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APPLICATION OF PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT TO PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP AND POLLUTION PREVENTION PROGRAMS J . A. Fava* and A. Page**

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*Roy F. Weston, Inc., One Weston way, West Chester, PA 19380-1499, USA **Roy F. Weston, Inc., One Van deGraaflDrive, Burlington, MA 01803-7085, USA

ABSTRACT The concept of product life-cycle assessment is described and its application to pollution prevention and product stewardship programs is discussed. KEYWORDS Life-cycle assessment; life-cycle inventory; waste reduction and elimination; pollution prevention; product stewardship; corporate policy. Over the last 5 to 10 years, the consequences of past operating conditions, disposal practices, and product usages have been realized through the traumatic and expensive experiences of many companies, municipalities, and government agencies. For example, the experience dealing with Superfund liabilities and the increased costs of solid and hazardous waste disposal illustrate the importance of understanding short and long-term liabilities. During this time, significant improvements in environmental quality have been made. More improvements are still required, however. Additionally, the area of regulatory emphasis is changing. Our environmental, health, and safety laws have traditionally focused on controlling the releases from the manufacturing facilities and defined sources of emissions generally, on a media-by-media (Le., air, water, soil) perspective. Media-by-media approaches result in end of pipeline controls and emission standards. This technology is limited in its application and in the level of real reduction. Regulatory agencies are now looking to on-line changes and modifications to further reduce emissions. Innovations in source reduction will be the primary area of advancement in environmental compliance over the next decade and beyond. The emphasis on the media-by-media or facility based approaches will continue. However, the recent EPA Science Advisory Board (U.S. EPA 1990) recommends that pollution prevention be substituted for the traditional pollution control approaches to environmental, health, and safety issues. To understand the long term liability associated with its operations, an organization must characterize its operations into definable and manageable units. Traditionally with the pollution control approach this characterization was accomplished based on media-by-media or facility-by-facility units. However, one of the weaknesses of this approach is that the 215

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relationships among media releases and/or facilities are unclear. Also, the environmental releases along the entire life cycle of the operations are often not addressed. An alternative approach is to characterize the environmental releases and resources used

by products and/or by product lines. The releases to the environment from the manufacture, use, and disposition of that particular product can then be understood and managed. A manufacturing facility may (and often does) manufacture more than 1 product. The absolute and relative amount of releases to the water, air, and land can be determined for each product or product line at that facility. Collecting environmental release data on a product basis provides a better way of IhorouPhly understanding a company’s environmental releases. A company can then make a decision about that product relative to its contribution to the overall release at a facility.

As a result, companies and organizations have expanded their efforts to better understand and to develop policies and practices to reduce or eliminate wastes prior to their generation, and to manage the products and packaging to reduce their environmental burden and resources used along a product’s life cycle. One strategy to address pollution prevention is to apply the product life-cycle assessment approach. A scheme illustrating key components of a product life-cycle is shown in Figure 1. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the status of product life cycle assessment and its application to pollution prevention and product stewardship program. PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT The concept of product life-cycle assessment has become the topic of newspaper articles and industrial, government, and environmental groups’ attention over the last several years in Europe and North America. Given the attention this topic has received, one might assume that the product life-cycle assessment (LCA) tool is a recent development. Actually, product life-cycle inventories have been used for over twenty (20) years. Various studies were conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s to evaluate the cumulative energy requirements for the production of products and industrial processing such as steel, pulp and paper, and petroleum refining. During the oil crisis of the early 19703, extensive energy studies were performed for a wide range of industrial systems. Because these studies required detailed mass balances, additional data on raw materials and solid waste were provided. After the energy crisis faded, these energy analyses were conducted less frequently. In 1990, the policy and technical aspects of product LCA were discussed in three forums. First, the World Wildlife Fund and the Conservation Foundation held a forum to identify and discuss policy issues (WWF 1990). Second, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) sponsored a workshop to develop a technical framework for lifecycle assessments. Third, a workshop was held in Leuven, Belgium to discuss practical aspects of conducting life-cycle assessments. These three activities as well as the public release of LCAs comparing one product to another (e.g. plastic versus paper cups) brought to the public attention the potential value and also the limitations of product LCA. What is a Product Life-Cycle Assessment? LCA is a process used to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, package, process, or activity. This is accomplished by identifying and quantifying energy and material usage and environmental releases. These data are. then used to assess the impact of those energy and material uses and releases on the environment, and to evaluate and

