bottled soft drink.
No special LCA software packages will be required; all that is needed is a
spreadsheet.
Each week youll be developing a new section of the model that relates to
that weeks lecture material, so by the end of the course youll have built
a complete bottled soda LCA. While the product is fairly simple, by
building the model across all life cycle stages and impacts, youll acquire the skills and perspectives
that should allow you to move on to more complex products after you complete this course.
Lastly, well also occasionally offer separate videos describing real-world LCA studies that highlight
key material, so you can easily see how the theory relates to practice in real time.
Im looking forward to this experience together. See you next time!
Additional notes
1.1
Correction: In the lecture video, I say Compile an inventory of energy and material inputs and
environmental outputs across all relevant life cycle stages when I really should have said Compile
an inventory of energy and mass inputs and outputs across all relevant life cycle stages. The goal of
LCA is to include all relevant mass flows, whether they are materials, resources (such as water or
biomass), pollutants to the environment, or products to society.
1.2
Correction: As youll see in Homework 1, natural gas must be extracted and processed before it can
be used in industrial systems. Processing is aimed at improving natural gas quality by removing
impurities. In the lecture video, I say raw materials acquisition would include extracting natural
gas and transporting it to a chemicals plant when I really should have said raw materials
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acquisition would include extracting and processing natural gas and transporting it to a chemicals
plant.
1.3
Correction: In the lecture video, I say an environmental impact is an adverse consequence

associated with inputs of resources and outputs of pollutants across the product life cycle when I
really should have said an environmental impact is a consequence associated with inputs and
outputs of energy and mass across the product life cycle. In reality, not all impacts arising from lifecycle systems are negative. For example, a biomass system may sequester carbon dioxide from the
air and a remediation technology may remove hazardous pollutants from soil to make it safe again.
By quantifying all flows of mass and energy across a life-cycle system (and not just resource and
pollutant flows), LCA enables us to explore both adverse and positive impacts associated with these
flows. While well focus exclusively on adverse impacts in this course, it is helpful to keep in mind
that LCA can just as easily quantify positive impacts.
1.4
Starting in week 3, youll begin building your very own LCA model of a bottled soft drink packaged in
plastic. See the Course Project section of the course website for more details. (The Course
Project section can be accessed by clicking on Start Here! or Course Information in the left
hand navigation pane on the course website.) Note also that I say bottle of soda in the lecture
video, which is a term used commonly in North America to refer to bottled soft drink.
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Lecture 1 Supplement
Transcript
Welcome to our first lecture video supplement. Supplements such as this one have been added to
improve the course content and to provide additional discussions and examples to help you better
understand the topics covered in our core lecture videos.
In this first supplement, Id like to give you a better idea of what to expect in this course as well as
some tips for success based on past course offerings.
First, I highly encourage you to review all of the material provided on the Start Here! section of
the website, which includes important information on policies, our course schedule, and further
details on the project.
Lets take a look at the course schedule, which lists the topics well cover in this course. The first
two weeks of this course will cover core skills that are necessary for sound LCA, such as constructing
unit process inventories, conducting energy and mass balances, and understanding data
conventions. These are the essential building blocks of an LCA. In Week 3, well begin applying
these building blocks to learn the LCA methodology and to start constructing our very own LCA
models.
For more information on the LCA models, lets take a look at the Project section of the website,
which describes the scope and intent of the course project. Youll be exposed to two different LCA
models, both of which will be developed in spreadsheets.
The first is an LCA model for a plastic grocery bag that has been developed by the course staff. The
spreadsheet consists of different tabs that contain the various elements of the LCA model, which
we'll reveal in week by week fashion as we learn each step of the LCA methodology. Think of our
plastic bag LCA model as an example of how your bottled soft drink LCA model should be
constructed and how it should function, and refer to it often for inspiration and guidance.
The second is the LCA model for a bottled soft drink, which youll be developing yourself. Starting
in Week 3, youll be given tasks to construct your model based on recent lecture topics.
Furthermore, some of the homework assignments will contain exercises that help you build specific
portions of your model. By following the development of our plastic bag LCA model, and by
completing the homework and modeling tasks to construct your own bottled soft drink LCA model,
youll gain valuable hands on experience. The course staff will also post regular solutions for the
bottled soft drink model, which you can use to check the accuracy of your spreadsheet.
Id also like to draw your attention to the discussion forums. If youve taken Coursera courses in the
past, youll know that the discussion forums can be a great way to enhance your learning
experience, but that they can also become unwieldy to navigate over time. To minimize forum
fatigue, weve established specific sub-forums for different types of posts. For example, there is an
Assignments sub-forum that you can use for posts related to specific homework assignments.
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There is also a Lectures sub-form for posts related to the lectures each week. Please review the
available sub-forums and be sure to choose the most logical sub-forum first before you make a post.
If we all do this, the discussion forums should be much more useful and manageable for everyone.
Youll also notice that Ill be suggesting discussion topics each week. These questions should be fun
to explore together, and will help us all think about how LCA relates to our own lives and the
sustainability problems wed like to solve. While participation isnt mandatory, I highly encourage
you to join in or review the posts whenever you can. The topics have been selected from some of
the most interesting and thought-provoking discussions in past offerings, so Im sure youll enjoy
them.
Finally, here are some quick tips for getting the most out of this course and earning a high grade:
First, if you need to improve your spreadsheet skills, please use the first two weeks of this course to
do so. Weve provided a specific discussion sub-forum that students can use to share spreadsheet
tips and tricks. Once we introduce the LCA models in Week 3, you may find it difficult to keep up if
youre not comfortable with spreadsheets.
Second, while the first two weeks of this course are somewhat basic, the level of difficulty and
required effort will increase in Weeks 3 9 when we move into the LCA method and modeling.
Therefore, you should plan for a greater time commitment in the last 7 weeks of the course.
Third, please take full advantage of the discussion forums for seeking out help and providing help to
others. In past offerings, many questions related to homework assignments, project tasks, and LCA
concepts were collectively answered by students through ongoing discussion. And you may find
that assisting others deepens your own understanding of the course material.
Fourth, while I encourage students to exchange ideas, please try to complete the assignments and
project tasks on your own before seeking out answers online. Learning through trial and error is
important for any course, and especially for the LCA methodology given its many details and
nuances.
Fifth, and finally, try to review some of the additional resources that are indicated in the lecture
notes. This course only covers basic LCA concepts, but the additional resources we mention provide
a wealth of information that can bring you closer to LCA proficiency if you have the time to review
them.
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Lecture 2: Understanding unit processes

Transcript
Welcome back! Today well begin learning about the data structure of an LCA, starting with LCAs
most fundamental building block: the unit process model. But first lets quickly review what we
learned yesterday.
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
The product life cycle can be divided into five major stages: raw materials acquisition,
manufacturing, distribution, use, and end of life. In our plastic bag example, we learned that raw
materials acquisition covers the extraction, processing, and transportation of natural gas, which is
then converted into ethylene. Ethylene is converted into HDPE and formed into a bag in the
manufacturing stage. Next, the bag is distributed to retail stores, where it is filled with groceries to
transport food home during the use stage. Lastly, at the end of life stage, the bag is either recycled,
landfilled, or incinerated to generate energy.
We also learned that a key step in all LCAs is to compile an inventory of energy and mass inputs and
outputs across all relevant life cycle stages. So how do we compile such inventories? We do so by
modeling the product life cycle as a series of unit processes. The ISO 14040 standard for LCA
defines a unit process as the smallest portion of a product system for which data are collected
when performing a life-cycle assessment.
This is a picture of a generic unit process. On the left we have inputs of energy and mass required to
generate a useful product output. On the right we have the outputs of environmental emissions
and co-products that are associated with the process, along with the product output itself. From
now on, well refer to the inputs and outputs associated with a unit process as the unit process
inventory, which is a term commonly used by LCA practitioners.
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2.5
To visualize how we use unit processes, lets look more closely at the manufacturing stage of our
plastic bag. The first step is to convert processed natural gas into ethylene, which well represent by
this first unit process model.
The second step is to convert ethylene into HDPE pellets, which well represent with this second unit
process.
The third step is to melt the HDPE pellets, extrude a film, and form the bags in the bag production
process.
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As youve probably guessed, to construct a complete LCA model for the plastic bag, wed need to
develop and apply unit process models to capture all unit processes at each life cycle stage. We can
then sum all the unit process inventories to quantify the total environmental footprint of the bag life
cycle. Youll learn how to do this later; for now, you may be asking yourself how such unit process
inventories and life-cycle models can be developed without detailed engineering knowledge.
Fortunately, we have we have databases and literature sources to help us in this regard.
2.6
For example, a unit process inventory I obtained from the literature for converting ethylene to HDPE
pellets looks like this. If this level of detail seems a bit daunting, dont worry youll learn how to
work confidently with unit process inventory data in this course.
Fortunately, the LCA community has adopted a number of conventions for organizing unit process
inventories to make our lives easier. These conventions help ensure that inventories are intuitive
and use the same data structure for easy transfer between researchers and databases. So while the
unit process inventory for HDPE pellets may look complicated, thanks to this structured organization
of data it is actually simpler than it looks.
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First, many unit process inventories refer to inputs and outputs as flows or exchanges. In this
course, well use the word flows. Unit process inventories are essentially comprised of flow
information listed in rows.
In many LCI databases, flows are further characterized as flows to or from nature or to or from the
technosphere. In this course, well adopt this convention and organize our inventories into the
following four types of flows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Inputs from nature,

Inputs from the technosphere,
Outputs to nature, and
Outputs to the technosphere
Inputs from nature are probably pretty obvious: they include flows such as crude oil extracted from
the ground or corn harvested from a field. Conversely, outputs to nature include pollutants and
wastes that are released back into the environment. Inputs from and outputs to the technosphere
refer to any flow of energy or mass that originates from a man-made process. For example, diesel
fuel is produced from crude oil in a petroleum refinery, but we dont find diesel fuel occurring
naturally in the environment.
2.7
For our plastic bag, the extraction of natural gas describes a flow from nature. After extraction,
natural gas must be processed to remove impurities. In the next unit process, that processed
natural gas is converted into ethylene. Here, because the natural gas came from a pipe and not the
ground, it is considered an input from the technosphere. Because ethylene is an intermediate
product that is used by other unit processes, it is considered an output to the technosphere.
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Why do we need to distinguish between flows to and from nature and flows to and from the
technosphere? Besides helping us better visualize the origins and destinations of flows in our
inventory, identifying flows to and from nature allows us to quantify environmental impacts in the
life-cycle impact assessment step of an LCA. Well learn more about impact assessment later in the
course. For now, lets get used to organizing our unit process inventories in this way.
2.8
Lastly, well use SI units to describe all flows in our unit process inventories in this course. For
example, mass will be expressed in grams, energy in joules, and volume in liters. Some of you may
wish to review the SI system before proceeding with this course; further readings are provided in
this weeks course notes.
Additional notes
2.1
Correction: Here weve added in the processing step that was omitted in the lecture video. See
Note 1.2.
2.2
Correction: Here again I should have referred to energy and mass inputs and outputs instead of
energy and materials inputs and environmental releases. See Note 1.1.
2.3
The ISO 14040 series of standards are a set of best practice rules and guidelines for conducting
LCA that have been developed and revised by the international LCA expert community since the
1990s. Well be referring to these standards often throughout the course. Well use them to discuss
the step by step nature of an LCA and to reinforce best practices. Unfortunately, the actual
standards documents are not freely available to the public. However, youll get a basic
understanding of these standards through our class materials and through the additional readings
well suggest and assign. There is no need to purchase the standards to benefit from the content of
this course. For those who would like to learn more about the formal standards, please visit the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) website at:
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.htm?commid=54854
2.4
Correction: Here weve changed materials and energy to the more general and correct energy
and mass. See Note 1.1.
2.5
For clarity, weve specified that it is processed natural gas that is converted into ethylene.
Processed natural as is a flow from the technosphere. This change was necessary to reduce
confusion in past course offerings as to whether natural gas from nature or natural gas from the
technosphere is used in ethylene production. See the Lecture 2 supplement video for more
information.
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2.6
To give you a sense of the detail contained in a typical life-cycle inventory (LCI), and the
documentation that explains and supports such inventories, take a peek at the following report.
Youll use some of these data in this course to build you spreadsheet LCA model of a bottled soft
drink. There is no need to carefully read this report now, or to understand its contents. But looking
it over will give you an idea of the types of information sources that we rely on when constructing
LCA models.
Franklin Associates (2009). Life Cycle Inventory of Three Single-Serving Soft Drink Containers:
Revised Peer Reviewed Final Report. Prepared for the PET Resin Association. Eastern
Research Group. Prairie Village, KS. http://www.container-recycling.org/assets/pdfs/LCASodaContainers2009.pdf
2.7
Similar to the reasons for Note 2.5, here weve added After extraction, natural gas must be
processed to remove impurities. In the next unit process, that processed natural gas is converted
into ethylene. See the Lecture 2 supplement video for more information.
2.8
There are many useful resources online for reviewing conversions from Imperial and US Customary
units into International System (SI) units. While well use SI units in this course, you are likely to
encounter data sources in your project and in your LCA careers that are expressed in Imperial
and US Customary units. Here are some conversion resources that the course staff recommends.
International System of Units from NIST. Essentials of SI units, background, and
bibliography. http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/
A concise summary of the International System of Units from BIPM.
http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_summary_en.pdf
OnlineConversion.com Convert just about anything to anything else.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/
P a g e | 16
Transcript
To ensure that you understand the concept of a unit process and the distinctions between inputs
from nature, inputs from the technosphere, outputs to nature, and outputs to the technosphere,
lets step through the plastic grocery bag example in a bit more detail. Furthermore, lets try
working backwards in the life cycle so that the different types of flows are clear.
Lets first consider the factory that makes plastic grocery bags. The production of plastic bags
involves melting HDPE pellets, extruding the melted plastic into a film, and cutting the film into the
shape of a bag. For simplicity, well include these steps in one unit process that well label HDPE
Bag Manufacturing. The output of this unit process is an HDPE grocery bag. Since this bag will be
shipped to a grocer for use by consumers, well label this flow as an output to the technosphere.
To manufacture the plastic bag, the bag factory requires inputs of HDPE pellets, which are a manmade product. Therefore, well label this flow as an input from the technosphere. Of course, there
are many other flows associated with the bag factory, such as inputs of energy to power processing
equipment and outputs of mass, including emissions of air and water pollutants. For now, well
ignore these flows to keep things simple.
The production of HDPE pellets occurs at a chemical factory, which converts ethyleneanother
man-made productinto HDPE resin. Lets label this unit process as HDPE Resin Manufacturing,
and denote the flow of ethylene into the factory as an input from the technosphere.
Ethylene is manufactured from processed natural gas at an olefins plant, which well label as
Ethylene Manufacturing in our simple example. Remember that processed natural gas does not
come directly from nature; rather, it is made by removing impurities from raw natural gas. Hence,
well label this flow as an input from the technosphere.
To produce processed natural gas, another unit process is required that well call Natural Gas
Processing. This unit process requires extracted natural gas, which is yet another technosphere
product that we get as an output from natural gas drilling operations.
Finally, lets label the natural gas drilling unit process as Natural Gas Extraction. The input to this
unit process is natural gas from the ground, which is an input from nature. Observing the entire
system, its now clear that to manufacture the HDPE grocery bag, a series of different unit processes
are required. These unit processes are linked by technosphere flows that can eventually be traced
back to an original exchange with nature.
Moving forward, youll be developing more detailed inventories of energy and mass flows across
unit process systems. For example, we could further include the input of processed natural gas to
be combusted for heat in HDPE resin manufacturing as well as the smokestack emissions of carbon
dioxide and other air pollutants that arise from natural gas combustion. Here, emissions of carbon
dioxide would be labeled as a flow to nature.
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As youll come to learn in future lectures, specifying and tracking types of flows in unit process
systems is critical from an accounting perspective, because the environmental impacts of a system
are related to its flows to and from nature. In our case, you can probably imagine that the sources
of impact in our system so far are related to the resources we extract from the ground and to the
pollutants we reject into the air.
Youll get more practice with labeling flows in Homework 1.
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Lecture 3: Constructing unit process inventories: Part 1

Transcript
Welcome back. In todays lecture, well dive deeper into how unit process inventories are
structured for ease of interpretation and ease of transfer between researchers and databases. Last
time I introduced the four types of flows well use in our inventories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
3.1
3.2
Inputs from nature,

Inputs from the technosphere,
Outputs to nature, and
Outputs to the technosphere
Lets take a closer look at the complete unit process inventory for converting ethylene to HDPE
pellets. Ive created this inventory in a spreadsheet in the same way that youll be creating unit
process inventories in your spreadsheets. As we discussed last time, flow data appear in rows of the
inventory table, and they are organized into our four types of flows. In this course, the first column
in the inventory will always contain the flow type, starting with inputs from nature, followed by
outputs to nature, inputs from the technosphere, and outputs to the technosphere.
The second column will always contain the name of the flow, which, by convention, uses standard
names for products (e.g., diesel fuel), pollutants (e.g., carbon dioxide), and resources (e.g., water).
In many cases, the name of the flow will be taken directly from the LCI database from which we get
the flow data. It is critically important to use standard flow names and to use them consistently so
we can link up unit process inventories correctly when creating our LCA model.
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The third column contains additional information on the origins and destinations of flows to and
from nature, which well refer to in this course as the flow category. Inputs from nature will
always be denoted as resources in the category column, while outputs to nature will be denoted
by the medium to which they are released. There are three media well denote: air, water, and land.
3.3
The fourth column is reserved for subcategories of the third column. For example, the
subcategories for outputs to air include emissions to areas with low population density and
emissions to areas with high population density. And the subcategories for resources include
resources extracted from in the ground (like coal), from water (like drinking water), or from the
biosphere (like wood). In this course, well use a standard set of subcategories to describe inventory
flows. Ive provided the list of subcategories well use in the lecture notes because there are too
many to mention here.
Why do we need information on flow categories and subcategories? The main reason is that this
information helps us better quantify the environmental impacts caused by flows to and from nature
in the life-cycle impact assessment step of an LCA. For example, you might easily imagine that a
pollutant emitted in a high population density area will have a higher human health impact than if it
were emitted in a low population density area where there are fewer persons exposed. Well learn
more about impact assessment later in the course.
I also want to mention that in many LCI databases, flows to and from nature are referred to as
elementary flows. So you arent confused by this, moving forward well also use this label for our
flow types in unit process inventories.
By convention, well always use the category product for flows to and from the technosphere.
This makes sense when we consider that once a resource enters the technosphere, it is converted
into different forms of products for further use by industry and society.
The fifth column in our inventory table will always contain a numerical value and our sixth column
will always contain the unit in which that value is expressed. Where do these values come from?
Typically through some combination of direct measurement, engineering estimation, or literature
sourcing. Knowing where the data come from and how to determine their quality is a critical step in
any credible LCA, and one which well discuss later in this course. For now, just assume that all data
in our inventory come from reliable sources.
3.4
The numerical value expresses the amount of each flow that corresponds to the units of product
output listed in the inventory. For example, our product output is one kg of HDPE pellets, and the
emissions of CO2 to air associated with the production of one kg of HDPE pellets is 100 g CO2.
Here the product output is expressed in units of mass; however, the product output in a unit process
inventory can be expressed in many different units depending on what goods or services are
provided. The unit process of pellet production logically has product outputs expressed in units of
kg, which corresponds to physical production. However, a unit process for a diesel freight truck
might have product output expressed in units of kilogram-kilometers, which corresponds to the
P a g e | 20
useful service provided by trucking. Or a unit process for electricity production might specify kWh of
electricity produced, which is the useful output of that process. Youll get exposed to all of these
types of outputs and more moving forward.
3.5
Lastly, our simple example inventory focused on single unit process, but youll often encounter unit
process inventories that combine several unit processes into one aggregated inventory. For
example, rather than finding every unit process step in the manufacture of the bag which would
include natural gas extraction, transportation, conversion to pellets, and bag forming you might
just find a single inventory for all of these processing steps combined. This aggregated inventory
would contain the sum of all included unit process flows to and from nature.
Aggregated inventories are quite common in practice, because they can simplify a complex chain of
processes for general use. Aggregated inventories also protect private entities who may not want to
release detailed unit process data on each step in their production chain. The downside is that one
loses visibility on which of the aggregated processes might be hot spots and often the ability to
recreate the inventory using process-level knowledge.
How can you tell if you have an aggregated inventory? Good databases will tell you this in their
inventory documentation. Youll notice terms like cradle to gate, which refers to flows from
nature to a certain point in the technosphere, or gate to gate, which refers to flows between
points in the technosphere. All unit processes included in the aggregated inventory should be listed
explicitly.
Additional notes
3.1
When you gain access to the spreadsheet LCA models in Week 3, the structure and contents of this
unit process inventory will make more sense. For now, just concentrate on following the logic for
each column, and how that information will be useful when you link together many different unit
process inventories to construct a systems model.
3.2
In the models well use in the current offering of this course, the order of flows has been updated as
follows In this course, the first column in the inventory will always contain the flow type, starting
with inputs from nature, followed by outputs to nature, inputs from the technosphere, and outputs
to the technosphere. The updated order is reflected in the spreadsheet figure as well.
3.3
In our plastic bag and bottled soft drink LCA models, well use a simplified set of categories and
subcategories for all flows. As discussed in the lecture video, well adopt the convention of using
the category Product for all flows to and from the technosphere. Product flows will not be further
divided into subcategories.
Inputs from and outputs to nature that is, elementary flows will be labeled using the following
simplified set of categories and subcategories in our inventories.
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Elementary flow type
Inputs from nature
Category
Resource
Outputs to nature
Air
Land
Water
Subcategory
Biotic (from biosphere)
In air
In ground
In water
High population density
Low population density
Unspecified
Unspecified
There are several important caveats to our simplified selection of elementary flow categories and
subcategories.
First, because this is a basic introductory course, the course staff has chosen to keep our flow
conventions simple. Once you get in the habit of labeling flow categories and subcategories at a
basic level, youll be well equipped to use more detailed protocols for labeling of flow categories and
subcategories in the future. To get an idea of the level of detail that many LCA practitioners use
when conducting LCAs and working with LCA databases, take a look at the following reports:
Overview and methodology: Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3
(2013), Weidema B P, Bauer C, Hischier R, Mutel C, Nemecek T, Reinhard J, Vadenbo CO,
and Wernet G.
http://www.ecoinvent.org/fileadmin/documents/en/Data_Quality_Guidelines/01_DataQual
ityGuideline_v3_Final.pdf
The ecoinvent database is used widely by LCA practitioners and within various LCA software
packages. Take a look at Table 9.1, page 63, which lists the compartments and subcompartments (i.e., categories and subcategories) used for elementary exchanges (i.e.,
flows) in the ecoinvent database. Youll notice that many more subcategories are available
for defining flows with greater precision in practice.
U.S. LCI Database Project Users Guide, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2004).
http://www.nrel.gov/lci/pdfs/users_guide.pdf.
The U.S. LCI data contains publicly-available life-cycle inventory (LCI) data that are reported
using a standardized unit process inventory structure. Well make use of some of the data
from the U.S. LCI database in this course. Take a look at the table on page 16. Youll notice
many categories and subcategories that are similar to those in the ecoinvent database, but
also some differences. Again, the subcategories listed allow for greater precision when
documenting flows.
Second, even though the categories and subcategories included in many LCA databases can be quite
detailed, in practice many LCI data sources do not include such detail in their reporting. For
example, one may find that pollutant outputs to water are reported, but that this flow is not further
specified as an output to a lake, ocean, or river. Thus, in many LCI data sources, the most common
P a g e | 22
subcategory youll encounter is unspecified. The publicly-available data sources well use in our
course projects do not contain such detailed specification of subcategories, either. This is another
reason well keep our labeling of flow categories and subcategories simple in this course!
Third, as discussed in the lecture video, the primary benefit of identifying categories and
subcategories for elementary flows is that it can enable more sophisticated estimation of life-cycle
impacts. In your course project, the labeling of air emission flows with the subcategories high
population density and low population density can enable the estimation of human health
impacts to both types of demographic areas. Well discuss impact analysis later in this course.
3.4
In the spreadsheet models, and throughout this course, numbers will be expressed using the U.S.
numeric convention where commas separate thousands and the dot (or decimal point) is the
decimal separator. For example, the number one thousand two hundred and one-tenth is written
1,200.1 in the US numeric convention. However, when working with spreadsheets in this course,
you can change the numeric format in which data are displayed in your spreadsheet software to
match your local numeric convention.
3.5
Weve added in the term to and from nature here, because the process of aggregation eliminates
intermediate flows to and from the technosphere in the system. See the Lecture 3 supplement video
for a simple example of unit process inventory aggregation.
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Transcript
In this video supplement, well use the simplified system of unit processes for HDPE grocery bags
that we discussed earlier. Below the figure Ive added in an inventory table that contains a
simplified list of flows for each unit process. In this example, well only track a few flows to illustrate
how inventory aggregation works. However, youll practice aggregating much more complicated
inventories later in this course.
Lets start with the unit process inventory for HDPE Bag Manufacturing. In this simplified inventory,
its only input is 1.02 kilograms (kg) of HDPE pellets and its only outputs are 1 kg of HDPE grocery
bags and 0.5 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to air. By convention, the flows of HDPE pellets
and HDPE grocery bags are labeled as product flows from and to the technosphere, respectively.
Also by convention, the flow of CO2 is labeled as a flow to nature, or elementary flow, and to air.
Now lets take a closer look at the Natural Gas Extraction process. Its only input is 1.08 kg of inground natural gas, which is a resource flow from nature. Its only outputs are 1.05 kg of extracted
natural gas and 0.02 kg of CO2 emissions to air. Youll notice that the next unit process, Natural Gas
Processing, requires 1.05 kg of extracted natural gas as a product input. If you look carefully at the
rest of the unit process inventories, youll also notice that the product mass output of each unit
process matches exactly the product mass input that is required by the next unit process.
This means that my unit process inventory data have all been properly scaled to produce the mass
flows necessary to ultimately manufacture 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags. Youll learn how to scale unit
process inventories later in this course. For now, you just need to understand that since the product
mass flows have been balanced across all unit processes, we can simply add up the flows of CO2 to
arrive at a total CO2 emissions footprint for the system.
In this example, to ultimately produce 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags, the unit processes in the system
will collectively emit 2.02 total kg of CO2 to the air. One can also scan the inventory data to
determine which unit processes account for the greatest share of CO2 emissions; namely, HDPE Bag
Manufacturing, HDPE Resin Manufacturing, and Ethylene Manufacturing.
In a similar fashion, I could also add up all resource inputs from nature in the system, which, in this
case, would amount to 1.08 kg of in-ground natural gas required to ultimately produce 1 kg of HDPE
grocery bags.
In fact, using these totals I could create a single inventory for the entire system, which would just
contain the inputs from nature, the outputs to nature, and the product output of the system. Such
an inventory is known as an aggregated unit process inventory, because it represents the sum totals
of flows to and from nature associated with all unit processes within its system boundaries. These
flows are expressed relative to the mass quantity of the final product output from the system, in our
case, 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags.
P a g e | 24
Another way to think of aggregation is that Ive drawn a boundary around the entire system and Ive
only counted the flows that cross this boundary in my aggregated inventory; namely, flows from and
to nature and flows of the final product to the technosphere. All of the intermediate product flows
in the system do not cross this boundary, and are therefore not counted. This makes sense when
you observe that all of these flows will simply cancel out; for example, the ethylene output from the
Ethylene Manufacturing unit process will subsequently be consumed as a product input by the HDPE
Resin Manufacturing unit process.
As you gain more practice with LCA, youll notice that many data sources contain aggregated unit
process inventories. Aggregation can be done as a matter of convenience, since it can be quite time
consuming to work with inventories for all intermediate unit processes in a product system, even for
simple products. Aggregation is also often done for confidentiality reasons, so that data on
individual factories or processing steps within a system are not revealed to the public. For example,
assume that you have obtained only the aggregated inventory for 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags. While
you would know the total CO2 emissions to air from the cradle to gate system, you would have no
way of identifying HDPE Bag Manufacturing, HDPE Resin Manufacturing, and Ethylene
Manufacturing as the largest contributors to this CO2 footprint.
In our spreadsheet models for our plastic bag and bottled soft drink, well make use of aggregated
inventories as a matter of practicality and convenience. However, well be sure to carefully
document the system boundaries associated with the aggregated inventories we use, so that we and
others can understand which intermediate unit processes have been included therein.
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Lecture 4: Constructing unit process inventories: Part 2

Transcript
In this course, well mostly be using data from available databases and literature sources that have
already been neatly organized into structured unit process inventories. In practice, however, LCA
analysts must often construct new unit process inventories by gathering data from various sources.
Today well practice constructing our own unit process inventories to help you gain proficiency in
data compilation and analysis. Well also learn an important convention for ensuring we can scale
our unit process inventories for use in different LCA models.
4.1
Lets suppose we are conducting an LCA of a residential hot water heater that is fueled by natural
gas. In todays example, well be constructing the unit process inventory for the use stage of the
water heater, which refers to its operation. Ive gathered some data on the average natural gas
consumption and hot water generation of US residential hot water heaters from the U.S.
Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The average U.S. residential hot water heater consumes 27 gigajoules (GJ) of natural gas per
year
The average U.S. residential home uses 64,000 liters of hot water per year
As you gain more experience with LCA, youll probably notice that there are typically more data
available on the energy consumption of different processes and products than there are for other
flows such as water pollutant releases and solid waste generation. The reason for this is quite
simple: energy use is easy to track because it is something we pay for and monitor closely.
Moreover, many regional governments track energy supplies and demands as part of energy policy
planning. When we have energy data, it is often fairly easy to derive air emissions data as well
based on combustion emission factors for various fuels, which are readily available.
4.2
For example, since I know our residential water heater uses natural gas, it was fairly easy to find the
following air pollutant emission factors for natural gas combustion in residential appliances. These
came from the US Environmental Protection Agencys AP-42 emission factor reports:
56,000 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per GJ of natural gas combusted

