The relationship between environmental analyses and the dialogue process in product development

Eco-design tools ought to be made more useful, so that they become effectively used in companies to support improvements of product systems. This article discusses the interconnections between environmental analysis and integrative cooperation in the product development processes. The study focuses on two different assessment tools, life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental effect analysis (EEA), in three different combined uses. The discussion of the Eco-design methods focuses on integration in product development processes considering the relation to a product competitiveness perspective. The interviews indicate that the interconnection of methods is important as a key to real transformation of design practices.     

以晶体硅太阳能电池产业为例的产业生命周期评价初探

面对日益复杂的环境问题和精细化环境管理需求,为了将生命周期评价在产业结构调整、发展方式转变中更好地发挥作用,对在产业层面开展生命周期评价的方法进行了探索研究.产业生命周期评价是在产品生命周期评价的基础上增加了:①基于“可拆解可组合”生态设计理念的功能单位和系统边界确定;②质量评估和数据整合的数据收集过程;③以不确定性分析来验证数据的合理性.选择晶体硅太阳能电池产业进行了产业生命周期评价的案例应用.结果表明:晶体硅太阳能电池产业可分为4个产品单元和11个工艺单元.基于上述产品单元和工艺单元的资源能源投入和污染物排放数据进行收集,在数据质量评估之后通过数据整合形成了产业生命周期数据清单.产业生命周期环境影响主要集中在呼吸系统影响（41.94%）、化石燃料（25.20%）、致癌（14.89%）和气候变化（8.80%）4个环境影响类别;减少环境影响的精准化途径是减少高纯多晶硅、硅片、电池片产品的电耗,组件产品中焊带消耗,硅片产品中的砂浆消耗和组件产品的铝合金边框消耗.蒙特卡洛分析结果显示,高纯多晶硅生命周期评价结果不确定性较高,与数据质量评估的结果较为一致.案例应用结果说明,产品生命周期评价可将生命周期评价从产品层面提升到产业层面,可为国家产业发展提供科学支撑.      

Qualitative and quantitative tool development to support environmentally responsible decisions

The Centre for Design at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia has developed various quantitative and qualitative tools to support decision-making by industry and government partners in product design and policy development. The aim, in general, is to support development of attractive, functional, marketable products while enhancing their environmental performance. Depending on the product, the project scope and the client, the tools that are used can be anything from a half-day char-rette, environmental checklist, to a one-year life cycle assessment (LCA).In this paper we describe our approach and the various tools that have been developed by the research team at the Centre over recent years with the use of case studies. The paper argues that it is important for tool development to be based on solid research and information, but the key to influencing product design decisions is the translation of this information into a usable format for the users.     

Integration of ECQFD and LCA for sustainable product design

The purpose of this paper is to report a research carried out for ensuring sustainable product design by the integration of environmentally conscious quality function deployment (ECQFD) and life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches. Sustainability refers to the capability of an organization to maximize resource efficiency for ensuring clean and green atmosphere. The sustainable product development model integrated with ECQFD and LCA has been used for ensuring sustainable product design. The implementation study was carried out by gathering data from a single manufacturing organization. The implementation experiences indicated that methodology of sustainable product design is practically feasible and compatible. The findings and contributions of this research would be useful to the majority of the organizations situated in the world.     

动态生命周期评价的研究与应用现状

生命周期评价（LCA）在理论和实际应用中存在一些局限性,包括清单和评价方法缺乏时间维度和空间维度,主要表现为缺乏对产品能源系统随时间变化的考虑,使用静态的过时的清单数据而非基于时间的动态生命周期清单数据,以及影响评价方面缺乏动态特征因子的选择和计算方法.动态生命周期评价（DLCA）是针对工业和环境系统的时间和空间变化的动态建模过程的评价方法,可大大提高传统生命周期评价的科学性和准确性.本文从3个方面对动态生命周期评价方法进行总结和评述,即将时间信息作为不确定因素的动态建模分析;生产过程或污染物排放的实时数据的获取;基于时间分化的动态特征因子的影响评价方法.通过目前的动态生命周期评价的研究现状来看,其方法框架并不统一,另外缺乏科学的时间分化的LCI计算的数学模型和软件以及生命周期影响评价的建模解决方案.因此,本文对DLCA未来的发展进行展望,以期为LCA方法的研究、应用、发展和完善提供更多的支持.     

