Products Life cycles

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a "cradle-to-grave" approach for assessing products, processes, industrial systems, and the like. 

"Cradle-to-grave" begins with the gathering of raw materials from the earth to create the product, and ends at the point when all materials are returned to the earth.

LCA evaluates all stages of a product’s life from the perspective that they are interdependent, meaning that one operation leads to the next. 

LCA enables the estimation of the cumulative environmental impacts resulting from all stages in the product life cycle and, as a result, allows selecting the path or process that is more environmentally friendly.

CA helps Design teams select the product, process, or technology that results in the least impact to the environment. 

This information can be used with other factors, such as cost and performance data to find optimal solutions. 

The diagram below illustrates the main lifecycle stages to be considered in LCA: 

As you can see in the diagram above, any product or technology would require input of some raw materials and energy at all stages: from acquisition to manufacturing, operation, and finally disposal. 

All of the mentioned lifecycle stages may produce atmospheric emissions, waterborne and solid wastes, simply because the efficiency of material use and energy conversion is never 100%.

There are losses and by-products, which sometimes can be highly undesirable. LCA helps to keep track of all useful and harmful outcomes

A typical LCA project plan includes the following main stages:

1. Goal definition and scope:

   1. 1. •  Identify a product / process / technology;

2. Inventory analysis:

   1. 1. • Identify and quantify energy, water, and materials as inputs

         • Identify and quantify environmental releases as outputs.

3. Impact assessment: Assess the potential human and ecological effects, and quantify metrics.

4. Research/Data interpretation: Compare data from Inventory Analysis and Impact Assessment stages to select or recommend a preferred product, process, or technology.

Examples of LCA Projects

Website: Design Life-Cycle, University Of California, Davis, Department of Design, URL: http://www.designlife-cycle.com/

This website presents a very versatile collection of LCA studies of consumer products, fashion, architecture, electronics, and other technologies.

 Studies are presented in the "nutshell" form and enhanced by infographics. Very fun resource to explore!

Examples of LCA Reports:

• Life Cycle Assessment of a GORE branded waterproof, windproof and breathable jacket.

• Whirpool (Sustainability report)

ASSIGNMENT:

Life Cycle Assessment, Report and Infographic

Reading: Complete all necessary reading on this page and linked pages

GOAL: The goal of this exercise is to apply life-cycle thinking to your capstone product, to map out all inputs and outputs and identify the needed materials and processes as well as the potential environmental impacts of each lifecycle stage. Look up information on manufacturing and materials used in your product components life-cycles.

Activity: Research your product life cycle and 

1. create a google doc with your research (Title, table of contents, Raw Materials, transportation/distribution, manufacturing processes, use-re use/maintenance, recycling, wastes and emissions, citations) 

2. then Using Adobe Spark or Canva develop LCA Infographic diagrams for your capstone product.