44 grams of nitrogen oxides (NOx) per GJ of natural gas combusted
19 grams of carbon monoxide (CO) per GJ of natural gas combusted
4 grams of particulate matter (PM) per GJ of natural gas combusted
The lesson here is that generating a unit process inventory that contains data on energy flows and
energy-related air emissions flows is often possible when we cant find existing unit process
inventories in LCI databases or literature sources. Unfortunately, data on flows of water pollutants,
solid waste generation, and other elementary flows that are not related to a unit processs energy
use are typically much harder to come by outside of LCA databases. The reason for this is also quite
simple: these flows are harder to monitor and record in practice, and many firms do not release
such data publicly.
P a g e | 26
4.3
4.4
So now I have all the data in hand to construct a simple unit process inventory for hot water heater
operation. First, I determine the annual air emissions associated with the natural gas combustion by
simple multiplication. When I have these data, I can now create a simple inventory using the
structure weve discussed. Processed natural gas is a flow from the technosphere, and the air
emissions are flows to nature. Lastly, my product is 64,000 liters of hot water.
While this inventory is reasonable for the average U.S. home, is it highly useful in its current form?
In other words, can I easily use it in other analyses, such as to analyze hot water generation for an
LCA of a home dishwasher? For example, if a dishwasher uses less than 64,000 liters of hot water, I
cant directly apply this inventory. Luckily, one useful convention for unit processes inventories with
single product outputs is that such outputs are expressed as multipliers of 1, for example, 1 liter of
hot water or 1 kWh of electricity.
Having a multiplier of 1 in our denominator makes for much easier scaling of unit processes to
different product output quantities. In the hot water example, lets say I want to calculate the CO2
emissions associated with generating only 5,000 liters of hot water.
First I divide all inputs and outputs in my unit process inventory by the product output to get flows
per liter. Next, I recreate the inventory on this basis. Finally, I multiply by 5,000 liters to get the unit
process inventory for producing 5,000 liters of hot water.
Youve just learned the simple but powerful concept of using multiples of 1 as single product
outputs to allow for easy scaling of unit process inventories in an LCA. Trust me, youll get much
experience with scaling inventories since rarely do we analyze neat units of 1 product output in realworld systems.
4.5
4.6
But what if you have more than one product output in the inventory, for example, a process with
multiple co-products? The fact is we encounter unit process inventories with more than one
product output quite often in LCA because many real-world plants manufacture more than one
product at a time. Take for example the unit process inventory for 1 kg of general output from
petroleum refining, a process that converts crude oil into multiple product outputs such as gasoline,
diesel fuel, kerosene, and refinery gas.
Because this inventory contains flow information for more than one product output, we need some
way of assigning a portion of the inventory to each product flow. This process is so important in LCA
that it has its own name: allocation. In this particular inventory, the author indicates that allocation
of flows to individual product outputs can be based on the percent by mass indicated for each
product output. However, as youll learn later in this course, there are other ways to allocate flows
to multiple products in a system, such as assigning portions of the inventory to each product output
based on their economic value. Each allocation method has potential drawbacks, which well
discuss in future lectures. For now, just be aware that you will encounter inventories with multiple
product outputs in practice, but that youll also learn to work with them effectively in this course.
P a g e | 27
Additional notes
4.1
For those who may be interested in operational energy data for a wide variety of appliances and
devices, check out the U.S. Building Energy Data Book, which is where we obtained the average
natural gas use of U.S. residential hot water heaters (Table 2.1.17). Similar data are compiled by
other countries and regions in the world, and can be helpful for estimating unit process inventories
for the operation of common appliances and devices. In fact, well use U.S. Building Energy Data
Book data for residential refrigerators to build our unit process inventory for the use phase (i.e.,
beverage chilling) in our bottled soft drink LCA model. http://buildingsdatabook.eren.doe.gov/
4.2
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys AP-42 compendium of emission factors is an exhaustive
resource that can be used to estimate the air emissions from a wide range of combustion sources in
the absence of primary or secondary inventory data on unit processes with combustion. In our
residential hot water heater example, we used emission factors for natural gas combustion from
Chapter 1: External Combustion Sources, Section 1.4. While we wont make further use of this data
source in this course, you may find it useful in the future for estimating the air emissions associated
with burning fuels in common processes across the residential, commercial, industrial, and transport
sectors. http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/
4.3
Correction: As in previous lectures, here I should have said Processed natural gas is a flow from the
technosphere to be more precise. Also, note that the inventory youre seeing in the lecture
video is very simplified, as it only contains a few flows to and from nature. Well work with a much
more comprehensive list of flows to and from nature in the standard unit process inventory that
well use in our plastic bag and bottled soft drink LCA model.
4.4
To view an example of expressing product outputs in multiples of 1 in a unit process inventory for
ease of scaling, take a look at the unit process inventory for corrugated product in the U.S. LCI
database. Follow the steps below. Can you identify other unit process inventories that follow this
convention?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
4.5
Go to http://www.nrel.gov/lci/
Click on the Database link in the left side navigation box
Select the checkbox for Paper manufacturing within the Category list
Select the checkbox for Converted Paper Product Manufacturing
Click on Corrugated Product, which appears in the list at right
Click on the Exchanges tab, and look for the Corrugated Product output
Correction: In the lecture video, I should have said for example, a process with multiple coproducts instead of for example, a product with multiple co-products.
P a g e | 28
4.6
Check out these inventory data for yourself in the U.S. LCI database, and note how many flow data
are provided. Petroleum refining is a complicated process, with many co-products and emissions to
account for in an inventory. As you gain proficiency working with unit process inventory data, youll
be well equipped to understand and apply even the most complicated inventory data.
1. Go to http://www.nrel.gov/lci/
2. Click on the Database link in the left side navigation box
3. Select the checkbox for Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing within the
Category list
4. Click on Diesel, at refinery (Petroleum refining, at refinery), which appears in the list at
right
P a g e | 29
Transcript
In this video supplement, well further explore the concept of unit process inventory scaling in an
LCA. Furthermore, well use the simplified unit process system for manufacturing of HDPE grocery
bags from previous supplemental videos to illustrate this concept.
Recall that each unit process in the system has a unit process inventory, which documents its flows
to and from nature and to and from the technosphere. You may be wondering how we obtain such
flow data to construct a unit process inventory in practice. Typically, such data are compiled from
real-world facilities and operations, and can be based on direct process measurements, engineering
estimation, or annual facility reporting.
Take for example the HDPE bag manufacturing plant. It would typically be straightforward to gather
data on the total tons of HDPE grocery bags manufactured at this plant in a year, since any business
should know this quantity. It can also be straightforward to gather data on some other annual flow
quantities, such as the amounts of natural gas, electricity, HDPE pellets, water, and other production
inputs that are purchased by the plant. Through process-level measurements and/or engineering
estimation, it can also be possible to determine the plants annual flows of air, water, and land
emissions and solid waste.
In this example, were showing data gathered for the annual raw material inputs, CO2 emissions
outputs, and manufactured product outputs for an example HDPE bag manufacturing plant. Of
course, in a real LCA we would account for many other flows in our unit process inventories, but to
keep things simple, well focus on just these three flows for now. Lets also display these data using
our standard unit process inventory structure.
Now lets revisit our simplified unit process system for manufacturing HDPE grocery bags. Assume
that weve gathered similar flow data on the annual raw material inputs, CO2 emissions outputs, and
manufactured product outputs for each plant in our system. As you see here, weve listed annual
flow data for each plant in our system using our standard unit process inventory structure.
Recall from the hot water heater example in Lecture 4 that it is most convenient to express unit
process inventories on the basis of one unit of product output whenever possible. We do this
because it makes unit process scaling in a system much easier, as youll see next. To do this for
HDPE bag manufacturing, wed divide all flows by the total manufactured product output as shown
in this table. This calculation produces an inventory in which all flows are expressed on the basis of
one unit of product output; in our case, 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags.
In this table, weve normalized the inventories to one unit of product output for all other plants in
the system using the same procedure.
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Now its time to connect our unit processes into a simple system model in which mass and energy
requirements are balanced. A straightforward way to do this is to start with a given quantity of final
product output, and to work our way backward to calculate the quantities of inputs required from
each proceeding unit process.
P a g e | 31
Lets assume we want to produce 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags. Based on the unit process inventory
for HDPE bag manufacturing, we see that manufacturing 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags requires 1.02 kg
of HDPE pellets. Therefore, the HDPE resin manufacturing plant must produce 1.02 kg of HDPE
pellets to meet the mass input requirements of the HDPE bag manufacturing plant. So we must
scale up all flows in our unit process inventory for HDPE resin manufacturing by a factor of 1.02 to
meet this level of production output.
This procedure reveals to us that to produce 1.02 kg of HDPE pellets, 1.02 kg of ethylene is required
at the HDPE resin manufacturing plant. Now we must scale up all flows in our unit process inventory
for ethylene manufacturing by multiplying by a factor of 1.02. Doing so shows us that to produce
1.02 kg of ethylene, 1.04 kg of processed natural gas is needed at the ethylene manufacturing plant.
Next, we need to scale up all flows in our unit process inventory for natural gas processing by a
factor of 1.04, which reveals that, to produce 1.04 kg of processed natural gas, 1.05 kg of kg of
extracted natural gas are required by the natural gas processing plant.
Lastly, this means we must scale up all flows in our unit process inventory for natural gas extraction
by a factor of 1.05. Doing so indicates that 1.08 kg of in-ground natural gas is required as an input
from nature into the natural gas extraction process.
Youve just witnessed a simple example of normalizing plant-level flow data into unit process
inventories expressed on the basis of one unit of product output, and then how those unit processes
can be related and scaled into a simple unit process system model.
Note that the final inventory table Ive generated is the same one that allowed us to construct an
aggregated inventory of all of these unit processes in the Lecture 3 Supplement video. In that video,
P a g e | 32
I mentioned that each unit process had been properly scaled to represent the mass flows required
by the system to ultimately produce 1 kg of HDPE grocery bags. I hope that statement is clearer to
you now, as is the need to properly scale unit process inventory data before we can aggregate them.
Youll gain more practice with normalizing, relating, and scaling unit process inventories in
Homework 2.
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Lecture 5: Energy flow basics

Transcript
Today were going to discuss nomenclature and conventions for flows of energy in unit processes
inventories. Energy flows are common to nearly every type of unit process, and for many products,
the emissions related to energy flows account for a significant fraction of total life-cycle impacts.
Therefore, careful consideration of energy flows is critical for credible LCAs.
Lets first distinguish between two different types of energy flows: energy as a fuel and energy in
materials. Just as it sounds, energy as a fuel refers to the energy that performs useful work in a
process. Typical fuels include diesel fuel, gasoline, electricity, and natural gas. In this course, well
typically document flows of energy used as a fuel in physical units, such as the liters of gasoline or
the cubic meters of natural gas consumed in a unit process. One major exception is electricity,
which well always document using kilowatt-hours.
5.1
5.2
5.3
Energy in materials refers to the inherent energy value of materials used to create products. For
example, in the United States, our plastic bag contains HDPE that was derived from natural gas. As
such, the bag itself could be used as a fuel after it is discarded, and it often is in waste to energy
incinerators. By convention, unit process inventories account for the energy content of such
materials and denote this as feedstock energy. Well follow that convention in this course as well,
by making a note in our unit process inventories for any energy flow that should be treated as a
feedstock. In fact, youll do this yourself when you build your LCA model of bottled soda.
When it comes to energy as fuels, you also need to understand the difference between primary and
converted forms of energy. In most energy statistics, primary energy refers to the calorific value of
fuels found in nature, which includes coal, natural gas, uranium, crude oil, wind, sunlight, and
biomass. Converted forms of energy are not found in nature, but rather are created by converting
primary energy sources into more convenient or useful forms. For example, to generate electricity
we might convert the thermal energy in coal into electricity in a power plant. Or to generate steam,
we might convert the thermal energy in natural gas into steam in a boiler. Converted forms of
energy are also commonly called energy carriers. For ease of reference, a list of primary energy
sources and common energy carriers has been provided in the lecture notes.
In an LCA, its critically important to account for all energy losses that occur when converting
primary energy sources into energy carriers. Lets use the example of electricity generation to
illustrate.
First, the thermal energy in the input fuel is converted into mechanical work in a turbine, which is
then converted into electricity in a generator. During the conversion processes, a significant fraction
of the thermal energy in the input fuel is lost as waste heat to the environment. Some of the
electricity generated is used in the power plant itself, resulting in additional energy losses. Lastly,
there are also energy losses in the systems that transmit and distribute electricity from the power
plant to the consumer. As a result of all these losses, only a fraction of the thermal energy that was
P a g e | 34
5.4
contained in the input fuel remains in the electricity that is delivered to the customer. For example,
in the United States, on average only around 1/3 of the energy that goes into a fossil-fuel-fired
power plant is contained in the electricity that obtained at the wall plug.
Why is it important to account for such conversion losses? Lets use a simple example to illustrate.
Assume we can bake a loaf of bread in a natural gas oven or electric oven. Further assume that the
energy required to bake the bread is the same in both ovens, say, 5 MJ per loaf. Note that 5 MJ is
equivalent to 1.4 kWh of electricity. It might seem that both ovens use the same amount of energy,
and are therefore comparable from an energy use perspective. But lets not forget about the energy
losses associated with generating and transmitting the electricity used by the electric oven. If we
assume that the electricity comes from a natural gas-fired power plant, and that the power grid is
33% efficient, it means that 15 MJ of natural gas are required to provide 5 MJ of electricity to the
electric oven. In other words, in this particular example the electric oven requires 3 times the
natural gas to bake a loaf of bread as the natural gas oven.
What weve just done is to convert an energy carrier (i.e., electricity) back into its original primary
energy form (i.e., natural gas) in order to facilitate a fair comparison between the two oven options.
In LCA, well always compare the life-cycle energy use of different products on a primary energy
basis. In this course, such calculations will be enabled by including all unit processes associated with
converting primary energy sources into the energy carriers that are ultimately consumed in the life
cycle system. Or, in other words, well apply life-cycle thinking by considering not just the direct
energy use of a unit process, but also the cradle-to-gate systems that supply the energy forms used
the unit process.
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5.5
Well do this by clearly labeling all flows of energy carriers as product inputs from the technosphere
in our unit process inventories. By doing so, well be forced to trace all energy carriers in the system
back to the original elementary flows of energy from nature. See the lecture notes for some
examples of this approach.
By following this approach, well minimize our risk of mistakenly adding primary energy values and
energy carrier values to each other when summing up energy flows across unit processes, which
would invalidate our results. Good data sources will always make the distinction between primary
energy data and energy carrier data in their unit process inventories explicit, but dont be surprised
if you come across data sources where this distinction is not made. Unfortunately, this is a common
omission than can render a data source useless.
Lastly, note that conversion losses vary greatly by input fuel type, energy carrier type, and
conversion technology type, and all of these can vary greatly by location. For example, a coal-fired
power grid in China will have different conversion losses than a natural gas power grid in the United
States. So if our electric oven were in China, a different amount of primary energy would be
required to bake the bread than if that electric oven were in the United States. As you gain more
experience with LCA, youll become accustomed to choosing the right unit processes inventories to
accurately capture conversion losses in different geographical regions.
Additional notes
5.1
The concept of feedstock energy is most commonly applied in LCA to materials that are derived
from fossil fuels, including plastics, chemicals, paints, synthetic rubber, and bitumen, to name a few.
However, feedstock energy is technically relevant to any material that has energetic value, including
biogenic materials such as wood. In this course, well only denote feedstock energy for plastics and
paper products, because these two products are the only relevant materials used in our simplified
grocery bag and bottled soft drink life cycles. In practice, however, youll encounter other product
life-cycle systems and LCA data sources that track feedstock energy for a much broader range of
materials.
5.2
In LCA, we also need to be aware that the calorific energy value of fuels can be reported on either a
higher heating value (HHV) or a lower heating value (LHV) basis in energy statistics. The HHV of a
fuel, which is also known as its gross calorific value, includes the latent heat of vaporization of water
in the combustion process. The LHV of a fuel, which is also known as its net calorific value, does not
include the latent heat of vaporization of water. Therefore, a fuels HHV is higher than its LHV. The
difference between HHV and LHV depends on the fuel. Ideally, in an LCA one should establish
whether HHV or LHV bases are used in life cycle inventory data and consistently use only one basis
throughout the analysis.
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For a helpful primer on basic energy units and concepts, see the following reference:
5.3
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1991, Energy for sustainable rural
development projects - Vol.1: A reader: Chapter 1 - Basic energy concepts. Rome.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/u2246e/u2246e02.htm
In practice, you may encounter slight differences in the definition of primary energy across the
various agencies and institutions that compile energy statistics or create regional energy balances.
In this course, well define primary energy as the energy content or calorific value of fuels found in
nature prior to any significant conversion or transformation. Energy carriers are defined as more
convenient forms of energy that are created through conversion or transformation processes from
primary energy sources. The following table contains the major primary energy sources and energy
carriers in use in many societies. In the data one uses to compile unit process inventories, one may
sometimes encounter energy inputs expressed in units of energy carriers, such as kWh or electricity
or MJ of steam. The important point to remember is that we must consider the primary energy that
was used to generate each energy carrier, otherwise the true energy cost of a system might be
undercounted!
Primary energy sources
Biomass
Coal
Crude oil
Geothermal heat
Natural gas
Running or falling water
Solar energy
Tidal energy
Uranium
Wind
Common energy carriers

Compressed air
Conditioned air
Conditioned water
Electricity
Mechanical work
Refined fuels (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, etc.)
Steam
5.4
In fact, the average system efficiency of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution in the
United States has been getting higher in recent years due to technological improvements and a shift
away from coal and toward natural gas in the electricity grid. As youll learn in Homework 2, the
efficiency of electricity generation in the United States is closely tied to the type of fossil fuels used
in its power plants.
5.5
See the Lecture 5 Supplementary video for an example of primary energy versus energy carriers for
a coal-fired electricity production system.
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Transcript
To better understand the difference between primary energy and energy carriers, lets consider
again the example of electricity generation in the United States. This simplified figure depicts the
major unit processes within a coal-fired electricity system, starting with the coal mine and ending
with a residential home that consumes the electricity.
Well use 100 megajoules (MJ) of coal input so you can track energy flows and losses easily through
the system. Furthermore, well just consider energy flows related to coal and its conversion to
electricity in this system to keep things simple. In reality, there are many other flows of mass and
energy associated with these unit processes, which we would normally track in a full life cycle
assessment.
First, in-ground coal is extracted from nature and transported by rail to a power plant. Given that
coal is a raw fuel from nature with minimal processing before it is combusted in the power plant, it
is considered a form of primary energy. The coal is then combusted in the power plants boiler to
generate steam, which is an energy carrier.
Typical conversion efficiencies for U.S. power plant boilers are around 88%, which means 12 MJ of
the energy in the coal is lost as waste heat to the atmosphere. The steam is then run through a
steam turbine generator to produce electricity, which is another energy carrier.
Typical conversion efficiencies for steam turbine generators are around 45%, which means that 48
MJ of the energy in the steam is lost as waste heat to the atmosphere and only 40 MJ of electricity is
generated. Additionally, some of the generated electricity is used by the power plant itself to power
its own operations (typically 5-7%). Thus, we assume that 37 MJ of electricity leaves the power
plant and is distributed to consumers.
At this point in the system, we can calculate what is known as the net power plant efficiency, which
expresses the efficiency of converting input fuels into the net power exported from the plant.
Net power plant efficiency = [Net electricity generation (MJ)]/[Power plant fuel input (MJ)]
= 37 MJ/100 MJ = 0.37 = 37%.
Lastly, the transmission and distribution system will also incur heat losses (typically around 8% in the
United States), which means that only 34 MJ of electricity ultimately reaches the consumer for use
in the home.
Now at this point in the system, we can calculate what is known as the total system efficiency, which
expresses the efficiency of converting input fuels into the power that is ultimately provided to
consumers at the final point of use.
Total system efficiency = [Delivered electricity (MJ)]/[Power plant fuel input (MJ)]
= 34 MJ/100 MJ = 0.34 = 34%.
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In the diagram, flows from nature are indicated with a green arrow and flows to and from the
technosphere (i.e., product flows) are indicated with dashed black arrows. Heat losses are indicated
with red arrows. Note that heat losses are not often listed as an output to nature in many LCA
databases, but thorough, well balanced unit process inventories can include flows of waste heat.
You can use this example to understand the distinction between primary energy and energy carriers
in unit process systems, and to visualize how we can track conversion losses that occur between
primary energy sources and energy carriers through the unit process modeling approach in an LCA.
Youll get more practice with these concepts in your course project.
Lastly, note also that in this simple example, weve neglected the fuel inputs that are necessary to
power the coal mining and coal transport unit processes for the purposes of illustration. However, in
any real-world LCA (including in our plastic bag and bottled soft drink spreadsheet models), we must
account for these and other fuel inputs. If we did so here, those additional fuel inputs would add to
the primary energy used by the system by around 5%.
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Lecture 6: Mass balances

Transcript
Today is the last lecture in which well cover the structural basics of an LCA. Moving forward, well
begin discussing the four major steps in the LCA process. In future lectures, youll also begin
learning by doing by applying your knowledge to build an LCA model of bottled soft drink.
6.1
6.2
However, before we move on Id like you to gain some proficiency in mass balancing across life-cycle
systems. If youve had a basic physics class, youll probably recall the law of mass conservation. We
strive to apply the same principle in LCA; that is, all mass that goes into a life cycle system must be
accounted for as either a product flow within or out of the system or an elementary flow out of the
system.
Lets again consider the life cycle of a plastic bag, and lets focus on the end of life stage.
Suppose we want to analyze the CO2 emissions of different end of life scenarios for plastic grocery
bags in an urban region in an effort to inform policy makers. In this example, well consider two end
of life processes for waste plastic bags collected in our urban region: landfill and recycling. Lets
designate the variable m as the total mass of plastic bags collected from consumers in our region
each year. To help us visualize, assume that this stack of blocks represents our total mass m.
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Now lets designate the variables ac, al, as, and ar to represent emissions to air of carbon dioxide
(CO2) per unit mass processed in collection, landfill, sorting, and recycling, respectively (kg CO2/kg).
Finally, lets assume that currently all collected mass is being sent to landfill. In this case, the CO2
emissions of the end of life stage would be calculated as:
mac + mal = m(ac + al)
Now suppose we wanted to evaluate changing this system by recovering some portion of the
collected mass for recycling. Lets represent the fraction of collected mass sent to sorting for
recycling by the variable x. Therefore the mass quantity to sorting is represented by mx and the
mass quantity to landfill is represented as m(1-x).
The sorting process will also generate waste due to contaminants and inefficiencies. Well represent
the fraction of sorted mass that gets sent to the plastic recycling plant as y. Therefore, the mass
quantity from sorting to recycling can be represented as mxy and the mass quantity generated from
the sorting process as waste to landfill can be represented as mx(1-y).
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Lastly, we need to consider that the recycling process will also generate waste. Lets represent the
mass fraction that is recycled into pellets as z. Therefore, the mass quantity of recycled pellets is
mxyz and the mass quantity of waste generated by the recycling process is mxy(1-z), which well
send to the landfill.
Now lets verify that weve conserved mass across all flows in our system by summing up the mass
flows that terminate in the landfill process or as recycled pellets. That is:
mxyz + mxy(1-z) + mx(1-y) + m(1-x) = m

mxyz + mxy mxyz + mx mxy + m - mx = m
m=m
which we verify by collecting our blocks.
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6.3
6.4
Great, now that mass is conserved, lets calculate the CO2 emissions associated with this new
scenario for the end of life stage. Youll note in this expression that Ive included a new
CO2emissions factor c, which allocates possible CO2 emissions savings associated with plastic bag
recycling to the pellets themselves (kg CO2/kg recycled). Well cover allocation in more detail in
future lectures.
For now, well use this factor to solve for the value of c that will ensure that the alternative recycling
scenario reduces the CO2 emissions of the end of life stage compared to existing landfill scenario.
Heres the math:
[mac + mal] [mac + [m(1-x) + mx(1-y) + mxy(1-z)]al + mxas + mxyar + mxyzc]> 0
mac + mal - mac -[m(1-x) + mx(1-y) + mxy(1-z)]al - mxas - mxyar - mxyzc > 0
mac + mal - mac - mal + mxal - mxal + mxyal - mxyal + mxyzal - mxas - mxyar - mxyzc > 0
(mac - mac) + (mal - mal) + (mxal - mxal) + (mxyal - mxyal) + mxyzal - mxas - mxyar - mxyzc > 0
mxyzal - mxas - mxyar > mxyzc
c < al - as/yz - ar/z

which shows us that for our recycling scenario to reduce CO2 emissions at the end of life stage, the
value of c must be less than the value of the expression on the right-hand side of this relation.
P a g e | 43
6.5
In fact, youll analyze a similar expression yourself as part of the next homework assignment, using
numerical values for the variables.
Besides giving us practice with mass balancing, tracking mass flows in this fashion has another
benefit. Doing so allows us to easily assess different end of life scenarios simply by changing the
values of the mass fractions in an LCA model.
In fact, Ive found that its good practice to balance mass in this way in all of my spreadsheet LCA
models. For example, in my LCA model of the plastic bag life cycle, Ive specified mass flows with
mass fractions indicated right on my life cycle system diagram to make all mass flows explicit and
intuitive.
Now, if youre working with a commercial LCA software package youll find that it tracks and displays
mass flows automatically, which is a big help, especially for complicated life cycle systems!
However, youll be balancing mass flows manually in your spreadsheet model of the bottled soda
life-cycle. Even if mass balancing is fairly trivial in your class project, getting in the habit of carefully
tracking mass flows is important for visualizing the system you are modeling, ensuring mass
conservation, and analyzing what if scenarios analytically as youll do in the homework
assignment.
In practice, we might be able to neglect small mass flows in the system if doing so doesnt
substantially affect our results. Neglecting small mass flows is something well cover when
discussing cut off rules for life-cycle inventories a bit later in this course. For now, I want you to
assume that all mass flows are important to track until you later determine otherwise.
Additional notes
6.1
This lecture is designed to provide a basic understanding of mass balancing across unit process
systems for those without experience conducting mass and energy balances. For those of you who
already have such experience, the most important information to take away from this chapter is
that manual mass and energy balances are often necessary in an LCA, especially when compiling
ones own unit process inventory data. It will also be necessary to understand the notion of cut
off rules, which refer to criteria for excluding certain mass and energy flows from an LCA on the
basis of insignificance or acceptable uncertainties. Well cover cut off rules in more detail later in
this course.
6.2
2
Correction: Mass entering a system can leave the system as an elementary flow or as a product flow.
Additionally, mass can be converted to energy within a system, such as when materials or their byproducts are combusted for their energy value. For example, a biorefinery may combust biomass
feedstock byproducts to generate heat and/or electricity for use onsite. Well only focus on simple
mass and energy balances in this course, with the goal of ensuring that we account for inputs and
outputs of all flows in our systems. However, in practice, the balancing of mass and energy across
systems can become complicated, especially when mass-to-energy conversions occur within a
P a g e | 44
system. Fortunately, most commercial LCA software packages will ensure balancing of mass and
energy flows as part of the model building process.
6.3
As youll learn later in this course when we discuss allocation and partitioning, emissions savings
assigned to recycled materials are known as avoided burdens in an LCA. When we recycle
materials, environmental impacts can be avoided in two ways. First, when we dont send those
materials to the landfill, we avoid the emissions that would have otherwise been associated with
hauling that waste to the landfill and compacting it there. Second, by recycling materials, we avoid
demand for virgin materials in the marketplace and the emissions that would have otherwise been
associated with manufacturing those virgin materials. The amount of avoided emissions can be
estimated analytically, as youll see in the Lecture 6 Supplement video. Such avoided burdens have
a negative value, which indicates environmental impact savings at the societal level. For a classic
explanation of impacts avoided by recycling, read the following white paper by Ian Boustead, one of
the LCA fields longstanding experts. Note that there are other views on allocation and partitioning
within the LCA community (Bousteads discussion is in the context of plastics recycling). Youll also
notice that our mass balancing approach is similar to that discussed by Boustead.
Boustead (2001). Who gets the credit?