Implications of choices and interpretation in LCA for multi-criteria process design: de-inked pulp capacity and cogeneration at a paper mill case study

Retrofit process design can be seen as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem aiming at selecting the best alternative for improving the performance of a chemical process. There is a growing consensus that environmental considerations, including the environmental impact associated with all life cycle stages of materials, should be integrated in chemical process design. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique that allows quantification of those impacts. However, implementing this technique would increase the decision-making complexity and thus would necessitate systematic tools and methods. The analogy between LCA and MCDM has been recognized, but the systematic evaluation of LCA methodological choices and interpretation in this context is rarely discussed. The importance of those is demonstrated in this paper using a case study involving the implementation of de-inked pulp capacity and cogeneration and an integrated newsprint mill.     

基于生命周期思想的透水铺装资源环境影响评价述评

透水铺装作为典型的海绵城市设施,具有城市雨水径流减排、水质净化等多种环境效益,但在材料制备、施工、维护管理过程中相对于传统铺装资源能源消耗有所增加,亟须应用生命周期评价这一系统分析方法,开展透水铺装的资源环境效益的综合评估。通过文献述评,总结了生命周期评价方法应用于透水铺装评估的现状与面临的挑战,并提出了相应对策:将运行维护阶段纳入评价系统边界,有助于提升透水铺装资源环境评价的全面性;针对生命周期评价结果难以指导工程设计的问题,建议将生命周期评价与建筑信息模型相结合,优化透水铺装的绿色设计;针对透水效应动态变化等生命周期环境影响评价方法问题,建议将水文模型引入整体评估方法。通过上述角度的提升,生命周期评价方法有望为透水铺装的政策制定、规划设计、施工养护等全过程提供参考数据与优化方案,助力海绵城市建设乃至城市生态系统的良性发展。     

Eco-labelling of wild-caught seafood products

Several eco-labels for wild-caught seafood have been developed during the last decade. This article describes and analyses the criteria applied by four different eco-labelling schemes for seafood products from capture fisheries, and discusses the criteria in terms of environmental impacts, based on the ISO 14040 standard for life cycle assessment.It is concluded that the most widespread eco-label, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), mainly addresses the fishing stage, in particular the overexploitation of marine resources. LCA studies confirm that the fishing stage represents the most significant environmental burden, but energy consumption and emissions of anti-fouling agents at the fishing or harvesting stage contribute with significant impacts that are not being addressed by international labelling initiatives for wild-caught seafood.LCA studies show that significant environmental impacts are related to the life cycle stages after landing. This includes fish processing, transport, cooling and packaging (especially for highly processed seafood products). Hence, another challenge would be to include criteria related to the post-landing consumption of energy, certain materials and chemicals, waste handling and wastewater emissions. Minimizing product losses throughout the product chain would also be an important area for future criteria in order to avoid fishing at high environmental costs only to produce something that is later wasted.The analysis shows that the Swedish KRAV is the only one that currently addresses a range of issues that include energy and chemicals in the whole life cycle of the products. International initiatives such as MSC cover fish products from many parts of the world emphasizing ‘overexploitation of fish resources’. It is recommended, however, that international initiatives such as MSC develop criteria related to energy use and chemicals – at least at the fishing stage. Over time, other life cycle stages could be addressed as well to the extent that this is manageable.     

Manufacturing actor’s LCA

Modern industrial environmental management encompasses life-cycle thinking. This entails considering not only the emissions and resource use of the company’s production processes, but also the environmental consequences of all processes related to a product’s life cycle. However, no single actor can influence the whole life cycle of a product. To be effective, analysis methods intended to support improvement actions should therefore also consider the decision makers’ power to influence.Regarding the life cycle of a product, there are at least as many perspectives on life-cycle thinking as there are actors. This paper presents an approach with which manufacturing decision makers can sharpen the focus in life-cycle assessment (LCA) from a conventional ‘products or services’ emphasis to a company’s manufacturing processes. The method has been developed by combining knowledge gained from earlier LCA studies with new empirical findings from an LCA study of an SKF manufacturing line.We demonstrate how system boundaries and functional units in an LCA can be defined when adding the perspective of a manufacturing decision maker to the product life-cycle perspective. Such analysis helps manufacturing decision makers identify improvement potentials in their spheres of influence, by focusing on the environmental consequences of energy and material losses in manufacturing rather than merely accounting for the contributions of individual stages of the life cycle to the overall environmental impact. The method identifies and directly relates the environmental consequences of emissions or raw material inputs in the product life cycle to manufacturing processes. In doing so, the holistic systems perspective in LCA is somewhat diminished in favor of the relevance of results to manufacturing decision makers.     

