methods and tools for environmental sustainability assessment · methods and tools for...

Methods and toolsfor environmental sustainabilityassessment

1VTT 2018

Marja Myllysilta, Sami Majaniemi, Catharina Hohenthal,Reino Ruusu (VTT); Marko Luukkainen (Semantum)

• Introduction of participants and interests (all)

• Methods and tools

• Demonstration• SULCA tool for calculations

• Network LCA web tool for LCA data collection and results publishing

• Hands-on group work

• Wrap-up, discussion, ideas for future work

Agenda

1

3VTT 2018

Sustainability assessment at VTT- Products & services

METHODS AND TOOLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT & COMMUNICATION

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT(ISO14040-44)

CARBON FOOTPRINT(ISO14067)

ENVIRONMENTALPRODUCT

DECLARATION (EPD)(ISO14025)

WATER FOOTPRINT(ISO 14046)

CRITICAL REWIEWS

HANDPRINT

SULCALCA SOFTWARE

Life cycleassessment

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Define problemand life cycle

steps

Model andcalculateimpacts

Data collection Analyse resultsand plan actions

Life cycle approach: Quantified environmental impacts andbenefits over the life cycle of a product

22/06/2018 6

LCA databases• Databases (ecoinvent, PlasticsEurope etc.) include average data

for example on energy and waste treatment• Aggregated or unit process data• Benefits

• Readily available data• Fills in the data gaps left by specific data

• Saves resources

• Challenges• Transparency

• Data age

• Compatibility of different databases

• Average data might not represent the product under assessment


steps



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LCA specific data• Collected e.g. with inquiries sent to key raw material suppliers

• Questionnairees can include cover letter, documentation, inputs and outputs

• Inputs and outputs are the materials, emissions, wastes, energy consumptionetc. from the real manufacturing processes

• Benefits• Represents the product under assessment

• Up-to-date

• Supplier engagement

• Challenges• makes data collection more time consuming

• data quality might vary

• supplier engagement

• resource required vs. benefits received

• data privacy

• lack of common terminology between various operators


steps



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Calculations of emission inventory and environmental impacts willbe carried out with the LCA software tools


steps



22/06/2018 9

Internationally agreed for carbon footprint

• Includes fossil greenhouse gas emissions (e.g.CO2 and CH4). Biogenic carbon reportedseparately but not included in the carbonfootprint.

• Can be calculated for products, services orcompanies.

• Comprises all stages of the life cycle i.e. fromcradle to grave or for B-to-B use can representcradle-to-gate emissions

• Not included is the compensation of emissions(carbon offsetting or carbon storaging).

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Challenges in communication

• Results and communication should bescience-based

• Easy-to-communicate indicators areneeded

• Knowledge causes pain – too manyindicators and methodologiesavailable

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Handprint is a positive indicator- shows your environmental benefits

Footprint methods provide high-quality information about environmentalburdens of products and processes

Handprint is a new way for companies to assess and communicate thepositive effects of their products on sustainable development. It refers tobeneficial environmental impacts that organizations can achieve andcommunicate by providing products or services that reduce footprint ofother actors. Handprint is based on assessing the change compared to adefined baseline

Carbon handprint is the reduction of the carbon footprint of another actor.Life cycle assessment and carbon footprint standards are followed in thebackground (ISO 14040-44, ISO 14067)

Carbon handprint project manager: Saija Vatanen([email protected])

Carbon handprint - project(1.9.2016 - 30.11.2018)Calculation and communication guidelinefor a carbon handprint of product

http://www.vtt.fi/handprint

Project partners:

12VTT 2018

Our research portfolio related to circular economy covers a large variety of topics from different industrialsectors. Research topics include indicators for resource efficiency, impacts of recycling and re-manufacturing.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY – recent projects

MORE - Real-time Monitoring andOptimization of Resource Efficiency inIntegrated Processing PlantsEU FP7, 2013 – 2016http://www.more-nmp.eu/

REFFIBRE - Tools for resource efficientuse of recycled fibre materials,EU FP7, 2013 – 2016http://www.reffibre.eu/

Reman Path Finder – Project developslearning material to European industryabout the path to remanufacturingEIT Raw material KIC, 2018-2019

https://www.vtt.fi/sites/remanpathfinder/reman-path-finder

REFERENCE

Water footprint

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Quantity• Input, m3• Output, m3

Quality• Input• Output

Location• Water

availability

The whole value chain is considered

Process

Converting

Product

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Local water scarcity indices• Factors used in calculation

• 0 (no scarcity, blue)• 100 (extreme scarcity, red)

• “Relative Available WAter REmaining per area in a watershed,after the demand of humans and aquatic ecosystems has beenmet.” (AWARE)

22/06/2018 16

Water inventory (m3) * index = Water footprint m3 eq.