http://www.plasticseurope.org/Documents/Document/20100312112214WHOGETSTHECREDITS-20050701-005-EN-v1.pdf
6.4
To help you understand this example, weve added the Lecture 6 Supplement video. Please be sure
to watch it, especially if the equations presented and the concept of avoided emissions due to
recycling are not clear.
6.5
Now that weve added the Lecture 6 Supplement video, you will not solve this expression in the next
homework assignment. Therefore, please just ignore this statement. However, you will get further
experience with mass and energy balances and avoided impacts later in this course.
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Transcript
Lets work through the solution to the equations presented in Lecture 6, which quantified the
avoided emissions necessary for recycling to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to
landfilling at the end of life stage. Again, lets zoom in on just the end of life stage of our HDPE
plastic bag, because here is where mass flows between unit processes would change if we were to
recycle bags instead of sending them to the landfill.
So you can better visualize the solution, well define two distinct scenarios and calculate the CO2
emissions associated with each. In Scenario 1, well send all mass discarded by consumers to
collection and then to the landfill. Recall that landfill operations result in an elementary flow of solid
waste to nature, which is depicted in this figure. Using the mass flow and unit process emissions
notation from Lecture 6, the CO2 emissions at the end of life stage in this scenario would be
expressed as follows:
Now lets define Scenario 2, in which well send all mass discarded by consumers to sorting for
recycling. Again, using the mass flow and unit process emissions notation from Lecture 6, our unit
process system would look like this. Importantly, note that weve added in the variable C, which
represents the quantity of CO2 avoided when our recycled pellets displace virgin plastics in the
marketplace. As youll learn later in this course, this quantity is commonly known as an avoided
burden in LCA. Its a convenient way for analysts to include the net societal benefits that would
occur due to recycling materials or reusing products from a unit process system when conducting an
LCA of that system itself.
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Using the notation in the figure, the CO2 emissions at the end of life stage in this scenario would be
expressed as follows:
Clearly, wed like for the recycling scenario to generate lower CO2 emissions than the landfill
scenario. This condition is necessary in order for recycling to deliver greenhouse gas emissions
benefits to society. Mathematically, we can express this condition as follows:
Based on this mathematical expression, we can now solve for the value of C that would be required
for Scenario 2 to have lower CO2 emissions than Scenario 1 using simple algebra. First, notice that
the variable m appears on all terms on both sides of the equation, so we can cancel it out. Next,
lets move ac and al to the left side of the equation so we can consolidate our terms, which results in
this expression. Finally, lets solve for C by moving the other terms back to the right and dividing by
xy. Now we see that, in order for the recycling scenario to generate lower CO2 emissions than the
landfill scenario, the value of C must be less than the value of the term to right of the less than
sign.
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If youre having trouble following the math, try to work through the algebraic equations yourself.
Youll see that the solution is pretty straightforward.
Now lets plug in some arbitrary values for unit process emissions and mass recovery fractions and
see what happens. Using these values, and solving for C, indicates that for recycling to result in
lower CO2 emissions than landfilling, the avoided emissions associated with recycled pellets must be
less than negative 1.23 kg of CO2 per kg of recycled pellet. Why do we have a negative value? Its
because, in our example, recycling would lead to a net reduction in CO2 emissions at the societal
level. Often we call such net reductions avoided burdens in an LCA.
For an example of avoided burdens in a real-world LCA, lets take a look at some of the results from
a carrier bag LCA report published by the UKs Environment Agency1. This report is also the subject
of this weeks case study on paper versus plastic grocery bags. Note in this figure how the red
portion of the results graph for several carrier bags is labeled avoided products and recycling,
which the report defines as the avoidance of virgin materials through secondary reuse or
recycling. Note also how the red portion of the graph has a negative value, which indicates
greenhouse gas emissions reductions at the societal level due to avoidance of virgin materials.
These examples should give you some familiarity with the concept of avoided burdens, their
negative values, and how one can calculate avoided burden thresholds using mass balancing and
unit process inventory data. As mentioned earlier, youll learn more about avoided burdens later in
this course, but at least for now youll understand the concept of avoided burdens in case you come
across them in the LCA literature.
Source: Environment Agency (2011). Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags. Bristol, UK. Report:
SC030148. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291023/scho0711buan-e-e.pdf
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Lecture 7: Goal definition

Transcript
Today well begin discussion of the formal LCA process, which, as youll recall, is comprised of four
major steps: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation.
Thus far weve been focused on familiarizing ourselves with unit process inventories, understanding
flows, and learning important data conventions. This
knowledge will serve you well as we move forward
through the four steps in an LCA in the weeks ahead.
Well cover each step one at a time, although its
important to recognize that these steps are often
conducted in parallel and iterative fashion in practice.
For example, the interpretation step is best conducted
throughout an LCA to verify that the assessment is
meeting its goals, while the impact assessment step
can often indicate the need to go back and refine the
data compiled in the inventory.
7.1
Moving forward, youll hear me make mention of the

ISO 14040 series of standards when explaining key LCA concepts. These are international standards
that have been created by the LCA community to ensure methodological consistency and
transparency in LCA studies. In fact, this figure represents the basic ISO 14040 view of the LCA
process.
Gaining proficiency with each step in the LCA process takes time and lots of practice. Since we can
only cover a few key concepts in each lecture, youll need to study the lecture notes, complete and
understand the course assignments, and engage with your classmates in the discussion forum to get
the most out of this course. For those of you who are looking for a deeper understanding of the
course topics, Ive provided recommendations for advanced readings on many topics in the lecture
notes.
This week youll also begin building your LCA model of a bottled soft drink, so you can learn each
step of the LCA process in hands-on fashion. To assist you in this effort, Ill be constructing my own
LCA model of this plastic grocery bag alongside you.
Our focus this week is on goal and scope definition. In this step, we specify the purpose of the
study, what systems are to be analyzed, how the LCA will be carried out, the intended audience, and
the quality of the data. On its face, this step might seem like a formality, but nothing could be
further from the truth. In fact, it is the goal and scope definition step that provides the necessary
detail and transparency that make an LCA study useful to its intended audience. In fact, when the
goal and scope are poorly constructed or documented, an LCA study is often very difficult to
interpret and validate, which can render its results practically useless.
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Today well limit our discussion to defining the goals of an LCA. Well cover scope definition in the
next few lectures.
When defining the goals of an LCA, we want to explicitly state:
The intended applications of the study

The purpose of the study
The target audience
Method, assumption, and impact limitations
If it contains product comparisons intended for public disclosure, and
The initiator of the study
Lets step through each of these one by one:

The intended applications of the study describe how the studys results are to be used, stated as
clearly and precisely as possible. There are many different uses of LCA results. Some of the more
common uses are listed here:
Identify environmental hot spots in a products life cycle

Guide corporate product or process development (e.g., inform green design decisions)
Benchmark against similar products
Compare different products or services
Support product eco-label certification
Support public policy decisions
The purpose of the study describes the drivers and motivations of the LCA, including the specific
decisions that the study is designed to support. For example, if the intended application of the
study is to compare different products, will the study support decisions regarding which specific
products to purchase or which suppliers to engage?
The target audience describes who will use the LCA results to support the stated decisions. There
can be many different audiences for an LCA, including internal staff and colleagues, external
customers, public policy makers, those with technical backgrounds and those without, or general
consumers.
7.2
At this point Id like to stress that careful selection and clear communication of a studys intended
application, purpose, and target audience is critical for a sound LCA. These three elements are
obviously interrelated, so their definitions must support each other. Moreover, how these three
elements are defined has profound implications on the scope, data quality, complexity, analytical
rigor, and documentation requirements of an LCA study.
For example, if my intended application is to identify major environmental hot spots of the plastic
bag life cycle, which will be used by internal staff to decide on which hot spots warrant further
study, I can probably accomplish this by using literature data and a fairly simple analysis. However,
P a g e | 50
if my intended application is to support public policy decisions, Ill need a study with high data
quality, rigorous uncertainty analysis, extensive documentation, and external peer review.
Method, assumption, and impact limitations describe any limitations to the study that arise from
your chosen methods for inventory analysis and impact assessment, your key analysis assumptions,
or any impacts youve excluded. Essentially, this element indicates the general types of decisions or
conclusions that your LCA results are not intended to support. For example, if the study compared
two products only on the basis of life-cycle energy use, the studys results should not be used to
conclude which product is superior from an overall environmental perspective.
If the study contains product comparisons intended for public disclosure, its critical to state this
explicitly because the study would then need to comply with ISO 14040 series standards for study
design, documentation, and external peer review.
Lastly, stating clearly the initiator of the study is important so that the target audience is
knowledgeable of the studys source and are free to take into account any special interests or biases
they may perceive.
7.3
7.4
OK, that was a lot of talking to digest for one lecture! However, the importance of proper goal
definition cannot be overstated. When the intended application, purpose, target audience,
limitations, and initiator of an LCA study arent made crystal clear, it can make the studys results
difficult to interpret, difficult to use, and, frankly, difficult to trust. And, when that happens, an LCA
study is far less useful than it could be.
To ensure that doesnt happen in your bottled soft drink LCA, youll include your goal and scope
definition on the very first tab of your spreadsheet model. Well work on this step together this
week, using my LCA model for plastic bags as an example.
Additional notes
7.1
In the remainder of this course, well refer to the ISO 14040 series of standards often because these
standards provide specific guidance on structured content and procedures within the four major
steps of the LCA process. It also bears mentioning that these standards are used widely by the LCA
community as a standard of conformance to generally-accepted LCA implementation and reporting
practices. In practice, one is likely to encounter many studies that include a statement of
conformance with the ISO standards as a measure of study diligence and transparency. Although
the ISO 14040 series of standards must be purchased, one can find mentions of and references to
these standards in the following handbook, which is publicly-available at the link below. Note that
this handbook is available in PDF format for educational purposes, but it cannot be printed.
Guine, J.B.; Gorre, M.; Heijungs, R.; Huppes, G.; Kleijn, R.; Koning, A. de; Oers, L. van;
Wegener Sleeswijk, A.; Suh, S.; Udo de Haes, H.A.; Bruijn, H. de; Duin, R. van; Huijbregts,
M.A.J. Handbook on life cycle assessment. Operational guide to the ISO standards. I: LCA in
perspective. IIa: Guide. IIb: Operational annex. III: Scientific background. Kluwer Academic
P a g e | 51
Publishers, ISBN 1-4020-0228-9, Dordrecht, 2002, 692 pp.
http://www.cml.leiden.edu/research/industrialecology/researchprojects/finished/newdutch-lca-guide.html
7.2
For more discussion on these elements of goal definition, see the following reports for some helpful
explanations and examples:
http://www.cml.leiden.edu/research/industrialecology/researchprojects/finished/newdutch-lca-guide.html (See Part 2a, Section 2)
B.P. Weidema, H. Wenzel, C. Petersen, and K. Hansen (2004). The product, functional unit
and reference flows in LCA. Kbenhavn: Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
(Environmental News 70). http://www.lca-center.dk/resources/777.pdf
The United States Environmental Protection Agencys Life Cycle Assessment: Principles and
Practice, 2006, Chapter 2, pages 7-8: http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html (Note
this document is also commonly referred to as LCA 101.)
7.3
Correction: In the lecture video I said the importance of proper goal definition cannot be
understated when I should have said the importance of proper goal definition cannot be
overstated.
7.4
For an example of an LCA report that laid out several goal definition elements explicitly, and in
accordance with the ISO 14040 standards, see the UK Environment Agencys LCA of grocery carrier
bags from last weeks case study. Youll notice that the authors make the following elements very
clear at the beginning of the study: 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
intended to be disclosed to the public. Before reading any LCA, you should first seek out such goal
definition elements to understand the context of the study and to judge for yourself if the stated
goals were adequately met in the LCAs methods, results, and documentation.
Environment Agency (2011). Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags. Bristol, UK.
Report: SC030148.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291023/s
cho0711buan-e-e.pdf
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Lecture 8: Scope definition: functional units

Transcript
Now that we understand the basics of goal definition, lets move on to scope definition. During
scope definition, we must determine the methodology, included life cycle stages and impacts, data
quality, documentation, and reviewing requirements of the LCA study. As mentioned in the last
lecture, the scope of the LCA study must directly support the goals defined for the LCA study to
ensure that these goals are met. Therefore, the scope of an LCA study must be carefully designed
with this aim in mind.
8.1
In this course, well follow guidance from the ISO 14040 standard for defining the scope of an LCA
study. More specifically, well include the following:
Function, functional unit, and reference flow(s)

Initial system boundaries
Description of data categories
Criteria for inclusion of inputs and outputs
Methods for handling multi-functionality and allocation
Methods for modeling life-cycle impacts
Data quality requirements
Key assumptions and limitations
Critical review, and
The type and format of any required report
Well discuss all of these ISO 14040 scope definition elements in this course.
Today well cover definition of the function, functional unit, and reference flow, which are very
important concepts. Lets do this using the plastic grocery bag as an example, and watch as I build
my spreadsheet-based LCA model. Before we can begin defining the scope of my plastic bag LCA,
however, we first need to explicitly define the goals of my study. Here they are, as seen in the first
tab of my spreadsheet:
The intended applications of the study: identify environmental hot spots in the life cycle of
a plastic grocery bag
The purpose of the study: determine stages/impacts for further examination
The target audience: Internal staff/internal knowledge generation
Method, assumption, and impact limitations: ?
No product comparisons intended for public disclosure
The initiator of the study: Eric Masanet
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Youll create a similar tab in your bottled soft drink LCA spreadsheet. Now that my goals have been
defined, I can proceed to defining the function, functional unit, and reference flow of my LCA. So
what is meant by these terms?
As you might imagine, the term function refers to the useful service provided by the product or
process under study. For example, the function of paint is to color and protect a surface. The
function of an automobile is to transport goods and persons. And a reasonable definition of
function for my plastic bag might be the containment and transport of groceries for one trip. Note
that its quite common for a product to serve more than one function; if I were to reuse my plastic
grocery bag as a home garbage can liner, the functions of my plastic bag would be to contain and
transport groceries for one trip and to contain and transport one load of household waste.
The purpose of the functional unit is to quantify the identified functions in a more precise way that
facilitates mathematical analysis. For example, a functional unit for paint might be to cover 10
square meters for 10 years. It is important for the functional unit to be both precise and
measurable, because it serves as the reference to which the inputs and outputs of our life-cycle
system are normalized. The functional unit also allows for credible comparisons of different product
options on the basis of providing an equivalent service.
8.2
These points will become clearer when you understand the reference flow, which is the amount of a
product required to fulfill the function. For example, to cover 10 square meters for 10 years might
require one liter of high quality paint. In other words, the reference flow for high quality paint is
one liter per functional unit. Without the reference flow, we wouldnt know how much paint makes
sense to analyze in our LCA. But now that we have a logical reference flow, when we construct a
life-cycle inventory for high quality paint, all system inputs and outputs would be based on providing
one liter of paint in the product use stage.
Now lets consider a low quality paint. Lets say, to cover 10 square meters for 10 years requires
two liters of low-quality paint because it needs extensive touch-ups each year. In this case, the
reference flow for low quality paint is two liters per functional unit.
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As I mentioned earlier, the functional unit allows us to compare different products on the basis of an
equivalent service. Thus, if we were to conduct an LCA study that compared the high quality paint
to the low quality paint, wed do so by comparing the reference flow of each paint required to meet
the same functional unit. That is, wed compare one liter of high quality paint to two liters of low
quality paint because those are the quantities of each paint required to cover 10 square meters for
10 years.
Note that a casual analyst may have well chosen to compare one liter of high quality paint to one
liter of low quality paint. However, his analysis would have been fatally flawed because hed be
treating these two products as functionally equal when they are clearly not. Only by comparing
reference flows on the basis of a functional unit can we properly compare the impacts of different
products in an LCA.
Hopefully the simple example of paint has helped you visualize the purpose of carefully defining the
function, functional unit, and reference flow when defining the scope in an LCA. These are very
important concepts, so lets turn back to the plastic bag for another example.
A reasonable functional unit for the functions I described might be to contain and carry 9 liters of
groceries for one trip and to contain and carry 9 liters of household waste. Note that since Im
choosing a volumetric basis for my functional unit, Im implicitly assuming that the bag can hold any
relevant types mass that can fit within 9 liters, which seems like a reasonable assumption. If we
assume that a single plastic grocery bag satisfies this functional unit (that is, no double bagging at
the grocery store), the reference flow would be one five gram HDPE grocery bag. Now, suppose we
wanted to compare this plastic bag to a paper bag can we compare them directly?
If youve been paying close attention, youll know that the answer is no! We must compare them
based on reference flows that provide the same functional unit. For paper bags, we must consider
two key differences when defining reference flows. First, if we recognize that most paper grocery
bags are larger than plastic bags, we might find that 9 liters of groceries only fills two-thirds of a
paper bag. In other words, only two-thirds the mass of the paper bag is technically required to meet
the function of containing and carrying 9 liters of groceries for one trip. Second, if we assume that
paper bags cannot serve as garbage can liners, well find that a dedicated garbage can bag is
required to meet the function of containing and carrying 9 liters of household waste.
8.3
So, when we compare the reference flows of our product options on the basis of the functional unit,
we must compare one plastic bag to two-thirds of a paper bag plus one garbage can bag. Or, if we
scale this comparison up to include only whole bags, which may seem more logical, wed compare
three plastic bags to two paper bags plus three garbage can bags. Again, only by comparing
reference flows on the basis of a functional unit can we properly compare the impacts of different
products in an LCA. While it might seem tempting to directly compare one plastic bag to one paper
bag in an LCA, we wouldnt be making a valid comparison based on equivalent service.
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If the concepts of function, functional unit, and reference flows are still a bit fuzzy, dont worry. Ive
provided recommendations in the lecture notes to give you more practice with these important
concepts.
Additional notes
8.1
For further information on these scope definition elements, see:
B.P. Weidema, H. Wenzel, C. Petersen, and K. Hansen (2004). The product, functional unit
and reference flows in LCA. Kbenhavn: Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
(Environmental News 70). http://www.lca-center.dk/resources/777.pdf
Chapter 2 of LCA 101 provides a more truncated overview of scope definition, which does
not list all the various elements specified in the ISO 14040 standards. Youll get some basic
exposure to each of these scope definition elements in this course, but these extra readings
are recommended for a more thorough understanding of their purpose and form in LCA
practice.
o The United States Environmental Protection Agencys Life Cycle Assessment:
Principles and Practice, 2006: http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html (Note
this document is also commonly referred to as LCA 101.)
Scope definition is described in detail in the following handbook, Chapter 6. Be aware that this
chapter provides an exhaustive discussion of these elements, and is most useful to the experienced
LCA practitioner.
8.2
European Commission - Joint Research Centre (JRC) - Institute for Environment and
Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook - General
guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. First edition March 2010. EUR 24708
EN. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010.
http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/ILCD-Handbook-General-guide-for-LCA-DETAILEDGUIDANCE-12March2010-ISBN-fin-v1.0-EN.pdf
For additional examples of establishing functional units and reference flows, see the Lecture 8
Supplement video.
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8.3
Correction: In the lecture video, we illustrate the concept of functional equivalence between one
HDPE grocery bag and two-thirds of a paper bag plus one garbage bin liner. While this statement of
equivalence is correct for the functional unit of carrying 9 liters of groceries for one trip and
containing 9 liters of household waste, in an LCA one could also analyze whole bags instead of bag
fractions as a matter of convenience. To do so, one would scale up the functional unit such that
only whole bags are required as reference flows. In our case, wed scale up by a factor of three; that
is, our functional unit would now be carrying 27 liters of groceries and containing 27 liters of
household waste. The reference flows required to meet this functional unit would then be 3 HDPE
grocery bags and 2 paper bags plus three garbage bin liners. Note that there is still only 2/3 of a
paper bag and one garbage bin liner for every HDPE grocery bag; weve just scaled up to arrive at
more convenient analysis quantities.
For an example of a functional unit and reference flows that are based on whole bags, and over a
convenient time period, take another look at the UK Environment Agencys LCA of carrier bags
(which is the report we discussed in our paper vs. plastic bag case study). See Table 3.1, in which
the reference flow data are described on the basis of meeting a functional unit of 483 items of
shopping in one month. Here youll see that the reference flow for the number of paper bags is
lower than that for plastic bags due to the larger size of the paper bags considered in their study,
similar to what we assumed in the Lecture 8 video. In practice, the functional unit can be scaled up
or down easily to make for a more convenient or logical analysis approach. As long as the reference
flows are scaled accordingly, the choice of functional unit scale will not affect the relative
comparison of options in an LCA.
Report: SC030148.
cho0711buan-e-e.pdf
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Transcript
To better understand the concepts of functional units and reference flows, and the important
relationship between them, lets consider another example.
Lets say wed like to compare the environmental performance of two different household lighting
technologies using the LCA approach. Specifically, lets compare a standard incandescent bulb with
a compact fluorescent bulb. Recall that there are three steps in the process of establishing
functional units and references flows: (1) defining the function; (2) defining the functional unit; and
(3) defining reference flows.
For household lighting, a reasonable function would be to provide interior illumination for general
household tasks.
Now lets define a functional unit based on this function. Remember that the purpose of the
functional unit is to quantify the function in a more precise way that facilitates mathematical
analysis. In the case of lighting, we can measure the intensity of light in standard units of lumens.
For example, a standard 60-watt incandescent bulb provides 800 lumens of light output. So lets
define our functional unit as 800 lumens of light for 8,000 hours. Why do we need to specify
operating hours as part of our functional unit? Whenever we compare durable products with a
service life, its critical to include operating hours in the functional unit, as youll realize when we
define reference flows next.
To establish reference flows, we need more information. First, lets assume that we want to
compare a standard 60-watt incandescent bulb to a 15-watt compact fluorescent bulb, since both
provide 800 lumens of light. Lets further assume that the lifespan of the 60-watt incandescent bulb
is 2,000 hours and that the lifespan of the 15-watt compact fluorescent bulb is 8,000 hours. These
assumptions are based on realistic service life data for each type of bulb, which indicate that, on
average, a compact fluorescent bulb should last much longer than an incandescent bulb.
Lastly, lets define our reference flows. Recall that the reference flow is the amount of a product
required to fulfill the service expressed by the functional unit. Lets start with the compact
fluorescent bulb. To provide 800 lumens of light for 8,000 hours, its clear from our data so far that
one 15-watt compact fluorescent bulb is required. Therefore, the reference flow for the compact
fluorescent technology in our analysis should be defined as one 15-watt compact fluorescent bulb.
Now, lets consider the incandescent bulb. While a single 60-watt incandescent bulb is capable of
providing 800 lumens of light output, a single bulb only has a lifespan of 2,000 hours. Therefore, to
provide 800 lumens of light for 8,000 hours, a total of four 60-watt incandescent bulbs would be
required. Therefore, the reference flow for the incandescent technology in our analysis should be
defined as four 60-watt incandescent bulbs.
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By first defining the function, then the functional unit, and then the reference flows in our analysis,
we see that to compare these lighting technologies on the basis of an equivalent service, we must
compare one 15-watt compact fluorescent bulb to four 60-watt incandescent bulbs.
While it might seem logical at first glance to compare one incandescent bulb to one compact
fluorescent bulb because they both have the same lumen output, such an analysis would be
incorrect because these two bulbs do not have the same lifespans. Only by comparing reference
flows on the basis of functional equivalence can we properly compare these two lighting
technologies, which means that we must compare them on the basis of both lumen output and bulb
service life.
I hope this simple example helped you better understand functional units and reference flows, and
the importance of defining functional units that accurately capture the service being provided by a
product, which in the case of light bulbs, included both illumination and lifespan. Well brainstorm
additional examples of functional units and reference flows on the discussion forums this week.
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Lecture 9: Scope definition: initial system boundaries

Transcript
Today well discuss the next step in the scope definition process: defining the initial system
boundaries, which determine the specific unit processes that will be included in our life-cycle system
model.
As I stressed in the last lecture, all elements of an LCA
studys scope must directly support the stated goals of
the study. Thats why I used the term initial system
boundaries, because, quite often in an LCA, we must
change and refine the system boundaries based on
what we learn in the inventory analysis and impact
assessment steps. Moreover, if the goals of the study
change based on what we learn in later steps, we must
often also adjust the system boundaries to support the
new goals. Thats why iterations between LCA steps
are so clearly depicted in our LCA figure.
So lets discuss defining system boundaries using my
plastic bag LCA model as an example.
Recall that Ive reserved the first tab in the spreadsheet for goal and scope definition. Here we see
the goals for my plastic bag LCA, which I defined in the last lecture. Im now going to add the
functional unit and reference flow for my plastic bag LCA, given that these two definitions have a
strong influence on my system boundaries. To keep things simple at first, Im going to assume that
my plastic grocery bag is only used once and only for the purposes of carrying groceries home.
Therefore, my functional unit is to contain and carry 9 liters of groceries for one trip and my
reference flow is a one 5 gram HDPE grocery bag.
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Now, to determine my initial system boundariesthat is, which unit processes are included in my
model of the plastic bag life cycle I need to consider the goals of my study. My intended
application is to identify environmental hot spots in the plastic bag life cycle, and the purpose of
my study is to determine stages/impacts for further examination in future research. These goals
suggest that this LCA needs to be exploratory and inclusive in nature, which indicate to me that
when starting out I need to include all stages of the bags life cycle as well as all relevant
environmental impacts. I therefore need to choose a system boundary that includes the raw
materials acquisition, manufacturing, distribution, use, and end of life stages. Lets take a look at
the unit processes Ive selected to meet these goals.
9.1
9.2
But before we do so I want to quickly discuss the type of LCA well be conducting in this course.
There are two major approaches to LCA: attributional and consequential. The aim of attributional
LCA is to describe the environmental impacts that can be attributed to a particular system or
product in retrospective fashion. In this course, well be employing the attributional approach by
describing the impacts attributable to my plastic grocery bag and to your bottled soft drink by
collecting data on existing life-cycle systems for these products.
The aim of consequential LCA is a bit more complicated. Put simply, consequential LCA strives to
also describe the environmental impacts induced by a product in the greater economic system that
surrounds it. For example, in a consequential LCA of biofuels, one might consider how changes to
land use for biofuels affect regional and global food supply systems. Because this is an introductory
course, well limit our focus to attributional LCA. However, some recommended readings on
consequential LCA will be provided in the course notes for those of you who are interested in
pursuing this more advanced topic later.
So lets get back to my spreadsheet model. On the second tab of my worksheet, Ive created a
drawing of my unit process system, which defines my system boundaries. You can see that Ive
included a number of unit processes across the plastic bag life cycle.
9.3
First note how Ive drawn my system diagram. Each unit process is represented by a box. Major
flows of inputs and outputs between the boxes, and from nature, are included in the diagram. The
goal is to graphically convey the structure of the life-cycle system Im modeling and the
interdependencies that exist between unit processes, but to do so in the simplest and cleanest way
possible. As such, Ive included only the major elementary and technosphere flows that govern the
economics of the real-world system, and omitted the many flows of emissions to nature that would
quickly make my diagram way too complex to interpret.
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In practice, system boundaries should clearly define:

