1. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY IN
THE CONTEXT OF ENVIRONMENTALY
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
I Made Gunamantha
md_gunamantha@yahoo.com
Chemical Analysis Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Science,
Ganesha University of Education

2. Outline
• Sustainable Development and Environmental
Concern
• Life Cycle Assessment As An Analytical Tool
• Structure of Life Cycle Assessment
• Characteristics and Dimensions in Application
Life Cycle Assessment
• Conclusion

3. Sustainable Development
is development that meets
the needs of the present
without compromising the
ability of future generations
to meet their own needs
Evidently this definition does not speak
about the environment per se, but refers
to the well-being of people as an
environmental quality. http://www.ccema-portal.org/

4. Sustainable Development and Environmental Concern
• Since the lives of our and future generations, depends on the long-term functioning
of the complicated ecosystems to produce food, raw materials and energy , it
means none of our activities would be sustainable if it led to environmental demise.
• Should be improved at each stage in production process with three broad objectives
:
1) reducing the consumption of resources: this includes minimizing the use of
energy, materials, water and land, enhancing recyclability and product durability
and closing material loops;
2) reducing the impact on nature: this includes minimizing air emissions, water
discharges, waste disposal and the dispersion of toxic substances, as well as
fostering the sustainable use of renewable resources; and
3) increasing product or service value: this means providing more benefits to
customers through product functionality, flexibility and modularity, providing
additional services and focusing on selling the functional needs that customers
actually want.
• Clean production principle and technological in life cycle product should be adopted
by producer
• Every calculation has to refer to the whole life cycle and all its processes.

5. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account a tool with life cycle perspective
analysis of system product, from the extraction of raw materials to the disposal
processes. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is definitely the best-established
methodology and better than others (Heijungs, 1993).

6. 1. A “cradle-to-grave” approach
“for assessing the Life Cycle Assessment
environmental aspects and
potential impacts associated
with a product by;
– compiling an inventory of
relevant inputs and outputs
of a system
– evaluating the potential
environmental impacts
associated with these inputs
and outputs
– interpreting the results of
the inventory and impact
phases in relation to the
objectives of the study.”
(ISO 14040)
2. Enables estimation of
cumulative environmental
impacts results from all
stages of the product life
cycle

7. Life Cycle Assessment As An Analytical Tool
• The technique examines every stage of the life cycle, from the
winning of the raw materials, through manufacture,
distribution, use, possible re-use/recycling and then final
disposal.
• For each stage, the inputs (in terms of raw materials and
energy) and outputs (in terms of emissions to air, water, soil,
and solid waste) are calculated, and these are aggregated over
the Life Cycle.
• These inputs and outputs are then converted into their effects
on the environment, i.e. their environmental impacts.
• The sum of these environmental impacts then represents the
overall environmental effect of the Life Cycle of the product or
service.

8. History of LCA
The concept of life-cycle assessment first emerged in the late 1960's
but did not receive much attention until the mid-11980's
In 1989, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
(SETAC) became the first international organization to begin oversight
of the advancement of LCA.
In 1994, the International Standards Organization (ISO) began
developing standards for the LCA as part of its 14000 series standards
on environmental management. The standards address both the
technical details and conceptual organization of LCA .
1. ISO 14040-A standard on principles and framework
2. ISO 14041-A standard on goal and scope definition and inventory
analysis
3. ISO 14042-A standard on life-cycle impact assessment
4. ISO 14043-A standard on life-cycle interpretation

9. Structure of LCA
Goal and Scope Definition
Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
Direct Application
Analysis
-Flow chart process -Product
-Data collection development and
-Boundary system determination Interpretation improvement
-Emission quantification -Strategic
planning
-Public policy
making
Life Cycle Impact Assessment -Marketing
(LCIA) -Other
-Classification
-Characterization
-Weighing
-Normalization
-Valuation

10. Definition of goal and scope
1. Define the purpose of the LCA study, ending with the definition of the
functional unit, which is the quantitative reference for the study.
2. Define the scope of the study which embraces two main tasks:
- Establish the spatial limits between the product system under study
and its neighborhood that will be generally called “environment”.
- Detail the system through drawing up its unit processes flowchart,
taking into account a first estimation of inputs from and outputs to the
environment (the elementary flows or burdens to the environment).
3. Define the data required, which includes a specification of the data
necessary for the inventory analysis and for the subsequent impact
assessment phase.
4. Define the function unit - is the measure of the performance delivered
by the system under study.
5. Define the boundary system - the unit processes or activities that will
be included in the system under study.

