Consumption-Weighted Life Cycle Assessment of a Consumer Electronic Product Community

Abstract

A new approach for quantifying the net environmental impact of a "community" of interrelated products is demonstrated for consumer electronics owned by an average U.S. household over a 15-year period (1992-2007). This consumption-weighted life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology accounts for both product consumption (number of products per household) and impact (cumulative energy demand (MJ) and greenhouse gas emissions (MT CO2 eq) per product), analyzed using a hybrid LCA framework. Despite efficiency improvements in individual devices from 1992 to 2007, the net impact of the entire product community increased, due primarily to increasing ownership and usage. The net energy impact for the product community is significant, nearly 30% of the average gasoline use in a U.S. passenger vehicle in 2007. The analysis points to a large contribution by legacy products (cathode ray tube televisions and desktop computers), due to historically high consumption rates, although impacts are beginning to shift to smaller mobile devices. This method is also applied to evaluate prospective intervention strategies, indicating that environmental impact can be reduced by strategies such as lifespan extension or energy efficiency, but only when applied to all products owned, or by transforming consumption trends toward fewer, highly multifunctional products.

Material efficiency strategies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings, vehicles, and electronics—a review

“…Given the rapid expansion of the ownership of EEE, little attention has been paid to sharing or other more intensive use strategies. It has, however, been observed that the integration of functions into smart-phones and other multi-use devices can contribute to reducing the number of devices owned by an individual and thus reduce the material and energy demand caused by the production (and operation) of EEE [17,194]. Given these recent trends towards smaller, more integrated products, there has been a shift in the demand for material classes from reduced use of bulk material quantities, but increased quantities of active components such as integrated circuits.…”

“…More intensive use [4]: less product to provide the same service, e.g. through a more space-efficient design of buildings or multifunctionality of gadgets [17], or use of a product at a higher utilization rate, e.g. through sharing.…”

Dematerialization and the Circular Economy: Comparing Strategies to Reduce Material Impacts of the Consumer Electronic Product Ecosystem

“…In the case of consumer electronics, this rebound effect (or Jevons paradox) has been observed in both an increased product ownership leading to greater cumulative impact (Ryen et al. , ) or in an increased product performance, resulting in no net material reduction (Kasulaitis et al. ).…”

Environmental Impact Assessment of the Heterogeneity in Consumers’ Usage Behavior: An Agent‐Based Modeling Approach

“…For instance, although the efficiency of consumer electronics has improved over the last two decades, the total growth in ownership and usage has increased the corresponding environmental impacts (Ryen et al. ). Product usage, and therefore the corresponding electricity consumption, is a function of consumer behavior, which is highly variable.…”