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implement opportunities to achieve environmental improvements. The LCA ineludes the entire life-cycle of the product, process or activity, encompassing extracting and processing of raw materials; manufacturing, transportation, and distribution; use/re-use/maintenance; recycling; and final disposal. The SETAC workshop developed a technical framework for life-cycle assessments. The workshop report (SETAC 1991) provides a discussion on the state-of-the-practice of product LCA. A complete life-cycle assessment consists of the separate but interrelated components: inventory, impact, and improvement analysis (Table 1). It should be emphasized that most of the past efforts to develop or conduct life-cycle assessments have focused on the inventory component. Considerable research is still needed to develop the impact and improvement analysis components. These three components comprise an integrated approach that, when combined with other appropriate data, can provide the insight needed to achieve and maximize environmental improvements. TABLE 1 Three components of a Product Life-Cycle Assessment (SETAC, 1991) Life-Cycle Inventory - An objective, data-based process of quantifying energy and raw material requirements, air emissions, waterborne effluents, solid waste, and other environmental releases incurred throughout the life cycle of a product, process, or activity.

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Life-Cycle Impact Analysis - A technical, quantitative, and/or qualitative process to characterize and assess the effects of the environmental loadings identified in the inventory component. The assessment should address both ecological and human health considerations, as well as other effects such as habitat modification and noise pollution. Life-Cycle Improvement Analysis - A systematic evaluation of the needs and opportunities to reduce the environmental burden associated with energy and raw materials use and waste emissions throughout the whole life cycle of a product process or activity. This analysis may include both quantitative and qualitative measures of improvements, such as changes in product design, raw materials use, industrial processing, consumer use, and waste management.

Environmental benefits can be realized at each step in the LCA process. For example, the inventory alone may be used to identify opportunities for reducing emissions, energy, and material use. The impact analysis and improvement analysis tools, however help ensure that these potential reduction strategies are optimized and that improvement programs do not produce unanticipated impacts. The life-cycle assessment is a dynamic and iterative process of evaluation. For example, changes in the material input to a manufacturing process or changes in the process itself may trigger the need for an updated inventory. Likewise, new information pertaining to human or environmental exposure and toxicity may trigger the need to update the impact and improvement analyses.

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energy between operations at different locations and can occur at any stage in the life cycle. Distribution is the transfer of the manufactured product from its final manufacturer to its ultimate end user. A common attribute of both distribution and transportation is that, although they may involve a change in the location or physical configuration of a product, they do not involve a transformation of materials. begins after the distribution of products or materials and ends at the point at which those products or materials are discarded and enter a waste management system.

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of the waste management system and deliver it back to the manufacturing/processing stage. Waste Manacement, Waste streams are generated at each phase of the life-cycle. Waste is any material released to any environmental component - air, water, or land. Waste management systems include any mechanisms for treating or handling waste prior to its release to the environment.

In addition to these 6 stages, consideration should be given to adding the product design and development stage into the product life-cycle. Products can be designed to optimize for net reduction in environmental releases.

The practice of product life-cycle assessments has focused on the inventory component. As such, impact analyses have not traditionally been conducted. Two of the major areas to enhance the practice and application of product life-cycle assessment are to:

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components. Identify and/or develop accepted approaches to conduct the impact and improvement analyses components.

While this research is ongoing, product LCAs can serve a critical role to provide a quantitative catalog of the inputs (energy and raw materials) and outputs for products. Results from a life cycle inventory have current application for use by industry internally in several ways as listed in Table 2. Their application will provide a company with strategic information to help a company focus its resources towards areas where reductions in environmental releases can be made, and will help guide the development and evaluation of existing and new products. As the regulatory pressures increase and the public expand its concern about environmental protection from pollution control to pollution prevention, companies will have to do more than just comply with the changing environmental regulations, but will have to go beyond compliance.

TABLE 2 Current Uses for Life-Cycle Inventory Studies (SETAC, 1991)

To establish a comprehensive baseline of information on a system’s overall resource requirements, energy consumption, and emission loadings for further analysis To identify points within the life-cycle as a whole, or within a given process, where the greatest reduction in resource requirements and emissions might be achieved

To compare the system inputs and outputs associated with alternative products, processes, or activities

To help guide the development of new products, processes, or activities toward a net reduction of resource requirements and emissions.