11. Boundary System
Raw water Rain water Energy ,
phosphate
Production Drinking
of chemicals water treatment
1
Fertiliser
Distribution
production
Heat, food, Stormwater 3
chemicals collection
Use Alternative
energy source
2
Treatment
Collection
(optional)
Transport
Production Wastewater Sludge Spreading/
of chemicals treatment treatment Transport Disposal/
Incineration
Treated wastewater
System boundaries of an urban water system including three sub-systems; drinking water (1), wastewater (2) and
stormwater (3) and an extended system including production of electricity, chemicals and fertiliser. (Lundin, 2000).

12. Foreground and Background System
The foreground
system represents
those activities on
which measures may
be taken as a result
of decision base on
the study. The
background system
represents all other
activities affected by
a change of
wastewater
treatment system.
For simplicity,
electricity delivered
to other parts of
background system
in indicated only
generally. Tillman, 2000

13. Life Cycle Inventory Analysis
• The inventory analysis is the phase when data is collected and
calculations are made in order to specify relevant inputs to and
outputs from the product system. This work can be divided into four
different substeps (ISO 14041, 1998) which in practise are performed
simultaneously.
• First, all processes involved in the life cycle of the product system have
to be identified. Ultimately, all processes start with the extraction of
raw materials and energy from the environment.
• Following the data collection, calculation procedures are needed to
generate the results of the inventory of the defined system for each
unit process and for the defined functional unit of the product system
that is to be modelled.
• The calculation should result in all system input and output data being
referenced to the functional unit.
• Aggregation of all data, through addition, then results in an inventory
table.

14. Life Cycle Inventory Table
http://www.iees.ch/EcoEng051/EcoEng051_Kirk.html
Alt0 -the existing wastewater treatment system - a conventional centralized system with denytrification and biogas production. , Alt-
1-Utilizing the existing collection system and plumbing, solids are collected at the residences and transported to local digestion and
drying facilities, while the liquids are treated on site in sand filters and then piped to a constructed wetland. The solids are used as
fertilizer. Alt 2 – Graywater, urine, and feces are separated using urine-diverting ("no-mix") toilets and additional plumbing. The
graywater is treated on site in sand filters. Feces, flushwater, and graywater solids are collected at the residences and digested and
dried locally. The urine and solids are used as fertilizer.

15. Life Cycle Impact Assessment
• Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is a process to identify and characterize the
potential effects produced in the environment by the system under study. The
starting point for LCIA is the information obtained in the inventory stage.
LCIA is considered to consist of four steps:
• Classification, in which the data originated in the inventory analysis are grouped in
different categories, according to the environmental impacts they are expected to
contribute. Indicators of impact categories include: Climate change, Acidification,
Eutrophication, Photochemical smog, Fossil fuel depletion, Ecotoxicity, Ozone
depletion Human toxicity.
• Characterization, consists of weighting the different substances contributing to the
same environmental impact. Thus, for every impact category included in LCIA, an
aggregated result is obtained, in a given unit of measure.
• Normalization, which involves relating the characterized data to a broader data set
or situation, for example, relating SOx emissions to a country's total SOx emissions.
• Weighting, where the results for the different impact categories are converted into
scores, by using numerical factors based on values. The advantage of this stage is
that different criteria (impact categories) are converted to a numerical score of
environmental impact, thus

17. Some of the steps involved in the life cycle impact assessment

18. Interpretation
Goal and scope Evaluation by:
definition Identification -Completeness check
of significant -Sensitive check
issue -Consistence check
Inventory -Others checks
analysis
Conclutions,
Impact recommendations and
assessment reporting
Interpretation phase
In the interpretation phase of LCA the findings from the inventory analysis and the impact
assessment are combined together in order to reach conclusions and recommendations,
consistent with the goal and scope of the study (ISO 1997).
This phase may also involve the reviewing and revising of the goal and scope, as well as the
nature and quality of the data collected.