1. The boundaries between nature and the system under study;
2. The boundaries between included and excluded unit processes in the system under study;
and
3. The boundaries between the system under study and any related external systems that
might share flows.
Second, note that my system diagram only depicts disposal to landfill at the end of life stage. Ive
done this to keep the model simple for now, but well expand it to include other end of life options
later in the course.
9.4
The important point here is that when determining what unit processes to include within our system
boundaries, there are often different unit process systems we can select that still meet the stated
goals of our study. For example, my inclusion of only landfilling at the end of life stage will still allow
for identification of environmental hot spots in the plastic bag life cycle, but only for plastic bags
that are disposed of via landfill. While Ive met the strict definition of my goals, I havent chosen a
system boundary that might be more representative of many real-world systems in which plastic
bags might also be recycled or used for waste energy recovery. For now, Ill limit my model to only
consider landfilling, but later well include other options.
However, I have identified a methodological limitation to my study; namely, that my life-cycle
system only considers landfilling at the end of life stage. Therefore, Ill go back to my goal definition
and note this as a limitation of my current study design.
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Third, note that Ive included a limited number of unit processes to model each life-cycle stage.
How did I know how many unit processes to include in my system, and specifically which unit
processes to include? Well, when defining system boundaries one must have some basic
understanding of the processes that comprise the life-cycle system. What this means is that some
background research is required. If youre modeling a real world system that you can observe,
determining which unit processes to include often involves observing the actual systems and
understanding which components in the system make sense to model as unit processes. And which
unit processes make sense to model is often determined by the real-world processes and equipment
from which data can be collected directly.
9.5
As a quick note, in an LCA, data that are collected directly from the specific process we are modeling
are called primary data, while data for general processes reported by somebody else are called
secondary data. For example, data obtained from commercial LCA databases are inherently
secondary data, as are data obtained from literature sources.
In my case, because Ill be exclusively using secondary data, I constructed the systems diagram
based on unit processes I identified from the literature, including previous LCAs of plastic grocery
bags. Importantly, my selection of unit processes was informed by the availability of life-cycle
inventory data for my product system. In practice, youll often find that your choice of system
boundaries is determined in part by which unit process data are available to model your system.
Moreover, when considering the inventory analysis step we also have to consider the impact
assessment step.
Why is that? As youll learn soon, assessing a given environmental impact, say, global warming,
requires that the life-cycle inventory contain very specific flow data related to that impact. For
global warming, this would include flows of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
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Therefore, another important component of scope definition is to define the life-cycle impact
assessment methods and categories that will be included in the study. By defining impacts, we
define inventory requirements. And by defining inventory requirements, we can now select system
boundaries and included unit processes to meet these requirements. This process is another prime
example of the iterative nature of LCA.
Well learn more about the impact assessment step and the different impact categories one can
analyze in LCA later in this course. For now, Ive listed the impact assessment method and impact
categories to be included in my plastic bag LCA on the second tab of my spreadsheet.
9.6
Note also that Ive labeled a portion of my system diagram as foreground processes and another
portion as background processes. These are common terms in LCA, and their precise definitions
vary across the literature. In this course, well treat foreground processes are those which are under
direct influence of the producers and consumers in a product system and background processes as
those which are typically not under such direct influence. For example, in my plastic bag life-cycle
system, how the bag is manufactured, distributed, used, and discarded is under the direct influence
of the manufacturers, distributers, and consumers.
You can think of background processes as those that supply fuels and materials that are more like
commodities, meaning they arent created exclusively for use by a particular product system.
Examples of this are the electricity and natural gas consumed in the manufacture of my plastic bag,
and perhaps the ink that is used to apply a logo to the plastic bag.
Defining foreground and background processes is important because it guides us on how specific
our unit process inventories need to be. For my plastic bag, to credibly model present day life-cycle
systems I need to know how natural gas is converted into ethylene, how ethylene is converted to
HDPE pellets, how these pellets are manufactured into bags, and how these bags are distributed,
used, and discarded. Thus, these are unit processes for which Id like individual inventories.
For background processes, we can typically use aggregated cradle to gate inventories that
combine multiple process steps as a matter of convenience. For example, Im fine with using one
aggregated unit process inventory for producing the diesel fuel that goes into the truck used during
the plastic bag distribution stage. Note that background process inventories must still align with the
geographical and temporal characteristics of foreground processesfor example, I dont want to
use an electricity production inventory from Germany in 1995 if my plastic bag life cycle occurs in
the United States in the present daybut well discuss that more in future lectures.
9.7
Lastly, how to we know just how broadly to extend our system boundaries? For example, Ive
included key unit processes for manufacturing plastic bags, but do I also include the unit processes
for producing the capital equipment that manufactures those plastic bags? Or the steel that is
required to manufacture the capital equipment that manufactures the plastic bags? Often in LCA,
we need to apply what are known as cut off rules in our system boundaries to make the LCA
feasible from a time and resource perspective, since its impossible to trace back every flow.
Moreover, many of these flows have negligible effects on the results of our study, so we want to
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exclude them on the basis of mathematical insignificance as well. For example, while the
production of one piece of capital equipment itself might lead to high environmental burdens, when
we consider that that one piece of equipment might be used to manufacture millions of plastic bags,
the environmental impacts of that equipment per bag manufactured are negligible.
In practice, there are some cut off rules we follow as a matter of course in many LCAs, such as
excluding the flows associated with manufacturing capital equipment, transportation equipment, or
manufacturing plants. However, we might also apply cut off rules to more direct flows into our
product system if excluding them wont compromise the goals of our study. There is also the matter
of allocation, which, if you recall from our discussion of unit process inventories, refers to the
process of choosing which flows to attribute to a product system when such flows are shared with
other product systems. For example, if my plastic bag gets recycled into plastic lumber at the end of
life stage, should the flows associated with HDPE pellet production be assigned to the plastic bag life
cycle, the plastic lumber life cycle, or both?
Cut off rules and allocation procedures are both very important topics, which well discuss further
when covering the inventory analysis step. For now, just remember that any future decisions
related to cut off rules and allocation procedures may require us to come back and adjust our
system boundaries.
9.8
Starting today, youll be able to download the spreadsheet for your class project: an LCA model of a
bottled soft drink. Youll notice that weve already filled out the goal definition and functional unit,
system boundaries, and impact assessment elements of the goal and scope definition on the first
tab. Youll also notice that weve included an initial system diagram with included unit processes,
foreground processes, and background processes for the life-cycle of bottled soda, assuming for
now that all bottles are sent to landfill at the end of life stage. Over the coming weeks youll be
building out this spreadsheet model in tab by tab fashion, applying the concepts you learn in each
lecture and using my plastic bag spreadsheet model for guidance.
For now, please take a close look at the first two tabs. Ill see you next time!
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Additional notes
9.1
In our first course offering, a leading LCA expert offered the following helpful suggestion for how
students can understand the differences between attributional and consequential LCA: An
attributional product system is composed of the activities that have contributed to the production,
consumption and disposal of a product, that is, tracing the contributing activities backwards in time.
A consequential product system is composed of the activities that are expected to change when
producing, consuming and disposing of a product, that is, tracing the consequences forwards in
time."
9.2
Here are some additional public domain readings (both short and long) to better understand the
difference between attributional and consequential LCA:
9.3
Blog post by Craig Aumann, Attributional versus Consequential LCA, March 1, 2010, EcoEfficiency Action Project: http://eco-efficiency-actionproject.com/2010/03/01/attributional-versus-consequential-lca/
Ecometrica Press Technical Paper by M. Brander, R. Tipper, C. Hutchison, and G. Davis,

Technical Paper | Consequential and Attributional Approaches to LCA: a Guide to Policy
Makers with Specific Reference to Greenhouse Gas LCA of Biofuels, April, 2008:
http://www.globalbioenergy.org/uploads/media/0804_Ecometrica__Consequential_and_attributional_approaches_to_LCA.pdf
Chapter 1 of B.P. Weidema, T. Ekvall, and R. Heijungs, Guidelines for application of

deepened and broadened LCA, Deliverable D18 of work package 5 of the CALCAS project,
July, 2009, http://www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/ssp/publications/calcas_report_d18.pdf
Correction: Since the first offering of the course, weve updated and simplified the unit process
system diagram in our HDPE grocery bag LCA spreadsheet model. The image in the lecture video is
no longer valid; see the new image contained here in the lecture notes. Importantly, only the major
unit processes in the system are depicted, with single arrows between them depicting major
product flows. This simplified view is the way many unit process systems models are depicted in
LCA reports, given the goal is to convey the system boundaries, included unit processes, and major
product flows intuitively and with as little confusion as possible. For an example of a simple but
complete unit process system diagram, see page 19 of the UK Environment Agencys LCA of grocery
carrier bags:
Report: SC030148.
cho0711buan-e-e.pdf
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9.4
Note that there are no shared flows with external systems and no excluded unit processes to
indicate thus far in our unit process system diagram. However, youll encounter more complicated
systems diagrams that do depict such boundaries as you move forward with LCAs of more
sophisticated product systems.
9.5
Note that definitions of primary and secondary data can vary slightly across the LCA community. In
this course, well use the definitions that appear here in the lecture notes. One finer point in our
definitions is that data that are collected directly from the specific real-world process(es) under
study are always considered primary data, even if they are collected and reported by somebody
else. For example, inventory data collected from the specific HDPE resin manufacturing plant in my
system would be considered primary data, even if I did not collect them myself. However, if I use
inventory data collected from one or more unknown HDPE resin manufacturing plant(s) (as occurs
when one uses general inventory data from a commercial LCI database) to represent the HDPE resin
manufacturing unit process in my system, then I would be using secondary data.
9.6
For another explanation of foreground and background data, see page 10 of the LCA 101 report.
9.7
Correction: In the lecture video, I said In any LCA, we need to apply what are known as cut off
rules However, as youll learn later in this course, the use of input-output or hybrid LCI methods
in an LCA can eliminate the need for cut off rules. Therefore, I should have said Often in LCA, we
need to apply what are known as cut off rules
9.8
Well be releasing the spreadsheet models with instructions midway through Week 3 to give you
time to familiarize yourselves with the lecture material. Additionally, in this offering of the course,
youll be responsible for completing several of the features weve mentioned here, to make for a
more complete learning by doing experience than was possible last time.
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Lecture 10: Scope definition: requirements for data and data quality
Transcript
Lets quickly review where we stand in the goal and scope definition step of the LCA process. Weve
learned that the first task is to define the intended applications, purpose, and target audience of the
analysis. Once we define these goals, we must then determine the function and functional unit of
the product or service we are analyzing. Based on the functional unit, we can define the reference
flows. And, based on the reference flows, we can construct the initial system boundaries based on
our chosen life-cycle inventory methods and life-cycle impact assessment methods.
Weve completed these tasks in our current plastic bag and bottled soda LCA models. Weve also
learned that we may need to revisit all of these decisions based on what we learn in the inventory
analysis, impact analysis, and interpretation steps of an LCA.
Today well talk about the next steps in the scope definition process: determining the data
requirements and the data quality requirements necessary to meet the goals of our study. The term
data requirements refers to the types of flow data we need in our unit process inventories, while
the term data quality requirements refers to the characteristics those data must have in order for us
to have confidence in our results. Our discussion today will be based on guidance from the ISO
14040 series of standards for data and data quality requirements.
Lets begin with determining data requirements. All data used in an LCA must directly support the
stated goals of the LCA, so lets return to the goals I defined for my plastic bag as an example. The
intended application of my plastic bag LCA is to identify environmental hot spots in the plastic
bag life cycle. This broad goal suggests I should strive to include all relevant environmental impacts
in my study, which requires that I include the relevant elementary flows for quantifying all such
impacts. In general, an LCA should strive to include the broadest range of flows possible, but, as
weve discussed, this can sometimes be difficult in practice due to time, resource, or data
constraints.
10.1
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Lets take a look at my LCA model, where Ive listed the elementary data flows Ive determined I
need to capture in order to include all relevant environmental impacts, and thereby meet the goals
of my study. Given the length of my list, Ive included my data requirements on separate tab in my
spreadsheet model. We can see that Ive documented the elementary flows of resources, emissions
to air, emissions to water, and emissions to land required in my unit process inventories. Ive also
listed the specific name of each flow, using generally-accepted names for each type of mass. Youll
do the same in our spreadsheet model for the bottled soda life cycle.
You may now be asking yourself, how do I arrive at such a detailed list of flow data before actually
compiling the inventory data for my LCA? For my plastic bag LCA, Ive included the flow data that I
know are required for my chosen life-cycle impact assessment categories, as discussed in the last
lecture. Well discuss the impact assessment step more in future lectures, but for now lets take a
quick peek ahead so you can better visualize what Im talking about here.
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10.2
111
This is the tab Ill use to convert emissions of greenhouse gases in my plastic bag life cycle inventory
into units of carbon dioxide equivalents, which allows me to calculate an impact metric called
global warming potential. As we can see, to calculate global warming potential I need inventory
data for any flows of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other air pollutants from my unit
processes. Thus, my data requirements should include these types of air pollutant flows if I want to
calculate global warming potential. And, when we review my data requirements list, we can see
that I have indeed included flows of these key air pollutants.
If I find in my inventory step that data on these air pollutants is not available, I can remove them
from my data requirements. However, if I do so, I may also need to adjust the goals and scope
defined for my LCA, since Id no longer be able to calculate global warming potential. Moreover, Id
also have to state explicitly that a limitation to my study is that it does not consider global warming
potential.
Alternatively, if one knows which data sources one will use for the life-cycle inventory step, one can
also look ahead to those data to determine which data flows can and cant be included in the list of
data requirements. The truth is, in many LCAs, the list of required flow data evolves with the
inventory and impact steps based on what data are available and the resources and time available
to the analyst. This is yet another example of the iterative nature of LCA.
Lastly, in the data requirements field of my scope definition, I want to indicate that all data used in
my study will come from secondary data sources.
This is because I dont have direct access to any actual processes in the plastic bag life cycle and also
because Im conducting an exploratory study with limited resources. In practice, youll find that
LCAs can be made up of data that are measured, estimated, or obtained from secondary sources,
and that LCAs often include mixtures of these data types.
So, now that Ive identified what flow data I need in my unit process inventories, I need to think
about the quality of those data. In other words, what characteristics do the data need to have for
me to have confidence that my LCA results have met the goals of my study? After all, LCA is a
modeling technique, and the outputs of any model are only as good as its inputs.
10.3
111
So how do we define the fuzzy concept of data quality? Fortunately, the ISO 14040 standards have
defined the different dimensions of data quality that we should be careful to address in any LCA.
Here is the list, which Ill go through one by one:
Time-related coverage, which refers to the desired age of the data; for example, the results
of my plastic bag LCA will be far less relevant if Im using data from 20 years ago than if Im
using data from last year. When collecting primary data, time-related coverage can also
refer to the minimum length of time over which the data should be collected;
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Geographical coverage, which refers to the geographical area from which data for unit
processes should be collected to satisfy the goals of the study. For example, one can gather
data on plastic bag manufacturing in a given state, for a given nation, or at the global
average level. In my study, Ill be analyzing the plastic bag life cycle in the United States, so
it wouldnt be ideal for me to use data obtained for plastic bag systems in Asia;
Technology coverage, which refers to the technology mix for a given unit processes. The
technology used in any unit process can vary greatly based on the type of technology, the
vintage of the technology, or the efficiency of the technology. For example, there may be
short haul single unit trucks or long haul tractor-trailer trucks that distribute my plastic bag
to the grocery store. Furthermore, within the single unit truck category, there may be
trucks with high efficiency engines and standard efficiency engines. Thus, in my unit process
for trucking, I need to know what mix of truck types and performance was used to generate
the inventory so I can be sure the technology mix reflects the real-world mix for distributing
my plastic bag.
In practice, time-related coverage, geographical coverage, and technology coverage can often be
ascertained from well-documented data sources, including many commercial LCA databases. As
such, you should get in the habit of always understanding and documenting these data quality
indicators in your LCA studies. In fact, youll do this is by assessing the:
10.4
111
10.5
111
Representativeness of the data, which is a qualitative assessment of the degree to which

the data set reflects the true population of interest with respect to geographical coverage,
time period, technology coverage. The more representative your data are, the closer they
are to describing your actual system of study.
Two other critical indicators of data quality are consistency and reproducibility. In fact, these are so
important that many LCA experts recommend consistency and reproducibility be used as
fundamental guiding principles throughout an LCA, rather than a retrospective measure of quality. I
share this view, so well stress these as follows:
Consistency is a qualitative assessment of how uniformly the study methodology is applied

to across the entirety of study steps and components. For example, for consistency we
want to use the same list of flows across unit processes, the same cut-off criteria for
excluded unit processes, data sources of similar quality, and data with the same level of
temporal, geographical, and technological coverage in all unit process inventories. Well
strive for consistency in all of these respects in our plastic bag and soda bottle LCA models.
Reproducibility is a qualitative assessment of the extent to which the documentation of

methods and data values allows independent reproduction of the results in the study. The
hallmark of good science is that it can be reproduced by independent experts. In our LCAs,
this means that well be documenting all data sources, calculations, estimation methods,
and modeling approaches so that they are crystal clear to your audience. In that way,
independent experts can understand your methods and validate or critique your results.
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Unfortunately, Ive seen many LCA studies that fail with respect to reproducibility of results. When
results are presented that I cant replicate, input variables are not documented explicitly, or
calculations arent clearly explained, I simply dont trust a studys results. And when the audience or
scientific community doesnt trust a studys results, there is no point in conducting the study in the
first place. Thats why youll develop the habit of thorough documentation in this course.
Two final measures of data quality recommended in the ISO 14040 guidelines are;
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111
Precision, which is the measure of variability of the data values for each data category
(variance)
Completeness, which refers to the percentage of locations reporting primary data out of the
potential number in existence for each data category in a unit process;
Id like to close with a few key points. First, when a study contains a comparative assertion made to
the public, the ISO 14040 guidelines require that all of the aforementioned data quality elements be
documented explicitly. This is done to ensure full transparency for any public claims. Second, due
to time restrictions I had to review these data quality elements quickly, but you need to understand
them very well. Thus, Ive provided some readings recommendations in the lecture notes. But dont
worry, youll gain familiarity with these data elements as we move forward into the inventory step.
Third, as with all other aspects of the LCA process, in practice one must iterate on data quality
requirements depending on study goals, scope, and inventory data and how all these steps change
over time. And fourth, note that as part of the LCA process well come back to all of these data
quality elements later and score how well we did as the study nears completion.
Additional notes
10.1
111
See the Data Requirements tab of the Week 4 version of the HDPE grocery bag LCA spreadsheet
file, which contains the list of flow data that are included in the plastic bag LCA model. Note that
this tab has a slightly different appearance than the screenshot shown in the lecture video due to
recent changes to the spreadsheet. These flow data were chosen on the basis of: (1) representing
all major environmental impact categories in the impact characterization model chosen for this
analysis (the U.S. EPA's TRACI, which well discuss in Week 8); and (2) their availability in the
publicly-available life-cycle inventory data sources selected for this study. The publicly-available
data sources we used for the inventories are listed in each unit process inventory tab. In practice,
data requirements are typically determined by the availability of data to model the system, the
environmental impacts one includes in the analysis, the flow data required by the impact
characterization model to analyze the included environmental impacts, and the data quality
requirements specified for the study (e.g., geographical, temporal, and technology coverage). Take
a look at the data requirements section of the Environment Agencys LCA of carrier bags for one
example of how data requirements are documented in practice.
10.2
111
This tab will be made available in the Week 7/8 version of the HDPE grocery bag LCA spreadsheet,
which is when well be discussing the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) step of an LCA. For now,
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just understand that in order to quantify a given environmental impact in an LCA, we need to ensure
that the mass flows that are relevant to that impact are included in our life-cycle inventory data.
10.3
111
Take a look at the Data Quality Requirements tab of the Week 4 version of the HDPE grocery bag
LCA spreadsheet file, which contains descriptions of the desired geographical, temporal, and
technology coverage of the LCA in order to meet the stated goals of the study. Because we are
interested in identifying environmental hot spots in our example HDPE grocery bag LCA, the
statements of geographical, temporal, and technology coverage are fairly broad. For example, the
desired temporal coverage is data from within the past 10 years, given that older data are likely to
be sufficient for the identifying major hot spots in the plastic bag life cycle. Take a look at the
data requirements section of the Environment Agencys LCA of carrier bags for one example of how
data quality requirements are documented in practice.
10.4
111
In Week 6, well discuss assessments of representativeness and other data quality indicators in more
depth. Youll also perform a representativeness check on your bottled soft drink LCA toward the
end of this course. For now, just understand the basic concept of representativeness and think
about the representativeness of your analysis as you build out your bottled soft drink LCA model.
Furthermore, note that in our spreadsheet LCA models, temporal, geographical, and technology
coverage are listed at the very top of each unit process inventory tab so that we consciously track
each data quality element for every inventory in our model. This careful attention documenting
data quality dimensions across an LCA helps one constantly check for consistency when compiling
data and makes assessment of overall study data quality much easier later on.
10.5
111
Well discuss a structured approach for checking the consistency of an LCA in Week 9, when youll
also perform a consistency check on your bottled soft drink LCA. For now, just understand the basic
concept of consistency as defined above and think about the consistency of your analysis as you
build out your bottled soft drink LCA model. Furthermore, youll ensure reproducibility of your
bottled soft drink LCA model by documenting all data sources and modeling assumptions and
capturing all calculations in your spreadsheet model. Note that weve carefully documented all data
sources within the HDPE grocery bag and bottled soft drink spreadsheet files.
10.6
111
For a detailed discussion on identifying and specifying data requirements and data quality
requirements in an LCA, see Sections 6.8 and 6.9 of the following report. The detailed guidance
provided in these sections underscores the importance of, and the nuances associated with,
establishment of important data and data quality requirements. In this course, we are taking a very
basic approach to identifying data requirements and data quality requirements in the interest of
time. In practice, however, these steps require much thought and careful planning. Youll
appreciate just how complicated and important these steps are in practice when reading Sections
6.8 and 6.9!
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Lecture 11: Scope definition: review and reporting

Transcript
Welcome back! Today well wrap up our discussions of goal and scope definition. By now, it should
be clear to you just how important proper definitions of goals and scope are for a credible and
transparent LCA. We have just two more topics before we move on to collecting and working with
data in the inventory analysis step.
The first topic is critical review. As I mentioned in the previous lecture, one hallmark of good science
is that it can be reproduced by others. Another hallmark of good science is that it has stood up to
critical review by ones peers. In a critical review, independent experts will evaluate an LCA to
ensure that its stated goals are supported by its scope and methods, its data sources are
appropriate and credible, its methods are of sufficient rigor and transparency while also being free
of major errors, and that its results are properly interpreted and communicated. In short, critical
review provides a valuable external quality check by knowledgeable experts.
There are several reasons one might want a critical review. First and foremost, if an LCA makes
comparative assertions to be disclosed to the public, the ISO 14040 standards require that the study
undergo critical review by a panel of independent experts before being made available to the public.
Second, external peer review can provide added credibility to a study, because the audience knows
that knowledgeable experts have performed an important quality check. Third, Ive always found
that external peer review only strengthens a study, because independent experts can often offer
helpful advice on better data sources, better methods, and better ways of communicating the
studys contents.
A critical review can either occur at the end of a study, or concurrently with it. Concurrent review
means that reviewers provide feedback on the goal and scope definitions as they are formed, and
on preliminary results from the inventory analysis and impact assessment steps. One advantage to
concurrent review is that it provides the analyst with early feedback so that, when changes are
necessary, they can be made before getting too far ahead when changes become more difficult to
implement.
11.1
The extent and type of critical review should be specified in the scope of a study. Similarly, who the
reviewers are and their level of expertise should be stated as well. Now, its very important that the
reviewers are independent experts, meaning they have not been involved in the study and dont
have a vested interest in its outcomes. Moreover, there are guidelines for setting acceptable
qualifications for reviewers, which Ive referred you to in the lecture notes. Lastly, a review
statement and authors responses to reviewer comments are typically included in the final LCA
report for full transparency.
11.2
Lets now move on to our second topic: the reporting format. In this course, you wont be writing a
formal report for your bottled soft drink LCA study. However, it is important that you understand
the elements of a proper report for when you do issue such reports in the future. Also, note that
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nearly all of the elements of a proper report will be included in our spreadsheet models in the
interests of documentation and transparency.
The ISO 14040 standards state that reports should ensure that:
Results and conclusions are reported completely and accurately, and without bias to the
intended audience,
All results, data, methods, assumptions, and limitations are reported transparently, and
Results and interpretation are used in a matter that is consistent with the goals of the study.
To accomplish these goals, many practitioners follow a reporting template for LCA studies, which
has also been laid out by the ISO 14040 standards. There are seven major sections to this template,
which Ill explain briefly one by one:
The first section contains general aspects of the LCA study, including the study commissioner, the
date of the report, and, when required, a statement that the study has been conducted in
accordance with ISO 14040 guidelines.
The second section describes the goals defined for the study, including the purpose, intended
applications, the target audience, who conducted the study, and whether comparative assertions
will be disclosed to the public.
Recall that weve documented all of these goal definition elements on the first tab of our
spreadsheets.
The third section describes the scope defined for the study, including the function, functional unit,
system boundaries, data and data quality requirements, the impact assessment methodology,
allocation methods, cut-off criteria, and critical review requirements.
Recall that weve documented most of these elements on the first tab of our spreadsheet as well.
Moreover, before we complete our study, well go back and document allocation methods and cutoff criteria, too.
The fourth section describes in detail the inventory analysis step, including the types of data, the
sources of data, descriptions of unit processes, and calculation methods. This section can also
include the results of any sensitivity analyses that were performed to refine the system boundaries,
which well learn how to do later in this course. As you build your bottled soft drink LCA model,
youll include most of these reporting elements as part of your modeling structure. For example,
each unit process inventory will be contained on a separate tab for ease of review.
The fifth section covers the life-cycle impact assessment step. Ideally, this section describes the
impact assessment method that was chosen, how the impact assessment method supports the goals
of the study, and other details that well discuss when we cover impact assessment later in this
course.
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With respect to your spreadsheet model, your impact assessment methods and calculations will be
contained on dedicated tabs, which will serve as your documentation.
The sixth section covers the interpretation step, including your results, your data quality
assessment, and any assumptions and limitations that would affect how your results should be
interpreted.
Each of these elements will also occupy separate tabs in your spreadsheet model.
The seventh and final section describes the critical review, including the type of review, the review
report, and responses to comments. Obviously, this section is only required for reports that
undergo critical review.
Ive found that having this reporting structure in mind as I conduct an LCA study helps me better
document and organize my information along the way, which makes report writing much easier
when the study is complete.
Again, even though you wont write a final report, I hope its clear how most of these required
sections will be captured automatically in your spreadsheet by the way youll build it out. My goal
is for you to document all aspects of your study within your spreadsheet so that, hopefully, report
writing will be a natural extension of what youve learned in this course.
11.3
That said, I want to stress that there are more details associated with each of these sections than
Ive discussed here, so Ive provided some recommended readings in the lecture notes that you can
consult you can learn more. You should definitely do so if youre planning to write an LCA report
anytime soon. Lastly, so you can see some real-world examples of how good LCA reports are
structured, Ive provided some links to recent publicly-available LCA reports in the lecture notes.
Ill see you next time!
Additional notes
11.1
For some examples of critical review -- including the involvement of independent experts, their
comments, and the authors responses to their comments see the LCA reports that are listed
under note 11.3 below.
11.2
As youll recognize toward the end of this course, the design of our HDPE grocery bag LCA and
bottled soft drink LCA models closely follows these major reporting elements and sections. In
practice, when conducting an LCA, careful planning of the analysis, data sources and structure, and
the model format can make writing a formal report much easier.
11.3
Here are a few recent studies that generally follow the ISO 14040 guidelines for reporting. Take a
look at them and see if you can identify the major sections weve discussed above. Note how this
reporting format is valuable for several reasons:
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It forces one to document clearly all major study design, data, analysis, and interpretation
decisions.
It provides a step-by-step overview of the entire LCA process, which makes for intuitive
reading.
It allows the audience to easily identify analysis assumptions and decisions of interest by
looking to the appropriate section; for example, one can easily find the definition of the
functional unit by jumping to that section (as opposed to hunting for it in a poorly formatted
report).
It facilitates critical review by explicitly documenting all major steps and assumptions in an
LCA study.
There are many other examples of well-formatted LCA reports in the public domain. See if you can
find some yourself! Also, you may also encounter poorly-formatted LCA reports in practice. Having
an idea of how useful a well-formatted report can be is a good reminder to follow best practice
reporting protocols in your own LCAs!
Report: SC030148.
cho0711buan-e-e.pdf
World Steel Association (2011). Methodology report: Life cycle inventory study for steel
products. Brussels, Belgium. ISBN 978-2-930069-66-1.
https://www.worldsteel.org/dms/internetDocumentList/bookshop/LCA-MethodologyReport/document/LCA%20Methodology%20Report.pdf
PE Americas (2010). Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Aluminum Beverage Cans. Boston, MA.
http://www.container-recycling.org/assets/pdfs/aluminum/LCA-2010-AluminumAssoc.pdf
Bio Intelligence Service (2010). Nordic Life Cycle Assessment: Wine Packaging Study. Paris,
France.
http://www.tetrapak.com/se/DocumentBank/LCA%20Nordic%20Wine%20comparative_Au
gust_10_with%20final%20statement.pdf
Trisha Montalbo, Jeremy Gregory, and Randolph Kirchain (2011). Life Cycle Assessment of
Hand Drying Systems. Materials Systems Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
http://msl.mit.edu/publications/HandDryingLCA-Report.pdf
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Lecture 12: Life cycle inventories: the basics

