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Oil Crisis
Oil crisis have rocked crude oil price by exceeding 100% since
1973, still drastic fluctuations remain since that collapse (blue
curve).
From: Nano Today, 2016
Related terms:
Energy Engineering
Fossil Fuel
Energy Conservation
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O
In Dictionary of Energy (Second Edition), 2015
oil crisis Health & Safety. an increase in oil prices large enough to
cause a worldwide recession or a significant reduction in global real
gross domestic product (GDP). See below.
oil crisis For economic purposes, an oil crisis is defined as an
increase in oil prices large enough to cause a worldwide recession
or a significant reduction in global real gross domestic product
(GDP) below projected rates by two to three percentage points. The
1973 and 1979 oil episodes both qualify as oil crises by this
definition. The 1973 oil crisis caused a decline in GDP of 4.7% in
the U.S., 2.5% in Europe, and 7% in Japan whilst the 1979 crisis
caused world GDP to drop by 3%. An oil crisis could be precipitated
by a rapid expansion in the global economy fueling greater
consumption of oil or by a lack of spare production capacity causing

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demand to outstrip supply, or a combination of both. It could also be
caused by a sudden disruption in oil supplies triggered by political
events or acts of sabotage against oil installations in major oil-
producing countries or even by a deliberate political decision by a
major producer or a group of producers to cut supplies.
Mamdouh Salameh
Oil Market Consultancy Service, Haslemere, Surrey, UK
View chapter Purchase book
Introduction
Eric Jeffs, in Generating Power At High Efficiency, 2008
The oil crisis of 1973 was the principal catalyst for change. First it
started a search for new oil and gas resources, and also set
industry looking at ways to improve the energy efficiency of both its
products and its processes. This was a time when the first of the
large gas turbines started to appear: 100 MW units which could run
at the common synchronous speeds and therefore not require
a gearbox in order to drive the generator. Exhaust temperatures
over 500 °C could support more efficient steam cycles at higher
temperatures and pressures without supplementary firing.
View chapter Purchase book
The Future
Raymond L. Murray, in Nuclear Energy (Sixth Edition), 2009
The oil crisis of 1973 involving an artificial shortage alerted the
world to the importance of energy. A number of studies were
published. Some of these are still relevant; others are very much
out of date. Only a few will be cited here in References. In
subsequent years, prices of oil declined, the oil supply was
adequate, and natural gas became abundant, so public concern
relaxed, and few updates of the studies were made. Other reasons
for reservations about the literature of the 1970s and 1980s can be
cited.
1
Principal emphasis has been on the situation in the United States or
in developed countries, with less attention to developing countries.
2
Various investigators come to quite different conclusions even if
they use the same data, depending on their degree of pessimism or
optimism. At one extreme is the book The Limits to Growth and
later works (called “doomsday” studies) and the upbeat energy
reports of the Hudson Institute (see References).

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3
Extrapolations of data can be very wrong, as evidenced by
predictions on the growth of nuclear power made in the 1960s.
4
Sharp differences exist between writers' opinions on the future role
of nuclear power. For example, Worldwatch Institute dismisses it at
the outset, whereas the United States. National Academies view it
as a desirable option.
5
Analyses may be irrelevant if they do not take account of social and
political realities in addition to technical and economic factors.
View chapter Purchase book
The Journey of Reinventing the European Electricity Landscape—Challenges
and Pioneers
Helena Lindquist, in Renewable Energy Integration, 2014
1 Background
The oil crisis of 1973 became an important wake-up call for Europe.
The dependency on energy imports from OPEC countries exposed
the vulnerability of the economy to external events beyond the
political control of European nation-states. Increasingly, concern
was also growing for the effect of the fossil-based energy system on
the environment and its link to global climate change. This
prompted some pioneering countries in Europe to invest in research
to develop wind and solar power technologies, most notably
Denmark and Germany.
In the middle of the 1980s, the European Community (now
European Union (EU)) began developing policies aimed at reducing
oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while promoting the
use of renewable energy (henceforth referred to as RE) for
electricity, heating/cooling, and transport. In 1997 the European
Commission published a white paper calling for the community to
source 12% of its total energy, including 22% of electricity from
renewables, by 2010 [1]. However, these targets were nonbinding
and did not give the market enough confidence to make the
necessary investments. The far-reaching Renewable Energy
Roadmap published by the European Commission in 2007 [2],
which was later enacted in the EU climate and energy package of
2009, kick-started real growth in the RE sector, most notably in
wind and solar power. The often cited 20-20-20 targets of the
EU Renewable Energy Directive form the core of the legislative
framework and consist of three main pillars: (1) a binding target to

