Life-cycle Assessment in Government Policy in the United States

Life-cycle Assessment in Government Policy in the United States
Author: Daniel L. Reed
Publisher:
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

The United States government, both at the federal and state levels, is continuously relying on emerging technological and methodological tools in order to provide essential information to decision and policy-makers. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a rapidly emerging tool for both the private and public sectors. Governments around the world are looking towards life-cycle information to guide policy and promote environmental issues. LCA began in the United States in 1969 when the Coca-Cola Company wanted an innovative way to evaluate the impact of their beverage container's impact on the environment. Since then, life-cycle concepts in the U.S. have been slow to be adapted and accepted for various reasons. While the use of LCA in the development and application of policy is more common in Europe, the U.S. has started to look towards the possibilities of life-cycle information for policy decisions at both the federal and state levels. The first essay in this dissertation introduces life-cycle assessment and describes the methodology. The remaining essays present some insights into the value of life-cycle information inside of government policy by looking at its evolution and history (Chapter 2), illustrating the types of information LCA provides (Chapters 3 and 4), and providing policy implications and identifying opportunities for the future of LCA inside of policy in the United States (Chapter 5).

Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products

Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products
Author: United Nations Environment Programme
Publisher: UNEP/Earthprint
Total Pages: 104
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789280730210

The Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products provides a map, a skeleton and a flash light for stakeholders engaging in the assessment of social and socio-economic impacts of products life cycle. The map describes the context, the key concepts, the broader field in which tools and techniques are getting developed and their scope of application. The skeleton presents key elements to consider and provide guidance for the goal and scope, inventory, impact assessment and interpretation phases of a social life cycle assessment. The flash light highlights areas where further research is needed. Social Life Cycle Assessment is a technique available to account for stories and inform systematically on impacts that otherwise would be lost in the vast and fast moving sea of our modern world. May it help stakeholders to effectively and efficiently engage to improve social and socio-economic conditions of production and consumption

Life-Cycle Assessment

Life-Cycle Assessment
Author: Battelle Memorial Institute
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2020-09-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1000115305

Life-Cycle Assessment presents a brief overview of the development of the life-cycle assessment process and develops guidelines and principles for implementation of a product life-cycle inventory analysis. The book describes inventory analysis, impact analysis, and improvement analysis-the three components of a product life-cycle assessment. It discusses the major stages in a life cycle, including raw materials acquisition, materials manufacture, final product fabrication, filling/packaging/distribution, and consumer use and disposal.

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)
Author: Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9811645620

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) that was developed about three decades ago demands a broadening of its scope to include lifecycle costing and social aspects of life cycle assessment as well, drawing on the three-pillar or ‘triple bottom line’ model of sustainability, which is the result of the development of the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). LCSA refers to the evaluation of all environmental, social and economic negative impacts and benefits in decision-making processes towards more sustainable products throughout their life cycle. Combination of environmental and social life cycle assessments along with life cycle costing leads to life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). This book highlights various aspects of life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA).

Annual Report

Annual Report
Author: United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
Publisher:
Total Pages: 32
Release: 1983
Genre: Civil defense
ISBN:

Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition

Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition
Author: National Academy of Engineering
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 1999-06-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309522331

When Cleveland's Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, no environmental measurements were necessary to know the seriousness of the problem. Incidents like the Cuyahoga fire raise an important question: Can catastrophes-in-the-making be detected early enough to be prevented? For those in industry, such disasters point to the need for measures that can improve the environmental performance of processes, products, business practices, and linked industrial systems. In Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition, experts share their insights on environmental metrics. The volume explores the most productive relationship between measures of environmental performance and measures of ecosystem conditions. It reviews current approaches, evaluates structures for business decisionmaking, and includes a matrix for determining the environmental performance of industrial facilities. Case studies include: Development and application of a water-quality rating scheme for streams and reservoirs in the Tennessee Valley. Three years of successful experience with waste metrics at 3M. The book covers the range of environmental performance and condition metrics, from the use of material flow data to monitor environmental performance at the national level to the use of bioassays to measure the toxicity of industrial effluents. This book offers something for everyone--policymakers, executives, engineers, managers, and advocates--with a stake in the measurement of environmental performance and ecological conditions.

Life Cycle Management

Life Cycle Management
Author: Guido Sonnemann
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2015-07-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401772215

This book provides insight into the Life Cycle Management (LCM) concept and the progress in its implementation. LCM is a management concept applied in industrial and service sectors to improve products and services, while enhancing the overall sustainability performance of business and its value chains. In this regard, LCM is an opportunity to differentiate through sustainability performance on the market place, working with all departments of a company such as research and development, procurement and marketing, and to enhance the collaboration with stakeholders along a company’s value chain. LCM is used beyond short-term business success and aims at long-term achievements by minimizing environmental and socio-economic burden, while maximizing economic and social value.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Life Cycle Impact Assessment
Author: Michael Z. Hauschild
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2015-03-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9401797447

This book offers a detailed presentation of the principles and practice of life cycle impact assessment. As a volume of the LCA compendium, the book is structured according to the LCIA framework developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)passing through the phases of definition or selection of impact categories, category indicators and characterisation models (Classification): calculation of category indicator results (Characterisation); calculating the magnitude of category indicator results relative to reference information (Normalisation); and converting indicator results of different impact categories by using numerical factors based on value-choices (Weighting). Chapter one offers a historical overview of the development of life cycle impact assessment and presents the boundary conditions and the general principles and constraints of characterisation modelling in LCA. The second chapter outlines the considerations underlying the selection of impact categories and the classification or assignment of inventory flows into these categories. Chapters three through thirteen exploreall the impact categories that are commonly included in LCIA, discussing the characteristics of each followed by a review of midpoint and endpoint characterisation methods, metrics, uncertainties and new developments, and a discussion of research needs. Chapter-length treatment is accorded to Climate Change; Stratospheric Ozone Depletion; Human Toxicity; Particulate Matter Formation; Photochemical Ozone Formation; Ecotoxicity; Acidification; Eutrophication; Land Use; Water Use; and Abiotic Resource Use. The final two chapters map out the optional LCIA steps of Normalisation and Weighting.