Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Life Cycle Assessment also known as Life Cycle Analysis is a concept and practice that can be applied to any human activity. In this post and through its videos I attempt to untangle the concept of LCA from its heavy reliance on numerical datasets, so that an LCA-like ethos may become accessible and practicable by all.

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Click any of the topic headings below to find out more.

Basic Concepts and Limitations:

LCA is a concept that can be applied to any human activity to analyse it in terms of materials and energy consumption.

What is special about LCA is the ability to cumulatively quantify inputs and outputs of energy and materials in any activity, leading to more accurate and truer environmental impacts and trade-offs of choices humans make.

Thinking about any decision using an LCA framework allows us to analyse our choices through a series of well-defined steps.

What’s the point of that? Knowing the short and long environmental consequences of our choices before they are made!

LCA was originally conceived for the manufacturing industries to alleviate developing issues over raw materials availability and energy use, which was affecting certainty and longevity of production.

Due to this, LCA relies heavily on quantities being available before practical aspects can be deployed in real life. Whilst LCA as a concept may help us think about qualitative outcomes of human activities, the system is firmly rooted in energy and material input/output data sets.

Material quantities are inextricably linked to energy quantities, and whilst work continues on incorporating other quantitative units by calculated conversion (as is the case for CO₂ outputs), if these calculations cannot be achieved, the effectiveness of Life-Cycle Analysis is reduced.

Lastly LCA can get very complex very quickly which makes the quantifying impacts a matter for specialists, using specialised knowledge, and specialised computer programs (eg. SimaPro and Gabi), which means LCA is unable to be understood and practiced by everyday people.

What does a Typical Life-Cycle Look Like?

A life cycle is a series of standardised steps in a circular path of exchanges between interdependent human activities and planet Earth.

By following the steps in either forward (from raw resources to final product) or backward (from final product to what raw resources it is made of) order, a life-cycle highlights accountability as a part of all human actions.

What is a Cradle-to-GATE Life-Cycle?

Cradle-to-GATE Life Cycle Assessment is the oldest type of LCA.

It was invented to analyze processes in large industry (forestry, mining, etc.), therefore it covers all aspects of manufacture from natural resource to sellable product ready for dispatch.

What is Cradle-to-GRAVE Life-Cycle?

Cradle-to-GRAVE Life Cycle Assessment extends LCA beyond the manufacturer’s gates onto the utilization time (in-service life) of a product.

All material and energy inputs and outputs of an activity are considered from natural resource, to manufacturing, to utilization, right down to disposal phases.

The Cradle-to-GRAVE framework highlights the impact of multiple transportation steps between the abovementioned phases. Additionally, it sheds light on the importance of product longevity in minimizing consumption.

Are There Any Benefits in Combining LCA and Building Design?

In short, yes. Correct integration of LCA concepts to design and specification of buildings lowers environmental impact, and at the same time enhances occupants’ experience of the built environment.

Designing for aging in place, using passive solar principles, specifying quality finishes that wear and tear in an aesthetically pleasing way are all examples of ‘good’ design practices which yield lower material and energy consumption as per LCA intents.

LCA as a tool can be used to prove a design or specification is environmentally sensible.

In the video two conceptual buildings are assessed under LCA principles and find out which design and material selections have the most environmental impact.

More videos coming soon:

… See an example of Cradle-to-Cradle life-cycle

… Re-Cycling and Re-Using concepts within LCA

References – websites accessed and correct at time of publishing.

A brief history of LCA: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee401/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.egee401/files/A%20Brief%20History%20of%20Life-Cycle%20Assessment.pdf

CO2 conversion values: https://reneweconomy.com.au/graph-of-the-day-how-green-is-your-electricity-12278/#:~:text=As%20a%20rough%20guide%20coal,than%2050%20g%20CO2%2FkWh.

Live graph of energy production and energy demand (Australia): http://www.nem-watch.info/widgets/reneweconomy/

EcoInvent Database in a nutshell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOdZcWNplso

Information on LCA program SimaPro can be found here: https://simapro.com/

Information on LCA program Gabi can be found here: http://www.gabi-software.com/australia/index/

Bricks used for road sub-base source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-23/war-on-waste-turning-building-waste-into-road-base/8550094

Stages of life adapted from: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/706902634/toilet-restroom-handicap-wheelchair

Typical Australian residential building embodied and operational energy graph is here: https://www.yourhome.gov.au/materials/embodied-energy

Information on how often Australians move house is here: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/census-2016-australians-increasingly-restless-as-half-move-home-20171023-gz60qr.html

Percentage of fly-ash in standard concrete mix is from Hanson Australia Premixed Concrete Safety Data Sheet: https://www.hanson.com.au/media/5699/ha2262_safety-data-sheets_premixconcrete_50.pdf

Embodied energy of pressed earth bricks and ceramic bricks can be found here: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/architecture/centres/cbpr/resources/pdfs/ee-coefficients.pdf

Typical Australian buildings embodied energy and operational energy source: https://www.yourhome.gov.au/materials/embodied-energy

Information on Australians moving house every 5 years is here: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/census-2016-australians-increasingly-restless-as-half-move-home-20171023-gz60qr.html

Life Cycle Images Credits:

‘CLAY QUARRY’ ; ‘EXCAVATOR’ ; ‘TRUCK’ ; ‘SOIL’ ; ‘MACHINERY’ ; ‘PROCESSED WASTE’ Photographer: Dmytro Ts on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/excavator-in-a-clay-quarry-near-the-town-of-pology-1636148

‘PETROL’ Photographer: Iancu   Justin   on   FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/oil-1441845

‘CLAY’ Photographer: Deanna Sy https://deannasworldsite.wordpress.com/category/ceramics/#jp-carousel-969

‘ROAD’ Photographer: Nico van Diem on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/road-1446708

‘DIGGING’ Photographer: Dieter Joel Jagnow on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/gardening-2-1257592

‘MIXING’ Photographer: Maria Kouvara on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/bucket-1230220

‘WATER’ Photographer: Alfonso Lima on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/water-1185570

‘FIRE & CUT’ Photographer: Martin Kessel https://www.freeimages.com/photo/kiln-1485217

‘SHAPING’ Photographer: Unknown https://www.hgmatthews.com/

‘PACKING’ Photographer: Equipceramic https://www.zi-online.info/en/artikel/zi_Equipceramic_Commissions_Packaging_Line_for_Ladrilleria_Mecanizada_2404468.html

‘PRODUCT’ and ‘MATERIALS’ Photographer: Unknown https://messersi.com/en/edilizia/

‘PLANE’ Photographer: Chundy Tan on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/airplane-flying-1639555

‘RUNWAY’ Photographer: William Ray on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/runway-1466862

‘WORKFORCE’ Photographer: Patrick Moore on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/construction-workers-1215154

‘HOUSE’ Photographer:  T K on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/old-house-1178420

‘WASTE’ Photographer: Dave Edmonds on FreeImages.com https://www.freeimages.com/photo/building-rubble-1145726

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