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reduce greenhouse gas emission by 20% by 2020 based on 1990
levels; (2) a binding target to increase the amount of energy
consumption originating from renewable sources to 20% by 2020;
and (3) a nonbinding target to improve energy efficiency by 20% in
relation to projections for 2020 [3]. The EU directive meant that the
EU committed to reaching these targets as a collective. These were
then divided into separate targets in National Renewable Energy
Action Plans for individual member states, taking into account their
respective starting points and potential. The drivers behind this
significant policy initiative were not only the concern for the growing
threat of climate change, but—equally important—geopolitical
considerations about security of supply and the dependency of
foreign imports of oil and gas, not least affecting the EU's
vulnerable relationship with Russia. It should be emphasized that
developments in Europe are intrinsically linked to, and
preconditioned by, externalities of the globalized economy and
energy system.
View chapter Purchase book
Burmeister & Wain Low-Speed Engines
Doug Woodyard, in Pounder's Marine Diesel Engines and Gas
Turbines (Ninth Edition), 2009
L-GF and L-GB Engines
The oil crisis in 1973 and the resulting massive increase in fuel
prices stimulated enginebuilders to develop newer engines with
reduced specific fuel consumption. B&W’s answer was the L-GF
series combining constant pressure turbocharging with an increase
in piston stroke: an increase in stroke of about 22 per cent results in
a lowering of the shaft speed by around 18 per cent, leading to
greater propulsive efficiency when using larger diameter
propellers and around 7 per cent increase in thermal efficiency.

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Figure 13.9 . Fuel pump

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Figure 13.10 . Fuel injector

The design of the L-GF series engine was heavily based on that of
the K-GF, and the necessary changes were mainly those relating to
the increase in piston stroke and modifications to components to
embody thermodynamic improvements (Figure 13.11). A major
component design change was the cylinder liner, made longer for
the increased stroke, and featuring cooling bore drillings forming
generatrices on a hyperboloid to ensure efficient cooling of the high
liner collar without cross borings with high stress concentration
factors.

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Sign in to download full-size image
Figure 13.11 . Short- and long-stroke 67GF engines (left and right)

The cylinder covers are of the solid plate type used for the K-GF,
while the pistons are also of the original oil-cooled type but with
somewhat improved cooling caused by the stronger ‘cocktail
shaker’ effect resulting from the greater quantity of oil in the
elongated piston rod. The designs of the crankshaft, crosshead,
bearings and exhaust valve actuating gear are, in the main, similar
to the components introduced with the K-GF series.
Constant Pressure Turbocharging
The increased stroke and thus reduced revolutions per minute of L-
GF engines compared with K-GF engines was not aimed at
developing more power but rather an improvement in ship
propulsive efficiency. The uniflow scavenging system has the
advantage of a good separation between air and gas during the
scavenging process, and the rotating flow of air along the cylinder
contributes to the high scavenging efficiency and clean air charge.
As an engine’s mean indicated pressure increases the amount of
exhaust gas energy supplied during the scavenging period, relative
to the impulse energy during the blow-down period, constant
pressure turbocharging is advantageous; also for uniflow
scavenged engines with unsymmetrical exhaust valve timing.
Theoretical calculations for improved fuel economy showed a

