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Getting the Complete Picture

Life cycle analysis (LCA) is an advanced economic technique used to estimate the wide range of environmental impacts or costs of a project over its entire life. This discussion of LCA focuses on how to apply the approach to estimate the environmental costs of a project.

Cradle to Grave

A life cycle analysis allows the environmental impact of a project/product to be measured. It allows specific values to be put to the raw materials used, energy required and also the wastes produced. LCA estimates the impacts or costs of resources associated with a project from ‘cradle to grave’ – including extraction, processing, use, and disposal. The technique is often used to compare options for a project, informing a selection that is less environmentally damaging.

LCA can be narrowed to compare options for specific environmental priorities, such as reducing greenhouse gases. Pragmatically, it is more manageable to focus on one pollutant, such as greenhouse gas, than it is to focus on wide range of pollutants and materials associated with a project.

Help Meet Your Climate Change Targets

LCA is useful for greenhouse gas management, because these emissions have a significant impact on our environment and there is growing demand to constrain them. Greenhouse gas emissions mainly come from the volume and type of energy we use, so energy choices are really important project considerations. Greenhouse gases also come from landfills, so how we manage solid waste will also matter. Moreover, by helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, LCA can help local governments meet their carbon neutral commitments.

LCA can add up the greenhouse gas emissions from all of the stages for each project option, to help you choose an option that releases fewer emissions.

For example, greenhouse gases aren’t just released when we burn gasoline in a car. Extracting oil for gasoline (‘cradle’ stage) takes energy, too. Greenhouse gases are also generated from material after we’re finished with it. When we put garbage in a landfill (‘grave’ stage), such as food, yard, and lumber waste, these also create greenhouse gas emissions.

Bonus!

LCA can help you make project choices in other ways, too. Sometimes, an option that initially looks more expensive, will actually turn out to be less expensive once you’ve included the full life cycle costs. For example, greenhouse gas emissions from landfills can be captured and used to provide heat or electricity, while giving you a new source of revenue too.

Life Cycle Costing vs. Life Cycle Analysis

LCA is complementary but not the same as life cycle costing [2] (LCC) which looks at the economic costs of a capital investment over its useful life, including operation and maintenance. Local governments can apply LCC more readily. It helps local governments look strategically at infrastructure investments that have higher upfront costs but significantly reduce costs over the long term.

[Use the tab above to learn HOW to reduce emissions with this tool.]

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LCA Application: Greenhouse Gas Detective

Tracking how products are made and how they are disposed of can be complicated. However, by focusing in on the trail of ‘usual suspects’, you’ll be able to solve your case without spending a lot of time on wild goose chases.

Getting Ready

Illustration of LCA phases. These are often interdependent in that the results of one phase will inform how other phases are completed. Determine what resources and/or pollutants you want to consider for a particular project.

Identify which kinds of environmental costs and impacts are especially important for your project. These might include emissions to water bodies, to the air, or to the ground. For some projects, you may only be interested in greenhouse gas emissions. For others, it may also be important to consider how the water supply to local wells might be affected. Recognize that the more kinds of costs and impacts that you choose to include can make this type of analysis more complex. Therefore, take some time to evaluate how far you need to go to meet your community priorities and consider if outside expertise may be needed.

Collect All Your Clues

Next you’ll need to collect some numbers. Let’s focus on just greenhouse gas emissions, to keep things simpler. You’ll need to figure out how much energy and materials your project will use. This will include getting the materials to and from where you need them.

For a building project, you would need to estimate how much energy the new building will use each year and determine the energy source, for each option. You would also need to estimate the amounts of materials used to build the building, how far they came from, and how the materials were transported.

For a transportation project, you would need to estimate (among other things) how many more or less trips would result from the project, and what kinds of vehicles would be making those trips.

For a solid waste project, you would need to estimate how much garbage is being produced and collected, how many vehicles are required to haul the waste, the amount of fuel used in each vehicle, how far they travel, and what kind of facility the waste is taken to. You may also want to get a breakdown of what’s in the garbage, because you’ll be estimating how much energy went into making the products.

Tracing the Footsteps

Once you know how much energy and other materials you’ll be consuming, you’ll next estimate how much energy it took to make or collect the energy and products (the ‘cradle’), and how much energy it will take to dispose of the products (the ‘grave’).

Solving the Case

The last step is to estimate how much damage all those resources and energy are causing. For example, the amount of greenhouse gases released from using energy can be estimated.

If this sounds daunting, don’t worry! There are tools available to help guide you through collecting data and turning it into the numbers you want, so that you can choose options that cause less damage.

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