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Regional Workshop: Lifecycle Assessment for Sustainable Materials Management
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September 19,2011LCA Pre-recorded Webinars
By the Sustainable Technology Division of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory
of the US EPA’s Office of Research and Development
Abstracts
Bios
Additional LCA Related Webinars available from the
US EPA
The following webinars are all available on brainshark under the LCARC user site. Additional presentations may be added at a later date. At the end of this document are links to additional LCA presentations available on the web.
Abstracts
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Overview – 34 minuteshttp://my.brainshark.com/Life-Cycle-Assessment-LCA-Overview-Curran-July-12-2011-411332586
Mary Ann Curran
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized tool that can help us better understand the potential environmental impacts of the products we make and sell. LCA is an environmental accounting and management approach that considers all the human health and ecological impacts related to resource use and environmental releases of industrial systems from cradle to grave. Specifically, it takes a holistic view of environmental interactions that cover a range of interrelated activities, from the extraction of raw materials from the Earth and the production and distribution of energy, through the use, and reuse, and final disposal of a product. LCA is useful in developing business strategy and bench-marking an organization’s environmental performance. In this presentation, Dr. Mary Ann Curran in the Environmental Protection Agency's Research lab in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides a brief description of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology and application, with examples, to provide new users with a working knowledge of what LCA is as well as what it isn't.
LCIA – Life Cycle Impact Assessment – 41 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/LCA-101-Life-Cycle-Impact-Assessment-2011-Aug-14-630457314
Jane Bare
Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) has been developed for sustainability
metrics, product design, and process design for developing increasingly sustainable
products, processes, facilities, companies, and communities. The steps of
LCIA include Classification, Characterization, Normalization, Grouping, and
Weighting. The ISO requirements for LCIA will be discussed, including the
more rigorous requirements for Comparative Assertions. A taxonomy of impacts
will be presented to show the more comprehensive list of effects that might
be included in an LCIA. This will be followed by a discussion of the traditional
impact categories included in LCIA. Examples will be given of methodologies
that characterize at the midpoint and damage level, and the advantages and
disadvantages of each of these will be discussed.
Life Cycle Assessment-based Product Claims – 28 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/LCA-based-product-claims-webinar-for-regions-WI-24800606
Wes Ingwersen
Claims about the environmental performance of products have proliferated in
recent years and provide a variety of information of variable quality and
legitimacy. Life cycle assessment-based claims offer a potentially superior
option that is quantifiable, determined in a standardized way, and take into
account the full life cycle of a product. Environmental product declarations
and products carbon footprints are two existing forms of this type of label.
Within the US and abroad there is significant activity to create and promote
LCA-based claims, but there are numerous challenges involving their use, the
practical demands of making these claims, their administration, and the consistency
of the information presented. These challenges must be surmounted to fully
benefit from the wealth of information that LCA can provide to consumers.
Software and Data for LCA: Practical Consideration for Data Management
and Modeling – 45 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/Software-and-Data-for-LCA-Practical-Consideration-for-Data-Management-and-Modeling-Troy-Hawkins-401335026
Troy Hawkins
LCA software and background datasets are the infrastructure which allow an
LCA to be performed efficiently. Options for background datasets and software
are discussed and specifically the most widely used database options EcoInvent
and GaBi and software options SimaPro, GaBi, and OpenLCA are compared.
TRACI – The Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical
and other environmental Impacts – 25 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/lca-101-traci-2011-Aug-14-258409505
Jane Bare
TRACI, the Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental
Impacts, has been developed for sustainability metrics, life cycle impact
assessment, and product and process design impact assessment for developing
increasingly sustainable products, processes, facilities, companies, and communities.
