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The Guidance for Product Category Rule Development has been released for public comment.This guidance document is a response to a widely recognized need for additional instruction on the development of rules specific to a category of products for making claims based on a life cycle assessment (LCA). The purpose is to supplement existing standards for LCA-based claims that require the development of product category rules (PCRs) or their equivalents. The aim is that PCRs can be developed in a consistent manner and used to support claims based on multiple standards. This document embodies the efforts of individuals with expertise in LCA and LCA-based product claims from more over 40 organizations in more than 14 countries and regions under the name of The Product Category Rule Guidance Development Initiative. More information can be found on our website, http://www.pcrguidance.org

The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is hosting the draft, and comments are to be made through the CSA website.  Click here to review the draft and provide comments:

http://publicreview.csa.ca/Home/Category/005

Registration is required for viewing and commenting on the document. Only comments received through the CSA online system will be accepted. Comments are due by Friday, March 1, 2013, 11:59 PM GMT 

From the co-leaders of The Product Category Rule Guidance Development Initiative

Wes Ingwersen and Vee Subramanian

Job Description:

A 2 year research contract, in the frame of a research project dedicated to the environmental assessment of the retrofit of residential building in Brussels, using Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). The project is funded by the “Bruxelles-Capitale” Region. In addition to classical LCA, the project aims to expand the emerging “Social Life-Cycle Assessment” (s-LCA). The candidate works at the Free University of Brussels (ULB), in the Polytechnic School, under Prof. Marc Degrez. He/she closely cooperates with CSTC (Research Center for the Construction Industry) and with other members of a wide consortium: UCL (University of Louvain-la-Neuve), VUB (Flemish University of Brussels), Erasmus Hogeschool and other ULB departments.

Task description:
- Getting used to the building sector and to the studied systems: retrofitting operations, new concepts of urban wind turbines, energy storage systems,…
- Collecting field data about the building processes: identifying and quantifying the inputs and the outputs (field + meetings). Some of the systems are still under development.
- Getting used to LCA tools (EcoInvent, SimaPro) and applying them to the studied processes, to calculate their environmental footprint.
- Bringing new ideas in s-LCA and applying this method to study cases.
- Scientific forecasting in sustainability assessment and cleaner technologies.
- Supervision of master thesis students or training courses.
- Publication in journals, congresses or LCA databases.
- Becoming a member of our research team and participating in everyday tasks.
Requirements:
- Master in exact science (engineer, architect,…) or master in environment. No professional experience required.
- Having some knowledge in LCA is a plus, as well as notions about construction and/or renewable energies
- Languages: French (team language), English (official language of the project).
- Autonomous and well-organized. Ability to adapt to complex timetables.
- Rigor and efficiency in calculations (Microsoft Excel is a must).
- Ability to propose new concepts and to model them.
- Excellent communication skills: e-mails, meetings, phone, reports.
- Efficiency in data collection (persuasive skill).

 

Beginning: 1st February 2012

More about: http://www.ulb.ac.be/facs/polytech/creasurf/en.html

Send your CV and your cover letter to Pierre D’Ans and Professor Marc Degrez : pdans@ulb.ac.be, mdegrez@ulb.ac.be

 

 

University of Coimbra

Center for Industrial Ecology

Research Opportunity in Life Cycle Assessment and Bioenergy

Portugal

Deadline: January 20, 2013

The Center for Industrial Ecology ( http://www2.dem.uc.pt/CenterIndustrialEcology/) at ADAI and University of Coimbra has opened a research grant (for a PhD holder). The selected candidate will be working on the following MIT-Portugal project (2011-2013): “Capturing Uncertainty in Biofuels for Transportation. Resolving Environmental Performance and Enabling Improved Use”

The applicants should have a PhD in engineering, sciences or similar areas, preferably with experience in life-cycle assessment studies and in some of the following topics: bioenergy, operations research, decision analysis.

Tentative WorkPlan:

i) Collaborate on life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies of different types of biofuels

ii) Incorporate uncertainty analysis in LCA studies

iii) Combine LCA with other tools (e,g Multi Criteria Decision Analysis or Operation research

The grants follow the rules and amounts of Portuguese Research Grants funded by FCT:

http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamentos.phtml.en
http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores.phtml.en

Interested candidates shall send detailed Curriculum Vitae, including the relevant work experience to Prof. Fausto Freire (fausto.freire@dem.uc.pt) preferably before January 20, 2013. The documents must include a motivation letter, detailed CV, course certificate, detailed academic transcripts (courses taken and respective grades, in Portuguese, English or French), as well as other pertinent documents (include email address and phone number).