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possible gain of 5–7 per cent in specific fuel consumption by using
constant pressure turbocharging.
The most obvious change with constant pressure turbocharging is
that the exhaust pipes from each valve body led to a common large
exhaust gas receiver instead of to the turbochargers as in the
impulse system. When the cylinders exhaust into a large receiver,
the outflow of gas is quicker because the large gas impulse at the
commencement of the exhaust period is levelled out in the gas
receiver, and the outflow of gas will not be retarded, as in the case
of impulse turbocharging where a pressure peak is built up in the
narrow exhaust pipe before the turbocharger.
The opening of the exhaust valve can be delayed about 15°,
thereby lengthening the expansion stroke and improving the
efficiency and reducing the fuel consumption. The energy before
the turbine is less than that for impulse turbocharging but as the
pressure and temperature before the turbine is nearly constant the
turbine can be adapted to run at peak efficiency, and the blower can
supply sufficient air above 50 per cent of engine load. The
scavenging air pressure is increased and the compression
pressure somewhat decreased compared with impulse
turbocharging.
A small auxiliary blower is necessary for satisfactory combustion
conditions at loads of up to about 50 per cent. Two blowers of half
capacity are used for safety, and even with one of these out of
action the other with half the overall capacity is satisfactory for
starting and load increase. The engine will still run at down to 25
per cent load but with a smoky exhaust.
The change from K-GF to L-GF resulted in a 2 per cent
improvement in the specific fuel consumption, and the lower speed
accounts for a 5 per cent improvement in propeller efficiency.
Constant pressure turbocharging adds a further 5 per cent to the
improvement, resulting in a 12 per cent reduction in specific fuel
consumption between the L-GF and K-GF types. The next engine
model of the constant pressure turbocharged type was the L-GFCA
(Figures 13.12 and 13.13), shortly succeeded by the L-GB type.

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Sign in to download full-size image
Figure 13.12 . A 12-cylinder L90GFCA engine developing 34800 kW at 97 rev/min

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Figure 13.13 . Load diagram for L90GFCA engine

View chapter Purchase book

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) for food packaging
D. Plackett, I. Siró, in Multifunctional and Nanoreinforced Polymers
for Food Packaging, 2011
18.2 Commercial developments
The oil crisis of the 1970s provided a boost in the quest for
alternative bio-derived plastics and this has now been re-stimulated
by recent fluctuations in global oil prices and environmental
concerns. Several efforts to commercialise PHAs started in the
early 1980s. In 1982, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (ICI) began
production of a biodegradable polyester (Biopol®) which could be
melt processed to produce films and fibres (Anderson and Dawes,
1990). The process was based on use of a glucose-utilising mutant
of the bacterium Alcaligenes eutrophus (since renamed Ralstonia
eutropha and more recently Wautersia eutropha) and the product
was a PHBV co-polyester containing randomly arranged units of
[R]-3-hydroxybutyrate and [R]-3-hydroxyvalerate (Holmes, 1988).
The main PHA manufacturers and trade names are listed in Table
18.1. As one of the first pioneers, Chemie Linz (Austria) also

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produced PHB on a relatively large scale (20–100 tonnes/year) for
a few years starting in the late 1980s.
Table 18.1 . Main suppliers of PHAs worldwide

Company Trade name Type of PHA Source

Biomer, Germany Biomer®L PHB www.biomer.de
www.metabolix.com
Metabolix/Telles/ ADM, USA Mirel™ PHB
www.mirelplastics.com
Meredian, USA Nodax™ Copolymers www.meredianpha.com
Copersucar/Biocycle, Brazil Biocycle® PHB www.biocycle.com.br
Bio-On, Italy Minerv-PHA™ Unknown www.bio-on.it
Tianan Biologic Material, China Enmat™ PHBV www.tianan-enmat.com
www.bio-natural.com
Tianjin Green Bioscience, China Greenbio-1 Unknown
www.dsm.com
ICI was split up in 1993 and the Zeneca BioProducts branch of ICI
started dealing with Biopol®. Zeneca sold the Biopol® technology
to Monsanto in April 1996 and this was then acquired by Metabolix
Inc. (US) in 1998 (Philip et al., 2007; Mooney, 2009). Recently,
Metabolix Inc. has cooperated with ADM (Archer Daniels Midland
Company, US) in order to commence large-scale production of
PHAs under the trade name Mirel™ from Telles, a joint sales
company. Mirel™ will be produced at a ~50,000 tonnes/year plant
presently under construction in Clinton, Iowa
(http://www.mirelplastics.com). Another company in the field of PHA
production is Tianjin Green Bioscience Co., Ltd of China with an
expected production of 10,000 tonnes/year. Recently, carbon
sources other than glucose, including whey, organic acids,
hydrolysed starch, methane and sewage, were tested by this
company in order to reduce production costs. It has been
suggested that the production of PHAs can serve as a beneficial
step in sewage treatment if that is used as carbon source
(http://www.bio-natural.com.hk).
Mention should also be made here of the research conducted by
Jian Yu and his group at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, which
has included the use of food wastes as a feeding source for PHA-
producing bacteria as well as the patenting of technology to
produce biodegradable thermoplastics and elastomers from organic
wastes (Du and Yu, 2002). In another commercial development,
Procter & Gamble aimed to reduce the costs of PHA copolyesters