Transcript
Were now ready to move on to the inventory analysis
step in the LCA process.
I know youre probably eager start collecting and
analyzing data for your bottled soda LCA, so today were
going to jump right into it with an overview of our
inventory modeling approach. Well use my plastic bag
LCA spreadsheet as an example, but youll be laying out
your bottled soda spreadsheet model in exactly the same
way.
But first, I wanted to remind you that well be using only
secondary data in this course as a matter of practicality.
However, in the future you may need to compile primary
data directly from the systems you are studying, so lets
quickly discuss how one actually gets primary data for unit
process inventories. In practice, there are many different ways of gathering primary data, but here
are some of the most common:
Direct process measurements over a period of time
Utility and fuel bills
Process monitoring and control software
Meters readings from equipment
Equipment and process specifications, and
Company data logs and records
12.1
If youre interested, recommended readings for further guidance on collecting primary data have
been provided in the lecture notes. Well spend the rest of this lecture observing how Ive laid out
my plastic bag LCA spreadsheet model in the inventory analysis step.
12.2
First, note that Ive used a single tab to contain the inventory for each unit process in my life cycle
system. Ive labeled the tab with a brief name that describes the unit process, making sure to use
the same unit process name I used in my system diagram. Ive chosen to order my tabs roughly in
the order they appear in the life cycle of my plastic bag, but you can order them in any way that
makes sense to you, for example, alphabetically.
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12.3
Second, for ease of navigation around my model, Ive made use of the hyperlink feature in my
spreadsheet software. At the top of each unit process inventory tab, I can jump back to the system
diagram. And I can click on a unit process box in my system diagram to jump to the inventory tab
for that unit process.
Third, Ive laid out each unit process inventory tab in the exact same way. At the top, I list the unit
process name. In the following rows well be tracking the important data quality characteristics we
discussed earlier: time-related coverage, geographical coverage, and technology coverage. Well do
this for each unit process inventory to get in the habit of paying close attention to data quality; this
will also make our data quality assessment later in the study much easier. Moreover, tracking data
quality for each unit process will help us ensure consistency throughout our LCA model.
Fourth, Ive provided space for additional notes, including any allocation or scope details that help
me interpret my inventory as well as document key data assumptions. These notes are very
important for ensuring transparency and reproducibility of our modeling results.
Lastly, Ive organized the actual inventory data into the four major categories we discussed earlier:
flows from nature, flows from the technosphere, flows to the technosphere, and flows to nature.
Under each category, Ive listed the specific flow names that are captured across my unit process
inventories. Note-and this is very importantthat Ive made sure that all flows in each category
appear in the same row in every unit process inventory in my model.
For example, flows of carbon dioxide to nature always appear in this row, whether it be on my
ethylene to HDPE pellets unit process tab or my diesel truck unit process tab. Using the same layout
across my unit process inventory tabs is a matter of convenience; it allows me to easily sum up flow
data across all unit process models. I do this on a tab Ive labeled life-cycle inventory summary,
where you can see Ive simply summed up flows of carbon dioxide using a formula that refers to the
same row number in every unit process worksheet. Youll do the same in your bottled soft drink LCA
spreadsheet.
12.4
Note also that weve added a seventh column to our standard unit process inventory structure,
which well use for noting references for the data. Well use standard citation format for all
references, which you can review in the lecture notes. Carefully recording the sources of all data in
our unit process inventories is critical for ensuring full transparency and reproducibility. Ive created
a master list of references on the last tab in my spreadsheet, which Ive organized in alphabetical
order.
For those of you wholl use commercial LCA software packages in practice, the good news is that you
dont need to worry about such careful organization of data, rows, and tabs because the software
will track all data relationships for you. In our case, organizing your model in this way will help you
better visualize system flows and data relationships, which should improve your understanding of
the course material.
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12.5
To get you started, weve provided inventory data tabs for all background processes in your bottled
soft drink LCA model, which can be downloaded today. Specifically, weve provided cradle to gate
unit process inventories for transportation fuels like diesel fuel, industrial fuels like natural gas, and
for U.S. average electricity generation and distribution. Weve also provided a life-cycle inventory
summary tab, which youll use to sum up flows across your life-cycle system.
In the next few lectures, well discuss how the inventory analysis step works so you can begin
compiling and analyzing unit process inventory data for foreground processes in your bottled soft
drink LCA model. Before too long, youll have a complete life-cycle inventory in place, which will
give you a first glimpse of the environmental hot spots in the bottled soda life-cycle.
Additional notes
12.1
The following report contains very detailed guidance on the elements of LCI generation and
compilation, including some discussion of primary data collection considerations:
12.2
To better understand each of these tabs, refer to the Week 3 HDPE grocery bag LCA spreadsheet
file. Note that these tabs have slightly different appearances than the screenshots shown in the
lecture video due to recent changes to the spreadsheet. Try to follow along as I discuss each tab,
and take some time to understand the content of each tab as well as the calculations that occur to
generate the life-cycle inventory (LCI) results. Here are some additional points to consider:
- Observe how each unit process inventory has its product output expressed as a multiplier
of one for ease of scaling.
- Note that the order of flows has changed compared to the lecture videos. Specifically,
inputs to nature and outputs to nature appear first in each inventory so that these standard
flows appear on the same rows in each unit process inventory across the spreadsheet. This
allows for easy summation of LCI data on the LCI Results tab of the spreadsheet (which
lists flows in the same order and rows as the unit process inventories observe this for
yourself).
- Please read the important notes on the Read Me tab of the spreadsheet, which contain
information on how to properly interpret the spreadsheet.
- This spreadsheet will be built out in week-by-week fashion over the duration of the
course, based on the topics covered each week. A similar process can be followed as you
develop your bottled soft drink LCA model.
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To keep the model intuitive and simple, all unit processes are represented by aggregated
inventories that contain:
1. only the major inputs and outputs to and from the technosphere that are related to the
physical transformation that occurs in the unit process itself;
2. flows from nature that account for the original resource inputs into the energy systems that
fuel the unit process;
3. flows to nature that arise from the energy systems that fuel the unit process; and
4. flows to nature due to direct emissions from the unit process itself.
For example, consider the aggregated unit process inventory for production of ethylene (see the
Ethylene Mfg tab), which is also depicted in the figure below:
1. Inputs from the technosphere include processed natural gas and refined petroleum
products, which are converted into ethylene; the output to the technosphere is ethylene.
2. The production of ethylene includes the consumption of electricity, natural gas, and other
fuels, which are denoted by dashed ovals in the figure. The system boundary for the
aggregated unit process inventory includes the extraction, conversion, and transport
processes necessary to produce these fuels from natural resources. For example, electricity
is produced by extracting and processing coal, natural gas, etc. and using these fuels to
generate electricity in a power plant. Thus, the system boundary includes the extraction/
conversion, transport, and generation processes to convert resources from nature into the
fuels consumed by the ethylene production process. As such, the inputs from nature refer
to the primary energy sources extracted from nature related to all fuels consumed in
ethylene production.
3. The extraction, processing, conversion, and transport of fuels consumed in the production
of ethylene result in emissions to air, water, and land. These emissions are included in the
outputs to nature leaving the aggregated unit process. See the processes denoted by boxes
in the figure; these are the processes from which the emissions to air, land, and water
leaving the system boundary arise.
4. The combustion of fuels in the production of ethylene, and other process-related emissions
(such as waste generation) from the ethylene production process are also included in the
outputs to nature. See the processes denoted by boxes in the figure; these are the
processes from which the emissions to air, land, and water leaving the system boundary
arise.
These aggregated inventories provide a more convenient form for the simple LCAs well conduct in
this course, and allow us to include the life-cycle systems for production of fuels consumed in our
unit processes in an efficient manner. Youll also work with aggregated unit process inventories in
Homework 4.
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12.3
The hyperlink feature has been eliminated from the spreadsheet files given that hyperlinks would
not function properly in all versions of MS Excel and OpenOffice Calc in past course offerings.
12.4
A very common reference for proper formatting of citations from different sources (e.g., academic
journals, websites, and technical reports) is:
12.5
The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
While this statement was true in our first course offering, our current versions of the HDPE grocery
bag LCA spreadsheet and bottled soft drink LCA spreadsheet files will introduce these various unit
process inventory tabs in more gradual fashion so that you can have more hands on experience
building the spreadsheet model on your own.
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Lecture 13: Life cycle inventories: mass flows and cut off criteria
Transcript
Today well continue learning and practicing the life-cycle inventory analysis step. As you can
imagine, the inventory analysis step is profoundly important in an LCA, because the results of an LCA
are only as good as its input data. Given that this is a short, introductory course, we only have time
to cover the basic elements of inventory analysis. Similarly, given the time constraints, well also be
providing you with many of your inventory data to help you construct your bottled soft drink LCA
model. However, I want to stress that becoming proficient at compiling consistent, representative,
and credible inventories takes a lot of time and practice, especially for complex product systems.
Imagine, for example, the complexity of compiling an inventory for an automobile or a computer,
which contain hundreds of different parts and materials!
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My point is, I dont want you to get the impression that inventory analysis is always so quick and
easy; for this reason, Ive provided more discussion of inventory analysis in the lecture notes as well
as recommended readings for learning more about this important topic.
So lets move forward with the inventory analysis of my plastic bag life-cycle.
Recall that in my scope definition, I identified the data requirements for my inventory analysis. With
this knowledge, I can conduct the following tasks to complete my inventory analysis:
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My first task is to collect inventory data for all unit processes in my systems diagram. Since I am
using secondary data, my sources will include public LCA databases, literature data, and perhaps
data I estimate myself. For your bottled soft drink life-cycle inventory, youll be compiling data from
sources we provide for you online.
Next, as I collect these data, its important to validate them to ensure they meet my defined data
quality requirements, for example, for time-related, geographical, and technology coverage.
Additional validation can include checking to ensure that mass is conserved across a unit process
inventory and looking for obvious errors in the data. Another quick check is to scale up unit process
data to see if they make sense at the regional level. For example, I could multiply my unit process
inventory for HDPE pellet manufacturing by the annual tons of HDPE pellets manufactured in the
United States each year. If doing so results in a total energy use that is greater than the energy use
of the U.S. resin manufacturing sector as a whole, I know there is something wrong with my unit
process inventory!
After collecting my unit process inventory data, I need to scale them up or down in my model to
match the mass flow quantities required to meet the reference flow of my system, which is one 5g
HDPE grocery bag. This scaling is necessary because many unit process inventories youll find are
based on product outputs with multiples of 1, as we discussed earlier. Let me show you how I do
this in my plastic bag LCA model.
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Because the plastic bag life-cycle is a simple system with relatively few technosphere flows to track,
Ive created a separate tab for specifying the mass flows necessary from each unit process in my
system to meet my reference flow requirements. In this way, I can make changes to my reference
flow or mass requirement relationships in one place in my model. Not only does this allow me to
easily adapt my model to different mass flow relationships or reference flows, but it also allows me
to keep all my unit process inventories based on product outputs that are multiples of 1. In other
words, I can easily scale my flows up or down without having to change my unit process inventory
data. As I mentioned earlier, Ive also linked this information to my system flow diagram, which is
something I like to do to help me visualize the system.
Once my unit process inventories are scaled to meet my reference flow, the inventories can be
aggregated to calculate the inventory for the entire life-cycle system. As I mentioned last time, this
is done on my results summary tab, where you can see Ive put in formulas to add up each flow
across all unit process models.
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But before we leave mass flows, lets talk briefly about cut off rules for which flows and unit
processes to exclude from an LCA. While the goal of LCA is to be as inclusive as possible, from a
practicality perspective it makes sense in most LCAs to leave out mass flows or unit processes that
have negligible impacts on the results. The ISO 14040 standards define cut off criteria as the
amount of material or energy flow or the level of environmental significance associated with unit
processes or product system to be excluded from a study.
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In practice there are three criteria we can use:
A mass criterion, in which we require that all inputs that cumulatively contribute more than
a defined percentage of the total system mass input must be included;
A energy criterion, in which, similar to mass, we require that all inputs that cumulatively
contribute more than a defined percentage of the total system energy input must be
included; and
An environmental significance criterion, which states that we should include any inputs
that contribute more than a defined amount of select environmental impacts because of
their environmental relevance.
This last criterion is important because we dont want to exclude small mass flows, for example, if
they can still have a significant environmental impact. For example, very small amounts of mercury
still pose human and ecological health hazards when released into nature.
A good LCA study will state clearly what these cut off criteria are in the scope definition. For
example, one might state that if a mass or energy flow is less than 2% of the total, and these mass
and energy flows contribute less than 2% of environmental impacts, they will be left out of the
study. The specific thresholds are at the discretion of the analyst, but they must always be stated
clearly so that others are aware that the criteria were applied. As you can imagine, identifying mass
and energy flows that can be excluded is an iterative approach. One must first compile an inclusive
inventory, then assess the environmental impacts, and then determine if the cut off criteria have
been met. Its good practice in LCA to report the specific mass and energy flows that were left out
due to cut off criteria.
In our plastic bag and bottled soda LCA studies, well leave out capital equipment and facilities from
our system boundaries, but we wont apply any further cut off rules to keep things simple.
However, you should be a aware that cut off rules are quite common in practice and can save a lot
of work when applied carefully in an LCA.
Id also like to stress that, after any cut off rules are applied, one must go back and refine the system
boundary defintions and system flow diagram to reflect these changes. For example, since Ill leave
out capital equipment and facilities from my plastic bag LCA system boundaries, Ill go back and
document this on my scope definition tab.
Lastly, lets close with another inventory data matter: dealing with missing data. In the next lecture
well discuss the use of estimation as a means of generating ones own unit process inventories
when such inventories cant be obtained from primary or secondary data sources. In reality, we
often encounter missing data and its important to acknowledge this in the documentation of an LCA
study.
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Additionally, its important to explain how you addressed the missing data. Specifically, the ISO
14040 standards advise that when you fill a data gap:
a non-zero data value is explained; for example, did you estimate it or use data from a
similar process?
a zero value is explained; foror example does this mean that a given flow is not present or
you assume that its negligible?
You can probably imagine how such documentation is critical for transparency and for
reproducability of your results. Moreover, to ensure your LCA study has consistency, the
explanations for filling data gaps should use similar logic and methods.
Additional notes
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For more discussion on the life-cycle inventory (LCI) step in an LCA, and the details and protocols
associated with LCI compilation, the course staff recommends the following resources. Note that
the second resource contains many nuanced details for more advanced reading.
Practice, 2006, Chapter 3: http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html (Note this
document is also commonly referred to as LCA 101.)
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Note that this screenshot appears slightly different than the Scaling tab in the HDPE grocery bag
LCA model due to recent improvements to the model.
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With the increasing use of input-output (IO) LCI methods (which youll learn about in Week 7), and
hybrid methods that combine traditional process-based LCI with IO LCI, the use of cut off rules is
becoming less common. However, well cover cut off rules in this course so you have some
familiarity with them in case you encounter cut off rules in published LCA studies or LCI databases
in your career moving forward. You may be asking yourselves: If I have sufficient data to know
when one or more flows contribute less than 2% to the sum of all flows, why wouldnt I simply leave
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those flows in my LCA (as opposed to cutting them out) since Ive already compiled them? In fact, if
you have sound data that meet your stated data quality goals, you can simply leave them in your
analysis even if they represent a small fraction of total flows. However, if including multiple small
flows adds to the complexity or duration of your project, or the inventories for those small flows do
not meet your stated data quality goals (e.g., with respect to time-related, geographical, or
technology coverage), it is sometimes advantageous to exclude them on the basis of well-articulated
and logical cut off rules. Youll get some practice with this approach in Homework 7, in which
youll examine the flows of ink in your bottled soft drink LCA project to determine if you can exclude
those flows using simple cut off rules.
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In this course, well be providing you with many empty cell values in your inventories, which you can
treat as indicative of no or negligible flow quantities. In practice, however, missing or zero flow
values within inventories used to conduct an LCA should be clearly explained per these ISO 14040
guidelines.
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Lecture 14: Life cycle inventories: data estimation

Transcript
So far youve been provided with all of the inventory data youve used in your bottled soft drink LCA,
which is helping you focus on learning the basics of inventory analysis and building out your model.
In practice, however, youll often encounter data gaps when compiling a unit process inventory. For
example, you may find that important flow data are missing from existing inventory sources, or,
even more commonly, that an inventory does not even exist for one or more of your unit processes.
What do you do when this happens? Of course, if you have direct access to the actual process, you
can try to collect primary data to fill your data gaps.
But in many LCA studies, we dont have access to the real-world processes and so primary data
collection isnt possible. And, even though todays commercial and public LCA databases contain a
lot of great inventory data, they do not come close to being inclusive of many materials, processes,
and products you may like to study.
For example, perhaps you are studying a specialty material that is not used widely. Or perhaps you
are studying a new material or unit process for which data dont yet exist. Or, as is most common,
you may simply be studying one of the many thousands of materials and unit processes that are in
use in the real world but havent been subjected to an LCA yet. As youve learned, a good life-cycle
inventory takes time, planning, and money to compile, so existing inventories are limited. So, if you
practice LCA, dealing with data gaps comes with the territory.
Today well discuss using analysis-based estimation methods to generate inventory data. By
analysis-based, what I mean is that we use reasoned data analysis or engineering methods to
estimate inventory data. In other words, we dont make estimates based on guesswork or intuition,
which can seriously reduce the credibility of an analysis.
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Let me give you three quick examples of analysis-based estimation, one of which youll also practice
in your homework assignment. The first is an example of what some might call a black box
inventory, where we assemble consistent inputs and outputs without explicitly characterizing the
functional relationships between them. Such inventories can sometimes be constructed using
environmental statistics, such as those issued by regional or national government agencies.
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In my case, Ill construct a black box inventory for diesel-fueled light trucks in the United States
using national fleet, energy use, and emissions data. My data source is the U.S. Department of
Energys Transportation Energy Data Book, which is issued annually. The year of my data is 2005,
the geographical coverage is the United States, and the technology mix is the average of all light
diesel trucks in operation.
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Here are the data, which include total passenger-miles traveled, diesel fuel use, and emissions of
CO2, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur
dioxide for the 2005 U.S. light truck fleet. To construct the inventory, Ill choose a product output of
1 passenger-mile, and normalize all my input and output data on this basis. My estimated inventory
then looks like this:
Such an approach typically only works for widespread technologies or entire industries for which all
relevant flow data are consistently tracked. Note that when using this approach, you must be sure
that it is acceptable in light of the data quality requirements for your study.
For example, this sort of estimated inventory might be acceptable as a background process in an LCA
model. Note also that we dont know the relationship between inputs and outputs; for example, if
we change the amount of fuel used per passenger-mile, we dont know by how much emissions of
VOCs per passenger-mile should also change. Hence the name black box model. Another
important consideration is that one needs to establish that all relevant flows are captured. In this
case, Im only capturing combustion-related air emissions so I need to document that any other
relevant flows, such as waste engine oil discarded per passenger-mile of travel, are not considered.
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The second example is using verified air emission factors for combustion-related unit processes such
as furnaces, kilns, or boilers. Recall that I used this approach earlier in the course when I estimated
the unit process inventory for operating a residential hot water heater.
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I obtained air emission factors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys AP-42 Emission
Factor database, which contains emission factors for many different combustion technologies based
on test data and engineering methods.
One can also find emission factors from other environmental agencies and in the engineering
literature. Note that this approach typically only captures air emissions, which are the primary
outputs of most combustion processes. Other flows such as disposal of recovered ash or other
pollutant abatement flows would have to be estimated from other sources. Thus, like our black
box model, the emission factor approach applies to generic technology populations and is thus best
suited for background processes. However, the emission factor approach does capture the
functional relationship between fuel inputs and air emissions outputsand sometimes the
relationship between product outputs, fuel inputs, and air emissions outputsand thus it is more
flexible than a black box approach.
The third example is using an engineering approach to quantify the functional relationship between
unit process inputs and outputs using a process model. For example, lets say I want to construct a
unit process inventory for an industrial blower used in a pneumatic conveyor. From basic energy
engineering, I know that the relationship between fan input power and fan output power is:
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Where HP = fan horsepower, CFM =cubic feet per minute of airflow and PSI = pounds per square
inch of air pressure. If I have some understanding of the process I am analyzing, I can estimate the
CFM and PSI and use a typical fan efficiency for the application from the engineering literature. I
can then convert to kWh of electricity required to provide pressurized air at a given flow rate and
pressure for a given amount of time.
This is admittedly a simple example. In practice, engineering estimation can become more
complicated for more complex processes. The point is that, if one can characterize the underlying
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physics or chemistry of a process in a way that conserves mass and energy, it is often possible to
construct engineering based inventories when no other sources of data are available.
However, with this method its critically important that the engineering functions reflect the realworld equipment characteristics, including efficiency losses. Thus, engineering estimates are best
left to engineers with process knowledge.
Lastly, I want to point out that all of these methods can also be helpful for checking unit process
inventory data throughout a study. As I mentioned previously, data validation is an important step
in the life-cycle inventory process. It is always a good idea to double check all inventory data using
logic, comparing to black box data, comparing to emission factors, or comparing to engineering
models.
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For example, lets check the CO2 flow in my unit process inventory for diesel fueled light trucks
using an air emission factor for diesel fuel combustion. According to the US EPA, on average a liter
of diesel fuel will release 2.7 kg of CO2 during combustion. If I apply that emission factor to the
diesel fuel and CO2 data in my black box model, I can see that the CO2 flow value seems
reasonable for the stated fuel input.
So weve now seen three ways we can address data gaps using analysis-based estimation
approaches. However, there are important caveats that Ill stress again. First, all approaches to
addressing data gaps must be clearly documented and reproducible so your audience can form their
own opinions about the credibility of your methods. Second, compiling primary data is clearly
preferable to using estimation approaches whenever feasible. Third, any estimation method must
meet the minimum data quality requirements stated in the scope definition of an LCA study,
otherwise the goals of the study will not be met.
Despite these caveats, these methods can often be helpful in the absence of better data. In my
experience, using estimation to fill data gaps is especially helpful for generic background processes
and for determining if a given unit process or flow qualifies for exclusion from a study on the basis of
stated cut-off rules.
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Additional notes
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Correction: Here I said Let me give you three quick examples of analysis-based estimation, which
youll also practice in your homework assignment when I should have said Let me give you three
quick examples of analysis-based estimation, one of which youll also practice in your homework
assignment.
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The U.S. Department of Energys Transportation Energy Data Book is a good source of data on U.S.
national transport vehicle fleet characteristics, energy use, driving characteristics, and emissions. It
can be accessed at the link below. It is a good example of a data source that enables analysis-based
estimation of generic, black box inventories of select flows for national average technologies in
the United States based on data collected by government agencies.
Davis, S., Diegel, S.W., and R.G. Boundy (2014). Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 33.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. http://cta.ornl.gov/data/index.shtml
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys AP-42 compendium of emission factors is an exhaustive
resource that can be used to estimate the air emissions from a wide range of combustion sources in
the absence of primary or secondary inventory data on unit processes with combustion. As
discussed in Lecture 4, you may find it useful in the future for estimating the air emissions
associated with burning fuels in common processes across the residential, commercial, industrial,
and transport sectors. http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/
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Youll practice constructing an analysis-based unit process inventory in Homework 5. Specifically,

youll estimate the kWh of electricity required for treating water and delivering it to the bottled soft
drink plant for inclusion in the bottled soft drink. Youll then use unit process inventory data for
electricity to create one aggregated, analysis-based unit process inventory for water treatment and
delivery in your spreadsheet model.
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For those of you who might be interested in estimating air pollutant emissions from cars, trucks,
motorcycles, and other vehicles (including non-road vehicles) under various conditions, check out
the U.S. EPAs suite of mobile emissions modeling tools at the link below. While not recommended
for casual analysts, this software can be used by those who wish to conduct detailed and rigorous
assessments of vehicle emissions in transport-related LCA studies:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2014). Modeling and Inventories. Washington, DC.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/models.htm
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Lecture 15: Life cycle inventories: multi-functionality

Transcript
Today were going to discuss the issue of multi-functionality, which is a common challenge we face
when compiling life-cycle inventory data. Simply put, if a unit process provides more than one
function, it is known as a multi-functional process. Lets illustrate multi-functionality with a simple
example.
Suppose we have a unit process inventory for a commercial baking facility, which was compiled
based on plant-level data provided by the baking company. The major technosphere inputs into this
facility include electricity and natural gas, and ingredients such as flour, yeast, and salt. The major
outputs to nature from this facility include emissions of CO2, NOx, and other air pollutants, as well
as wastewater. The major outputs to the technosphere are baked bread, which is sold to retailers,
and frozen dough, which is sold to restaurants that will bake their own bread later.
So, here we have a unit process that has two different product outputs: baked bread and frozen
dough. Lets assume that we want to use these inventory data to conduct an LCA of only one of the
products, say, baked bread. To use these data, we must decide what fractions of the inputs should
be assigned to just the baked bread, and what fractions of the outputs to nature to assign to just the
baked bread. In other words, we have a multi-functionality problem to address in our inventory
data.
In practice, dealing with multi-functionality is a common challenge in LCA, because multi-functional
unit processes are everywhere.
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For example, many electric power plants generate both electricity and district steam. What
fractions of the fuel inputs and pollutant outputs should we assign to just the steam?
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Or, consider an end of life pathway in which a waste-to-energy plant generates electricity and
steam from many different types of waste mixed together. How much of the electricity and steam
outputs do I assign to just my waste, which is part of that mixed waste stream?
There are many different types of multi-functionality problems that one encounters when
conducting LCAs. Ill illustrate a few of them, using guidance from the ISO 14040 standards for how
to deal with multi-functionality in practice. The standards use the term allocation, which is a more
general way to refer to the process of assigning fractions of inventory flows to different inputs or
outputs in multi-functional processes.
The standards presents a 3-step approach for dealing with allocation, which Ill go through one-byone:
Step 1: Wherever possible, allocation should be avoided by
a) dividing the unit process to be allocated into two or more sub-processes and collecting
data on these sub-processes, or
b) expanding the product system to include the additional functions related to the coproducts.
Lets revisit our commercial bakery example to explore how step 1(a) would work. Since my unit
process inventory is based on the entire manufacturing plant, there are clearly sub-processes within
that plant that manufacture the baked bread and the frozen dough. To understand these subprocesses, its necessary to observe more details of the plants operations.
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15.2
Here we see the sub-processes within the commercial bakery, where there are separate production
lines for baked bread and frozen dough. Furthermore, the thickness of the electricity and natural
gas input arrows correspond to the electricity and natural gas demands of each production line.
Thus, we could in theory collect data for just the sub-processes on the baked bread production line,
and thereby obtain an inventory applicable to just the baked bread. Doing so would reveal that
most of the electricity going into the plant is not attributable to baked bread production; rather,
most electricity is used for freezing of frozen dough. Conversely, wed also determine that most of
the natural gas going into the plant goes to the ovens for baking the bread, and that very little
natural gas use is associated with frozen dough production. We could also determine how much of
the wastewater is attributable to pan washing for baked bread. In other words, by understanding
the sub-processes we can now determine credible input and emissions flows for just the baked
bread.
While dividing a unit process into subprocesses worked well in this simple example, in practice
subdividing may not solve the problem because many sub-processes can also be multi-functional in
nature.
Lets now consider Step 1(b), which involves expanding the system boundary to include the
functions related to all co-products. In my bakery example, this means we must include the
functions of both the baked bread and frozen dough in our analysis system boundaries. While this
can help us avoid having to allocate fractions of flows to each co-product, it also means we must
now consider the function provided by frozen dough in addition to the function provided by baked
bread, which was our original interest.
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Were going to discuss system boundary expansion in more depth in the next lecture. Ill use my
plastic bag life-cycle as an example, considering the case of recycling the plastic bag into a secondary
product.
For now, lets move on to Step 2, which states:
Step 2: Where allocation cannot be avoided, the inputs and outputs of the system should be
partitioned between its different products or functions in a way that reflects the underlying
physical relationships between them.
To visualize how partitioning based on physical relationships can work, lets use another example of
food processing. Here is a unit process depiction for a tomato processing plant, which produces
both diced tomatoes and tomato paste.
15.3
If we divide this plant into some simplified sub-processes, we can see that our co-products are
related in that pulp and juice from the diced tomato production line are used for making tomato
paste. Both diced tomatoes and tomato paste undergo major thermal processing using steam. The
diced tomatoes are sterilized in their cans while the paste is made by evaporating copious amounts
of water out of the tomato pulp and juice. To allocate a fraction of the steam to diced tomatoes,
one could determine the heat gain dictated by the sterilization process. That is, how hot and for
how long the diced tomato cans need to be sterilized. Once could also determine the heat gain
required to remove enough water from juice and pulp to make paste. In this manner, one could
assign fractions of the plants total steam to each production line based on thermodynamic
requirements. Finally, one could apply those fractions to the natural gas inputs that are used to
make the steam. So, in this example, weve successfully used physical relationships between steam
and production processes to partition the plants natural gas use to the diced tomatoes and tomato
paste.
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In practice, partitioning based on physical relationships often requires fundamental engineering

knowledge of sub-processes, which isnt always available. Moreover, for complex multi-functional
processes like petroleum refining, in which crude oil is turned into many different outputs that are
subject to interdependent processes, such partitioning can get very complex, and often somewhat
arbitrary.
So now lets move on to the third and final step in the ISO 14040 hierarchy, which states that:
Step 3: Where physical relationships alone cannot be established or used as the basis for allocation,
the inputs should be allocated between the products and functions in a way that reflects other
relationships between them.
15.4
This guidance is somewhat vague, but in practice this step can involve partitioning flows
proportionally to the mass of each co-product output or to the economic value of each co-product
output. For example, you may recall that I showed you the unit process inventory for petroleum
refining earlier in this course, which were using in our plastic bag and bottled soft drink LCAs.
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Here the creators of this inventory have indicated that the flows can be partitioned between the
refinerys outputs on the basis of mass, which is also indicated for each co-product.
Whichever approach we use for dealing with multi-functionality, there are some strict rules we must
follow when doing so in an LCA.
First, its absolutely critical to document any allocation methods clearly so that the target
audience can understand and scrutinize them. In many unit process inventories obtained
from LCA databases, any allocation methods that were applied are stated clearly in the
inventory notes. Were doing the same in our plastic bag and bottled soda LCA
spreadsheets.
Second, when partitioning its important to ensure that all partitioned inputs and outputs
still sum up to the original unit process inventory totals. This is a basic check for mass and
energy conservation.
Third, its important to state clearly the multi-functionality approach in the scope definition
phase, because this will affect how you compile data in your inventory analysis step. In
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practice, one must often iterate between inventory analysis and goal and scope definition
steps before settling on a multi-functionality approach.
15.5
Fourth, care should be taken to apply the same solutions for multi-functionality across the
life-cycle inventory for maximum study consistency.
And, fifth, any chosen approach for dealing with multi-functionality must support the stated
goals of the study to ensure that your results are credible and useful to your target
audience.
For more discussion on multi-functionality, take a look at the course notes. Ill see you next time!
Additional notes
15.1
For those of you who might be wondering how allocation procedures might be harmonized across a
class of products or an industry, take a look at the following document prepared by the International
Dairy Federation. Specifically, Section 6.3 lays out some very specific proposed allocation
procedures for assigning the CO2 emissions to co-products arising from the following common
processes:
Crop production (how much CO2 from crop production and processing gets assigned to cow
feed versus other food products?)
Cow husbandry (how much CO2 from a cows life gets assigned to its milk versus its meat?)
Milk processing (how much CO2 from a cows milk gets assigned to cheese versus whey?)
Youll see that the methods vary, and include allocation based on economic and physical bases
depending on the processing stage and the co-products. While these are just recommendations,
they lay out a precise way of conducting allocation calculations that could, in theory, be replicated
across LCAs of different dairy products to promote greater methodological consistency. I leave it to
you to review these proposals and to decide for yourselves whether or not you agree with the
approach and recommended calculations!
Bulletin of the International Dairy Federation (2010). A common carbon footprint approach
for dairy: The IDF guide to standard life cycle assessment methodology for the dairy sector.
Bulletin 445/2010. Brussels, Belgium. http://idf-lca-guide.org/Files/media/Documents/4452010-A-common-carbon-footprint-approach-for-dairy.pdf
15.2
Youll practice sub-dividing an inventory for this commercial bakery to assign energy use to just the
baked bread in Homework 5.
15.3
In this example, division into sub-processes revealed that there are sub-processes that are shared by
the two co-products. Namely, washing, peeling, and dicing generate mass flows that serve the
production lines for both canned diced tomatoes and canned tomato paste. Therefore, we cannot
simply assign each sub-process to one specific co-product as we could in the previous example, in
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which the commercial bakery could indeed be divided into two distinct and separate production
lines for baked bread and frozen dough. As a result, in this example we use the thermodynamic
requirements of each unit process to assign energy use to mass flows for canned diced tomatoes
and mass flows for canned tomato paste. The procedure described for sterilization and evaporation
would be repeated for each unit process until all fuel use in the facility were assigned to each coproduct based on its thermodynamic or mechanical processing energy requirements. Clearly, such
an approach would require detailed engineering analysis and process data!
15.4
Check out these inventory data for yourself in the U.S. LCI database.
1. Go to http://www.nrel.gov/lci/
2. Click on the Database link in the left side navigation box
3. Select the checkbox for Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing within the
Category list
4. Click on Diesel, at refinery (Petroleum refining, at refinery), which appears in the list at
right
5. Read the description on the Activity page of this inventory to view their explanation of
how data are allocated to the many co-product outputs from a petroleum refinery.
15.5
Multi-functionality is a topic that is widely covered in LCA methodology guidebooks. For more
discussion on multi-functionality, and approaches for dealing with multi-functionality, see the
following resources:
Practice, 2006, Chapters 2 and 3: http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html (Note this
Matthews, H.S., Hendrickson, C.T., and D.H. Matthews (2014). Life Cycle Assessment:
Quantitative Approaches for Decisions That Matter. Chapter 6: Analyzing Multifunctional
Product Systems. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
http://www.lcatextbook.com/
Section 7.9 of European Commission - Joint Research Centre (JRC) - Institute for
Environment and Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD)
Handbook - General guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance.
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Lecture 16: Life cycle inventories: system expansion