To learn more about the University of Coimbra, its Energy for Sustainability initiative and the Center for Industrial Ecology, see the links: http://www.uc.pt/en , http://www.uc.pt/en/efs.
and http://www2.dem.uc.pt/CenterIndustrialEcology/ .

After 5 years the FTC has finally made its long anticipated Green Guides available, and not surprisingly, they delayed guidance on the use of LCA to support marketing claims.  This was an acceptable position to make back in early 1998 when LCA was still ramping up on the awareness curve.  Since then LCA to support marketing claims, particularly in the development of Product Category Rules (PCRs) for companies to produce Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) has grown substantially.  There are several  major standards and testing organizations (ULE and NSF International) that now exist as operators (entities the help develop and manage PCRs) and the USGBC is on the verge of release version 4 of its well-known LEED credit system. 

Reasons for continuing to analyze LCA based claims instead of providing guidance can be found in the Statement of Basis and Purpose, where “because it [FTC] lacked information about how consumers interpret these claims” and “due to the complexity of these claims, general advice is unlikely to be useful in any particular case.”

Really?

When things are complex, that is time when guidance is most useful.

I guess we’ll just have to wait until 2017 to see if the FTC will complete its analysis and actually provide guidance.  In the meantime the gap is being filled by non-profit organizations such as the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment developing more detailed guidance and the Global Environmental Declarations Network (GEDnet) which has a very useful library on PCRs developed around the globe: http://pcr-library.edf.org.tw/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 21, 2012

MEDIA CONTACTS
Gwen Schuler, Community Relations, gwendolyn.schuler@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 591-5160
Lorna Sutton, Community Relations, lsutton@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 573-2352

Tacoma hosts 2012 Life Cycle Assessment Conference

More than 300 visitors from around the globe will take part in the 2012 American Center for Life Cycle Assessment International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment, The LCA XII conference theme is “Life Cycle Thinking; Life Cycle Living.” Tacoma was chosen as the host site for the conference because it is the first city in the nation to receive the Life Cycle City designation. The conference will take place at the Hotel Murano on Sept. 25-27.

Over the course of the conference participants will engage in discussions on innovative concepts, new approaches to research and industry best practices. Attendees will be arriving from more than 15 different countries ranging from Belgium to the United Kingdom. Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland will also be represented.

A pre-conference reception is scheduled for Monday evening, Sept. 24, at the Center for Urban Waters. Sessions open Tuesday, Sept. 25, with Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland’s welcome and a keynote address by Martin Bortzmeyer, Chief of the French Office of Sustainable Development. The conference, featuring high-level speakers discussing the latest trends in lifecycle assessment, concludes on Thursday, Sept. 27.

Life cycle assessment is the science of measuring the environmental performance of products and services from cradle to grave. A complete assessment measures the environmental impacts of all phases of a product’s life and leads to Environmental Product Declarations (EDP), eco-labels that can lead to economic benefit.
 

###

The LEED 2012 third public comment was open from March 1-27, 2012. According to the USGBC this third draft of the rating system is “focused on providing a globally applicable, simple-to-use, technically advanced system.” Members of the public were asked to comment on substantive changes made since the second public comment period. LEED will be balloted in June and launch in November.

The LEED 2012 goal for the Materials and Resource category is to “shift building material thinking to holistic decision making through life cycle thinking.”MR Credits are organized into four areas of focus:

1) Reuse of buildings;

2) Assessment & Optimization using LCA, EPD and Single Prescriptive attributes;

3) Waste Management and

4) Human and Ecological Health.

A webinar on the details fo the Materials and Resources structure and points can be found here:Materials and Resources

 

Important Dates:

Now – May 15: LEED 2012 Ballot Opt-In Period

May 1-15: LEED 2012 4th Public Comment is open

June 1-30: LEED 2012 Ballot Voting Period

Details on the USGBC website can be found here: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2360

 

 

 

 

The public comment period provides all interested parties with the opportunity to comment on the draft of the LEO-SCS-002 standard IS NOW OPEN and closes JUNE 12, 2012.

The public comment period is part of the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) process being used to develop it. The Standard Committee will review and address each comment.