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to make them more competitive with established products; however,
despite some success, the production of PHAs under the trade
name Nodax™ stopped in 2006 (Philip et al., 2007). In 2007,
Procter & Gamble sold the Nodax™ intellectual property to
Meredian Inc. which announced plans to further develop and
commercialise the technology. Other PHA suppliers include Ningbo
Tianan Biologic Material Co., Ltd in China which produces different
forms of PHBV under the tradename Enmat™, Biomer (Germany)
with its Biomer® P-series (PHB), Bio-On (Italy) producing MINERV-
PHA™ and PHB Industrial S.A., owner of the Biocycle® brand
(PHB).
View chapter Purchase book
Redox Flow Batteries
Gerd Tomazic, Maria Skyllas-Kazacos, in Electrochemical Energy
Storage for Renewable Sources and Grid Balancing, 2015
17.2.1.2.8 Zn/Br2 Battery Applications and Field Trials
The oil crisis of the year 1974 initiated the search to find an
alternative for the combustion engine in cars. The main goal of
ER&E and later of the Exxon project group was the development of
a battery suited to power EVs. The intention to apply the system
also for stationary storage evolved at a later time, very probably
because the advantages of the Zn/Br2 battery for EV application in
comparison to other batteries, was losing conviction. Within the
Exxon project group, SEA in Austria was making great efforts to
design EV batteries and to investigate the battery performance in
several test beds. Regarding the battery design two different types
were developed—low-profile batteries and high-profile batteries.
In low-profile batteries the stacks are positioned beside the
reservoirs. In high-profile batteries the stacks are positioned on top
of the reservoirs. It is evident that the low-profile version is
especially suited for assembly into a passenger
car. Figure 17.18 shows a 288 V/33-KWh low-profile battery. The
electrolyte pumps are embedded within the reservoirs, while the
electrolyte tubing is connected to the manifolds on top of the stack.
A slight slope in the manifold toward the reservoirs allows the
manifolds to be drained during the pump-off periods to achieve SCI.
The small tubing and the box on top is used to handle the gas
volume and to take it over to the recombinator.

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Sign in to download full-size image
FIGURE  17.18. A typical 288 V/33-KWh low-profile Zn/Br  battery designed by
2

SEA.

A typical 108 V/20-KWh high-profile battery is presented

in Figure 17.19. Because of available space the pumps can be
outside the reservoirs. Manifolds are in a vertical position and gas is
aerated from the top of the manifolds.

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FIGURE  17.19. A typical 108 V/20-KWh high-profile battery designed by SEA.

SEA tested many Zn/Br2 batteries in several EVs accumulating

more than 80,000 test kilometers. To allow a comparison, lead–acid
and Zn/Br2 batteries were tested either in the same EV or in the
same type of EV. The diagram in Figure 17.20 clearly shows the
significant range difference for the two battery systems.

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FIGURE  17.20. Range comparison of EV powered by Zn/Br  and lead–acid
2

battery in SEA field trials.

In addition to this obvious advantage it has to be added, that even a

45-KWh battery installed in a Volkswagen could again be charged
to 100% SoC within 4 h which further increases the daily driving
range by a factor of two.
Despite this encouraging result, there is one reason remaining
which prevents a breakthrough for the Zn/Br2 battery system for EV
applications, this being the lack of adequate peak power. For this
reason high-power battery types as, for instance, lithium-based
batteries or NiMH batteries have been the preferred choice for
traction applications. The main advantage of NiMH and Li-ion
batteries for EV is their specific energy not power. Power is the
parameter in HEVs not EVs.
Lifetime cost and serviceability are the most important criteria for
storage batteries. Especially for those applications where stripping
after each cycle is acceptable, the lifetime of Zn/Br2 flow batteries is
very high. Developers expect that the final commercial version will
be able to achieve a life time of up to 20 years. Considering this,
flow batteries are very serious candidates for high-capacity
stationary energy storage.
SEA and its successor, Powercell Corporation, also developed a
low-profile and a high-profile version of the Zn/Br2 battery for such
applications. A low-profile 100 kWh PowerBlock on a test site in
Oklahoma is presented in Figure 17.21. The stacks are positioned
on the left side in a safety container. Sloped manifolds again allow

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the interruption of the SCs when the pumps are stopped. The
container on the right side houses the reservoir, with the pumps on
top. A very efficient heat exchanger is assembled within the zinc
reservoir. The black tube on the right accommodates the gas
handling unit which includes the recombinator. The large box on the
right side contains the power electronics, the battery controller, and
the thermal management system for the electrolyte.