不确定数据条件下的生命周期评价及其应用

针对产品生命周期评价中普遍存在着的不确定性数据问题，提出基于概率统计的方法，进行生命周期评价以及重要环境影响清单参数的识别与灵敏度分析。结合水源中央空调系统，建立了统计平均意义下的污染排放清单，运用MonteCarlo模拟获得了以均值219．746和方差9．4243所表征的空调机系统生命周期环境影响的概率分布。进一步通过K—S检验与灵敏度分析，识别出10个具有重要环境影响贡献的清单参数及其中4个对环境影响分布较敏感的参数。以概率分布代替固定数值可以反映产品环境绩效的统计信息，能够有效地用于不确定数据条件下的产品生命周期评价。     

Normative ethics and methodology for life cycle assessment

Prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) provides information on the environmental consequences of individual actions. Retrospective LCA provides information about the environmental properties of the life cycle investigated and of its subsystems. In this paper we analyse the links between the choice of methodology and different theories of normative moral philosophy. The choice of electricity data in an LCA of a conference site with local hydropower production is discussed as an illustration. The two types of LCA can be related to different theories on the characteristics of a good action. Each type of LCA, as well as each of the moral theories, can be criticised from the alternative point of departure. Decisions based on retrospective LCA can have environmentally undesirable consequences. On the other hand, prospective LCA can appear unfair and result in environmentally sub-optimised systems. Both types of LCA also have methodological limitations. We cannot conclude that one type is superior to the other, but the choice of methodology should be consistent with the information sought in the LCA.     

Results of the first adapted design for sustainability project in a South Pacific small island developing state: Fiji

With high population densities concentrated in predominately coastal zones, the South Pacific will, in this century, be heavily impacted by global temperature and sea level rises. Small island developing states do have a number of unique problems, namely, small scale economic development together with environmental sustainability. This paper presents the lessons learnt from the implementation of the first cleaner production and design initiative project conducted in a Pacific small island developing state(s) (SIDS) using the design for sustainability (D4S) methodology. The final product was analysed using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. Implemented within a medium-sized enterprise operating in Fiji, the Cook Islands, and Samoa, the project focused on improving an existing product and its associated life cycle to make it more environmentally friendly to manufacture, retail, and dispose of. The project outcomes revealed that D4S provides a suitable tool for a country like Fiji to pursue more intensively an eco-friendly manufacturing agenda. However, when combined with LCA, the qualitative nature of D4S shows that not all solutions produce the best overall result. Specifically, the “improved” design, whilst being less impactful on Fiji in terms of disposal, has a higher impact globally due to the production and manufacture of the new materials used. For this reason designers need to address the impact criteria and decide whether a domestic or international agenda is of greater concern within the SIDS context.     

从LCA视角评估钢铁产品改进的环境效益

钢铁产品性能的提高往往会增加其制造环节的环境负荷,但是在很多领域的使用过程中,高性能钢材相对于普通钢材,更有利于环境。因此评估钢铁产品改进的环境效益需要一个系统化的科学方法———生命周期评价(LCA)。从钢铁产品全生命周期视角,讨论了钢铁产品性能提升与环境影响的关系,阐述了如何利用LCA方法评估钢铁产品全生命周期环境绩效,并列举了宝钢利用LCA方法评估钢铁产品性能改进环境效益的两个案例:某变压器采用性能更高的B30P110取向硅钢片取代原B30G130取向硅钢片,其生命周期碳减排15.1%;宝钢钢制二片罐用镀锡钢板从0.28mm经过6次减薄到0.225mm,使钢罐生命周期碳排放降低14.5%。     

工业产品生命周期环境成本评估方法初探

产品环境成本内在化是解决其环境问题的一个重要经济手段。生命周期评价方法和传统的会计制度都不能提供产品的环境成本信息。而目前逐渐兴起的环境会计制度也多关注与产品生产直拉相关的环境成本，缺乏全过程的思想，要真正满足可持续发展的需要，就必须开发适于其生命周期环境成本评估的方法。文章在介绍传统的成本划分方法基础上，提出了生命周期环境成本的概念及其评估方法。     