For details on the process and the forms to provide comments, visit the website here:

http://www.leonardoacademy.org/services/standards/life-cycle/comment-form.html

BACKGROUND:

Type III Life-Cycle Impact Profile Declarations for Products, Services and Systems (LEO-SCS-002)

For:

Environmental Declarations for Products and Systems

Environmental Preferable Product Claims

Carbon Footprint Profiles

(February 2012)

Objective
The objective of the Type III Life-Cycle Impact Profile Declarations for Products, Services and Systems Standard (LEO-SCS-002) is to specify the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods, scope, metrics and format for declarations. The LEO-SCS-002 standard will comply with the requirements of ISO 14044 and ASTM draft standard E06.71.10. LEO-SCS-002 is intended to develop a uniform and standardized format for properly reporting the environmental life-cycle impacts of any system studied and explicitly excludes weighting factors and interpretation of LCIA results.

Need for the Standard
Products, services and systems can have significant environmental impacts. These impacts can vary depending upon facilities and their energy sources, technologies in place, material and energy input sources, and the surrounding environments. Frequently, changes made to improve environmental performance, particularly for one aspect, can result in unintended trade-offs. In order to make informed decisions and minimize trade-offs, it is necessary to have verifiable environmental performance data and information in a consistent format, based on a full life-cycle impact assessment.

Process Stakeholders
Stakeholders include, but are not limited to:

  • Service industries and their clients
  • Building industry professionals
  • Building owners and operators
  • Material and product manufacturers, suppliers and retailers
  • Energy and utility providers
  • Policy makers and government representatives
  • Environmental advocacy groups
  • Consumer group
  • Academics
  • Other interested parties
Job Posting – Post-doc or engineer position

Laboratoire de Technologie des Composites et Polymères, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

Within the framework of two European FP7 projects (HIVOCOMP and JTI Clean Sky, Eco-Design ITD), the laboratory of composite and polymer technology is seeking an engineer or post-doctoral researcher, to conduct cost and life-cycle analysis in the field of composite materials for transport applications. The environmental and life cycle analysis will be focused on the development and implementation of new materials and processes for composite parts in aeronautics and automotive fields, in partnership with academic and industrial partners of the projects.
 
The applicant should have a background in materials engineering, preferably focused on polymer composite processing techniques, and be interested in developing competences in the cost and environmental analysis of materials and processes. Prior knowledge in these areas is also greatly appreciated.
 
Furthermore applicants should:
 
o Be fluent in English
o Be experienced and interested in interdisciplinary research
o Be flexible to interact with the European partner laboratories within the project duration
 
Applicants should send a cover letter, a CV as well as the names of 3 referees ( or three recommendation letters) to:
 
Prof. V. Michaud, LTC, e-mail: veronique.michaud@epfl.ch
EPFL IMX LTC, Station 12, CH 1015 Lausanne

Posting information can be found here:http://ltc.epfl.ch/page-44155-fr.html

BETHESDA, MD— Lithium (Li-ion) batteries, used to power plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, show overall promise to “fuel” these vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions but there are a few areas for improvement to reduce possible environmental and public health impacts, according to a “cradle to grave” study of advanced Li-ion batteries conducted by Abt Associates for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
 
The study, carried out through a partnership with EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Li-ion battery industry, and academicians, was the first life cycle assessment (LCA) to bring together and use data directly provided by Li-ion battery suppliers, manufacturers, and recyclers. Its purpose was to identify the materials or processes within a Li-ion battery’s life cycle that most contribute to impacts on public health and the environment, so that battery manufacturers could use this information to improve the environmental profile of their products, while the technology is still emerging. It also sought to evaluate the potential impacts of a nanotechnology innovation (i.e., a carbon nanotube anode) that could improve battery performance.
 
“It is well established that Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles are definitely a step in the right direction from traditional gasoline fueled vehicles and nickel metal-hydride automotive batteries, but some of the materials and methods used to manufacture them could be improved,” said Jay Smith, an Abt senior analyst and co-lead of the LCA. “For example, our study showed that the batteries that use cathodes with nickel and cobalt, as well as solvent-based electrode processing, show the highest potential for environmental impacts, like resource depletion, global warming, and ecological toxicity, and human health impacts–primarily resulting from the production, processing, and use of cobalt and nickel metal compounds, which can cause adverse respiratory, pulmonary, and neurological effects in those exposed.” Smith added that there are viable ways to reduce these impacts, including cathode material substitution, solvent-less electrode processing, and recycling of metals from the batteries.
 