AWARE index:“Relative Available WAter REmainingper area in a watershed, after thedemand of humansand aquatic ecosystems has beenmet.”

DemonstrationSULCA tool

1822/06/2018

• SULCA is an LCA software developedand maintained by VTT. Owned byTHTH Association

• Interacts with Life cycle inventorydatabases (such as ecoinvent) andimpact assessment methods.

• VTT conducts LCA calculations andtraining workshops with SULCA tools.

LCA software tool SULCA 5.0

Software forcalculation of

LCA, Carbon- andWater footprints

Life cyclemodelling

Calculationand impactassessment

Datacollection

Analysis andinterpretation

of results

22/06/2018 19

Coffee Mug Model

Goal and scope definitionCreate case specific variablesCreate case specific processes• Plastic handles• Steel cups• Assembly• Use

Use generic processes where applicable• Electricity• Transports

Calculation and interpretation of resultsDemonstrationà

DemonstrationNetwork LCA

Network LCA tool - background

• Circular economy requires toolswhich facilitate collaborationbetween various value chainpartners

• The network LCA tool has beendeveloped in the EIT Raw Materialsproject Modelling Factory

• The network can be built inside anorganization or from variousnetwork actors from differentorganizations

22/06/2018 23

Network LCA Concept

Integrated LCA modelcovering the entire valuechain of the product /network

ModelingFactory

Data Set1

Data Set3

Data Set2

Value ChainPartner 1



Model coordinator/Trusted operator

Updates to the entire LCA modelthrough LCA modelling studio

Updates to theprivate data setnot visible toothers

Value ChainPartnerspecific webbrowser view totheLCA model

22/06/2018 24

Network LCA tool- concept• Network LCA is tool for LCA data

collection, data analysis and sharing theLCA results inside the network.

• Operators/value chain partners insidethe network feed own process data viaweb browser without softwareinstallations.

• Trusted operator assigns the data andresult view rights to appropriateoperators

• Network partners can test independentlyof the trusted operator how the changesto their local data affects their local andthe network level results => processdesign & optimization

Network result

LCI data validation

22/06/2018 25

Benefits of Network LCA

ü Possibility to access to footprint assessment model through web-browserwithout software installations.

ü Pre-defined variable and unit lists helps in combatibility in nomenclatureü Management of input data collection form versionsü Publishing selected parts of LCA results, input data and model to the

network membersü Running data experiments individually with or without network level footprint

assessment (local and network level optimization)ü Network LCA service is cloud-based. If required, it can be transferred to

intranet service and run solely from customer’s own servers.

• Administrator requests missing data entries from two companies.Administrator sees all operators’ data and has access to LCAsoftware.

• Company A: provides data on steel cup and analyses results afterAdmin grants the rights.

• Company B: provides data on plastic handle and analyses resultsafter Admin grants the rights.

Demonstration groupwork: steel coffeemug with plastic handle

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Groupwork

• Network LCA short link to join https://bit.ly/2rYsgbg

• Feed in data based on instructions from tutor

• Inspect global warming potential results

Summary andfuture work

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Summary

• Life cycle assessment provides science-based numericindicators for decision making, comparing different alternativesand communication.

• SULCA tool has been developed by VTT for carbon and waterfootprint analyses for all kinds of products, energy systems andservices.

• Network LCA (work on progress) is s tool which enables footprintdata collection, sharing footprint results and local data analyseswith web browser.

22/06/2018 30

Future work

• Network LCA consortium continues network LCA tool development.

• The next invited demonstration will be organized on the 25th of June andnew demo sessions will follow in fall 2018.

• VTT continues developing Handprint and Water footprint assessmentframework with industrial partners.

Thank you!#VTTpeople

methods and tools for environmental sustainability assessment · methods and tools for...

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