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FIGURE  17.21. A low-profile 100 kWh powerblock Zn/Br  battery at a test site in
2

oklahoma.

The photograph in Figure 17.22 shows a mobile high-profile version

of a 240 V/100-KWh Powerblock. The battery consists of six stack
towers with three stacks each. The black tubes on each tower
protect the vertical manifolds and at the lower end of these
protective tubes are stack containers with a leakage sensor
installed. The upper horizontal cross-tube is part of the gas handling
system, which allows SCI, hydrogen collection, and aeration of the
manifolds at startup. The box at the right incorporates pressure
control, electrolyte level balance, and hydrogen recombination
systems.

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Sign in to download full-size image
FIGURE  17.22. A mobile high-profile version of a 240 V/100-KWh powerblock.

Electrical wiring includes high-vacuum contactors which allow

interruption of the DC current when necessary and which are
opened during pump-off times to avoid ring currents.
Different battery voltage levels are readily achieved by simply
changing the connection of the wiring as illustrated
in Figure 17.23 for a 240 V system. For telecommunication
purposes a small 48 V/10-KWh storage battery was designed to
deliver 15 kW for a period of 17 min. This battery is illustrated
in Figure 17.24 and can be seen as a small edition of the
PowerBlock. Battery manifolds are connected to each other by
means of detachable fittings.

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Sign in to download full-size image
FIGURE  17.23. Stack wiring for 240 V battery.

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FIGURE  17.24. A 48 V/10-KWh Zn/Br  powerblock storage battery designed to
2

deliver 15 kW for 17 min.

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Visions for city traffic and mobility
Rolf Monheim, in Sustainable Transport, 2003

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7.1 Introduction
The first oil crisis in 1973 was a shock and provoked some
rethinking about reliance on the car. Car-free Sundays (a measure
to counteract the crisis) enabled the town and countryside to be
experienced in a completely new way and also promoted alternative
mobility. In contrast, during the oil crisis of 2000 the car lobby tried
to push through their supposed right to cheap fuel for an urban and
economic system which, despite all the declarations to the contrary,
had become even more car-dependent. The demand of the
Austrian President Thomas Klestil ‘Don’t just say what is popular,
but try to popularise what is necessary’, is regarded as political
suicide by politicians faced with the mobilisation of public anger by
populist defenders of the fixation with the car. Those who issue
warnings and think beyond the present are a minority voice in
politics, business, general society and the media and do not really
have enough muscle to prevail. The ‘realists’ continue to dominate:
they want the removal of bottlenecks and optimisation of the current
transport system and consider the growth in traffic to be
unavoidable. They denounce concepts that question these basic
assumptions as ideological or Utopian. The underlying ‘car pact’
causes intractable ‘stagnovation’ (Canzler and Marz, 1996).
The ‘transport turnaround’ is not primarily a technical transport
problem, although important individual contributions must come
from this sector. Most of all, it will require linkage between the
essential elements quoted above: a coalition of social forces must
be formed to convince people that sustainable mobility will mean a
better quality of life. The initiatives must interlink at all regional
levels, from local to EU, and at all institutional levels, from citizens’
initiatives to parliaments and governments. Up to now this has been
very fragmented (see Monheim, H, 1997a, b; Monheim, R, 1997).
The objective of this chapter is not to systematically summarise and
evaluate concepts or to develop a closed vision such as those
provided by Adam et al., (1999), Monheim, H (1997a), Monheim, R
(1977), Topp (2002a), Hall and Pfeiflfer (2000), Knoflacher
(1993), Monheim and Monheim-Dandorfer (1991), Petersen and
Schallaböck (1995), Schallaböck (1999), Vester (1999) and Wolf
(1994). Instead, by way of examples, some problems and
approaches to solving these problems will be discussed. The
starting point is the assessment that prognosticated trends are not
inevitable, but rather that alternatives are necessary, feasible and

