Environmental appraisal of green production systems: Challenges faced by small companies using life cycle assessment

This paper presents a snapshot of key challenges encountered by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) devoted to green production systems acting on the call to substantiate their environmental claims. It highlights the overriding barriers of SMEs to meeting the standards for conducting credible product life cycle assessment (LCA), in terms of accessibility to customised data and epistemological limitations. This is illustrated using a real-world example describing the material and process flows for a recycling company. We demonstrate that the rigour towards compiling large (and in some cases nested) data sets, involving expert know-how and adequate representation of system boundary can pose operational barriers. This is underpinned by complications of conducting green production and process-based LCA, deemed essential in ascertaining product and process sustainability. Finally, the paper discusses issues highlighted by the case study and provides useful directions for production researchers, SMEs and consultants.     

Incorporating linear programing and life cycle thinking into environmental sustainability decision-making: a case study on anchovy canning industry

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool to support environmental informed decisions among product and process alternatives. LCA results reflect the process stage contributions to several environmental impacts, which should be made mutually comparable to help in the decision-making process. Aggregated environmental indexes enable the translation of this set of metrics into a one final score, by defining the attached weights to impacts. Weighting values reflect the corresponding relevance assigned to each environmental impact. Current weighing schemes are based on pre-articulation of preferences, without considering the specific features of the system under study. This paper presents a methodology that combines LCA methodology and linear programming optimisation to determine the environmental improvement actions that conduct to a more sustainable production. LCA was applied using the environmental sustainability assessment methodology to obtain two main indexes: natural resources (NR) and environmental burdens (EB). Normalised indexes were optimised to determine the optimal joint of weighting factors that lead to an optimised global Environmental Sustainability Index. The proposed methodology was applied to a food sector, in particular, to the anchovy canning industry in Cantabria Region (Northern Spain). By maximising the objective function composed of NR and EB variables, it is possible to find the optimal joint of weights that identify the best environmental sustainable options. This study proves that LCA can be applied in combination with linear programing tools as a part of the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable processes and products.     

Environmental assessment for non-prescribed infrastructure development projects: a case study in Bangkok Metropolitan

Rapid urbanization and urban growth have caused serious environmental problems in most cities of developing countries. Many infrastructure projects on varying scales have been implemented to meet the growing demands of such cities, but only a few are subjected to environmental impact assessment as part of the project approval process. In an attempt to justify environmental assessment (EA) for all infrastructure development projects (IDPs), irrespective of their scales, this paper investigates the environmental effects of large, medium and small IDPs implemented in urban fringe areas to understand and compare the nature of their impacts. The survey results show that respondents' perceptions of physical environment pertaining to air quality and noise were similar regardless of the scale of the project. However, in terms of vibration, surface water quality and ground water quality, the respondents' perceptions differed between large projects and small or medium projects. In order to avoid such negative impacts from IDPs in the future, this study proposes a mechanism for integrating EA into the planning and development control processes of local authorities.     

A health-based life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) for cement manufacturing: a comparative study of China and Canada

Life cycle impact assessment methodology was applied to the cement manufacturing sectors in China and Canada for comparative purposes. Primary air emissions of NO _x , SO₂, PM, and CO were evaluated in terms of intensity per tonne of Portland cement and in respect of their contribution to winter smog. The Eco-Indicator 99 impact category for respiratory effects on humans caused by inorganic substances was used as surrogate for winter smog. Impact was assessed in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and damage, normalization, and weighting factors followed the egalitarian perspective. Results indicate some ambiguity for emission intensities with China outperforming Canada in NO _x and SO₂ while underperforming in PM and CO. However, in terms of impact to human health, China was more than double that of Canada at 14.2 DALYs per tonne of Portland cement. Highlighted by energy-intensive and trade-exposed industry like cement, environmental performance, and emissions leakage (associated with offshoring production) can have serious ramifications on regional air quality. Modernization and innovation in combination with a strong regulatory framework needs to be implemented in both emerging markets and developed markets to minimize emissions leakage and pollution loading.     

Multidimensional life cycle assessment on various moulded pulp production systems

Moulded pulp has been used as an alternative to plastic in certain packaging applications, but some problems in the production system lead to higher costs including energy consumption. Industry tends to operate on the basis of experience rather than through scientific evaluation and systematic design methods. The research aims at detecting the problems in the production system by a multidimensional life cycle assessment (MLCA) with transparent analysis. The MLCA measures the performance of the moulded pulp production system with regard to technical, economic and environmental aspects and produces quantitative results (in monetary units), and finally indicates the overall efficiency of the production system using a sustainability index (SI). A life cycle impact assessment method based on endpoint modelling (LIME) is mainly adopted in the MLCA. Three existing moulded pulp production systems for industrial packaging in China were assessed in this study. The results show that the main environmental impacts of the three production systems are the atmospheric emissions and landfill waste; the drying stage in the production systems, which is dominated by consumption of resources and environmental impacts, is the key to controlling costs; steam should be the first preferred heat source in the drying process for achieving sustainability in the moulded pulp production system. The optimum for the three cases is identified by calculating the newly developed SI. The MLCA approach can be used to assist in identifying potential improvements and practical new packaging designs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A process systems framework for rapid generation of life cycle inventories for pollution control and sustainability evaluation

