ARLINGTON, VA, May 25, 2010 (News Release) – The Aluminum Association posted today a comprehensive and transparent life-cycle analyses (LCA) of aluminum cans.

Major findings include:

• Reduction in overall carbon footprint of the aluminum can by 44 percent
• 30 percent less energy usage
• Reduction in package weight of 15%
• 68 percent total recycled content, the highest of any beverage package material

“The data shows that we are using significantly less material and less energy to produce same-size beverage cans as compared with 17 years ago,” said Steve Larkin, president of the Aluminum Association. “The aluminum industry has made tremendous gains in sustainability. The aluminum can is more sustainable than ever.”

The study is publicly available at www.aluminum.org/lca.

Press release: February 3rd, 2010

Brussels – The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has released its 2010 global steel life cycle inventory (LCI). The datasets provide the most accurate and comprehensive data on the environmental profile of 16 key products, representative of the spectrum of steel production.

The LCI datasets are used for material selection and product design. They are available free of charge to everyone, from worldsteel members and customers to researchers, life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners and policymakers.

For more information see press release on World Steel Association website HERE

The folks at GoodGuide had to retract their statement today regarding their claim of unsafe levels of antimony and chromium on the popular Zhu Zhu Pet toy.  This is unfortunate given the general veracity of taking a full life cycle approach to assess products and services.  We hope that in the future GoodGuide will heed third party review of results prior to disclosure to the public.

Here’s the press release from GoodGuide:

GoodGuide Issues Correction About Its Toy Testing Methodology

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – December 7, 2009) – In a press release we issued on Saturday, December 5th, we published the results of our testing of chemical levels in toys and stated that certain toys we tested had antimony and chromium levels that exceed federal standards. Since issuing our release, we have learned that the testing methodology used in the federal standards (a soluble method) is different than the methodology we used in our testing (a surface-based method). Accordingly, while we accurately reported the chemical levels in the toys that we measured using our testing method, we should not have compared our results to federal standards. We regret this error.

On Friday, a B Corporation called GoodGuide released a review that shed a negative light on the popular motorized hamsters called Zhu Zhu Pets as well as several other popular Christmas toys. Goodguide gave this hot holiday toy a low relative rating of 4.5 out of a possible 10 in their Health category when compared to similar toys.  

The current federal standard for both antimony and chromium is 60 ppm (parts per million). GoodGuide tests revealed the following amounts:

————————————————————    ——————–    —————–
Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Dragonoid                        466-807 ppm       Chromium
————————————————————    ——————–    —————–
Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Helios                               143-756 ppm       Chromium
————————————————————    ——————–    —————–
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Laughing Farm     193 ppm                Chromium
————————————————————    ——————–    —————–
Zhu Zhu Pet Hamster Mr Squiggles                     93-106 ppm         Antimony
————————————————————    ——————–    —————–
International Playthings My First Purse               76 ppm                  Antimony
————————————————————    ——————–    —————–

Many consumers misinterpreted this review as a product recall.  The Missouri-based manufacturer of Zhu Zhu Pets, Cepia LLC, is disputing GoodGuide’s claim, stating that they are in compliance with all regulatory bodies.

What is “GoodGuide”?  The website states that it is ”…the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products in your home” based on life cycle assessment approaches.  Their pronouncement raises several questions:

How was the quantitative rating 4.5 out of 10 precisely calculated?

Who conducted the XRF contaminant substance testing and what was the specific process? 

Were the testing procedures and the results third party verified per ISO for comparative assertions disclosed to the public?

GoodGuide has several stellar members on their board of advisors.  GoodGuide was founded by Dara O’Rouke, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley and is now comprised of industry experts, scientists, consumer researchers and technologists from Amazon, Google, eBay, PayPal, Intuit, MIT and the University of California.  Given the recent uproar of climate scientists acting less than forthcoming, let’s hope that the good guys at GoodGuide are correct.

If you would like to get a fairly detailed understanding of life cycle assessment and its various components check out the World Steel Association’s e-learning tool on their steeluniversity.org website.  They’ve done a nice job laying out the components of LCA.