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worthwhile. Although the traffic situation in towns and cities will be
the main topic of discussion, the problems cover the whole
spectrum of transport and must therefore be dealt with
comprehensively, and specific regional strategies also need to be
developed.
View chapter Purchase book
The Environmental Performance Strategy Map
Luca De Benedetto, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, in Assessing and
Measuring Environmental Impact and Sustainability, 2015
LCA: History
LCA involves the evaluation of specific elements of a product
system to determine its environmental impact. Also called Life
Cycle Analysis or cradle-to-grave approach, LCA comprises a
conceptual framework and a set of tools that have been studied and
developed in the past 45 years. The core of the concept is the
assessment of the impacts at each stage of the product life cycle.
The term “product life cycle” is not used here with reference to a
product’s sales and profits course over time, but rather with
reference to the notion of production, manufacturing, distribution,
use, and disposal, including all necessary transportation steps. The
proposed view is therefore a holistic one that includes the entire life
span of a product from the extraction of the raw materials to its
disposal.
The first studies of LCA date from the late 1960 and early 1970s. In
1969, for example, the Coca-Cola Company funded a study to
compare resource consumption and environmental releases
associated with beverage containers (Udo de Haes and Heijungs,
2007). Similar studies were then started in the United Kingdom,
Switzerland, and Sweden. In these early studies, LCA was closely
linked with energy analysis. Also, because of the energy crisis of
the early 1970s, waste and outputs were initially not considered and
attention was concentrated on calculating the total energy used in
production of various household goods. For example, Boustead
(1996) in the United Kingdom studied various types of beverage
containers, including glass, plastic, steel, and aluminum. This
demonstrated the high embodied energy value of aluminum in
contrast to glass. Glass scores even better if it is reused
or recycled. Nevertheless, the winners in this battle were the
reusable plastic bottles, because glass and aluminum were
transported great distances to be recycled.

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After the oil crisis subsided, the energy issues and the use of LCA
in this application lost prominence. It was only in the late 1980s and
early 1990s that a new interest in the tool was found and coupled
with efforts to bring standardization to its use. In 1989, Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) started working
on defining a common terminology and a methodology framework.
A first result of this work was the definition of the functional unit.
This is a quantified description of the product systems to which
impacts are attributed. This unit sets the scale for comparison of
two or more products, and one of its main purposes is to provide a
reference to which the input and output data are normalized. Three
aspects have to be taken into account when defining the functional
unit (Lindfors et al., 1995):
1.
Efficiency of the product
2.
Durability of the product
3.
Performance quality standards.
When performing an assessment of more complicated systems
(e.g., multi-functional systems like waste treatment systems),
special attention has to be given to by-products.
This standardization work was then picked up by the International
Standard Organization (ISO) in 1994 with the first of its 14040
series. The rigid context of the ISO offered coherence to the
different methodologies and approaches in LCA without imposing
one. The ISO work has resulted in the definition of specific steps
that allow the separation of the subjective and objective phases
within the proposed method. The principles and framework for LCA
in these documents include goal and scope definition, life cycle
inventory analysis (LCI), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA),
and life cycle interpretation phase and reporting.
These phases are the codification of the same steps individuated by
SETAC in the previous years, with the exception that Life Cycle
Improvement has been considered an activity that should permeate
all other phases and not one of its own. The interpretation phase
was, instead, added. The interest in this topic is witnessed by newer
versions of the aforementioned series, the latest of which was
published in 2006 14040: (ISO, 2006) effectively replaces 14040:

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(ISO, 1997), 14041: (ISO,1998), 14042: (ISO, 2000a), and 14043:
(ISO, 2000b).
Although in past years the pace of development of LCA has been
slowing, the methodology is beginning to consolidate. Nevertheless,
the usefulness of the technique is still very much under debate. In
recent times, the need to extend the complement ISO LCA
recommendation with other tools has also been expressed (Jeswani
et al., 2010).
A survey by the European Environment Agency (Jensen et al.,
1996) indicated the following social impacts of LCA:
•
LCA is now seen as necessary by all stakeholders as an integral
part of the environmental management tool kit
•
Use of this tool is also seen as important in the process of corporate
strategy formulation
•
LCA remains at an early stage of development and further research
is needed
•
Level of knowledge of LCA remains troublingly low in the general
public
•
Level of progress in LCA adoption varies between countries
•
Quality control mechanism remains relatively weak
•
Involvement of external stakeholders in defining study boundaries is
seen as increasingly important.
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