Transcript
Today well discuss system expansion for dealing with multi-functional unit processes. Recall from
the last lecture that this is one of the two approaches under the first step of the ISO 14040 standard
hierarchy, which I labeled step 1(b).
Step 1: Wherever possible, allocation should be avoided by
a) dividing the unit process to be allocated into two or more sub-processes and collecting
data on these sub-processes, or
b) expanding the product system to include the additional functions related to the coproducts.
Lets illustrate how system expansion might work for the simple commercial bakery example we
discussed last time. Lets assume again that we only have the unit process inventory for the entire
bakery, and that we are only interested in product outputs of baked bread because that product is
the subject of our LCA study. Lets further assume that we werent able to divide this inventory into
sub-processes due to lack of access to the baking facility.
Because we only have a single inventory for both co-products, the system expansion approach
dictates that we expand our analysis boundaries to include both co-products. In our case, this
means our LCA must consider the functions provided by both baked bread and frozen dough, even
though were originally only interested in functions provided by baked bread.
You may now be asking yourself: Why would we do this if we are only interested in the life-cycle
impacts of baked bread? The major reason is that we preserve the original unit process inventory
for the commercial bakery, which means we dont inject further uncertainties into our analysis by
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trying to partition flows amongst the co-products without knowledge of what is going on inside the
plant. So let me show you two ways this system expansion would help in a real-world LCA.
First, expanding the system boundary in this way would allow us to compare our life-cycle system to
alternative life-cycle systems that manufacture baked bread and frozen dough separately.
Schematically, the comparison would look something like this, where our current co-product lifecycle system is shown on the left and the two separate life-cycle systems for producing baked bread
and frozen dough are listed on the right:
In this case, wed need to compile life-cycle inventory data for the alternative independent systems
for baked bread and frozen dough in addition to the life-cycle inventory data weve already
compiling for our co-product system. The major benefit to this approach is that we can now make
credible comparisons of our co-product baking system to the alternative systems on a functionally
equivalent basis. However, this approach does mean we have to compile more data than we
originally wanted, and for the purposes of facilitating comparisons, which may not be something we
want or need in our baked bread LCA.
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However, this system boundary expansion could also allow us to re-focus our attention on the lifecycle system of baked bread alone by applying whats known as the avoided burden approach.
Heres how it works:
By compiling data on the alternative life-cycle system for producing frozen dough independently, we
have some idea of the inventory flows associated with manufacturing frozen dough. We could then
subtract the inventory associated with independent frozen dough production from the inventory for
our co-product system. This process would leave us with remaining inventory flows in our coproduct system, which we would attribute entirely to baked bread. In other words, we derived an
inventory solely for the co-product we wanted by subtracting out an inventory related to the coproduct we didnt want. The avoided burden approach is often referred to as the substitution
approach in LCA practice.
16.1
111
These two examples illustrate how system expansion can help us deal with multi-functional
processes in an LCA. However, they are not without disadvantages. System boundary expansion
often means we must analyze additional functions that were not part our original study design.
And, if we are not interested in making comparisions to alternative systems, expanding system
boundaries doesnt necessarily lead to useful information for our target audience. In fact, adding
additional functions to a system can often be confusing to the audience unless theyre aware of the
nuances of dealing with multi-functionality problems. System boundary expansion does allow us to
apply the avoided burden approach, through which we can derive an inventory for a single coproduct in multi-functional system. However, care must be taken to subtract out inventories that
are reasonable substitutes for one or more of the co-products in our system. Lastly, as with all
multi-functionality approaches, if we expand our systems we must go back and refine the stated
goals and scope of our study to reflect the new boundaries, data requirements, and limitations of
our study. To learn more about system expansion, please see the lecture notes.
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Lets close with an example of system expansion for my plastic bag life-cycle system. Thus far, Ive
been treating the plastic bag life cycle as a once through system that looks like this:
As a reminder, the functional unit for this once through plastic bag system is to contain and carry
9 liters of groceries for one trip. Now lets assume that we want to assess the CO2 emissions of this
once through system using the simple mass balancing approach we discussed earlier in this
course. When I label my once through system, it looks like this:
Where, just as before, m is the mass flow into each unit process and the variable a represents the
CO2 emissions per unit mass in each unit process.
Now, Ive chosen this once through system in order to keep my analysis simple, but I know in
reality that some mass fraction of plastic bags are collected and recycled. Lets say they are
recycled into plastic lumber. So, in reality my system has two functions: to contain and carry
groceries and the production of plastic lumber. Lets use system expansion to capture both
functions in my system boundaries. Using the mass fraction approach we discussed earlier, the
expanded life-cycle system for my plastic bag would now look like this:
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If we were to apply the avoided burden approach by comparing this system to one that meets the
first function through a standard plastic bag, and that meets the second function through traditional
lumber, we can quantify the avoided burden like this:
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Where we can see that by recycling some of the plastic bags, we avoid some amount of production
of lumber from forest resources and we avoid some amount of landfilling because we are diverting
some used bags to recycling. You can also see that Ive added in a new mass flow variable, denoted
as capital M, to conduct the mass balance for the avoided traditional lumber inputs.
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111
Now, Im going to turn this process over to you for further analysis in your homework assignment.
Ive described the remainder of the system expansion analysis for my plastic bag life-cycle system in
the course notes. Your job is to conduct a similar system expansion for your bottled soda life-cycle
system by assuming that some mass fraction of waste bottles is recycled into PET pellets for further
use. Doing so will give you some appreciation for how mass balancing can be applied to quantify
avoided burdens. It will also give you some valuable practice in the systems expansion approach.
Good luck!
Additional notes
16.1
Here are some additional sources of information on dealing with multi-functionality in LCA.
Pages 37-41 of The United States Environmental Protection Agencys Life Cycle
Assessment: Principles and Practice, 2006. http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html
(Note this document is also commonly referred to as LCA 101.)
Part 2a, Section 3 of Guine, J.B.; Gorre, M.; Heijungs, R.; Huppes, G.; Kleijn, R.; Koning, A.
de; Oers, L. van; Wegener Sleeswijk, A.; Suh, S.; Udo de Haes, H.A.; Bruijn, H. de; Duin, R.
van; Huijbregts, M.A.J. Handbook on life cycle assessment. Operational guide to the ISO
standards. I: LCA in perspective. IIa: Guide. IIb: Operational annex. III: Scientific background.
Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 1-4020-0228-9, Dordrecht, 2002, 692 pp.
Section 6.5.3 of European Commission - Joint Research Centre (JRC) - Institute for
Environment and Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD)
Handbook - General guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. First edition March
2010. EUR 24708 EN. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010.
http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/international-reference-life-cycle-data-system-ilcdhandbook-general-guide-for-life-cycle-assessment-detailed-guidance-pbLBNA24708/ (Note
that this document uses different terminology than these lecture notes, and is fairly
detailed. However, it underscores the complicated nature of dealing with multifunctionality in LCA.)
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16.2
111
In this second offering of the course, weve excluded this exercise from Homework 6. Instead, lets
work through it together below so that you clearly understand how avoided burdens are calculated.
The system expansion approach allows us to estimate the avoided burdens associated with recycling
of HDPE grocery bags into plastic lumber. We do so by comparing two independent life-cycle
systems for providing mass m of HDPE grocery bags to the consumer and mass M of lumber to the
consumer to the combined recycling system that provides these same mass quantities to the
consumer. As above, well use kilograms of CO2 emissions as our environmental metric to illustrate.
First, consider the two independent systems that would be required to provide the stated quantities
to the consumer (Systems I and II). Their life cycle system diagrams and the equations for
calculating their life-cycle CO2 emissions are as follows:
Next, lets consider the system in which recycling of HDPE grocery bags into plastic lumber occurs
(System III). Recall from Lecture 6 that, using mass fraction notation, and balancing mass across the
system, the recycling system would look like this, where x is the mass fraction collected for recycling
and y is the mass fraction of collected bags recycled into plastic lumber:
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To calculate the CO2 emissions associated with System III, wed use the following expression (you
can check the figure and algebra yourself to see how we arrived at this expression):
Life-cycle CO2 emissions of System III (kg CO2) =
m(a1+a2+a3+a4) + m[(1-x)+x(1-y)]a5 + mxa6 +(M-mxy)*(a7+a8)+ M(a9+a10+a11)
Using the general approach we learned in Lecture 6, and practiced in Homework 3, to calculate the
avoided CO2 emissions associated with System III, we simply calculate the difference in CO2
emissions between these equivalent systems. More specifically, we calculate the difference
between the CO2 emissions of System III and the combined CO2 emissions of Systems I and II (which
are the two independent systems that would be required to provide the same mass quantities m of
HDPE bags and M of lumber to the consumer as System III).
CO2 emissions of System III [CO2 emissions of System I + CO2 emissions of System II]
Heres the algebra associated with the above expression:
{m(a1+a2+a3+a4) + m[(1-x)+x(1-y)]a5 + mxa6 +(M-mxy)*(a7+a8)+ M(a9+a10+a11)}
- [m(a1+a2+a3+a4+a5) + M(a7+ a8+a9+a10+a11)]
which ultimately reduces to (try it yourself!):
mxa6 mxy(a5+a7+a8) = mx[a6 y(a5+a7+a8)]
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In other words, the avoided burdens associated with recycling HDPE grocery bags into plastic lumber
in System III instead of producing and consuming these two items from independent Systems I and
II is expressed as:
mx[a6 y(a5+a7+a8)]
If we have numerical values for m, x, y, a5, a6, a7, and a8, we can estimate the avoided burdens for
a real-world system. For example, using the following values:
m = 5 kg
x = 0.8
y = 0.8
a5 = 1 kg CO2/kg
a6 = 2 kg CO2/kg
a7 = 3 kg CO2/kg
a8 = 2 kg CO2/kg
wed calculate the avoided burdens due to recycling as: mx[a6 y(a5+a7+a8)] = 5kg*0.8*[2
0.8*(1+3+2)kg CO2/kg] = -11.2 kg CO2.
Now that you understand the concept of avoided burdens, and how such avoided burdens can be
estimated for recycling systems, revisit the UK Environment Agencys carrier bag LCA report:
Report: SC030148.
cho0711buan-e-e.pdf
In particular, take a look at Figure 5.1, which presents the studys results for the life-cycle global
warming potential of each carrier bag type considered by the authors. Youll notice that several of
the bag options have a negative contribution (in red) associated with avoided products and
recycling. These are example of avoided burdens. See if you can determine how they calculated
the avoided burdens for each carrier bag type, and what their assumptions were when doing so, by
digging into the studys methodology on your own.
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Lecture 17: Life cycle inventories: data quality assessment

Transcript
Today well continue our discussion of data validation in the life-cycle inventory analysis step. If you
recall, a few lectures ago we discussed analysis-based estimation methods for addressing data gaps.
Id like to stress again that these methods can also be used as part of data validation. More
specifically, these estimation methods can provide independent reference points against which to
test whether inventory data make sense. For example, I used an air emissions factor for CO2
emissions from diesel fuel combustion to check if the CO2 emissions estimated for my black box
unit process model for light trucks were consistent with the amount of diesel fuel in the inventory.
Additional ways of validating data include checking to ensure unit process inventories conserve both
mass and energy between inputs and outputs, checking your inventory data for anomalies or gaps
by comparing them to similar inventories obtained from available LCA databases or studies, or
taking process measurements. Today well focus on data quality assessment, which is the process of
ensuring our life-cycle inventory data have met the data quality requirements that we specified
during the scope definition for our study. Well use my plastic bag LCA model as an example when
discussing this concept.
Note that it is good practice to evaluate data quality throughout the life-cycle inventory step, as
weve done by documenting the time-related, geographical, and technology coverage for each unit
process inventory as well as important explanatory notes describing any allocation and aggregation
decisions. Thus, the goal of data quality assessment should not be to alert you to major quality
issues after youve completed your entire inventory; if that happens, it means you werent paying
close enough attention to your own data quality requirements when compiling your inventory data.
To the contrary, the data quality assessment really serves two purposes. First, it forces one to think
about if data quality requirements were met in a consistent manner for the inventory as a whole
and with respect to key data characteristics. Second, it forces one to document a structured and
intuitive summary of data quality for the studys audience, which aids in their interpretation of the
studys results.
17.1
There is no standard method for data quality assessment in LCA. Rather, different methods have
been proposed by different authors, some of which Ill refer you to in the lecture notes. I like to use
the data pedigree matrix proposed by Weidema and Wesnaes in 1996, because its easy to apply
and intuitive to interpret. This data pedigree matrix has five data quality indicators, which Ill
discuss one by one:
The reliability indicator relates to the sources, acquisition methods and verification procedures
used to obtain the data. The indicator is independent of the data quality goals: a decision made
under the goal definition does not change the reliability of the data, and the score would be
identical if the data were used in another study.
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The completeness indicator relates to the statistical properties of the data: how representative is
the sample, does the sample include a sufficient number of data and is the period adequate to even
out normal fluctuations. As for the reliability indicator, the completeness indicator relates to the
properties of the sample itself, and is independent of the data quality goals of the particular study.
Now, the next three data quality indicators should look very familiar to you, because we specified
them in our data quality requirements in the scope definition step. Weve also been tracking them
carefully for each unit process inventory.
The temporal correlation indicator represents the correlation between the stated analysis years of
a study and the years of the obtained inventory data. Recall that Ispecified that, if possible, my
inventory data for the plastic bag life-cycle should be from the last 5 years.
The geographical correlation indicator represents the correlation between the stated geographical
focus of a study and the geographical characteristics of the obtained inventory data. Recall that I
specified the United States as the geographical focus of my plastic bag life-cycle.
And finally, the technological correlation indicator represents the correlation between the
technologies and/or technology mixes specified for a study and the technologies and/or technology
mixes represented by the obtained inventory data. For my plastic bag life-cycle model, I specified
that a US average technology mix for my target time period would be acceptable.
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For each of these five data quality indicators, we assign a score for our studys data on a scale of 1 to
5, with 1 indicating the highest quality and 5 indicating the lowest quality. The resulting data
pedigree matrix looks like this, which allows one to see at a glance how well the study did with
respect to each data quality indicator and with respect to data quality overall.
What youre seeing here is the data pedigree table that I completed for my plastic bag LCA study. So
how did I determine what numerical score to give my study for each data quality indicator? Well,
the data pedigree matrix comes with guidelines for how to assign scores. For example, when
scoring temporal correlation, the guidance states that I should assign a 1 if my data are less than
three years old, a 2 if my data are less than six years old, and so on.
Lets take a look at the scoring guidance for geographical correlation, which states:
Source: Weidema and Wesnaes (1996)
17.2
Since all of the inventory data in my plastic bag LCA model are from the United States, Ive assigned
a score of 1 in my data quality assessment for geographical correlation.
Note also that Ive provided an explanation of my chosen score for each data quality indicator. This
gives the audience some insight into my rationale. Now, they may or may not agree with my
rationale, but clearly documenting it is critical for ensuring my study is transparent in every respect.
17.3
We dont have time to go through the guidelines for each category, so Ive provided the full scoring
guidance table in the lecture notes. Youll use the same scoring guidance for assessing data quality
in your bottled soda LCA.
As I mentioned earlier, in addition to providing important documentation for your studys audience,
the data quality assessment also forces us to take a step back and carefully review just how well we
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did with respect to data quality. While hopefully you wont identify major data issues at this point,
you might often find that, in retrospect, the data youve compiled did not perfectly satisfy the data
quality requirements you laid out during the scope definition step. If this happens, what should you
do?
17.4
Well, one option is to go back and try to compile better data to strengthen quality with respect to
one or more indicators, but this might not be possible. Another option is to go back adjust your goal
and scope definition so that your stated application, purpose, and audience are still valid in light of
the data quality limitations associated with your study. Whatever the action, hopefully you can now
see the value in data quality assessment to both the analyst and the audience. Ill see you next
time!
Additional notes
17.1
The complete bibliographic entry for this reference is below. Note that this article requires
subscription access, so weve provided the scoring guidance from this paper below. However, since
its used widely, you might be able to find some additional information about it (and other data
quality assessment approaches) on the web using a simple Google search. Youll get practice with
this scoring guidance in the Week 6 homework and in your bottled soft drink LCA model.
Weidema, B.P., Wesns, M.S. (1996). Data quality management for life cycle inventories
an example of using data quality indicators. Journal of Cleaner Production 4, 167174.
For a very thorough discussion and analysis of data quality assessment in LCA, see the following
report. Although this report is 15 years old, its discussion of the nature of and need for data quality
assessment in LCA is still very relevant in the present day.
Nico W. van den Berg, Gjalt Huppes, Erwin W. Lindeijer, Bernhard L. van der Ven, and M.
Nicoline Wrisberg (1999). Quality Assessment for LCA. CML Center of Environmental
Science, Leiden, The Netherlands.
http://www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/ssp/publications/quality.pdf
17.2
111
Note that in the latest version of our spreadsheet model, weve changed the geographical
correlation rating to 2, because several of our data sources are for North America, which includes
the United States. Furthermore, with each passing year the data in our HDPE grocery bag LCA
spreadsheet get older, so well need to adjust the temporal correlation rating as well (the videos
were recorded in 2013 when most data were less than 10 years old). Well update the video in
future offerings of the course!
17.3
111
The full scoring guidance table can be found on page 88. Any use of this scoring table in your future
work should include a reference to the source:
Weidema, B.P., Wesns, M.S. (1996). Data quality management for life cycle inventories
an example of using data quality indicators. Journal of Cleaner Production 4, 167174.
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17.4
Note that in the HDPE grocery bag example, the data quality results indicate that the initial goals for
temporal correlation (5 years) and geographical (United States) were not met for all inventory data!
If this were a real-world LCA project, wed have to pursue one of the stated options: (1) go back and
get better inventory data for those unit processes that failed to meet the data quality requirements;
or (2) adjust the goal and scope definition of the study to better accommodate data of a lesser
quality.
In our case, well assume that the goal and scope definition of our study (e.g, to identify hot spots
in the life cycle) are sufficiently broad to accept data with lower temporal and geographical
correlations than we specified at the outset of the study. Thus, in our simple HDPE grocery bag
example, no further changes are necessary based on the outcomes of the data quality assessment.
However, it is important for you to understand that, often in LCA, we must adjust our study design
or results interpretation due to differences between the ideal data quality characteristics we
specify at the outset of a study and the actual data quality characteristics we end up with after we
compile available data.
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Lecture 18: Life cycle inventories: Input-output (IO) methods

Transcript
Thus far, weve been constructing our life-cycle inventories by creating a system of unit processes
and then aggregating their inventories to arrive at grand totals for each elementary flow. This
method of inventory analysis is known as process-based inventory analysis. This is the classical form
of inventory analysis, and one that can lead to high levels of representativeness and precision,
especially when were able to compile primary data for each unit process. However, as weve
discussed, some downsides to process-based inventory analysis are that it can take lots of time and
money, that we inevitably must cut off flows from the system boundaries, and that unit process
inventories are lacking for many materials, processes, and products.
Today well discuss another form of life-cycle inventory generation, which is known as economic
input-output analysis. In this approach, rather that attempting to construct a system of mass and
energy flows through unit processes, we use economic transactions to characterize the structure of
a supply chain. A simpler way to think about this approach is that we can estimate the structure of a
supply chain by following the money. What do I mean by this? Lets consider a simple example to
illustrate. Assume you are a construction company that builds houses. In order to build your
houses, you need to purchase raw materials such as wooden lumber, concrete, window assemblies,
steel pipes, and so forth. And you also need to pay your employees and make a profit.
So lets start an accounting list of what you need to build and sell houses. For example, lets assume
that to build a house that can be sold for $100,000, you need to purchase $20,000 worth of lumber,
$10,000 worth of concrete, $10,000 worth of windows, $1,000 worth of steel pipes, $500 worth of
electricity to run your equipment, and so on.
18.1
Lets use the term sector to refer to the industries from which you make your purchases; for
example, the power sector will provide the electricity and the steel sector will provide the steel
pipes. Furthermore, lets refer to your purchases as inputs into the construction sector, which is
how well label your business. Lastly, lets assume that of the $100,000 sales price, $20,000 goes to
employee wages, other business expenses, and profit. This amount is also known as your businesss
value added.
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So far, our accounting list looks like this:
Here Ive listed the inputs required from various sectors, and the value added, associated with
building and selling a $100,000 house. Clearly, there are many more inputs required to build and
sell a house, so assume that there are n distinct sectors in the economy from which my construction
sector can purchase inputs. For example, in the United States, for accounts like this we currently
divide our economy into 428 distinct sectors.
Now lets consider the windows sector, from which you purchased $10,000 worth of inputs to build
your house.
Assume that in order to manufacture and sell that $10,000 worth of windows, the window sector
had to purchase $3,000 worth of aluminum frames from the fabricated metals sector, $3,000 worth
of flat glass from the glass sector, $500 worth of sealant from the chemicals sector, $200 worth of
electricity from the power sector, and so on. So, to manufacture and sell that $10,000 worth of
windows to you, the windows sector accounting list would look something like this:
Here again, Ive listed the inputs required from various sectors, and the value added, associated with
manufacturing and selling the $10,000 worth of windows to the construction sector.
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Now, lets take this one step further. Lets consider the fabricated metals sector, which provided
the aluminum frames to the windows sector. In order to manufacture and sell $3,000 worth of
aluminum frames, the accounting list for the fabricated metals sector might look something like this:
Here the fabricated metals sector needs to make purchases from the primary aluminum sector, the
tool and die sector, and so on in order to manufacture and sell $3000 worth of aluminum frames to
the window sector.
Now lets take a quick step back to visualize what were doing here. We established that to build a
house, we need inputs of windows, among other materials. And to manufacture windows, we need
inputs of aluminum frames, among other materials. And to manufacture aluminum frames, we
need inputs of primary aluminum, among other materials. By keeping track of all of these
transactions, were building an image of the extended supply chain associated with building a house.
In other words, were characterizing the cradle to gate system for building a house, only instead of
tracking flows of physical materials between unit processes, were tracking monetary transactions
between sectors in the economy. Or, to reach back to my initial analogy, were following the
money.
You can probably imagine that our accounting process can go on and on, as each subsequent
purchase requires even more inputs. Moreover, we could repeat this supply chain accounting
exercise for every single input into every single sector. By following the money in this fashion, we
create an ever-expanding transaction tree.
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In the world of economics, this basic concept is the foundation of whats known as economic inputoutput modeling, or IO modeling for short. Many governments around the world construct IO
accounts to model the interdependencies between sectors in their economies. What makes these
models useful to LCA analysts is that they can be used to answer this question: for a given amount of
economic output from one sector, what are the economic inputs required from all other sectors in
the economy?
18.2
Heres how the IO approach works. As I mentioned earlier, a regional economy is first divided into n
distinct sectors. Then economists create a table that contains the economic outputs from each
sector in a single year. These outputs are listed in rows. Lets look at the first row, which contains
annual output data for sector 1.
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In this first section of the table, the row lists the outputs from sector 1 that are purchased as inputs
by each of the n sectors of the economy. This section of the table tracks inter-sector transactions;
for example, an output of windows from the windows sector that is purchased as an input by the
construction sector. This section is labeled input to sectors and contains n columns. Transaction
amounts are noted as Xij, where, for example, X12 represents the annual outputs from sector 1 that
purchased as inputs by sector 2, and so on.
The next column is labeled final demand, which represents the output from sector 1 that is
purchased directly by final consumers. Output directly to final consumers is noted as Fi. The total
annual output of a sector is listed in the last column, and noted as Xi. We can express the total
annual output of sector i as the sum of all outputs purchased as inputs by other sectors, which well
note as SUM Xij, plus the output purchased by final consumers Fi.
The full IO table looks like this, where economists also account for the value added of each sector in
the economy.
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So this table contains the economic input-output relationships between all sectors in an economy.
We can use it to solve for the ever-expanding series of transactions I described earlier through some
clever matrix operations. First, we create whats known as the direct requirement matrix, which has
elements Dij=Xij/Xj. The direct requirements matrix normalizes all inputs purchased by a sector j to a
dollar of output from sector j.
Then, the following relation solves for the ever-expanding series of transactions that occurs in
response to a change in final demand, where I is an n x n identity matrix. The vector X contains the
change in total inputs required from all n sectors in an economy for producing the outputs needed
to meet the change in final demand, denoted by the vector F. This relation is so important that it
earned its creator, Wassily Leontif, the Nobel prize in economics in 1973.
In LCA, this relation allows us to quantify the total amounts purchased from all other sectors in the
economy when producing an output from a single sector. Or, in other words, this relation allows us
to follow the money and characterize a supply chain through its economic dependencies. Exactly
how we use this approach to generate a life-cycle inventory will be discussed in the next lecture.
Additional notes
18.1
In this course, well use the term sector to refer to producers in an economy, because this is the
term used by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis in its IO table structure. However, economists
will typically refer to a sector as a broad segment of an economy (e.g., the public sector, the private
sector) and will use the term industry to refer to producers (e.g., the construction industry, the
manufacturing industry, the agriculture industry).
18.2
1
The math in the remainder of this section is presented in the interest of describing the theoretical
underpinnings of IO analysis for more advanced students. If you dont understand the matrix
algebra, thats OK you will not need to apply the matrix algebra behind the IO table in this course.
However, you will learn how to use IO analysis for the purposes of generating an LCI in the next two
lectures. Youll also be introduced to a free, web-based tool for conducting an IO-LCA
(www.eiolca.net). So, dont worry about further particulars on IO modeling for now. Well cover
the rest in Lectures 19 and 20 next week, and youll practice generating an IO-LCI yourself in
Homework 7.
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Lecture 19: Life cycle inventories: EIO-LCA

