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Hello, and welcome to How Green is that

Product?
An introduction to life cycle assessment.
I am Eric Masanet and I'll be your
instructor for this course.
I hope you've been looking forward to it
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 won't 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,
analyse, and interpret
environmental data in a structured manner
for better decisions.
But perhaps most importantly you'll 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, you'll be equipped
with the basic skills
to conduct such analyses and to
begin answering environmental questions of
your own.
So what exactly is LCA?
LCA is a method to access the
environment impacts of a product, process,
or service that involves four major steps.
Determining the goals and scope of the
LCA, compiling an inventory of energy and
material inputs and environmental outputs
across all relevant life cycle stages.
Evaluating relevant environmental impacts
associated with
the life cycle inputs and releases.
And interpreting the results at each step
to lead to a more informed decision.
Let's first discuss what is meant by life
cycle stages, using this plastic bag, as
an example.
In this course we'll refer to five
distinct stages of the product life cycle.
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 in the United States would
include extracting
natural gas and transporting it to a
chemicals plant.
Manufacturing, which includes processes
that
convert raw materials into finished
products.
In our case, plastic bags are manufactured
by producing plastic
pellets, melting them into a film and
forming the bags.
Distribution, which includes transporting
and stocking products for consumption.
For example, our plastic bag will be
shipped from the manufacturer to a grocer.
Use, 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 re-use the bag
for
additional shopping trips, or as a garbage
can liner.
Which is why we often include the re-use
in the use phase as well.
Stage five is the end of life
stage, where products enter the waste
management system.
Depending on local waste practices, the
plastic bag
might be recycled, landfilled, or
incinerated to generate energy.
So what is meant by relevant impacts.
As you'll learn in this course, an
environmental impact is an
adverse consequence associated with inputs
of resources and outputs of pollutants
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, the 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?
It's because a paper bag takes up more
space than a plastic bag, and therefore
more trucks might be required to bring the
same number of 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 example teaches us two important
lessons.
First, an LCA can reveal that while we
think we're making
green choices, one environmental impact
might
be reduced while another is increased.
That's why it's important to consider
all relevant impacts in an LCA, otherwise
such shifts
in impacts might be missed when we're
evaluating our options.
Second, consideration of all life cycle
stages allowed form 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.
It's 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
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 you're an engineer, LCA can help you
choose materials
and design features that lead to greener
products and technologies.
If you're 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 you're 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 or thorough analysis to back
them up.
Let's wrap up with an overview of what you
can expect.
Each lecture will introduce one or more
new concepts.
Which will be reinforced through online
quizzes, homework assignments, and the
course notes.
I believe LCA is best learned by jumping
in hands on.
So in this course, you will build an LCA
model
of a simple product that you should all be
familiar with.
A bottle of soda.
No special LCA software packages will be
required.
All that is needed, is a spreadsheet.
Each week you'll be developing a new
section of
the model that relates to that weeks
lecture material.
So, by the end of the course, you'll have
built a complete bottled soda LCA.
While the product is fairly simple, by
building
the model across all life cycle stages and
impacts.
You'll acquire the scales and perspectives
that should allow you to move onto
more complex products after you complete
this course.
As with most course era courses, our
lectures will be short.
So, to get the most out of this course,
you'll need the
combined experience provided by the
lectures,
course notes, homework assignments, and
course projects.
You'll also need to put in some
substantial effort
in this course, but the results will be
worth it.
We'll also make use of Corsera's
discussion
forum to share ideas, discuss the course
material, explore additional questions,
and get to
know our fellow LCA analysts around the
world.
Lastly, we'll also have separate videos
describing
real world LCA studies that highlight the
material, so you can easily see how the
theory relates to practice in real time.
I'm looking forward
to this experience together.
See you next time.
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