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Application of Product LCA Three benefits have surfaced during the recent discussions on product LCA. First, there is a recognition that environmental solutions cannot always be based on a single issue approach, such as solid waste or air toxics, but solutions may be based on more of a multiissue perspective. Second, organizations are taking a broader, more holistic view of products. Strategies to ensure compliance with regulations will be reconsidered. Consideration will be given to evaluating strategies to install systems that go beyond regulatory compliance. Third, considerations to solve and prevent environmental, health, safety and resource issues will be also directed towards products as well as towards facilities. Companies will have to get ahead of the regulations. One approach to consider is to develop policies and systems to incorporate solutions to environmental, health, and safety problems associated with products into existing Total Quality management programs. The concept of continuous improvement applied to product design, manufacture, use, and disposition should be carefully considered. Obviously, environmental, health, and safety concerns are not the only factors in the decision making process, because the product performance, customer acceptance, and costs must also be incorporated into final decisions. Companies have experience in developing effective strategies, such as 3M's "Pollution Prevention Pays" or Chevron's "Save Money and Reduce Toxins (SMART)". The Chemical Manufacturer Association (CMA) established its "Responsible Care" Program and is developing Management Codes on specific topics, such as product stewardship. Product stewardship is understanding for the environmental, health, and safety characteristics of your products, the conditions of use along the entire life cycle of your product, and providing effective guidance as to how personnel and environmental exposure is to be controlled and monitored. Obviously, one of the first questions one asks is how and where do I start. Clearly there is not a single answer. The approach will depend on the company, its strategies, product lines, and environmental, health, safety and resource commitment. A systematic approach to follow which includes three phases is presented in Table 3. Two examples illustrate how a companies can utilize the application of product life-cycle assessments today to understand and make decisions concerning environmental and resource issues associated with their products and packaging. Procter & Gamble has developed a corporate policy on environmental quality which includes a statement that Procter & Gamble "will develop and use state-of-the-art science and product life-cycle assessment, from raw materials through disposal, to assess environmental quality." Procter & Gamble has used life-cycle analyses for a variety of products and packaging systems to evaluate the relative resource requirements and environmental releases (Table 4). Packaging options which offer source reduction opportunities were identified as providing the most efficient use of raw materials and maximum reduction in environmental releases.

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Table 3 (cont’d) Phase 2.

Establish, Implement, and Audit Plans to Ensure Compliance with Existing Environmental, Health and Safety Requirements Strategic Planning to Optimize the Data and Information Gathering and Regulatory Interface Component To Minimize Product Registration Time Development of Data and Information Management Systems Preparation of Regulatory and Environmental Assessment Documents Conduct Required Laboratory and Field Environmental Fate and Effects Testing Conduct Risk Characterizations Conduct Audits to Ensure Regulatory Compliance

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Development and Implementation of Product Specific Plans to Improve the Environmental Quality of Products Review of Plans for Specific Products To Comply with Corporation’s Overall Product Stewardship Program Application of Specific Actions To Meet Corporate Goals and Practices Conduct Product Life-Cycle Inventories Establish Baseline Information on Systems Overall Resource Requirements and Environmental Releases Compare Systems Input and Outputs Associated With Alternative Products Evaluate Impacts Associated With Environmental Releases and Resource Uses Modify Products, Packaging, or Processes Based on Actions to Mitigate Impacts and Reduce Resource Consumption Establish Systems to Ensure Product Stewardship Participation by Suppliers, Distribution, and Customers Conduct Audits To Ensure Compliance with Product Stewardship Program

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REFERENCES

Life-Cycle Analysis for Packaging Environmental Assessment. Proceedings from specialized woikshop. Leuven, Belgium. (September 24,1990). Council on Plastics and Packaging in the Environmental (COPPE). (1991). Issues in Life Cycle Assessment. INFO Backgrounder. (September 1990). Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). (1991). A Technical Framework for Life-Cycle Assessment. J.A. Fava, R. Denison, B. Jones, M.A. Curran, B. Vigon, S. Selke, and J. Barnum, Eds. Workshop Report. Published by SETAC and the SETAC Foundation for Environmental Education, Inc.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (1990). Reducing Risks. Science Advisory Board. SAB-EC-90-021. Setting Practices and Strategies for Environmental Protection. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Conservation Foundation. Product Life Assessments: Policy Issues and Implications, Summary of a Forum. (August, 1990). ental, tance and and eases ve all ing of xess. Entia1 es an mrol

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SUMMARY FOR

Fava 1992

3.d Global, integrated view of manufacturing: Fava 1992: HE STATES THAT Multi media P2 is preferable to media by media attacks on pollution. This approach can be extended beyond unit processes to evaluate entire life cycle analysis of pollution associated with products. Figure 1 page 277 and figure 2 page 279 may be useful. Life cycle terminology is defined. Corporate policy and commitment is the starting point for P2. Proctor and Gamble is exemplary (page 282 last paragraph). Table 3 (page 283 and 284 -- be sure to see both pages) shows an "overall approach" which may be useful as a model. Key action points are to start immediately, do not wait, commit resources, get personalized commitment, document continuous progress, improve communications globally and locally.:MY COMMENTS Terminology in tables will have to be modified to get away from the "life cycle" jargon and put into more of a P2 setting.