TRACI allows the quantification of stressors that have potential effects,
including ozone depletion, global warming, acidification, eutrophication,
tropospheric ozone (smog) formation, human health criteria-related effects,
human health cancer, human health noncancer, ecotoxicity, and fossil fuel
depletion effects. An overview of the impact categories will be followed by
examples of the use of TRACI.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) – Data and Tools –
23 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/LCA-Data-and-Tools-Curran-August-9-2011-558133201
Mary Ann Curran
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an environmental accounting and management
approach for products, processes and activities to consider all the human
health and ecological impacts related to resource use and environmental releases
of industrial systems from cradle to grave. According to the ISO 14040 and
14044 standards on LCA, it is comprised of four distinct yet inter-related
phases, including life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis which involves the accounting
of natural resource flows (water, energy, land and raw materials) and releases
to nature (air, land, and water) for a product system. These LCI data can
then be interpreted through impact assessment models that have been created
for use in LCAs. In this presentation, Dr. Mary Ann Curran in the Environmental
Protection Agency's Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides a brief
overview of LCA methodology, with an emphasis on the LCI phase. She presents
the various issues that are involved in modeling LCI data, such as the importance
of goal and scope definition, modeling assumptions and transparency in reporting,
as well as available resources for data and software tools.
A Decision Theory Approach to Sustainability Based Decision Making
– 19 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/Sustainability-Based-Decison-Making-Eason-149336206
Tarsha Eason
With sustainability as the “true north” for EPA research, a premium
is placed on the ability to make decisions under highly complex and uncertain
conditions. The primary challenge is reconciling disparate criteria toward
credible and defensible decisions. Making decisions on one aspect alone is
challenging, when coupled with the unique intricacies of handling multiple
factors inherent in sustainability, the difficulty of decision making skyrockets.
There is a multitude of projects and consequently, a variety of decision analysis
and support tools throughout the Agency. However, work is needed for the development
of frameworks and approaches to support sustainability based decisions, development
and management options, particularly in emerging fields of interest. This
webinar provides a life cycle view of incorporating sustainability into decision
making. It highlights the path forward to sustainability, incorporates background
information on decision theory and analysis and its application within the
EPA and presents key initiatives and projects related to sustainability based
decision making.
An Examination of Silver Nanoparticles in Socks Using Screening-Level
Life Cycle Assessment – 35 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/LCA-Nano-DEMeyer-943971199
David Meyer, Mary Ann Curran, Michael Gonzalez
Screening-level Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can provide a quick tool to identify
the life cycle hot-spots and focus research efforts to help minimize the burdens
of a technology while maximizing its benefits. The use of nanoscale silver
in consumer products has exploded in popularity, making it the largest nanocomponent
in use. Although its use is considered beneficial because of antimicrobial
effects, some attention must be given to the potential environmental impacts
it could impart on the life cycle of these nanoproducts as production demands
escalate. This work examines the environmental impact of including silver
nanoparticles in commercially available socks using screening-level LCA. Initial
results suggest washing during the use phase contributes substantially more
than the manufacturing phase to the product life cycle impacts. Comparison
of nanoparticles prepared by either chemical reduction, liquid flame spray,
or plasma arc demonstrate how the type of manufacturing process used for the
nanoscale silver can change the resulting life cycle impact of the sock product.
The magnitude of this impact will depend on the type of process used to manufacture
the nanoscale silver, with liquid flame spray having the most impact because
of the need for large quantities of hydrogen and oxygen. Although the increased
impacts for a single nanoproduct may be relatively small, the added environmental
load can actually be a significant quantity when considered at the regional
or global production level.
Rare Earth Metals Industry Overview – 26 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/Rare-Earth-Metals-Industry-Overview-878969892
Diana Bless
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are a group of specialty metals with unique physical,
chemical and light-emitting properties that are seeing dramatic increases
in demand, owing to their technological applications. The unique properties
of REEs make them critical materials to many emerging technologies which are
becoming increasingly commonplace in today’s society. They are essential
to modern life for the part they play in assembling clean-energy technologies
(i.e. hybrid vehicles, rechargeable batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines)
and communications technologies (i.e. cell phones, plasma and LCD displays,
laptop hard drives, computer screens, etc.). Many of these elements are also
needed for the production of advanced weapons systems. The REE group is considered
to include the 15 lanthanide elements: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, promethium,
neodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium,
thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium. The elements yttrium and scandium are also
included as they have similar chemical properties, making 17 REEs in total.
Currently, the U.S. imports 100 percent of its REEs from other countries,
with roughly 95 percent coming from China, according to the U.S. Geological
Survey. For the past several years, the supply has been relatively cheap and
steady. But last year, as China was spurred by its own increased domestic
demand, that began to change. According to the CRS Report to Congress, published
September 30, 2010, China had cut its exports of rare earth elements from
about 50,000 metric tons in 2009 to 30,000 metric tons in 2010. According
to a Bloomberg news report published October 30, 2010, a July 2010 announcement
by China’s Ministry of Commerce cut exports of REEs by 72 percent, to
about 8,000 metric tons, for the second half of 2010. This presentation will
delve into rare earth metal global production and reserves/deposits; applications;
demand and supply; recycling and alternatives; and processing.