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool that aids in sustainable decision-making among product and process alternatives. When implementing LCA, the efficient and accurate modeling of chemical processes for life cycle inventory (LCI) generation is still challenging. Challenges include a lack of systematic design and simulation tools and approaches to develop chemical process models for obtaining and analyzing more realistic LCI results. In this contribution, a novel process systems framework is proposed for estimating LCI results when implementing pollution control technologies. This framework involves the development and incorporation of pollution control unit (PCU) modules into process simulation and generation of LCI data associated with the PCUs for use in a sustainability evaluation. Different pollution control modules are designed for rapid LCI estimation and applied to obtain emissions, utility consumption, material, and land footprint results related to waste streams of a process simulation. Then, the LCI results are analyzed with the objectives of minimizing the environmental impact and utility consumption. The proposed framework is illustrated via a biomass/coal gasification process for syngas production with the end goal of acetic acid manufacturing. Results associated with this case study show that the developed framework can provide guidelines for sustainable decision-making based on generated LCI results.     

Environmental and social life cycle assessment to enhance sustainability of sugarcane-based products in Thailand

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - This paper aims to identify the environmental, socioeconomic, and social hot spots and to find ways to enhance the sustainability of selected food,...     

Environmentally friendly pathways for the evaluation of investment projects using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA)

Issues related to improvement in the quality of products and to environmental protection in the economic policy of many countries and in the strategies of institutions and international organisations (e.g. European Union) have increased in importance in recent years as a consequence of the increase in environmental awareness of consumers. All these institutions currently recommend a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of planned projects during the decision-making process taking into account both economic and environmental factors. It is, therefore, important to develop methods and tools to assess environmental performance as a support to a proper choice of investment activities. The aim of this paper is to develop algorithms to link the life cycle assessment (LCA) model associated with environmental issues and the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) model associated with economic factors to permit an integrated assessment of investment projects. The combination of LCA and LCCA results enables the assessment of ongoing or planned investments and should be used as a priority in making strategic decisions. In this paper, three environmentally friendly pathways (algorithms) using LCA–LCCA indicators as a support for decision-making processes were proposed: the first for implementing any environmental investments, the second for modernisation and innovation investments, and the third for new investments.     

Full-depth reclamation for the rehabilitation of local roads: a case study

Full-depth reclamation (FDR) techniques for pavement construction and rehabilitation have gained general recognition because of their technical, economical and environmental advantages. The use of cement–bitumen-treated material (CBTM) has rapidly increased over the last 10 years mainly in motorways. Public administrations have recognised the advantages of FDR, and this technique has also begun to be applied for the rehabilitation of local and/or rural roads. This paper shows the results from a trial section built to verify the suitability of FDR for the rehabilitation of local roads. The design planned the in situ stabilisation with styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS)-modified bituminous emulsion and cement of hot mix asphalt and foundation course. The mechanical characteristics of CBTM were evaluated by means of stiffness modulus tests at different temperatures and fatigue tests. The obtained results offer good prospects for the application of FDR in the maintenance project of local roads.     

Integrating life cycle assessment (LCA) with boundary line analysis (BLA) to reduce agro-environmental risk of crop production: a case study of soybean production in Northern Iran

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Increasing the yield of oilseeds is considered an important plan and strategy in different countries such as Iran. With limited available arable land,...     

An integrated sustainability assessment framework: a case of turning process

Sustainable manufacturing is a valuable tool for measuring and enhancing the machining performance. The implementation of sustainability frameworks in concerned industries poses enormous challenges despite various frameworks available in the literature. Thus, the objective of this paper is to present an integrated sustainability assessment framework wherein two machining scenarios (dry and wet turning) have been analysed by conducting experiments based on the process for a manufactured component in an industry from economic and environmental perspectives. The study further evaluates the economic and environmental indicators such as cost per component and energy consumption for Taguchi array design using empirical relations to evaluate sustainability by grey relational analysis and further optimise the machining performance by particle swarm optimisation. The results, however, indicate the possibility of transitioning the machining process from wet to dry at specific operating conditions with improved performance. In addition to this, the study also presents an illustration of social sustainability assessment framework which has been proposed after consultation with various manufacturing industries in order to make it convenient for them to implement and enhance the sustainability aspects of the machining process.     