Among other findings, Shanika Amarakoon, an Abt associate who co-led the LCA with Smith, said global warming and other environmental and health impacts were shown to be influenced by the electricity grids used to charge the batteries when driving the vehicles.
 
“These impacts are sensitive to local and regional grid mixes,” said Amarakoon. “If the batteries in use are drawing power from the grids in the Midwest or South, much of the electricity will be coming from coal-fired plants. If it’s in New England or California, the grids rely more on renewables and natural gas, which emit less greenhouse gases and other toxic pollutants. Our report identifies the need for cleaner electricity generation, especially in regions where a larger number of electric vehicles are anticipated,” Amarakoon said. “However, impacts from the processing and manufacture of these batteries should not be overlooked.”
 
In terms of battery performance, Smith said that “the nanotechnology applications that we assessed were single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), which are currently being researched for use as anodes as they show promise for improving the energy density and ultimate performance of the Li-ion batteries in vehicles. What we found, however, is that the energy needed to produce the SWCNT anodes in these early stages of development is prohibitive. Over time, if researchers focus on reducing the energy intensity of the manufacturing process before commercialization, the overall environmental profile of the technology has the potential to improve dramatically.”
 
The LCA results and methodology are described in detail in the EPA/Abt report, “Lithium-ion Batteries and Nanotechnology for Electric Vehicles: A Life Cycle Assessment,” The research for the LCA was undertaken through the Lithium-ion Batteries and Nanotechnology for Electric Vehicles Partnership, which was led by EPA’s Design for the Environment Program in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention and Toxics, and EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory in the Office of Research and Development. The Partnership also included industry partners (i.e., battery manufacturers, recyclers, and suppliers, and other industry groups), the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Lab, Arizona State University, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
 

About Abt Associates

Abt Associates is a mission-driven, global leader in research and program implementation in the fields of health, social and environmental policy, and international development. Known for its rigorous approach to solving complex challenges, Abt Associates was ranked as one of the top 20 global research firms in 2011 and also named one of the top 40 international development innovators. The company has multiple offices in the U.S. and program offices in nearly 40 countries. www.abtassociates.com
 
 

Contact:

301-347-5913

Yale journal publishes special issue on meta-analysis of life cycle assessments

The desire to choose greener products, technologies and materials is everywhere.  Because they help identify what is environmentally preferable, life cycle assessments (LCAs) have proliferated.  LCAs quantify the inputs (raw materials) and outputs (emissions) across the product life cycle­from raw material extraction to manufacture to use and to recycling and disposal. 

As LCAs have become almost commonplace in business and public policy, decision makers face the need to make sense of multiple and competing environmental analyses.

The application of meta-analysis­a set of techniques used to synthesize results from a body of previous research­to LCA is explored in a special issue of the Journal of Industrial EcologyThe issue includes 12 high-quality meta-analyses and critical reviews of LCAs that advance understanding of the life cycle environmental impacts of various technologies, processes, products, and materials.  The research presented in the Meta-Analysis of Life Cycle Assessments” special issue breaks new ground in the synthesis of LCA studies, going beyond the customary practice of producing independent studies on specific products or technologies.

“The application of meta-analysis to life cycle assessment is an important advance,” states Sir Peter Crane, Dean of the Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.  “Decision makers seeking to make greener choices need a way to make sense of the enormous amount of information that is coming at them.  This can help.”

The special issue includes six studies from the LCA Harmonization Project of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).  The Harmonization Project conducted screening, review and adjustment of estimates to produce consistent methods and assumptions in thousands of LCAs on electricity-generating technologies.  In addition to the harmonization studies, critical reviews were contributed by research teams from across the globe.  The result is reviews of

  • Utility-scale wind power
  • Thin-film photovoltaics (PV)
  • Crystalline silicon photovoltaics (PV)
  • Concentrating solar power
  • Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
  • Nuclear power
  • Coal power
  • Desktop computers and printers
  • Biobased materials

“More than 1,500 studies were reviewed in the preparation of papers in the special issue.” says Reid Lifset, Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology. “The scope of these syntheses is staggering and provides real insight into what can be done with the burgeoning research literature in life cycle assessment.”

The Journal of Industrial Ecology ( www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jie) is a peer-reviewed, international bimonthly journal that examines the relationship between industry and the environment from the perspective of the growing field of industrial ecology.  It is owned by Yale University, headquartered at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, and published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Articles in the special issue are free on the Web at http://jie.yale.edu/LCA-meta-analysis.