Transcript
19.1
In the last lecture we learned how an IO model quantifies the total monetary inputs required from
all sectors of the economy to produce a unit of monetary output from a single sector of the
economy. In this course, Ill refer you to a great online resourced called the Economic Input-Output
Life Cycle Assessment tool, or EIO-LCA for short. This tool was developed by Carnegie Mellon
Universitys Green Design Institute and has been steadily updated and improved for the past 15
years, so its a well trusted resource. And, best of all, its free for public use.
The EIO-LCA tool is based on the 2002 U.S. benchmark IO table, which contains 428 distinct
economic sectors. The tool allows one to view the total monetary inputs required from the 428
sectors in the U.S. economy to produce a unit of monetary output from any of these 428 sectors. So
lets see what this looks like, using my plastic grocery bag as an example. I queried the model using
one dollar of output from the Plastics packaging materials, film and sheet sector, which is the U.S.
sector that manufactures plastic grocery bags. Here are the economic activity results:
19.2
What these results tell me is that to produce a dollar of output from the Plastics packaging
materials, film and sheet sector, 0.93 cents of inputs were required from the sector itself, 0.25
cents of inputs were required from the plastic material and resin manufacturing sector, 0.12 cents
of inputs were required from other basic organic chemical manufacturing sector, and so on, for all
428 sectors of the U.S. economy.
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Note that these are total inputs into the economy required from each sector, some of which might
go directly into the producing sector itself and some of which might into various supply chain
sectors. This might be easier to understand if we revisit the house construction example from the
last lecture:
Recall that to build the house, the construction sector needs to purchase inputs of electricity from
the power sector. To manufacture the windows that go into the house, the windows sector also
needs to purchase electricity from the power sector. And, to manufacture the aluminum frames
that go into the windows that go into the house, the fabricated metals sector also needs to purchase
electricity from the power sector.
So, what we see in this example is that to build the house, inputs of electricity are required to
multiple sectors of the economy. So, when you view the economic activity results from the EIO-LCA
tool, its important to understand that what you are seeing are the total inputs into the economy
required from each sector, and that these inputs can be spread out among many economic sectors.
You may now be saying to yourself, great, I get that IO models can quantify the monetary structure
of a supply chain, but how is this useful for generating a life-cycle inventory? Well, we can convert
the total inputs required from each sector into select environmental flows using what are known as
environmental coefficients.
19.3
An environmental coefficient is calculated by dividing the total quantity of an environmental flow

into or out of a sector say metric tons of CO2 emissions or TJ of coal inputsby the total economic
output of that sector for a given year. For example, lets derive an environmental coefficient for the
natural gas consumption by the U.S. petrochemical manufacturing sector, which is one of the
sectors that must provide inputs into the economy if we want to manufacture plastic bags.
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In practice, environmental coefficients are derived using regional or national statistics for each
sector. For example, the U.S. Department of Energys Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey
reports that, in 2002, the U.S. petrochemical industry consumed 181 billion MJ megajoules of
natural gas. And the U.S. Census Bureau reports that, in that same year, the U.S. petrochemical
industry produced 20.3 billion dollars worth of economic output. Using these data, I can derive a
natural gas consumption coefficient for the petrochemicals sector as:
181x10^9 MJ natural gas / $20.3 x 10^9 = 8.9 MJ of natural gas per dollar of output in 2002
19.4
Using similar data, one can derive natural gas use coefficients for all 428 sectors in the economy.
Then we can multiply the total economic input required from each sector by the natural gas use
coefficients to estimate natural gas use by each sector:
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So now you can see how this idea of following the money can enable us to estimate a life-cycle
inventory for natural gas use in the cradle to gate system for manufacturing plastic grocery bags.
19.5
Thankfully, researchers at CMUs Green Design Institute have derived environmental coefficients for
all 428 U.S. sectors and for a wide range of environmental flows, including inputs of various fuels,
water, and land, outputs of waste, and emissions to air of greenhouse gases and other major
pollutants. Furthermore, IO-based life-cycle inventory models also exist for other countries and
regions of the world, such as China and the European Union. Ive provided some references to other
IO models in the lecture notes for those of you who might need such models for other global
regions.
So lets review. When we dont have sufficient data or resources to generate a process-based lifecycle inventory, another option might be an IO-based inventory. An IO model quantifies the
economic relationships between sectors in an economy, and one can use it to solve for the everexpanding tree of monetary transactions that occur when producing economic output from a given
sector. Once we know the resulting economic inputs required from every sector of the economy,
we can multiply the input required from each sector by each sectors environmental coefficients.
Once we do that, we get a cradle to gate inventory of different elementary flows for producing a
unit of economic output. And, in the United States, this can be done for any of 428 sectors in the
U.S. economy.
19.6
If you dont fully understand how this works just yet, dont worry. Ive provided more discussion of
IO-based inventory modeling in the lecture notes. Youll also get some practice with IO concepts
and Carnegie Mellons EIO-LCA tool as part of your homework assignment.
Lastly, while IO-based life-cycle inventories can often come in handy for LCA, there are major
limitations to the method that youll need to understand. Ill discuss both the strengths and
weaknesses of IO-based inventories in the next lecture.
Additional notes
19.1
Carnegie Mellon Universitys Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment Tool is freely available at
the following link:
http://www.eiolca.net/
For any uses of this tool in your own LCA efforts, please be sure to provide proper attribution to
Carnegie Mellon University by using the following citation, which is also listed in the EIO-LCA
website:
Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Institute. (2008) Economic Input-Output Life Cycle
Assessment (EIO-LCA), US 1997 Industry Benchmark model [Internet], Available
from:<http://www.eiolca.net> Accessed 1 January, 2008.
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19.2
19.3
19.4
Try to generate these values yourselves! In Homework 7, youll learn how to work with the EIO-LCA
tool, which involves choosing the proper producing sector for your analysis. How can you tell which
U.S. economic sector is the correct one for producing your product? In the Use the tool section of
the EIO-LCA website, detailed lists and definitions of the products that are produced by a given
economic sector are listed at the bottom of the page when one selects that economic sector in Step
2 of the analysis. Here is the list that appears when one chooses the Plastics packaging materials,
film and sheet economic sector. If you look closely, youll see that plastic bags are among this
sectors production outputs.
In the figure, we see the data required to calculate the natural gas use coefficient for the
Petrochemical manufacturing sector in the highlighted yellow box listed in columns F through I.
These data were obtained from U.S. government agency statistics, and allow us to estimate how
much natural gas was required to produce one dollar worth of economic output from the U.S.
petrochemical manufacturing sector. Try to follow the simple math that is required to calculate the
natural gas use coefficient, and for determining how much natural gas is associated with $0.076
worth of output from the petrochemical manufacturing sector in this example.
Natural gas use coefficients for the other sectors in this example were obtained from the EIO-LCA
Tool, but the procedure used by Carnegie Mellon Universitys researchers for deriving these
coefficients for each sector is exactly the same as our simple example of deriving the natural gas use
coefficient for the petrochemical manufacturing sector based on U.S. government agency statistics.
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19.5
Here are two other well-established IO-LCI models in use by the global LCA community:
1) IO-Canada is a Canadian environmentally extended input-output (IO) model based on
Canadian economic input-output tables:
http://www.ciraig.org/en/open_io_canada/
2) The Carbon Footprint of Nations model is based on multi-regional input-output accounts
and allows for estimation of the carbon, land, water, and energy footprints associated with
the consumption of different countries:
http://carbonfootprintofnations.com/
19.6
Here are some recommended readings from the public domain to learn more about IO methods:
Carnegie Mellon Universitys EIO-LCA Methods website contains some basic information on
IO tables, the EIO-LCA approach, its limitations, and some examples:
http://www.eiolca.net/Method/
The Centre for Sustainability Accounting has issued a concise and interesting summary of
frequently asked questions related to IO-LCA, which summarizes some of the key strengths
and limitations of the IO-LCA method weve discussed in this course:
http://www.censa.org.uk/docs/CENSA_Special_Report_FAQ_IOA.pdf
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Lecture 20: Life cycle inventories: IO uses and limitations

Transcript
Now that weve learned about the IO-based inventory analysis method, lets discuss its strengths,
weaknesses, and common uses in LCA studies. Lets start with some strengths.
First, as youve undoubtedly noticed, generating an IO-based inventory is fast and cheap, which are
two of its strengths compared to traditional process-based inventories, which can often take lots of
time and money to conduct. And, increasingly, IO-based LCA models are being made freely available
to the public.
Second, because the IO model solves for an ever-expanding system of monetary exchanges that go
deeper and deeper into a supply chain, it includes the entire economy as its system boundary. In
other words, the IO approach leaves out no flows in the cradle to gate system, no matter how
small. Lets take another look at the economic activity for producing a dollars worth of plastic
grocery bags from the U.S. economy.
The model solves for total inputs required from all 428 sectors, so you can see it even includes small
inputs from sectors such as insurance and postal services. Somewhere in the vast supply chain one
or more sectors are purchasing inputs of insurance and postal services, and so they are captured in
the IO model.
Note that it would be impossible to include this level of detail in a process-based inventory of the
plastic bag life-cycle. So another strength of the IO-based approach is that it avoids what we call
truncation error, which can be thought of as the impacts one has to leave out of a process-based
LCA due to cut-off rules or resource constraints. Truncation error can sometimes be significant. The
error varies with the type of product or process being considered, but it can be on the order of 50%.
Third, the IO-based approach is good for quick and dirty estimates of a product or service to
determine the order of magnitude of its cradle to gate footprint and the hot spot sectors that
contribute most to that footprint.
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For example, looking at the natural gas use across sectors contributing to the manufacture of my
plastic bag, we can see that resin manufacturing, bag manufacturing, chemicals manufacturing, and
power generation are responsible for a significant fraction of cradle to gate natural gas use.
20.1
While these are nice advantages of the IO-based approach, it definitely has some limitations. As you
may have noticed, the current U.S. model is based on the national IO table from 2002. This is the
latest year for which the table is available, and it means that when we analyze a product today we
are applying the structural relationships of the economy back in 2002. Moreover, the
environmental coefficients are also based in 2002, which means we are applying the process
technologies from each sector back in 2002. Such a time lag is common in many IO-based models,
since IO tables take many years to compile by government agencies. So, the first drawback to IO is
that its temporal correlation to todays production systems is generally poor.
Another major drawback of the IO-based approach is that many sectors are highly aggregated,
which means that many different products are grouped under a single sector in the model. For
example, my plastic grocery bag belongs to the Plastics packaging materials, film and sheet sector
in the U.S. IO model. However, in addition to plastic bags, this sector also manufactures plastic
films, plastic sheets, and packaging materials. Why is aggregation an issue? Because the
environmental coefficients for this sector represent the average impacts per dollar for all these
products.
20.2
For example, lets say I know from process-based data that the manufacturing of my plastic bag
emits 1 kg of CO2 per dollar of bags manufactured. Lets assume that the average for all products
that the plastics packaging materials, film and sheet sector manufactures is 2 kg CO2 per dollar of
product, because some of the other products in the sector are more carbon-intensive to produce.
In this case, the average environmental coefficient for the entire sector is twice as large as what the
coefficient would be if the sector manufactured ONLY plastic bags. But, because the plastic bag is
lumped into a sector with other, more carbon-intensive, products, in this case the model would
overestimate the emissions per dollar of plastic bags from that sector by a factor of 2.
So, IO models assume that every dollar of output from a given sector has the same environmental
burdens, but in reality the burdens per dollar can vary greatly by product within that sector. This is
called aggregation error. What it means is that, by aggregating many products into a single sector,
IO-based methods dont to a good job of providing inventories specific to a single product from that
sector.
Yet another drawback is that the data needed to construct the IO table and the environmental
coefficients come from many different data sources that apply different data compilation methods.
These methodological inconsistencies in data sources can lead to significant uncertainties in an IObased models results.
And, of course, IO-based approaches only model the cradle to gate system for manufacturing a
product or providing a service, so they do not directly generate use-stage inventories, for example
operating an automobile, or end-of-life stage inventories, for example, composting food waste.
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Lastly, the current public version of the EIO-LCA model doesnt account for imports, whereas in
reality, the inputs for many products manufactured in the United States can come from various
places overseas.
Why is this a problem? Well, lets consider the case of steel. The United States imports a significant
fraction of its steel from China. In the United States, the manufacturing CO2 emissions per unit of
raw steel is only about three-quarters that of manufacturing raw steel in China. However, the
model assumes that all steel inputs into any product come from the United States. It therefore
applies the U.S. CO2 emissions coefficient to all inputs from the steel sector. However, since some
of those inputs actually come from China, the model underestimates CO2 emissions from the steel
sector by applying the U.S. coefficient to all inputs.
So what are appropriate uses of IO-based inventory methods in light of these strengths and
weaknesses? First, its clear that when we need an LCA with a high degree of temporal,
geographical, and technological correlation, or when we are analyzing a single specific product, a
process-based inventory approach is required. However, here are some situations where IO is
acceptable and quite useful:
For quickly identifying the major contributing sectors to environmental impacts in the
cradle to gate supply chain of a product;
For performing macro-level LCAs of large changes in production or consumption systems at
the national level;
For getting an order of magnitude estimate of cradle to gate impacts of a given product or
material to determine if it can be neglected in light of cut off rules in a process-based LCA;
and
For understanding the contribution of different sectors or products to the total impacts of
consumption by households, organizations, or regions.
In addition to these uses, its also becoming common to find combinations of process-based and IObased inventory methods in what are known as hybrid LCAs.
In general, a hybrid LCA uses process-based inventory data for important foreground and
background processes where reasonable degrees of temporal, geographical, and technological
correlations are required. IO-based inventory data are then used for the other materials or
processes in the system for which process-based inventory data are not available or for which higher
uncertainties are acceptable. The resulting hybrid analysis is often more complete than a processbased LCA alone, because it can include more processes and flows, and it often has a more inclusive
system boundary given that IO inventories include all economic sectors. Mixing process-based and
IO-based inventory data can degrade a studys consistency, though, so any use of IO data should be
clearly documented for any material or process for which they were used.
This concludes our discussion of the life-cycle inventory analysis step. In the next lecture, well
move on to the next step in the LCA process: life-cycle impact assessment.
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Additional notes
20.1
Since the original offering of this course, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has released the 2007
benchmark IO table, which contains 387 distinct sectors. However, the EIO-LCA tool has not yet
been updated to reflect the latest IO table, which is, nevertheless, already 8 years old due to the
time lag associated with the release of IO tables.
20.2
See Lecture 19, Additional Note 19.2 for one example of the heterogeneous nature of production
from the plastic packaging, film, and sheet sector. Youll notice that most other sectors in the EIOLCA model also produce a wide range of products, too. The reason for this is that there are tens of
thousands of products and service produced by the U.S. economy (or any other economy in the
world) but IO models must aggregate production into a comparatively small set of larger sectors to
make the models practical from a data collection perspective and computationally tenable. Thus, in
the U.S. model, we have 428 sectors that represent the production of our tens of thousands of
products and services. This so-called aggregation error means that the LCA analyst must always
understand that, when using IO-LCI methods, we are analyzing the average product output from an
economic sector but this average will often include many different products!
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Lecture 21: Life-cycle impact assessment: the basics

Transcript
Today well be moving on to the next step in the LCA
process: life-cycle impact assessment, which is the
process of linking elementary flows in a life-cycle
inventory to the environmental impacts they cause in
the real world.
As I do in my classroom here at Northwestern, Id like to
start the discussion with some simple thought exercises.
Suppose you have two friends, John and George, who
have spent the last month traveling around the world.
When they get home, they both have leftover money in
their pockets from China, the European Union, the UK,
Sweden, and Australia, which Ive summarized in these
two tables.
So let me ask a simple question: who has the most

money in his pocket, John or George? You may be
wondering what this has to do with life-cycle impact
assessment, so before we answer that question, let me
pose another question.
Suppose you are the information technology manager at
a company, and youve been provided with life-cycle
inventory data for the greenhouse gas emissions
associated with two different types of desktop
computers, computer A and computer B. They are both
functionally equivalent, and both use the same amount
of energy to operate.
Here are the data for the cradle to gate manufacturing of both types of computer. You want to
choose the computer with the lowest global warming impact. So, which do you choose?
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Although it might not seem obvious, we use the same

principles to arrive at an answer for both thought
exercises. Lets go back to your friends and solve for
who has the most money in his pocket. As you probably
know, we cant simply add up the Yuan, Euros, Pounds,
Krona, and dollars because they arent the same
currency. Before we can add them up, we need to
convert them into a common currency using a currency
conversion factor.
You can see here that Ive chosen to convert the various currencies into US dollars so I can add them
up. The first thing I need is a conversion factor, which I obtained from global exchange rate data for
different currencies. I then multiplied each foreign currency amount by its conversion factor to
convert to US dollars, which allowed me to add them up.
So, by converting to dollars, we can conclude that it is John who has more money in his pocket.
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Now, lets turn back to the computer example. When we compare the inventories, we run into the
same problem. We cant simply sum up emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur hexafluoride, methane,
and so on, because they are entirely different substances. So how can we know if its better to have
lower emissions of carbon dioxide but higher emissions of sulfur hexafluoride as with computer A,
or if its better to have higher emissions of carbon dioxide but lower emissions of sulfur hexafluoride
as with computer B?
Well, just as we did for currency, we must convert each of these substances into a common unit that
we can then sum up to a grand total. So lets see how this works for our computer example.
First, note that wed like to compare these inventories for the impact category global warming.
Our common unit is called the category indicator, which for the impact category global warming,
is carbon dioxide equivalents, or CO2e for short. Now, to sum up these various emissions, I first
need to convert them into units of CO2e. In LCA, these conversion factors are known as
characterization factors, which Ive listed here for each emission in my inventory.
Note that Im using characterization factors for global warming potential over the next 100 years,
which are known as GWP100 characterization factors. So, once I convert each emission to units of
CO2e, I can sum them up and conclude that, to minimize the global warming impact of computer
manufacture, I should choose computer B.
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21.1
Of course, in our plastic bag and bottled soda LCAs we want to consider as many different
environmental impacts as possible. In practice, there are a number of different impact categories an
LCA analyst considers. Here are some of the major impact categories most studies consider, which
Ive described in more detail in the lecture notes:
Each of the impact categories has its own category indicator. For example, the impact category
acidification, which includes such impacts as acid rain or acidification of lakes, has units of cationic
hydrogen as its category indicator, while the impact category stratospheric ozone depletion has
units of CFC-11 equivalents as its category indicator.
How are category indicators determined? Well, each indicator is based on a lot of science that
studies the environmental mechanisms between exchanges with nature and their ultimate
environmental impacts. Similarly, the characterization factors that convert different types of
exchanges with nature into a common category indicator are also based on a lot of domain-specific
science. Many hundreds of people have developed this science over the years, and we dont have
time to discuss it in our course.
What you need to understand is that, for each impact category, the category indicators and
characterization factors are based on available characterization models. In this course, well simply
use the category indicators and characterization factors that come from such models.
For our plastic bag and bottled soda LCAs, well be using a characterization tool known as TRACI,
which stands for the Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental
Impacts. TRACI was developed under leadership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and
is a widely used characterization tool in the LCA field. In fact, we used the impact categories from
TRACI in our plastic bag and bottled soda LCA models to determine our data requirements earlier in
the scope definition step.
Well learn more about TRACI soon. For now, I just want you to understand the basic principles of
impact assessment.
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First, to understand the environmental implications of a life-cycle inventory, we need to consider
the specific environmental impacts that may be associated with that inventorys elementary flows.
Second, we need to choose the impact categories we want to consider. In my simple computer
example, I just considered global warming, but in our plastic bag and bottled soda LCAs, well
consider all relevant environmental impacts.
Third, once Ive established my impact categories, I need to convert all elementary flows into
common units for each impact category. The principle is the same as converting different currencies
into a common currency unit, like we did for John and George. In LCA, our common units are called
category indicators.
Fourth, I perform these conversions using characterization factors for each elementary flow. These
characterization factors come from characterization models, which are based on a lot of impact
science.
Fifth, I sum up the category indicator results across the inventory and arrive at a grand total for each
environmental impact category.
Youll learn this overall process well in your bottled soda LCA model. In the next two lectures, youll
learn more about how impact assessment works and how to use TRACI in your model.
Additional notes
21.1
Note that the category indicators chosen for a given impact category can vary based on the
characterization model that is used. In our plastic bag and bottled soft drink LCA spreadsheets, well
use the TRACI model (which will be discussed next week), and the latest category indicators for
human health and ecotoxicity are different than those listed in this table of common category
indicators.
Also, note that we opted to devote an entire lecture to discussion of these impact categories, which
will occur in Week 8. Thus, rather than reading about them here, youll be watching a video to learn
about these impact categories next week.
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Lecture 22: Life-cycle impact assessment: how it works

Transcript
22.1
22.2
In the last lecture, we discussed a basic way to think about life-cycle impact assessment in an LCA
model. Specifically, for a given environmental impact category, we can convert elementary flows
from an inventory into a common unit, known at the category indicator, by using characterization
factors. We can then sum up category indicator results across a life-cycle system to arrive at a
measure of environmental impact. I also mentioned that well be using characterization factors
from TRACI, which you can now download from the course website. Well work more with TRACI in
the next lecture.
Today Id like to go over guidance from the ISO 14040 standards for the impact assessment step.
This will give you an idea of what best practice impact assessment entails in LCA practice. Like
most of the other topics in this course, we only have time to cover the basics. As usual, Ive
provided you with further reading recommendations in the lecture notes.
Before conducting an impact assessment, its important to reaffirm that youve chosen impact
categories that support the stated goals of your study. For our plastic bag and bottled soft drink
LCAs, the intended application is to identify environmental hot spots and the purpose is to
determine life-cycle stages or impacts for further examination.
Thus, we need to include all relevant environmental impacts. Recall that we also chose our required
data in the scope definition step with these impact categories in mind. If we were to just focus on,
say, global warming potential, we wouldnt identify hot spots for other impact categories, and
therefore we wouldnt meet the stated goals of our studies.
As a quick aside, over time youll notice that there are many LCA studies that just consider a few
impact categories. For example, most commonly, its global warming potential. Now, this is OK if
in the goal definition the stated application of the study is to establish a carbon footprint and if the
limitations of the study clearly state that the results cant support conclusions regarding other
environmental impacts. Unfortunately, this isnt always the case with such studies. However, youll
adhere to best practice LCA approaches in your bottled soda LCA by making sure your chosen impact
categories fully support your stated goals.
The ISO 14040 standards indicate both mandatory and optional elements of impact assessment.
Well focus mostly on the mandatory elements, using my plastic bag LCA to illustrate.
22.3
The first mandatory element is selection of impact categories, category indicators and
characterization models. In practice, these three components are often interdependent. For
example, in our plastic bag and bottled soft drink LCAs, weve chosen all impact categories that are
included in TRACI, which you can see on the TRACI tab of my spreadsheet.
However, I also chose TRACI because it contains a wide range of impact categories, and the goals of
my study dictated that I include as many environmental impacts as possible. I also chose TRACI
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because my geographical scope is the United States, and TRACI is based on U.S. data. Moreover,
TRACI has already established the category indicators for each impact category.
22.4
Thus, often in LCA, the stated goals and the chosen data requirements, impact categories, and
category indicators are influenced by the choice of characterization models, and vice versa. This is
yet another example of the iterative nature of LCA. There are, of course, other great
characterization models out there, and for different global regions, which you can consider in future
LCAs. Ive provided a list in the lecture notes.
When selecting impact categories, its important to understand the difference between midpoints
and endpoints. One way to understand the difference is to visualize the cause and effect chain that
occurs between an emission and an ultimate adverse consequence.
For example, consider an ozone depleting chemical like CFC-11. When CFC-11 is emitted, it can
cause depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, leading to a thinning of this layer over certain parts
of the globe. When this happens, more ultraviolet light gets through, which can lead to higher rates
of skin cancer and eye damage in exposed humans, crop damage on exposed land, and degradation
of plastics. All of these specific adverse consequences are considered endpoint impacts, in that they
are the ultimate consequence of the emission. Stratospheric ozone depletion is considered the
midpoint impact, in that it is the common stressor caused by the emission that ultimately led to the
one or more endpoint impacts.
In LCA, impact categories based on midpoints are more common in characterization models, given
that relationships between emissions and environmental stressors are often well established. In
contrast, impact categories based on specific endpoints are less common, given that these
endpoints require extensive observations, risk analyses, and data to relate to them to emissions of
different substances, and these relationships can by region. To be clear, our chosen characterization
tool TRACI uses midpoint impact categories.
The second mandatory element is assignment of elementary flows in the inventory to the selected
impact categories. In other words, which mass flows in my inventory are relevant to which
impacts? The process of assigning flows to impacts is known as classification. Fortunately, TRACI,
like most characterization models, has already done this for us. Lets take a look at my plastic bag
LCA model to see what I mean.
On the TRACI tab, impact categories are listed in columns, while substances are listed in rows. The
cells contain the characterization factor for a given substance with respect to a given impact. Note
that Ive laid out the rows on the TRACI tab so that they correspond precisely to the rows in my
inventory summary tab. This makes it very convenient for me to multiply the mass quantity of a
given substance in my inventory by the correct characterization factor for a given impact category.
Whats important for you to know is that many substances are relevant to more than one impact
category. For example, sulfur dioxide emissions contribute to acidification and multiple human
health midpoint impact categories.
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The third mandatory element is the calculation of category indicator results, or, in other words,
multiplying the elementary flow quantities in my inventory by the relevant characterization factors,
and then summing up the results to arrive at a grand total for each impact category. This step is also
known as characterization.
As you can see in my spreadsheet, Ive created another tab called TRACI Results, which contains the
results of the characterization step. By aligning the rows in my inventory summary tab and the
TRACI tab, the calculations on the TRACI results tab are straightforward. Youll lay out your bottled
soda LCA model in exactly the same way. At the very top of each column, Ive summed up the
category indicator result, which is simply the sum of the values in each column.
22.5
What do the category indicator results tell us? Well, on an absolute basis, they can be difficult to
interpret, as I discuss further in the lecture notes. However, on a relative basis, their values become
more intuitive. For example, if Im comparing two different reference flows that meet the same
functional unit, and one reference flow has a much lower category indicator result than another
reference flow for a given impact category, it can indicate that one reference flow has a lower
impact for that impact category as long as the data quality is sufficient to support this conclusion.
Another example is if one is exploring improvements to a life-cycle system using a model, increases
and decreases in category indicator results can indicate by how much a given impact is reduced, if
other impacts are reduced along with it, or if one impact is reduced but another is increased. The
category indicator values for each substance also help us identify which particular flows within a life
cycle system contribute the most to a given category indicator result, which helps us identify hot
spot unit processes and materials.
Note that if we do make comparisons using category indicator results, and these are comparisons
are disclosed to the public, the ISO 14040 standards provide fairly strict guidance about the impact
assessment step. Specifically, comparisons should strive to include all possible impact categories for
the most rigorous comparisons; all comparisons should be made on category indicator by category
indicator basis as opposed to anointing one product greener than the other; and the impact
categories and characterization models need to be scientifically valid and generally accepted.
Another requirement is that the results need to be subjected to sensitivity analysis, which well learn
about soon.
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Some optional elements of the impact assessment step are:
22.6
Normalization, which means calculating the magnitude of category indicator results relative
to some reference value; for example, we might relate the GWP100 results for a product to
the entire GWP100 results for a region to get a sense of scale;
Grouping, which means sorting and possibly ranking of the impact categories in the order of
their importance to your decisions; and
Data quality analysis, which helps in better understanding the reliability of the collection of
indicator results.
You can learn about all optional elements in the course notes. In the next lecture, well go over
each of the TRACI impact categories so you can better understand them for the interpretation step
of our LCAs.
Additional notes
22.1
The TRACI characterization factors are available in the Week 8 versions of the HDPE grocery bag LCA
and bottled soft drink LCA spreadsheets on the TRACI tab. Note that in this course, were using a
subset of the ecotoxicity and human health cancer and human health non-cancer impact
categories available in TRACI 2.0. Specifically, we are not including impact categories related to
emissions to soil or seawater, given that we did not include such flows in the simplified unit process
inventories weve used in this course. Moreover, as a simplifying assumption, well assume that all
emissions to water in this course refer to emissions to freshwater.
For more info on TRACI, see Additional Note 23.2.
22.2
For more discussion on the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) step, take a look at the following two
resources. The U.S. EPAs LCA 101 report provides a concise, accessible overview of how LCIA
works. The EU JRCs ILCD Handbook provides additional guidance on LCIA methods and
considerations, including within the context of the ISO 14040 series of standards.
Practice, 2006, Chapter 4, http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html (Note this
guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. Chapter 8. First edition March 2010.
EUR 24708 EN. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010.
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22.3
22.4
Note that the appearance of the TRACI tab has changed due to updates that have occurred since
filming the lecture videos. For the latest version of the TRACI tab, please see the Week 8 versions
of the HDPE grocery bag LCA and bottled soft drink LCA spreadsheets.
The following resource provides an outstanding overview of existing LCIA methodologies and impact
characterization models, as well as how they compare across key LCIA elements. Included are most
of the LCIA methods one is likely to encounter as an LCA practitioner.
Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook Analysis of
Existing Environmental Impact Assessment Methodologies for Use in Life Cycle Assessment.
First edition. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010.
http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/ILCD-Handbook-LCIA-Background-analysis-online12March2010.pdf
22.5
Correction: This topic is not covered in this course as wed originally planned.
22.6
In our HDPE grocery bag and bottled soft drink LCAs, we wont conduct normalization, grouping, or
weighting of LCIA results. However, in practice, one often encounters these steps, especially when
using results from LCIA characterization models that include these steps (such as the Eco-indicator
99 approach). To learn more about normalization, grouping, and weighting, see the following
reports:
Practice, 2006, Chapter 4, http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/lca.html (Note this
guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. Sections 8.3 and 8.4. First edition
March 2010. EUR 24708 EN. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010.
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Lecture 23: Life-cycle impact assessment: impact categories

