Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
LCAMethodology I
Waste
management I Use of
product A/D
I
I Use of
[ product A/C
tion. Instead, the effect of the decision to use these residues Another line of simplification is to use the easiest allocation
is that less residues end up in the landfill. approach for most of the multifunctional processes in the sys-
tem investigated and only apply the more advanced approaches
Our recommendation for the third case is to exclude the to the allocation problems that are expected to have the larg-
whole multifunctional process from the system under inves- est potential effect on the conclusions of the LCA. This re-
tigation. Instead, the system investigated should include any quires that the potential significance of all allocation prob-
significant reduction in waste management or alternative lems in the system be estimated in qualitative terms, based on,
uses of product A. Furthermore, the system should include for example, previous experience or rough calculations.
the production of products C and D, if these are affected by
the use of product A. The consequential LCI model should There may be large uncertainties concerning what unit proc-
also include any significant differences in the environmental esses are affected, and to what extent, by the use of product A.
burdens of the use and waste management of product A, When the uncertainties are large, and the effects may be sig-
compared to the use and waste management of products C nificant for the conclusions of the LCA, it is reasonable for the
study to include different scenarios based on various assump-
and D. In the particleboard example, the system investigated
tions regarding the effects on the different unit processes.
should exclude the sawmill, but include the avoided use of
sawdust as fuel as well as the production and use of the fuel
that is required to replace the sawdust. In the road construc- 3 Allocation for O p e n - L o o p R e c y c l i n g
tion example, the system should exclude the mining opera- As stated in the previous section, we describe allocation for
tion, but include the avoided landfilling of mining residues. open-loop recycling separately. Open-loop recycling is the
Justification: again, the object of the consequential LCI is to recycling of material from one product system into another
include what is affected by a change in the use of product A (ISO 1998). The allocation problem occurs when material
in the life cycle investigated. The multifunctional process is is recycled from the system investigated as well as when
material is recycled into it. The international standard for
not affected, since, in this case, it only depends on the de-
LCI allows for several different approaches to the alloca-
mand for product B. Hence, the multifunctional process
tion problem, although it states that the approach used for
should be excluded from the system. The production of prod-
outflows of recycled material should be consistent with the
uct C and D might be affected, as discussed above. If so, approach used for inflows of recycled material (ISO 1998).
they should be included in the system investigated. The same
goes for the waste management of product A, if any. Quite often, if a material is recycled from the investigated
system, it replaces other material, recycled or virgin in new
Note that the three cases presented above are ideal, theo- products (Fig. 5). The effect of recycling material from old
retical constructs. The behaviour of real multifunctional products into the system might be that landfill or waste in-
processes often is a combination of the different cases. Prod- cineration is reduced or that less recycled material is used in
ucts from a multifunctional process can rarely be expected other product systems. In both cases, the ideal consequen-
to be completely independent of each other (Ekvall & tial LCI methodology is to expand the system under study
Finnveden 2001) and a multifunctional process can rarely to include the unit processes that are actually affected by an
be expected to depend on the revenues from only one of the increase or reduction in the flow to/from the life cycle inves-
products. The considerations above do not primarily refer tigated. In this respect, open-loop recycling is similar to
to such total independence, but to the dependencies involved multifunctional processes, where the production of the ex-
when the production and use of product A is slightly in- ternal function depends on the demand for the internally
creased or reduced. For such marginal changes, the above used function (Case 2 in Section 2).
considerations give a reasonable reflection of real depend-
encies. It should also be noted that the way in which prod- Prod. of
ucts depend on each other in a specific production process virgin
material
could vary over time and from market to market. ,k
The ideal option for dealing with the allocation problem managementl products 9 Recycling I= products
caused by multifunctional processes is to include all unit
processes to the extent that they are affected by a change in
Recycled ~material
the use of product A in the life cycle investigated. A conse- Product system
quence of the previous paragraph is that this often means investigated
applying a combination of the approaches described above. Recycled ~material
Probably such a procedure is rarely feasible. Hence, simpli- I Prod.