Emergy Analysis as a Sustainability Metric – 21 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/Emergy-as-a-sustainablity-metrics-95236170
Cissy Ma
This presentation gives an introduction of emergy concept and an overview
of emergy accounting method. The theoretical underlying features of self-organized
systems are also discussed. Examples are used to show how emergy evaluation
process is done. The unique benefits of emergy method supplement conventional
life-cycle assessment to provide a more comprehensive whole system analysis
of the environmental burdens of a production system. Emergy analysis unveils
the hidden ecological cost and offers a unique tool for decision makers to
balance between production, efficiency and sustainability.
Life Cycle Assessment for Biofuels – 22 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/LCAwebinarForRegionsBiofuels2011-08-530373847
Raymond Smith
A presentation based on life cycle assessment (LCA) for biofuels is given.
The presentation focuses on energy and biofuels, interesting environmental
aspects of biofuels, and how to do a life cycle assessment with some examples
related to biofuel systems. The stages of a (biofuel) LCA are described, as
are steps of LCA practice: goal and scope, inventory, impact assessment, and
interpretation. Methods to complete these steps are described, with suggestions
for items to consider in application to LCA and for biofuels in particular.
Aspects of the expansion of biofuels in the U.S. are described, along with
the potential for step change effects in other related systems.
BIOS
Jane BareJane Bare is a chemical engineer with 26 years of experience in the US EPA’s Office of Research and Development. She was recently elected to the global Sustainability within Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) (SwS) steering committee which is providing input to the Rio+ 20 process. She has served as the Chair of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Steering Committee of the Advisory Group for North America since 2010. She is a founding international expert on the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) / SETAC International Life Cycle Board which is the governing body of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative since 2001. She has organized and chaired three international special topic workshops on Life Cycle Impact Assessment and was involved in ISO 14040 series development. Jane developed the US EPA’s Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts (TRACI) which is used for LCA and sustainability assessments. She has published over 40 peer reviewed publications and eight patents, and was recognized in 2006 with the US EPA’s individual Gold Medal for Exceptional Service.
Diana Bless
Diana Bless is a staff member of Cincinnati’s National Risk Management
Research Laboratory in the Office of Research and Development. She has conducted
research for the prevention and clean-up of toxic/hazardous waste. Her research
interests have focused on biological and passive technologies for the removal
of metals in mine wastes and the ecological/health impacts of mercury and
arsenic contamination in abandoned mines. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering
with a minor in Biochemical Engineering from New Mexico State University.
She currently works for the Sustainable Technology Division under the Systems
Analysis Branch where she is interfacing more with sustainability, green chemistry,
life cycle analysis, biofuels and nanotechnology.
Mary Ann Curran
Mary Ann Curran directs the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research program at
the US EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati,
Ohio. Her activities include the development of LCA methodology, the performance
and review of life-cycle case studies, planning life-cycle workshops and conferences,
and the development of a life cycle data and resources website (www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/lcaccess).
As a recognized, international LCA expert, Mary Ann works closely with the
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), which has been
instrumental in advancing LCA awareness worldwide, and actively participates
in the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. Mary Ann serves as the Subject Editor
(Cleaner Production Tools) for the Journal of Cleaner Production and on the
editorial boards of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, and
Management of Environmental Quality, and the advisory boards of the on-line
journals Sustainability and the International Journal of Environmental Research
and Public Health. Mary Ann has authored and co-authored numerous papers and
book chapters which address the LCA concept and its applications. She has
presented EPA’s activities in LCA-related research at technical meetings
across the U.S. and in Europe, South America, South Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Mary Ann has been with the EPA’s Office of Research and Development
since 1980. She studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati
(BSChE 1980); Environmental Management and Policy at Lund University, Lund,
Sweden (MSc 1996); and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Erasmus University’s
International PhD program on “Cleaner Products, Cleaner Production,
Industrial Ecology and Sustainability” for her thesis entitled “Development
of Life Cycle Methodology: A Focus on Co-Product Allocation” (2008).
