Product Life Cycle Assessment (PLCA) for Sustainability - Coursework

Environmental concerns and the need for PLCA

Environmental issues such as the ozone depletion, global warming, and the use of non-renewable resources have drawn a wide concern from the public as well as from engineers and scientists.

Different products used in our ordinary life produce environmental damage during their lifetime. The intense pressure from the consumers and legislation in the current business environment has forced both the service and manufacturing industries to re-examine their methods of manufacturing and the use of raw materials. In recent years, well-known names in manufacturing and service sectors have shown interest in understanding the effect of their products and services on the environment and to use more environmentally friendly materials and processes.

Sustainable development requires methods and tools to measure and compare the environmental impacts of human activities for various products viz. goods, services, etc.

This coursework, which contributes 40% of the overall module mark, require you to use the Product

Life Cycle Assessment (PLCA) technique to evaluate sustainability issues related to a product or item from their raw materials extraction to their disposal.

Specific outcomes from this coursework include:

• Understand the four phases and different stages of PLCA methodology

• Be aware of the resources required to do a PLCA study in practice

• Be able to provide a critical perspective on the quality of a PLCA study done by others

• Understand the key benefits and challenges of the application of PLCA, especially as in input to designing products and manufacturing processes

• Regularly present work, research, and findings to others (peers and tutors).

Depending on the complexity of your product, it may be difficult to perform a fully exhaustive LCA: if this is the case, it is fine to simplify your task by focusing on high impact areas.

Your report should be clearly structured after the 4 phases of an LCA analysis (as according to ISO14040, 14041, 14042), as shown in the table below, which shows how your final marks will be computed.

Part Description Mark %

1 Definition of the goal and scope of the LCA Carefully define the goal and scope of the LCA. It is a good idea to provide a short design history of your product and a product breakdown structure (it will help you to define functional unit and the boundaries of your analysis). It is also a good idea to provide a review of previous similar published LCA (or other sources) to help you define the purpose of the LCA.

Use figures and diagrams as required (e.g. process diagram).

2 Life Cycle Inventory Analysis

Identification of the component parts (expanded process diagram), final inventory in tabular form.

Use figures and diagrams as required.

3 Impact Assessment

Approach used for classification, characterisation, and valuation. Identification of important impact categories (giving reasons) for the evaluation of the relative environmental impacts. Critically evaluate the environmental impacts including any health issues.

4 Interpretation and suggestion for improvement

Conclusion and discussion including a reflection on the limitations of the LCA tool in terms of (i) cost and time involved, (ii) economic and social aspects, and (iii) data availability.

5 Overall presentation

• Use of appropriate figures, graphs, and tables

• Overall report consistency, content and clarity

• All references should be correctly cited in Harvard format APA 6th edition

• Originality of work as assessed through Turnitin