virginof I New 4
9 products [ Recycling 9 Other
products
fications are necessary. matedal {,
One line of simplification is to apply only one of the above Waste
approaches for each multifunctional process. This requires management
that for each multifunctional process, one of the cases above Fig. 5: Illustration of open-loop recycling to and from the product system
is chosen as the best approximation of the behaviour of the investigated and of the activities that may be indirectly affected by a change
real multifunctional process. in the quantities recycled
- - - Life cycle i n v e s t i g a t e d - - -
Vt Ui Wi
Production of "~_~ Production ~ Landfill/
y
virgin material and use ] [ Incineration
RI Recycling / j Collection Cl
for recycling
Recovered material
in the market (P)
Vo Wo
- - - Other life c y c l e s - - -
Fig. 6: A conceptual model of open-loop recycling through a market for recovered material (Ekvall 2000)
This elasticity approach requires that the relevant price elas- factors such as the time horizon of the study and the time and
ticity values be identified. Values for price elasticity are gen- place where the material was collected for recycling.
erally identified through the use of time series and econo-
As an alternative to using default values, it can be assumed
metric models. The price elasticity strongly depends on the
that supply and demand are equally elastic. The consequence
time horizon of the study. In general, the price elasticity is
of such an assumption is that 50% of the recovered material
larger in a long-term perspective than in a short-term per-
from the life cycle investigated in the LCI model replaces
spective since in the long-term perspective, decision makers
material recovered from other life cycles and the remaining
are able to adapt to changes in the price when making in-
50% is a net increase in total recycling. With this alterna-
vestments. The price elasticity also depends on, e.g., the col-
tive approach, the LCI model takes into account the fact
lection schemes and the legislation in place at that time and
that recycled material from the system investigated can re-
in that location. This means that the price elasticity should
place virgin and recycled material from other systems. This
ideally be identified for each individual case of open-loop
approach was used for modelling the effect of PET recycling
recycling. Unfortunately, this is not likely to be feasible. In-
in a study on beverage packaging (Ekvall et al. 1998).
stead, further simplifications are necessary.
The third option is to decide whether the supply or the de-
For this second line of simplifications, several alternatives
mand is the most inelastic, and set this elasticity to zero. In
exist (Fig. 7):
an LCI model based On this approach, recovered material
9 Use default values for the price elasticities, for example from the system investigated only replaces virgin material
the values that are presented by Palmer et al. (1997) and or only material recovered from other systems. This approach
summarized by Ekvall (2000); these values can be in- might be easier to apply than the approaches above, because
serted as ris and I]D in equations 7 and 8 above to calcu- it renders the LCI model less complicated. Ekvall et al. (1998)
late estimates of how the flow of the material to and used this approach to model the consequences of glass, steel
from other life cycles are affected, and aluminium recycling. This simplification will probably
9 Assume that the demand and supply are equally elastic not significantly affect the LCI results if the difference be-
(--rid = ris), tween the actual price elasticity of supply and demand is
9 Assume that the demand or the supply is completely in- large for the recovered material.
elastic (rid or ris is zero), or There is apparently a large uncertainty in the price elasticity
9 Develop multiple scenarios based on different choices of supply and demand. When this uncertainty appears sig-
among the above approaches. nificant for the conclusions of the LCA, it is reasonable to
The default values for price elasticity were applied by Berlin develop different scenarios based on various assumptions
(2002) in order to model the consequences of cardboard recy- related to price elasticity.
cling in an LCA of cheese. These were small compared to the In many cases, open-loop recycling has a negligible effect on
total LCA results, which means that a simplified approach the LCI results. This is likely to be the case when, for exam-
was fully justified. The main danger in using default values in ple, the flows of recycled material are small compared to
other cases lies in a sense of false security. The actual elasticity the flows of similar materials within the life cycle investi-
in a particular recycling case can differ a great deal from the gated. When there are good reasons, based on experience
default values. For the price elasticity for the supply of old etc., to assume that the recycling has no influence on the
newsprint, the literature includes estimates ranging from 0.06 conclusions of the LCA, the effects on activities outside the
to 1.70 (Palmer et al. 1997). The extremely large span be- life cycle can be excluded from the study. A final line of
tween the estimates may be due to errors in individual esti- simplification is to apply this simple cut-off approach to most
mates, but it is also caused to some extent by case specific of the flows of recycled material and apply the more ad-
vanced approaches to only the most important flows.