Development of decision support system for sustainability evaluation: a case study

The industries have created threat to the present environment through their manufacturing methods. Moreover, the excessive utilization of natural resources have led to scarcity and triggered danger for the future generations. So there exists a vital need for the modern companies to renovate their manufacturing technologies. Thus, a new concept of manufacturing process known as sustainable manufacturing has been introduced and it gained great importance in the present scenario. Sustainable manufacturing means the production of goods in such a way that it utilizes minimum natural resources and produces safer, cleaner, and environment-friendly products at an affordable cost. The purpose of this article is to assess the sustainability level of a manufacturing organization taking into consideration various factors needed for insuring sustainability. During the course of this research, a sustainability model was developed using fuzzy logic and the sustainability index was calculated. Manual calculation of sustainability index consumes more time and it is mistake prone. So, in order to avoid such inadequacies, a computer-based decision support system was developed designated as fuzzy-logic-based sustainability evaluation decision support system. The system calculates the fuzzy logic sustainability index, Euclidean distance, and fuzzy performance importance index. This model will help the companies to analyze various aspects of sustainability within their organization and work toward further improvement of it.     

The life cycle assessment of a telecommunications semiconductorlaser

Life cycle assessment is a technical management tool that can help quantify the environmental impacts associated with products or processes. For example, it relates the energy and materials used or during the manufacture, distribution, operation and disposal of a product to their impact on the environment as fossil reserve depletion, ozone depletion, landfill volume, etc. This paper focuses on the practicalities of conducting a life cycle assessment on a semiconductor communications laser     

Domestic value added as an indicator for sustainability assessment: a case study on alternative drivetrains in the passenger car sector

To strengthen the economic pillar in sustainability assessment, the indicator ‘domestic value added’ is introduced. It aims at comparing established and less developed technologies regarding their prospective value added in a country. This is done by classifying a technology’s value added to the developed categories: domestic, potential domestic and non-domestic. Within this paper, two methods for assessing this indicator are introduced focussing on their applicability in a sustainability assessment context. Both methods are tested on a case study comparing two alternative drivetrain technologies for the passenger car sector (battery and fuel cell electric vehicle) to the conventionally used internal combustion engine. The first method is life cycle cost-based whereas the second is based on Input Output analysis. If a life cycle cost assessment is already available for the technology under assessment, the easier to implement life cycle cost-based approach is recommended, as the results are similar to the more complex Input Output-based approach. From the ‘domestic value added’ perspective, the battery electric vehicle is already more advantageous than the conventional internal combustion engine over the lifecycle. Fuel cell electric vehicles have the highest potential to increase their ‘domestic value added’ share in the future. This paper broadens the economic pillar in sustainability assessment by introducing a new indicator ‘domestic value added’ and giving practical information on how to prospectively assess it for existing and less developed technologies or innovations.

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Materials design for sustainability through life cycle modeling of engineered cementitious composites

Evaluating and enhancing construction material sustainability requires a life cycle perspective of the structures in which they are used, since material properties and durability can have a profound effect on overall infrastructure performance. A framework is proposed to evaluate and enhance the design of “greener” materials that integrates material design, structural design, and life cycle modeling of the built system. This framework is applied to engineered cementitious composite materials, a family of high performance fiber-reinforced composites used as link slabs in a concrete bridge deck. Modeling results show incorporating waste materials, such as fly ash, should be pursued only if the material retains adequate durability for the structural application where it is used. Additionally, traffic congestion resulting from bridge deck construction and rehabilitation events dominates environmental and economic life cycle results, consuming the most energy, producing the largest amount of pollutants, and generating the greatest life cycle costs.     

Reliability assessment of fire safety systems in railway industry: a case study

Within the framework of railroad transportation systems, there are currently system rooms where critical systems such as signalization are available. For the system to achieve an uninterrupted mode of operation, it is crucial to mitigate risks or hazards against the rooms and to ensure an acceptable level of safety. This study handles the protection of a system room, owned by Istanbul Ula??m A.?. Edirnekap? branch, against an incident of fire as a safety-related system practice. Within this scope, the fire safety system has been handled as a safety-related system identified in IEC 61508. The safety integrity level required by the safety lifecycle for the relevant system has also been identified and safety functions that are required to be implemented have been put forth. Taking IEC 61508 as a reference for the functions, the required analyses have been performed through fault tree analysis. It has also been guaranteed that the relevant functions have met the required safety levels.     

Comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of bio-modified binder and conventional asphalt binder

This study is a life cycle assessment (LCA) of conventional asphalt binder versus bio-modified binder that is produced by mixing asphalt binder with bio-binder obtained from swine manure. Both processes were evaluated and compared in terms of their contribution to global warming, using a global warming potential index and energy consumption. This LCA study uses a cradle-to-gate approach for the binder and includes a comparison between the environmental impacts of swine manure in lagoons and the production of bio-binder. The results show the energy consumption and global warming potential improvements after using bio-binder as a sustainable additive.