Mary Ann is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
Tarsha Eason
Tarsha N. Eason is a Research Engineer working in the area of decision theory
and analysis in the Sustainable Technology Division of the US Environmental
Protection Agency National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati,
Ohio. She is a former EPA Federal Post-doctoral associate and previously served
as the Associate Director of Operations of the Research Center for Cutting-Edge
Technologies (RECCET) in Tallahassee, Florida where she managed the business
functions of the Center and aided in mentoring graduate and undergraduate
students on renewable energy and manufacturing research. Tarsha received her
Ph.D. (2006) and M.S. (1998) in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and
a B.S. (1996) in Electrical Engineering from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering,
Florida A&M University. Her research activities and interests include
sustainability based decision making, decision theory and analysis, sustainability
metrics and indicators, resilience and complexity, information theory, systems
engineering and renewable energy.
Troy Hawkins
Dr. Hawkins’ research focuses on the application and development of
environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and input output models for environmental
policy analysis. His current research is focused on the development of LCA
methods for designing sustainable biofuel supply chains. He earned a BS in
Physics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1999 and
a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy
from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in May 2007. During
his PhD studies Dr. Hawkins developed a Mixed-Unit Input-Output (MUIO) Model
for life cycle assessment and material flow analysis focusing on flows of
cadmium, lead, nickel, and zinc. He then worked as a Researcher at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology (NTNU) where he worked on the EXIOPOL
Project, ‘A New Environmental Accounting Framework Using Externality
Data and Input-Output Tools for Policy Analysis’, an EU-Funded effort
to create a global, environmentally-extended, multiregional input-output (EE-MRIO)
model for analysis of environmental impacts and external costs of production
and consumption. He also contributed to two other studies, the first integrating
carbon, land, and water footprinting methods within the multi-regional input-output
framework conducted under the EU funded OPEN EU Project, and the second, an
environmental assessment of electric vehicles funded by the Norwegian Research
Council.
Wesley Ingwersen
Dr. Wesley Ingwersen is an Environmental Engineer in the Sustainable Technology
division at the EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory.
His research focuses on using Life Cycle Assessment and other tools for sustainable
supply chain design for consumer products and biofuels. Dr. Ingwersen is particularly
interested in LCA-based product claims and actively participates on the international
PCR Taskforce as well as the PCR committee through the American Center for
Life Cycle Assessment. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering
from the University of Florida in 2010 and has been a LCA certified professional
since 2008.
Cissy Ma
Dr. Ma received a B.E. in Environmental Engineering from Tongji University,
Shanghai, China, a MS in Environmental Science and Policy from University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering focusing on Environmental
Engineering from the University of Minnesota. She then worked as a Post doctoral
Research Associate with Dr. Joel Pedersen at the University of Wisconsin at
Madison studying the fate and transport of infectious prion proteins in the
environment. Afterwards she joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Office of Research and Development (ORD) National Exposure Research Laboratory
(Athens, GA) in 2007 as a federal Post doctoral Researcher. Her work there
focused on the experiments elucidating the key processes that govern nanomaterial
deposition and transport in the environment, the development of process models,
and the integration of process modeling with transport modeling. Dr. Ma permanently
joined ORD National Risk Management Research Laboratory (Cincinnati, OH) in
August 2010. Her primary research efforts are focused on applying new sustainability
metrics to environmental management for sustainability. She is a part of an
interdisciplinary effort to understand the interactions between ecosystems,
the economy, the law, and technology, and formulate effective long-term management
strategies. Dr. Ma is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Minnesota.
David Meyer
Dr. David E. Meyer received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University
of Kentucky in 2006 as an NSF IGERT fellow. The focus of his research was
the development of various nanocomposite materials for environmental separations
ranging from ground water remediation to mercury removal. He has brought his
knowledge of nanomaterials to the U. S. EPA as a chemical engineer working
in the Systems Analysis Branch of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory
within the Office of Research and Development to study the potential life
cycle impacts that can be attributed to the use of nanotechnologies. The ultimate
goal of his work is the creation of a comprehensive integrated decision-making
framework for the development of sustainable nanotechnologies. This will require
establishing a suitable system of valuation for nanomaterials relying on metrics
that account for potential socioeconomical impacts in addition to traditional
environmental impacts.