Real consequences
4 Alternative Use of Constrained Production Factors
A constrained production factor is here defined as a resource
I s~line of Assume competition only with virgin
simplifications and recycled material of the same type over which there is competition and where the production
volume is constrained. Such resources include renewable as
well as non-renewable resources. They include natural re-
sources but also man-made resources (i.e., products), where
the quantity produced is constrained by, e.g., legislation or
Assume Assume supply Assume physical restrictions.
2 nd line of demand and demand to be supply
simplifications unaffected equally affected unaffected An increased use of constrained production factors in the life
~, .............................
cycle investigated does not affect the production or extraction
T~D = 0 --I~D = 1"15 T~S = 0 of the resource. Instead, it means that less is available for other
parts of the technological system. This, in turn, may result in
Fig. 7: Example of possible simplifications at consequential modeling of
open-loop recycling. Additional alternatives for the second line of simplifi-
an increased production of other products that fulfil the same
cations is to use default values for the price elasticities or to develop mul- purpose. A special case is a multifunctional process, where
tiple scenarios based on different values for the price elasticities the production of the inherently used product depends on the
et al. 1993; see Fig. 9). The alternative use of wood was shown
demand for externally used products (Case 3 in Section 2). to be a key issue in this comparison (Ekvall 1999b).
The ideal, consequential LCI methodology can be derived from
this case, namely to exclude the production of the constrained As a second example, consider hydropower. On some elec-
production factors from the analysis, as long as it is unaf- tricity markets, it is possible to buy electricity generated by
fected by a change in the life cycle investigated. Instead, the a particular production technology. It may be possible to
system investigated should be expanded to include the alterna- purchase, e.g., wind power or hydropower. When an elec-
tive use of the constrained production factors and the produc- tricity contract specifies the production technology, the elec-
tion of the competing products (Product C and D in Fig. 8). tricity supplier is responsible for supplying the correspond-
The use and waste management in other life cycles should ing amount of electricity from this production technology
also be included if they are affected by a change from the to the grid. Kfiberger & Karlsson (1998) argue that, in this
constrained production factors to alternative products. case, data from the specified technology should be used in
the LCA rather than average or marginal data for the geo-
Note that the production of constrained production factors graphical area. As an example, if the electricity c o n t r a c t o f a
does not necessarily take place in muhifunctional processes. Nordic aluminium producer specifies hydropower, data on
In other words, this is a case where consequential LCI meth- hydropower production should be used in the LCA, rather
odology calls for system expansion even though there may than data on average or marginal electricity production in
be no allocation problem. the Nordic countries. However, hydropower is a constrained
production factor in the Nordic countries. An increase in
As an example, consider the forest industry. Several LCAs have
the use of hydropower for aluminium production is not likely
been performed in order to compare paper recycling with waste
to result in an increase in total hydropower production in
paper incineration and energy recovery (Finnveden & Ekvall
these countries. Instead, less hydropower will be available
1997). In many cases the results indicate that the incineration
for other processes. If the electricity consumption of other
option is preferable, because the energy from the paper may
consumers is unaffected, this means that the demand for the
reduce the demand for fossil fuels. In simple terms, the overall
marginal electricity production technology is increased.
effect of waste paper incineration may be that renewable en-
Ekvall et al. (1998) argue that the long-term marginal tech-
ergy in the form of pulpwood is transformed to paper and
nology for electricity production in the Nordic countries may
then used to replace fossil fuels.
be new plants based on coal or natural gas, or existing Swed-
It is not necessary to produce paper from the wood before it ish nuclear power. The alternative use of hydropower is ob-
is used to replace fossil fuels. The recycling option results in viously likely to be significant for the LCA results for an
a reduced demand for pulpwood. Since pulpwood is a re- aluminium product. The identification of marginal technolo-
newable resource, this reduction in resource demand is of- gies is further discussed in Section 7.
ten assumed to be of little or no environmental significance
The examples above are not exhaustive. Oil and coal with
(Hauschild & Wenze11998, Steen 1999). However, in a sus-
low sulphur content is a constrained production factor. If a
tainable future, forest areas and wood are likely to be a re-
low-sulphur fuel is used in the life cycle investigated, fuels
newable but constrained production factor because arable
with higher sulphur content are likely to be used in other
land area will be required to produce food and energy as
systems. Sawdust was previously regarded as a waste flow.
well as material. A reduced demand for pulpwood means,
Now it can be considered as a constrained production fac-
from a sustainable perspective, that more land will be avail-
tor: if not used for the production of particleboard, it can be
able for energy production. Hence, in a sustainable future,
used for fuel production (see Section 2). There are probably
the effect of saving pulpwood could mean the production of
many other such examples.