生态产品生命周期设计概念框架

生态产品是从原材料采掘到产品制造、运销、使用和最终报废处理整个生命周期总环境影响最小的产品，而生命周期设计是实现产品环境影响最小化和污染预防的最好方式之一。生态产品的开发，应从设计开始，生态产品生命周期设计的概念是一种基于产品系统的设计方法；其设计步骤有确定系统边界、环境现状评价、设计要求分析、各要求优先排序与协调，设计对策、设计方案评价等几个方面，随着ＩＳＯ１４０００体系的全面建立，产品生命周期     

生命周期评价在清洁生产领域的应用前景

生命周期评价(LCA)作为一种产品环境特征分析和决策支持工具,技术上已经日趋成熟,并在国际社会得到较广泛的应用.由于它也同时是一种有效的清洁生产工具,因而可以在我国清洁生产审计、产品生态设计、废物管理、生态工业等方面发挥应有的作用.目前应尽快引进和消化吸收国际上先进的LCA方法,建立符合中国国情的LCA方法学体系和数据支撑体系,并在此基础上开展各个领域、各种形式的应用研究与示范.      

Every product casts a shadow: but can we see it,and can we act on it?

This article presents a conceptual exploration of the use of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) in environmental product policy. Environmental LCA is a scientific technique for evaluating the potential environmental impacts of a product, process or activity along its physical life cycle, i.e. from raw materials extraction to the disposal of released materials to nature. The utilization of LCA in environmental policy is evaluated here with the use of concepts from the research tradition of social studies of science and technology (SST). Three different ways of using LCA are identified: a definitive approach, a conceptual approach and a facilitative approach. Examples of each approach are presented and discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches are analyzed, leading to the tentative conclusion that LCA works better as a conceptual or facilitative instrument than as a tool for gaining definitive support for specific policies. Finally, LCA is discussed as an illustration of the problems inherent in the current cause-oriented, integrative trend in environmental policy.     

The energy consumption and environmental impacts of a color TV set in China

The present study analyses the different processes followed during color TV set production along with the energy consumption and the environment emissions in each stage. The purpose is to identify “hot-spots”, i.e. parts of the life cycle important to the total environmental impact. The analysis is performed using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, which is a method used to identify and quantify in the environmental performance of a process or a product from “cradle to grave”. LCA methodology provides a quantitative basis for assessing potential improvements in the environmental performance of a system throughout the life cycle. The system investigated includes the production of manufacturing materials, transport of manufacturing materials, color TV set manufacturing, transport of color TV sets, use of color TV sets, discarding color TV sets and partial plastic waste energy utilization. The environmental burdens that arise from color TV sets are mainly due to air emissions derived from fossil fuel utilization.     

Integration of environmental aspects in product development: a stepwise procedure based on quantitative life cycle assessment

Significant environmental improvements can often be achieved by integrating environmental properties as an optimisation parameter in product development together with more traditional values such as production costs, functionality, aesthetics etc. This paper presents a professional method intended for managers based on quantitative life cycle assessment to identify environmental ‘hot spots’ in a reference product's life cycle and to select new environmentally optimised solutions for a new product. The paper takes its starting point in traditional procedures for product development (idea, analysis, goal definition, concept development and detail development) and shows step by step how the environmental properties of the new product can be optimised and thus contribute to the overall competitiveness of the new product.     

基于循环特性的镍氢和锂离子电池环境影响机制分析

为了了解镍氢电池和锂离子电池在生产、使用、废弃或回收过程中的环境影响,建立了一种简单快速的二次电池环境影响机制分析方法。通过生命周期评价(LCA)方法,采用Eco-indicator99体系,综合考虑电池循环容量衰减和循环次数的影响,建立了二次电池环境影响机制分析模型,并运用此模型对两种实验用二次电池(镍氢电池和锂离子电池)的环境影响机制进行了研究。结果表明:1)在所选取的两种二次电池当中,锂离子(Li-ion)电池的环境影响明显比镍氢(Ni-MH)电池的低;2)随着循环次数的增加Li-ion电池环境影响衰减比Ni-MH电池的明显,即随着使用循环次数的增加,Li-ion电池对环境的影响会降低到更多。综合来说,所选取的Li-ion电池比Ni-MH电池更具环境可持续性。文中所提出的环境影响机制分析模型同样可以应用于其他二次电池,以期为环境友好型二次电池的开发提供帮助。