Making use of life cycle assessment and environmental product declarations: A survey with practitioners

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) represent important sources of information in applications such as ecodesign and process optimization. However, their use in comparisons and communication is still limited. Therefore, this article aims to understand the use of LCA-and EPD-information from the perspective of the practitioners, that is, professionals with experience in dealing with this type of information. A survey was built consisting of two questionnaires and two webinars, with questions related to core themes: frequency and purpose of use, comparability, and advantages and disadvantages for practical use and reliability of different presentation formats. Also, two suggested benchmarking frameworks were presented and discussed, later being commented upon and evaluated. Out of the 55 respondents, 76% stated that they use both LCA-and EPD-information, primarily to fulfill requirements from customers, in environmental management systems and for marketing purposes. It was also stated that they use LCA (73%)-and EPD (56%)-information to make comparisons but presented different responses and there were no established patterns as to the procedures. Methodological limitations and the need for harmonization of Product Category Rules (PCRs) were mentioned as limiting factors for comparisons between studies. Regarding the benchmarking frameworks, both were indicated to be potentially applicable in communication with consumers and between companies. It is concluded that LCA-and EPD-information is used by the practitioners in different applications and that there may be a need to increase standardization efforts of benchmarking procedures in order to improve communication with nonspecialist audiences.

Application of Life Cycle Assessment and Similar Methodologies in Asset Management: A Multiple Case Study

“…According to literature, the evaluation of assessment outcomes (postulate 5) can be difficult because of the lack of interoperability with the outcomes of other processes [8], [12], [22], [29],…”

“…The communication of assessment outcomes appeared to be challenging, as acknowledged by [18,19,24]. Literature also documents a lack of trust in the outcomes [14,22], but decision-makers had sufficient trust in the methodology and outcomes. Valuations of impacts were, however, questioned in some cases.…”

Building Life-Cycle Analysis with the GREET Building Module: Methodology, Data, and Case Studies

“…Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) takes a holistic approach to evaluating embodied carbon and energy impacts across the supply chain of building components, identifying opportunities to mitigate such impacts, and offering insights for choices of low-impact building components for sustainable building designs. With an increase in sustainable manufacturing goals, manufacturers of building products publish LCA data and results for their products using Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) (Galindro et al 2020;Passer et al 2015;Rangelov et al 2021). The EPDs are becoming a popular approach to reporting the embodied energy and emissions of products.…”

Quantifying Environmental Burdens of Plasters Based on Natural vs. Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) Gypsum

“…[27][28][29][30]. Additionally, manufacturers of building materials use data on the environmental impact of products in business-to-business (B2B) communication, including marketing purposes, preparation of offers for tenders (Green Public Procurement), and fulfilling customers' requirements [31].…”