Ray Smith
Ray Smith is a Chemical Engineer within the Systems Analysis Branch. He obtained
his PhD in Chemical Engineering in the area of process design from the University
of Massachusetts Amherst. Ray has worked for the EPA for over 10 years with
focus areas including the evaluation of green chemistries and technologies,
chemical process design and optimization, life cycle assessment, and recycle
process design for industrial ecology. He has also worked on biofuel analysis
projects and is currently a lead for the Sustainable Supply Chain Design for
Biofuels team. This project is analyzing various environmental impacts, indicators
and sustainability metrics for biofuel supply chains from feedstock production
through end use. In addition, the project considers the expansion of biofuel
supply chains, different ways the infrastructure could develop, and how the
form of the supply chain could influence impacts, indicators and sustainability
metrics.
Additional LCA Related Webinars
available from the US EPA
Powerpoint presentations exist at the following location for LCA 101 Series
and LCA Application series from 2009 and 2010. Audio is not available at this
site.
http://oaspub.epa.gov/portal/page/portal/ESConnector/CNTR_ESC/ESCHOME/MYWORKBENCH?escSelectedProjectId=31291
Life Cycle Analysis and Cost Benefit Analysis: Making the Connection
– 31 minutes
http://my.brainshark.com/LIFE-CYCLE-ANALYSIS-AND-COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS-228441439
Brandon Chiazza
With the heightened concern for environmental preservation and sustainability
along with the voracious political and economic struggle over energy resources
in the past decade, the need for a tool that adequately tracks both energy
and emissions has never been more implored. Further, the tool should be so
thorough and comprehensive that it allows decision makers the capability to
glean information and utilize the analyses during Agency rule making procedures
such as a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA). This report avoids elaborating
on the entire LCA process and narrows on a dialogue on the different approaches
to conducting an LCA (Attributional and Consequential). Next, an extensive
literature review on Consequential LCA in relation to cost-benefit assessments
is conducted, followed by a summary of recent US EPA Office of Resource and
Recovery (ORCR) cost-benefit analyses (CBA), and CLCA computer models and
models that have the potential for use in a cost-benefit analysis are discussed.
Finally, an assessment of the benefits and limitations of incorporating CLCA
into CBA procedures will be presented. The chief results of the research purport
more focus on utilizing a baseline LCA and then calculating the difference
or “avoided impacts” as a result of a regulatory standard. For
example, in a beneficial use study of coal combustion residues, EPA calculated
the avoided impacts of water consumption. As a result of using fly ash in
concrete, water consumption was reduced by a savings of $5.5 million in 2008.
Other factors suggest that CLCA can augment the cost-benefit procedures. The
method is inherently economic and it utilizes economic tools like partial
equilibrium modeling, general equilibrium modeling, multi-market, multi-region
partial equilibrium modeling, rebound effects, experience curves, among others.
The use of these economic devices bodes well with an economic procedure such
as a cost-benefit LCA. Further, the report suggests a need to create a more
elaborate database, improve transparency of EPA LCAs to allow practitioners
to glean the benefits of each study, and more sophisticated, organized standards
for United States LCA methods and practice that can be available for the Office
of Management and Budget’s (OMB) procedural suggestions on economic
analysis such as a CBA.
Brandon Chiazza
Brandon Chiazza is a Master’s of Public Administration Candidate at
Cornell University studying environmental economics and policy. He most recently
worked with the economics and risk staff in the Office of Resource Conservation
and Recovery at EPA, where he conducted research on the incorporation of Life
Cycle Analysis into the Agency’s cost-benefit procedures. Brandon seeks
to extend his research on Life Cycle Analysis and economics in a PhD program
post- graduation in 2012 and also pursues work for the federal government
with a particular interest on conducting environmental economic and risk analysis
in the environmental and energy fields and furthering innovation in government
economic standards. He worked for a short time in Rochester, New York as a
communications specialist for Partner’s in Restorative Justice in 2009.
He also graduated from Cornell with a Bachelor’s in Communication and
Applied Economics and Management, where he was an active student writing for
the Cornell Chronicle on economic topics, and a founder and member of the
school’s Triathlon Club. His favorite activities include hiking the
high peaks of the Adirondacks, fly-fishing, playing music, and cycling.