Transcript
Now that youve learned the basics of how the impact assessment step works, lets take a step back
and review the impact categories in TRACI. Today Ill provide a brief overview of the impacts
captured by each category, so that you have some basic understanding of the environmental and
human health issues that are characterized in TRACI.
As we can see on the TRACI tab, Ive included nine different impact categories, some of which are
further subdivided by the environmental medium to which the emission is released; that is, to air,
water, or soil. Lets go through each impact category one by one.
The impact category global warming considers the potential contributions of different air
emissions to global climate change. Many of you are probably familiar with the greenhouse effect,
but for those of you who arent, heres a brief description.
The earth receives a constant influx of solar radiation, which provides it with heat. Some of this
heat is reflected back into space, while some of it is radiated from the earth back into space. Since
the industrial revolution, there has been a rapid accumulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases absorb and re-radiate heat, thereby trapping it in the
atmosphere. This is known as the greenhouse effect, and its implications include potential sea level
rise, more frequent and severe storms, changes in global precipitation patterns, and many other
adverse consequences. Emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion account for the vast majority
of global warming emissions, but emissions of methane, nitrous oxide, and various process
chemicals are also significant contributors.
The impact category acidification refers to the potential for emissions to increase the acidity of
water and soil systems. The most well-known of these effects is acid rain, which can corrode the
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built environment, damage forests, and acidify soils and waterways, which has deleterious effects
on plants and aquatic life. Additionally, acid chemicals can also be incorporated into dust or smoke
in the air, which then gets deposited on the ground, buildings, and so on, which eventually washes
off into waterways. The major contributors to acidification are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides
from fossil fuel combustion.
As we discussed in the last lecture, the impact category ozone depletion refers to the thinning of
the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The
major causes of ozone depletion are emissions of chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons,
which were commonly used in refrigerants, propellants, solvents, and insulating foam. Fortunately,
nearly every country in the world has agreed to phase out the production and use of these and
other ozone-depleting substances. However, because some of these chemicals are still being phased
out, they can still be found in many products and production chains.
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The impact category smog formation deals with the formation of ground-level ozone, which is
otherwise known as smog. The main contributors to smog are emissions of nitrogen oxides and
volatile organic compounds, which react with sunlight to form ground-level ozone. Nitrogen oxides
are emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels in automobiles, industrial boilers and furnaces, and
electric power plants. Volatile organic compounds arise from gasoline vapors, chemical solvents,
and are even naturally emitted by forests. Smog is visibly discernible as a brownish haze in the air in
many urban environments around the world, and it is particularly bad on hot days when there is
plenty of sunlight. Smog is a major contributor to human respiratory illnesses and asthma, especially
in the young and the old, and it can also damage plants.
The impact category eutrophication refers to the addition of chemical nutrients to surface waters,
which promotes the excessive growth of plant life in those waters, such as algae. The decay of these
plants and algae can deplete the water of its available oxygen, which leads to the death of other
aquatic life, such as fish. The major drivers of eutrophication include excessive runoff of phosphorus
and nitrogen compounds from fertilizers used for agriculture and pollution from septic systems and
sewers. For example, here in the United States, we have an ongoing problem with excessive
fertilizer runoff into the Mississippi River, which causes a so-called dead zone of eutrophication in
the Gulf of Mexico. Similar dead zones exist in other parts of the world, too.
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The impact category ecotoxicity is a bit more general, and refers to the potential of an emission to
cause harm to plant and animal species considering that emissions toxicity and its concentrations in
different media. Furthermore, this impact category is subdivided into emissions to air, water, and
soil given that the toxicity implications of a given substance depend on how it is transported in the
environment.
Similarly, the impact categories human health cancer and human-health non-cancer are
subdivided into emissions to air, water, and soil. This is necessary because the impacts of different
substances on human health depend on how they are released, to where they are transported, and
how humans are exposed to them. These impact categories are also based on the potential of an
emission to cause harm, but with respect to cancerous and non-cancerous effects in humans.
23.1
There are many different substances in TRACI that fall under the ecotoxicity and these two
human health impact categories, so its not possible to offer generalized examples of emissions,
impacts, and cause-and-effect relationships.
The last impact category is human health criteria pollutants, which considers exposure to
particulate matter in the air. Particulate matter is essentially small particles emitted from fuel
combustion, waste incineration, construction or agricultural dust, or fires. Particulate matter is a
major cause of respiratory problems and asthma, and can also contribute to cardiac disorders. In
general, the smaller the size of the particle, the more dangerous they are for human health because
smaller particles can penetrate deeper into ones lungs. Particulate matter from diesel exhaust can
be an issue in many urban regions, as is particulate matter from indoor cooking in many developing
countries.
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23.2
I hope these brief overviews give you a basic understanding of the environmental and human health
issues associated with each impact category in TRACI. Youll get practice working with category
indicators and characterization factors within each impact category as part of your bottled soft drink
LCA. Of course, I could only describe the very basics of each impact category. For those of you
looking to learn more, Ive provided recommended readings in the course notes.
Additional notes
23.1
In this course, were using TRACI 2.0 impact characterization factors. The TRACI 2.0 characterization
factors for the ecotoxicity impact category are expressed as the potentially affected fraction (PAF)
of species in units of volume per unit mass of the emitted substance (PAF m3 day/kg). The TRACI
2.0 characterization factors for the human health impact categories are expressed as the estimated
increase in morbidity in the total human population in units of cases per unit mass of the emitted
substance (cases/kg emitted). You dont need to understand the rationale for these characterization
factors, or the science behind them, to work with TRACI in this course. Rather, just keep a simple of
view of the LCIA process in mind; that is, we convert emissions to a measure of impact severity
through the use of characterization factors, which are derived from sophisticated characterization
models. And, the higher the category indicator result for a given impact category, the greater the
severity of that impact.
23.2
To learn more about TRACI, the following resources are recommended:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of
Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts (TRACI) website:
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/traci/traci.html
Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook Analysis of
Existing Environmental Impact Assessment Methodologies for Use in Life Cycle Assessment.
First edition. Pages 48-51. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010.
Watch the following two online presentations by the U.S. EPAs Jane Bare, one of the
creators of TRACI, which provide overviews of the LCIA step and TRACI:
http://my.brainshark.com/LCA-101-Life-Cycle-Impact-Assessment-2011-Aug-14-630457314
http://my.brainshark.com/lca-101-traci-2011-Aug-14-258409505
To learn more about the environmental impacts weve discussed in this lecture, and their severity
worldwide, browse the latest Global Environmental Outlook report from the United Nationals
Environment Programme: http://www.unep.org/geo/
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Lecture 24: Interpretation: the basics

Transcript
Today well be wrapping up our discussion of the lifecycle impact assessment step, and moving on to the
interpretation step, which is the fourth major
component of the LCA process.
In the last few lectures, youve learned the about the
basics of best practice life-cycle impact assessment,
the TRACI impact categories and characterization factors
well use in our models, and the major environmental
and human health issues associated with each impact
category. Before we move on, its important for you to
know that impact assessment is an incomplete and
evolving method in LCA, and there are still a number of
impacts we are not able to include.
For example, the loss of biodiversity and destruction of habitat are critical issues for wildlife
conservation, and these issues are clearly tied to resource extraction, human land use, and
environmental pollution. However, these are highly localized issues that are very difficult to connect
to elementary flows; as such, we dont have good assessment metrics for these impacts yet.
A number of other examples can be drawn from the life-cycle of my plastic grocery bag. One issue
with plastic bags is that they often end up as uncontrolled litter, which can migrate to waterways
and affect aquatic life, or clog up storm drains and lead to flooded buildings and property damage.
Another potential issue might be worker exposure to safety or human health hazards in the
manufacturing plant. Or another issue might be that the pollution and noise arising from electric
power plants in my life-cycle system mostly affect low-income neighborhoods, which is a social
environmental justice problem. Current impact assessment methods arent capable of
characterizing any of these issues yet, and some of these issues might not ever be quantifiable.
So, while the impact assessment step can capture a number of important impacts, its important to
recognize that often an LCA cannot quantify every important impact. In these situations, its
important for decision makers to also consider information on these other impactswhich can be
qualitative, quantitative, or bothalongside LCA results for the most informed decisions.
Lets now move on to the interpretation step of the LCA process. In this step, its important that all
results be interpreted according to the goal and the scope of the study. For example, in our plastic
bag and bottled soft drink LCAs, we aimed only to identify environmental hot spots for future
study, so our conclusions and recommendations should not make statements of comparison to
competing products.
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Its also important in this step to consider the appropriateness of the chosen functional units and
system boundaries, the stated limitations of the study, and the data quality assessment when
communicating findings and offering conclusions. In other words, we want to make sure that we
dont draw conclusions that the study design and data quality dont support. For example, because
for my plastic bag the stated geographical focus is the United States, I shouldnt generalize my
results to plastic bag life cycles in the rest of the world.
There are three basic elements of the interpretation step, which the ISO 14040 standards define as:
1. Identification of the significant issues based on the results of the inventory and impact
assessment steps;
2. An evaluation that considers completeness, sensitivity and consistency checks; and
3. Conclusions, limitations, and recommendations.

Lets start with the first element: identifying significant issues. The purpose of this element is to
review and structure the results of the inventory analysis and impact assessment steps in ways that
help identify important environmental issues in the product life cycle. For example, lets take a look
at the inventory summary results and TRACI results in my plastic bag LCA model.
As we can see, we have a large amount of data in both tabs. Making sense of all these data, and
communicating the issues suggested by these data, requires careful structuring of all of these results
so that we interpret them properly. This review and structuring process also aids in drawing
conclusions and recommendations from the results.
In practice, we can structure our results to differentiate between life-cycle stages, different unit
processes, or by groups of processes such energy supply. Another way to structure the results is by
the degree to which the target audience can influence a system; for example, by listing internal
manufacturing processes first, followed by purchased inputs, then grid energy supplies. Of course,
the best ways to structure results depend heavily on the stated purpose, intended applications, and
target audience for a study.
25.1
Lets take a look at how Ive structured the data in my plastic bag LCA model to help me better
interpret those data.
Remember, my goal is to identify environmental hot spots in the plastic bag life cycle. So, Ive
created whats known as a contribution analysis in order to first identify which unit process
contribute most to each impact category in my analysis. We can see Ive listed the impact
categories in rows, and the unit processes in columns. Each cell contains the percent contribution of
a given unit process to a given impact category. This structuring of data allows me to identify where
in my unit process system I should take a closer look in order to better understand hot spots in
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each impact category. On the next tab, Ive graphed the contribution analysis to help me better
visualize these hot spots. Youll do the same in your bottled soft drink LCA.
Because I want to have a detailed understanding of the hot spots for each inventory category, Ive
also created contribution analyses that summarize the elementary flows that contribute most to
each impact category on the next tab. This view of my data allows me to understand, for example,
how emissions of CO2 across my life-cycle system contribute to total global warming potential.
Using contribution analysis to structure my results on the basis of unit process contributions and
elementary flow contributions really helps me interpret my data, which allows me to identify
significant environmental issues that is, hot spotsmore easily and with greater analytical
confidence. So, in other words, contribution analysis allowed me to go from viewing my results data
like this:
To viewing them like this:
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Which is a far more intuitive and reliable way to identify issues in my life-cycle system.
25.2
Ive described some other ways of structuring data in the lecture notes, which might help you think
about what issue identification approaches are most appropriate for your needs in future LCA
studies. As youve experienced in your bottled soft drink project, LCA requires dealing with a lot of
data. As you gain more experience with ways of structuring data for identifying issues, youll get
better at organizing and drawing conclusions from your data so that your study brings maximum
benefit to your target audience.
Additional notes
25.1
Note that the appearance of the contribution analysis tabs has changed due to updates since the
filming of the lecture videos. Please refer to the Week 8 version of the HDPE grocery bag LCA
spreadsheet for the latest versions.
25.2
The ISO 14040 series of standards describes the following three approaches to structuring data in
the interpretation step of an LCA:
Contribution analysis, in which the contribution of life cycle stages or groups of unit
processes to the total results are expressed. In this course, were using contribution analysis
to express the contribution of each unit process as a percent of the total category indicator
result for each impact category. Most LCA studies present their results in this fashion.
Dominance analysis, which is similar to contribution analysis, except statistical tools or

quantitative or qualitative ranking methods are used to express the importance/relevance
of life-cycle inventory flows, unit processes, or life-cycle stages to the results. For example,
one might use a hierarchical scoring system to assign flows a ranking of A, B, or C based on
some thresholds of contribution to each result category.
Influence analysis, which provides a ranking or other qualitative assessment of the degree
of influence the studys stakeholder(s) might have to reduce flows quantities and/or impacts
through changes to the real-world systems. Such a display of results gives guidance on
where the levers might be to improve the system moving forward, which can be helpful
for identifying plans of action for system improvements.
In practice, one encounters contribution analysis more frequently than dominance or influence
analysis. See if you can find examples of all three methods for structuring LCI and/or LCIA results in
published LCA studies!
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Lecture 25: Interpretation: completeness and consistency

Transcript
Today well be moving on to the second element of the interpretation step, which is known as
evaluation of completeness, sensitivity, and consistency. Before doing so, I wanted to point out that
most of these elements will be captured in your bottled soft drink LCA model, just as Ive captured
them in my plastic bag LCA model. For example, last time we discussed the contribution analyses I
conducted to identify environmental hot spots in my plastic bag life cycle, which I included on
separate tabs in my spreadsheet. Although you wont be writing a final LCA report in this class,
having these elements captured explicitly in your spreadsheet model would be a great help if you
were to write a report.
Lets start our discussion with an overview of the completeness check. Well follow the ISO 14040
guidance when discussing each check.
The purpose of the completeness check is to ensure that all relevant information and data that you
need for interpretation are available and complete. This is a critical check point in your study,
because if you are missing information or data that are required to identify significant
environmental issues in your LCA, you need to go back and improve the information and data in
your inventory analysis and/or impact assessment steps. And, if the missing information or data
cant be adequately addressed, you need to go back and adjust the goals and scope defined for your
study so that your interpretation is based on an appropriate study design.
Often the completeness check is summarized in a table, which also serves to record any actions or
decisions you made on the basis of your completeness check.
In this example for a hypothetical LCA, we can see that unit processes in the life-cycle system are
included in rows. The second column contains the analysts qualitative evaluation of whether or not
all relevant information and data have been included for a given unit process, taking into
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consideration the goals, scope, data requirements, and data quality requirements defined for the
study. We can see that for the distribution unit process, the analyst has indicated that the
information and data are not complete. The required actions for unit processes that arent
complete are listed in the third column. Here, the analyst has indicated the need to go back and
compile additional data in the inventory analysis step.
Ive included the completeness check for my plastic
bag LCA on a separate tab in my spreadsheet
model. In practice, the completeness check can lead
to an iterative process of data gathering and goal
and scope adjustment. This is one reason why the
iteration step features so prominently in our
depiction of the iterative nature of LCA.
In our plastic bag and bottled soft drink LCAs, well
consider our information and data complete for the
purposes of our hot spot analyses.
Lets next discuss the data consistency check. Youll
recall that Ive repeatedly stressed the need for
data and methods consistency throughout an LCA, and that weve been tracking the temporal,
geographical, and technology-related coverage and key methodological assumptions of each unit
process inventory right on the unit process tabs in our spreadsheets. The consistency check gives us
one final assessment that our methods, data, and assumptions have been consistent across our lifecycle systems. We can also summarize our consistency check in a table that typically looks like this:
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Specifically, we check for the following inconsistencies across our LCA:
Differences in data sources, such as the use of primary or secondary data

Differences in data accuracy, which refers the level of detail at which we modeled unit
process inventories; for example, did we combine very detailed inventories for some
processes but only aggregated inventories for other processes?
Differences in technology coverage, which refers to differences in technology assumptions
or mixes across the life cycle; for example, did we use an average technology mix for one
unit process but a state of the art technology for another unit process?
Differences in data age, which refers to the age of the inventory data we used in our LCA,
such as the use of recent data for one unit process but 10-year old data for another unit
process; and
Differences in geographical coverage, which refers to the geographical bases of my
inventory; for example, did I use data on one unit process from the United State and data
for another from China?
Clearly, the data quality information weve compiled for each unit process and the data quality
assessment we performed earlier are very useful when conducting such inconsistency checks.
Thats why its good to get in the habit of keeping track of data quality information throughout an
LCA. If youre using a commercial LCA software package, much of this data quality information is
included with unit process inventories, making consistency checks much easier. Of course, if we
find inconsistencies that would affect our ability to meet the stated goals and scope of our study,
wed have to go back and refine previous steps in our analysis.
25.1
Well spend most of the next lecture discussing the sensitivity check, which can require a fair degree
of quantitative analysis. In the meantime, please take a look at the consistency check I conducted
for my plastic bag LCA on the course website to see if you agree with my assessments, and try to
conduct your own consistency check for your bottled soft drink LCA.
Additional notes
25.1
For more details and discussion on completeness and consistency checks, see Section 9.3 of the
following reference:
guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. Section 9.3 First edition March 2010.
EUR 24708 EN. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010.
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Lecture 26: Interpretation: sensitivity check

Transcript
Welcome back! In the last lecture we covered methods for conducting completeness and
consistency checks. Today, well be discussing the sensitivity check. The purpose of the sensitivity
check is to assess the reliability of the final results and conclusions of an LCA by investigating how
these results and conclusions might be affected by uncertainties in the data or by study design
decisions. In other words, the sensitivity check helps us answer the question: would my results and
conclusions change if my data values could vary, or if I changed key study design decisions such as
allocation methods, cut-off rules, and system boundaries?
When the answer is no, it means we can have greater confidence in our results and conclusions.
However, when the answer is yes, its a signal that we need to revisit our choices for data and
study design so that our confidence in the results can be improved. Note also that if an LCA contains
comparative assertions to be made to the public, the ISO 14040 standards require that detailed
sensitivity analyses be conducted. Moreover, statements on how you interpreted the results of
these sensitivity analyses must be included in the report for full transparency.
26.1
Lets start by discussing sensitivity analysis at it is generally understood in the broader systems
modeling community, where it is widely used. From a mathematical perspective, a sensitivity
analysis studies how the uncertainty in the output of a mathematical model can be attributed and
apportioned to uncertainties that are present in the inputs of the model. Let me explain how this
works, using my plastic bag LCA model as an example.
Recall that there are a large number of inputs in my model, and also a large number of outputs.
Outputs include my life-cycle inventory summary results and my life-cycle impact assessment
results. In this example, Ill conduct a sensitivity analysis on my TRACI results for global warming
potential. To do this, Im using special plug-in software for risk and uncertainty analysis that works
with Excel-based spreadsheets. Ill first select my category indicator result for global warming as the
output in my analysis. Next, I need to assign uncertainty ranges to the input variables in my model
that contribute to global warming impact. To keep this example simple, Ill select the flows that Ive
previously determined as significant contributors to this impact category in my contribution analysis.
This plug-in software allows me to establish probability distributions or ranges on each input value
in my model.
After Ive done this for all input variables, I can run the sensitivity analysis. What the plug-in
software now does is conduct a Monte Carlo analysis over a number of runs specified by the user,
which Ive set at 10,000. In each run, the software assigns a value to each input based on that
inputs probability distribution. When the analysis is complete, I can view a chart that ranks the
different input variables based on their contribution to uncertainty in the output variable. Using
these results, I can determine which input variables are more or less important to establish precisely
in order to reduce the uncertainty in my models output. I can then go back to my inventory analysis
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and/or impact assessment steps to attempt to improve my input assumptions through better data.
And I can repeat the whole process for each impact category indicator result in my model.
26.2
In practice, its advisable to conduct sensitivity analyses on my choices for scope definition,
inventory methods and data, and impact assessment methods and data alongside these steps in the
LCA process. This allows the analyst to identify how different data or study design choices might
affect output results uncertainty as those decisions are being made, which enables iteration on
those steps until an acceptable level of results reliability has been achieved. The European Union
Joint Research Centers ILCD Handbook provides a great visual of how sensitivity analysis can inform
the iterative process:
Input values that contribute significantly to uncertainty in study outputs and score low on data
quality are prime candidates for improvement. Conversely, input values that are of good quality and
dont conribute significantly to results uncertainty can be left as is.
26.3
A number of commercial LCA software packages provide sensitivity analysis capabilities. So, if
youre using such software, conducting sensitivity analyses throughout an LCA should be feasible. If
youre using a spreadsheet model like I am, there are several commercial software plug-ins that can
allow you to conduct sensitivity analyses like I showed in my plastic bag LCA example. Some major
plug-ins are listed in the lecture notes.
If you dont have software for conducting a simulation-based sensitivity analysis, there are still ways
to perform a sensitivity check. If youve performed a contribution analysis, you can identify the
major contributing flows and unit processes in your model for a given impact, and manually assign
them plausible high and low values, observing the effect on your results. You can try including or
excluding different unit processes from your system boundary, or mass flows from your system, to
see if changing boundaries or cut-off rules contributes to large variations in your results. You can
also try different allocation decisions for your unit processes and systems boundaries to see if
different allocation methods might lead to significantly different results.
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All of these approaches can be informed by your past experience conducting such analysis, or by a
trusted experts experience. And each of these approaches should give you some valuable insight
into how reliable your results might be with respect to uncertainties in your input data and different
ways you could have chosen to design your study. This allows you to revise your data and study
design decisions to improve your study, when feasible. And, importantly, it allows you to be
transparent with your audience about how reliable your results are, and what key data and study
decision decisions contribute most to your results.
Whatever your chosen method, its important to document it clearly in an LCA report. Furthermore,
its important to clearly state how your intepreted the results of your sensitivity analysis when
drawing conclusions and making recommendations from your study. Now that weve discussed the
sensitivity check, well move on to statemtents of conclusions, limitations and recommendations in
the next lecture.
Additional notes
26.1
The spreadsheet images in the lecture video are slightly different than the final HDPE grocery bag
LCA model due to updates that were made to the spreadsheets since the filming of the lecture
videos occurred. However, the procedure for conducting the sensitivity analysis in the video is valid
for any spreadsheet. In the video, were using Oracle Crystal Ball risk analysis software, which works
with Microsoft Excel. See additional note 26.3.
The procedure for conducting a sensitivity analysis using Crystal Ball is fairly straightforward. First,
one assigns probability distributions to the input variables in a model. Where does one get such
probability distributions? Often one can get uncertainty information from the data source, since as
the sampling error in data that were obtained from surveys. Or, one can estimate the probability
distribution by establishing high and low ends of the distribution range and assuming a distribution
that realistically captures the central tendency in the distribution. Second, one selects one or more
output variables in the model. Third, the software performs a Monte Carlo analysis and displays the
resulting distributions on the result(s) as well as the sensitivity chart, which quantifies the
contribution to variance (in the result) of each input variable in the model. The input variables that
contribute the most to variance in the result(s) are those whose values are most important for
determining the result value(s) in the model. As such, a sensitivity analysis tells both the analyst and
the audience which input variable assumptions are most important to get right or further explore
(e.g., by showing a range of results based on ranges of the input variable values) in order to increase
ones confidence in the results of an analysis.
26.2
Now that you understand how sensitivity analysis works, the heuristics in this figure should make a
lot of sense. For example, for a given set of data, if lack of data quality is low and the model is not
sensitive to those data (lower left quadrant), then improving those data is not a priority.
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Conversely, if lack of data quality is high and the model is sensitive to those data, then high priority
should be placed on improving those data.
26.3
The following are two common risk analysis software packages work as plug ins to Microsoft Excel,
which can both be tested using free trial versions:
Oracle Crystal Ball for Microsoft Excel:

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/crystalball/overview/index.html
Palisade @Risk for Microsoft Excel: https://www.palisade.com/risk/
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Lecture 27: Conclusions and parting thoughts

Transcript
I can hardly believe it, but today is our last lecture. Lets start by discussing the third and final
element of the interpretation step, which is stating conclusions, limitations, and recommendations.
Well then wrap up with some brief parting thoughts.
The conclusions of an LCA study are clearly very important. This is where the LCA analyst
communicates the outcomes of an LCA study, and thereby provides the target audience with the key
messages of the study. Its important that all conclusions in an LCA study reflect the stated goals of
the study, and take into account any inherent study limitations that were documented as part of the
study. As you might expect, the ISO 14040 standards provide guidance on drawing conclusions,
which Ive depicted in this figure:
First, one identifies significant issues, and then evaluates the studys methodology for completeness,
sensitivity, and consistency as weve already discussed. Using this information, one can initial
conclusions. These initial conclusions must be checked for consistency with the stated goals and
scope of the study, the data quality in the study, and the methodological limitations of the study. In
other words, the conclusions must be credible considering the study design. Furthermore,
conclusions shouldnt be generalized to systems that were outside the scope of the study. For
example, I cant make conclusions about the plastic-bag life cycles that involve technologies or
P a g e | 159
materials that werent included in my studys scope. If these initial conclusions are indeed
consistent, the conclusions can be finalized. If the initial conclusions arent consistent, the process
starts again.
Weve discussed keeping track of limitations throughout our plastic bag and bottled soda LCAs.
Limitations can arise due to any number of decisions throughout an LCA, and its important to
summarize those limitations clearly for full transparency. Doing so also provides a way to ensure
conclusions are consistent with all possible limitations of the study.
Lastly, recommendations must be based on the final conclusions of a study, and can include
recommended actions as a result of the studys conclusions and suggestions for future work to
address study limitations. All recommendations should be logical extensions of the conclusions.
If we were writing final reports of our plastic bag and bottled soft drink LCAs, the conclusions,
limitations, and recommendations would comprise the last sections of our reports. However, Ive
opted to include them on a tab in my spreadsheet for completeness.
With that, weve come to the end of our instruction on the four steps in the LCA process. If youve
made it this far, and have successfully built out your bottled soda LCA model, let me congratulate
you on your accomplishment. I know its been a lot of work, but I hope this work has provided you
with a solid foundation in the principles and applications of LCA.
Id like to leave you with some parting thoughts.
First, it should now be clear to you that LCAs require a lot of planning and careful attention to detail.
And, that they also require lots of data, iteration, flexibility, and documentation. In other words,
proper LCA isnt quick and easy. Youve experienced this yourself in your bottled soda LCA, and
completing that model is something you should be proud of. But you can probably appreciate now
why there are so few LCAs available compared to the many thousands of products and technologies
available to society. Hopefully, some of you can help contribute more sound LCA studies to the
world in the future, which will lead to more informed decisions about how to address the
sustainability challenges we all face.
Second, knowing what you now know about the LCA process, I hope youve developed a healthy
degree of skepticism about the many green product and technology claims that surround us. You
can now better appreciate that, unless such claims are backed up with thorough and reproducible
studies, their validity is questionable. And moving forward, youll probably notice that many green
product claims are based on only one product aspect, like its recycled materials content, or on a
limited number of impacts, such as its energy use or carbon footprint. You now know quite well that
environmental conclusions cant be drawn without considering all relevant life-cycle stages and
impacts, and that any comparisons must be made on a functionally equivalent basis. If your work
leads you to communicate environmental results to the public, you now know what it takes to
conduct thorough studies, make sound conclusions, and communicate transparently.
P a g e | 160
Third, I hope youve come to appreciate the value in thorough documentation of all data, methods,
and limitations in an LCA. Such documentation takes careful attention to detail and discipline, but
you can now see why its worth it. Transparency and reproducibility are two major hallmarks of best
practice LCA. Without clear documentation, an LCA study is far less useful to its target audience and
to the research community. Now, its OK if an LCA study isnt perfectvery few arebut its
important to be transparent. Its likely that youll encounter poorly-documented LCAs in the future,
but you now know to interpret them with skepticism. And, if you conduct LCAs in the future, I hope
youll continue the thorough documentation practices youve learned in this course.
Fourth, I hope youve come to see the substantial benefits that LCA can provide to decision makers.
By including all relevant life-cycle stages and environmental impacts, LCA allows us to make more
informed decisions, whether they be for product design, purchasing decisions, lifestyle choices, or
public policy. LCA helps have the broadest environmental perspectives possible for such decisions,
and to anticipate and manage any possible environmental tradeoffs you may face. I hope some of
the examples I discussed gave you some idea of how LCA is being used to inform decisions in the
real world, and excited you about the possibilities for applying LCA in your own careers.
27.1
Fifth, and finally, this course provided you with some important basics, but there is a lot more to
learn before one becomes truly proficient at LCA. For those of you who are interested in further
building your LCA skills, I wish you the best of luck in your future learning endeavors. To get you
started, Ive provided some recommendations on more advanced LCA resources you can consider.
So, the time has now come to say goodbye. I really enjoyed our time together, and I hope you
found this course both interesting and useful. Thanks for joining me, and best of luck to you
wherever life leads you next!
Additional notes
27.1
The United States Environmental Protection Agencys LCA Resources website has links to many
publicly-available reports and resources to help you learn more about LCA:
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/resources.html
The European Commissions Joint Research Centre had developed the International Reference Life
Cycle Data System series of resources, which provide guidance on procedures, resources, and best
practices for LCA:
http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
The United Nations Environment Programme Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Life Cycle Initiative provides free reports and training materials for LCA:
http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/
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This is a free LCA textbook written by leading experts at Carnegie Mellon University:
http://www.lcatextbook.com/
The following textbook is a great resource for learning more about the EIO-LCA tool and method:
Hendrickson, C. T., Lave, L. B., Matthews, H. S. (2006). Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of
Goods and Services: An Input-Output Approach. Resources for the Future Press.

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How Green is That Product?

An Introduction to Life Cycle Environmental Assessment

Coursera Lecture Notes

About these lecture notes

Lecture 1: The life-cycle perspective and course goals

2. Compile an inventory of energy and mass

Correction: In the lecture video, I say an environmental impact is an adverse consequence

Lecture 2: Understanding unit processes

Inputs from nature,

Lecture 3: Constructing unit process inventories: Part 1

Inputs from nature,

Lecture 4: Constructing unit process inventories: Part 2

56,000 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per GJ of natural gas combusted

Lecture 5: Energy flow basics

Common energy carriers

Lecture 6: Mass balances

mxyz + mxy(1-z) + mx(1-y) + m(1-x) = m

mxyzal - mxas - mxyar > mxyzc

c < al - as/yz - ar/z

Boustead (2001). Who gets the credit?

Lecture 7: Goal definition

Moving forward, youll hear me make mention of the

The intended applications of the study

Lets step through each of these one by one:

Identify environmental hot spots in a products life cycle

Lecture 8: Scope definition: functional units

Function, functional unit, and reference flow(s)

For further information on these scope definition elements, see:

Lecture 9: Scope definition: initial system boundaries

In practice, system boundaries should clearly define:

Ecometrica Press Technical Paper by M. Brander, R. Tipper, C. Hutchison, and G. Davis,

Chapter 1 of B.P. Weidema, T. Ekvall, and R. Heijungs, Guidelines for application of

Representativeness of the data, which is a qualitative assessment of the degree to which

Consistency is a qualitative assessment of how uniformly the study methodology is applied

Reproducibility is a qualitative assessment of the extent to which the documentation of

Lecture 11: Scope definition: review and reporting

Lecture 12: Life cycle inventories: the basics

Direct process measurements over a period of time

Utility and fuel bills

Process monitoring and control software

Meters readings from equipment

Equipment and process specifications, and

Company data logs and records

Lecture 14: Life cycle inventories: data estimation

Youll practice constructing an analysis-based unit process inventory in Homework 5. Specifically,

Lecture 15: Life cycle inventories: multi-functionality

In practice, partitioning based on physical relationships often requires fundamental engineering

Lecture 16: Life cycle inventories: system expansion

Lecture 17: Life cycle inventories: data quality assessment

Source: Weidema and Wesnaes (1996)

Lecture 18: Life cycle inventories: Input-output (IO) methods

Lecture 19: Life cycle inventories: EIO-LCA

An environmental coefficient is calculated by dividing the total quantity of an environmental flow

Lecture 20: Life cycle inventories: IO uses and limitations

Lecture 21: Life-cycle impact assessment: the basics

So let me ask a simple question: who has the most

Although it might not seem obvious, we use the same

Lecture 22: Life-cycle impact assessment: how it works

Lecture 23: Life-cycle impact assessment: impact categories

To learn more about TRACI, the following resources are recommended:

Lecture 24: Interpretation: the basics

3. Conclusions, limitations, and recommendations.

To viewing them like this: