Product life cycle assessments

Product life cycle assessments (LCAs) assess the overall environmental impacts caused by a system of production, use and disposal processes
(known as the value chain or the “product life-cycle”) necessary to provide a specific product.

Projects

• Integral refractory waste management – LIFE 5REFRACT
  LIFE 5REFRACT aims at applying a "5R" (reduce, reuse, remanufacture, recycle, re‑educate) approach within the European steel sector to reach an integral valorisation of refractory materials.
• Sustainable Solutions
  The project aims at quantifying the environmental impacts of a range of solutions from DuPont Nutrition & Health. The project includes life cycle screenings of DuPont specialty food ingredients and their application in the industry.  
• Water reuse in O&G sector – INTEGROIL
  The INTEGROIL project aims to supply and validate the first application of an integrated solution to improve the treatment of produced water and wastewater of the oil and gas (O&G) industry, as well as to produce water of enough quality to be reused, increasing the sustainability of the whole process.
• Additive Manufacturing – HINDCON
  The aim of the work‑package 6 of the HINDCON project is to perform value chain simulation and modelling with integrated LCA with life cycle data related to additive manufacturing in the construction sector.
• Thermal energy recovery – THERBIOR
  This project focuses on the development, implementation and diffusion of technologies to improve energy efficiency in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) using a fully off‑grid solar‑assisted heat pump (SHP) system.
• Nano3Bio September 2017
  The Nano3Bio project aims to develop biotechnological production systems for nanoformulated chitosans based on renewable resources and to further the introduction of these to the market to replace current chemical methods.
• Sustainability assessment of a deposit return system for packaging waste in Spain June 2017
  The project (ARIADNA) aimed at providing an environmental, economic and social assessment of the implementation in Spain of a deposit return system (DRS) for some plastic and glass beverage containers present in municipal solid waste (MSW). The consequences of implementing this system were compared to those of the existing system, based on kerbside collection of these materials.
• LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2017, results for 2004‑2016 June 2017
  The study builds on top of previous studies carried out for United Plantations to estimate the environmental impact of palm oil. The environmental impacts relate to the life cycle of palm oil from cultivation to the gate of the refinery including all upstream emissions (summary report).
• Social Footprints studies April 2017
  This project aims to increase the knowledge of social performance of two products from the Nestlé supply chains: the production of milk (liquid milk and milk powder) in Pakistan, and the production of tomato‑based sauces under the Solis brand in Spain.
• Environmental Impacts of Alcoholic Beverages December 2016
  The purpose of the study was to document the total environmental impact of the product portfolio of the alcohol monopolies. The environmental impacts was expressed in monetary units, in addition to the underlying physical units.  
• Carbon Footprint Tool for Milk May 2016
  We developed a tool, which can be used for calculation of carbon footprint of milk both at farm level and at national level. The tool is used by Danish dairy farmers and to review selected historical national productions.
• Relative Sustainability of Vegetable Oils March 2016
  Evidence to inform consumers and policy‐makers of the potential negative environmental consequences of replacing any particular vegetable oil at the expense of another.
• LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2016, results for 2004-2015 March 2016
  The study builds on top of previous studies carried out for United Plantations to estimate the environmental impact of palm oil, presented as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, i.e. carbon footprint. The environmental impacts relate to the life cycle of palm oil from cultivation to the gate of the refinery including all upstream emissions.
• LCA of Locust Bean Gum June 2015
  The project concerned a cradle‑to‑customer LCA of locust bean gum produced by DuPont N&H at their plant in Valencia in Spain. The LCA was a cradle‑to‑gate assessment and included the cultivation of carob pods, and the processing at the plant in Valencia.  
• LCA of Emulsifiers May 2015
  This project has applied life cycle assessment (LCA) to a series of emulsifiers manufactured by DuPont Nutrition and Health in Grindsted, Denmark.
• Life Cycle Evaluation of the Effect of Ecolabels March 2015
  This study estimated the effect of the Nordic ecolabels on apartment buildings, canteens and laundry detergents in a Danish context.
• LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2014 December 2014
  The study consisted of an LCA of palm oil production for United Plantations Berhad based on their results for 2004‑2013 and building on previous studies. The environmental impact of palm oil is here presented as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, i.e. carbon footprint. A summary of the findings is available here.
• EPD for Textile Based Ventilation Ducts January 2015
  The goal of this project was to perform an environmental product declaration for a specific textile duct and enable future EPD's of similar textile ducts produced by the company.
• Biotreat LCA December 2014
  BIOTREAT LCA focused on treatment systems for drinking water resources. The competitiveness of the BIOTREAT technologies relative to other water treatment technologies was determined with LCA.
• LCA of Pectin February 2014
  In this project we conducted a life cycle assessment of the annual industry average of global production of pectin based on data from the year 2011.
• The Socio-Economic Consequences of Environmental Advices December 2013
  The project looked at the socio‑economic consequences of 7 environmental advices given by the government. The purpose of the project was to investigate the value if such advices are followed by the general public and to visualize the benefits of a personal effort to the society.
• Baisikeli’s Recycling Project in Mozambique September 2013
  The purpose of this small project was to assess the climate effect of re‑using old Danish bicycles in Mozambique relative to the current disposal as scrap.
• LCA screening of biofuels May 2013
  This project was initiated by the Danish green think tank Concito to assess the climate impacts of six different biofuels: wood pellets, wood chips, straw, biogas, ethanol and biodiesel.
• LCA of Eco Island Ferry April 2013
  The purpose of the project was to investigate significant improvements to operational costs and environmental impacts for a new island ferry travelling between Hov and the Tunö Island in Denmark.
• Ecodesign Requirements for Televisions January 2013
  The focus of this project was the implementation of the EU Directive 2005/32/EC on ecodesign requirements for energy using products (the EuP Directive) with special attention to the ecodesign requirements for televisions (TV).
• Plastberegner – LCA of plastics September 2012
  This tool is publicly available and enables a calculation of the environmental effects of plastic products using a life cycle approach.
• LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2004-2011 December 2011
  Life cycle assessment of palm oil production for United Plantations Berhad (Teluk Intan, Malaysia) undertaken in 2011.
• LCA of a Bio‐Based Plasticizer June 2011
  The project included a cradle‑to‑gate life cycle assessment of DuPont’s  SOFT‑N‑SAFETM.
• LCA Screening of Mobile Phone Service May 2010
  The purpose of this project was to identify the environmental impacts of the Greentel telephone service delivered by MobileValue in order for MobileValue to offset these impacts by investment in renewable energy.
• The ALCOA Smelter in Greenland July 2009
  The project aimed to provide a detailed overview of the environmental impacts, seen in a life cycle perspective, of an aluminium smelter with an annual capacity of 360,000 tonnes planned for instalment in West Greenland.
• Environmental Improvement Potentials of Meat and Dairy Products November 2007
  This project applies several novel elements at the same time, such as hybrid LCA, consequential modelling, rebound effects, social impacts, life cycle costs, analysis of synergies and dysergies, impact assessment with full monetarisation, temporal discounting, and policy feasibility assessment.
• Environmental Impact of Competing Agricultural Products April 2005
  The purpose of the project was to assess the environmental impacts from Danish pork and milk products in a life cycle perspective, in comparison with competing products, and, on this basis, to identify and prioritise the areas where the Danish environmental performance could be improved.

Why and how to perform a product life cycle assessment?

The purpose of life cycle studies is to assess the environmental impacts of “potential” product substitutions (the choice of one product system instead of another). You need not be bothered with all the technical details. But if you are interested in the more technical aspects, there are lots of references to textbook stuff and other publications at our tools and publications pages.

You can also find some more generic groups of product life cycle assessments on these pages:

• Strategic LCAs for waste management
• LCAs for environmental labels
• LCA for food and agricultural products