19. Characteristics and Dimension in Application LCA
• Base on the structure of LCA, Udo de Haes (1993) divided LCA in two
characteristics.
1. First of all it is the life cycle concept itself, as an integrative, holistic point of
view.
2. LCA is its scientific background. It includes knowledge from a number of
disciplines, and integrates this knowledge within one encompassing model.
• LCA as a concept, qualitative LCA and quantitative LCA (Udo de Haes, 1993) .
1. As a concept means the use of this tool as a guiding principle; the
responsibility to look and communicate upstream and downstream in the
chain, without the use of specific criteria or calculation procedures.
2. In qualitative LCA one makes use of a number of separate criteria, such as
types of resources, types of emissions, reusability or recyclability,
degradability, product life span, product weight, etc., in total covering in a
qualitative way the flow chart of the system's life cycle.
3. In quantitative LCA the building of an encompassing model, describing the
inputs and outputs of the system during all stages of the life cycle, is the
core characteristic.

20. SEA = Strategic
Environmental
Assessment , EIA =
Environmental Impact
Assessment ; CBA = Cost-
benefit analysis ; LCA =
Life Cycle Assessment ;
SEEA = System of
Economic and
Environmental
Accounting; Total
Material Requirement;
IOA = Input output
analysis ; RA = Risk
assessment;
En = energy analysis; EF =
Ecological footprint; EMS
= environmental
management System;
SFA= substance flow
analysis; DMI+direct
material input; DMC =
Direct material
consumption; MIPS =
Material intensity per unit
service
Finnveden et al. (2005)

21. The uses of LCA can be classified as general and particular:
General:
• Compare alternative choices.
• Identify points for environmental enhancement.
• Count on a more global perspective of environmental issues, to avoid problem
shifting.
• Contribute to the understanding of the environmental consequences of human
activities.
• Establish a picture of the interactions between a product or activity and the
environment as quickly as possible.
• Provide support information so that decision-makers can identify opportunities
for environmental improvements.
Particular:
• Define the environmental performance of a product during its entire life-cycle.
• Identify the most relevant steps in the manufacturing process related to a
given environmental impact.
• Compare the environmental performance of a product with that of other
concurrent products or with others giving a similar service.

22. Benefits of the life cycle approach
 All necessary inputs and emissions in many stages and operations of the life
cycle are considered to be within the system boundaries. This includes not
only inputs and emissions for production, distribution, use and disposal, but
also indirect inputs and emissions - such as from the initial production of the
energy used - regardless of when or where they occur.
 Identifies key impacts and life-cycle stages of system
 If real environmental improvements are to be made by changes in the product
or service, it is important not to cause greater environmental deteriorations at
another time or place in the Life Cycle.
 LCA offers the prospect of mapping the energy and material flows as well as
the resources, solid wastes, and emissions of the total system, i.e. it provides
a "system map" that sets the stage for a holistic approach.
 The power of LCA is that it expands the debate on environmental concerns
beyond a single issue, and attempts to address a broad range of
environmental issues, by using a quantitative methodology, thus providing an
objective basis for decision making.
 Better decision-making for product/production systems

23. Limitations of LCA
 Availability and quality of life-cycle inventory data
 Uncertainties in the inventory and impact assessment methodology
 Lack of agreement on some elements of Impact Assessment
methodology Differences in LCA problem formulation due to differences
in values
 LCA is not able to assess the actual environmental effects. As above
mentioned, Life Cycle Impact Assessment, specially cautions that LCA
does not predict actual impacts or assess safety, risks, or whether
thresholds are exceeded.
 The actual environmental effects of emissions will depend on when,
where and how they are released into the environment, and other
assessment tools must be utilized. For example, an aggregated emission
released in one event from one source, will have a very different effect
than releasing it continuously over years from many diffuse sources.
 Clearly no single tool can do everything, so a combination of
complementary tools is needed for overall environmental management.

24. Conclusions
• Life Cycle Assessment, one of the newest concepts, allows
an integrated approach to minimizing environmental
loads throughout the life-cycle of a product, system or
service.
• A systems analysis, not isolated operations.
• Considers upstream and downstream burdens, and
foreground and background system.
• Multi-media and multi-pollutant.
Main components:
Goals and Scoping
Inventory Analysis
Impact Assessment
Interpretation

25. MATUR SUKSMA
TERIMA KASIH
THANK YOU