more renewable fuel with less impact on biological diversity
etc. The alternative use of woodland as a source for energy It is clear from the above that the alternative use of con-
has been included in a case study made to compare recycling strained production factors can have important, indirect ef-
and incineration of newsprint and corrugated board (Baumarm fects. If these effects are included in the LCA, they may signifi-
cantly alter the conclusions of the study. If they are not in- 6 Identification of the Competing Product
cluded, the conclusions may result in an environmental sub- Product substitution means that a product - including ma-
optimisation of the system, e.g., incineration with energy terials and services - is replaced by another. As indicated
recovery of waste paper instead of recycling of paper com- above (Sections 2 through 5), it is essential to know what
bined with fuel production in the forest. products are likely to be substituted by, for example the co-
products or recycled material that leaves the life cycle when
5 General Market Effects allocation is avoided by means of system extension. The fol-
lowing procedure (based on Weidema et al. 1999b) can as-
A traditional LCA is based on the implicit assumption that sist in the identification of competing products:
an increased use of a product in the life cycle investigated
will result in a corresponding increase in the production of The first step in this procedure is to describe the externally
that product. The discussion above illustrates that this is used product (e.g., product B in Fig. 3) in terms of its prop-
neither the case for certain products from multifunctional erties. These properties may be divided into three groups
processes (Section 2, Case 3) nor for products for which the depending on their importance to the customer. Obligatory
quantity produced is constrained by, e.g., legislation or physi- properties, which a competing product must have in order
cal restrictions (Section 4). to be considered as an alternative, include the main func-
tion of the product. They can also include, for example,
In fact, it is reasonable to expect that the assumption is invalid additional services, aesthetic properties, image, technical
for products in general. Referring to the example of the quality, reasonable total cost, and specific environmental
particleboard table in Section 2, it is not certain that the properties. In addition, the product may have positioning
production of particleboard is affected by decisions to pur- properties, i.e. properties that improve the market position
chase the table. The production of the table may even be of the product when compared to products with similar
unaffected. Instead, the effect of decisions to buy the table obligatory properties.
might be that less particleboard or fewer tables of this type
are available for other purchasers. The indirect effects of The second step of the procedure is the identification of the
market segments that are affected by the externally used prod-
buying the table may be that particleboard is replaced by
uct. Different market segments can be geographically sepa-
other materials in other products and/or that the produc-
rated, due to climate, regulations, consumer culture, etc. Within
tion and distribution of other types of tables are increased.
a certain geographical area, similar products with slight dif-
This indicates that economic analyses of the table market,
ferences in the obligatory properties may serve different needs
the table manufacturer, the markets for particle board and
and, hence, affect different customer segments. Weidema et
competing materials, the producer of the particle board and
al. (1999b) also mention market segmentation in terms of the
so on are required to accurately estimate the environmental temporal aspects of the products. This includes peak time elec-
consequences of buying the table. tricity and rush hour telecommunications.
This conclusion can easily be generalized for other products. The third, and final, step is to identify the competing prod-
Increased use of a product in the life cycle investigated is likely ucts in the market segment affected. These are products with
to contribute to an increase in the price of the product. This, the same obligatory properties as the externally used prod-
in turn, is likely to result in a reduced use of the product in uct. Several competing products may of course exist in each
other life cycles. This can be called a negative feedback mecha- market segment. The LCI model should ideally include all
nism. The strength of the negative feedback and, hence, the competing products that are significantly affected by a change
effects of a change depend on how sensitive production and in the production of the externally used product. The elas-
demand are to changes in price. This sensitivity can be quan- ticity approach in Section 3 describes how the affected prod-
tified in terms of price elasticity (cf. Section 3). ucts can be included in the case of open-loop recycling. Sec-
tion 7 includes a more general description of how to identify
On the other hand, the use of a new product in the life cycle
the production technologies that are affected by a marginal
may help the producer to establish the product on the market.
change in the demand or supply in the market segment.
It may also inspire others to use the product. These are posi-
tive feedback mechanisms: as a result of these mechanisms the The performance of a detailed analysis of all product substi-
increased use of a product in the life cycle investigated can tutions in the expanded LCI model, as outlined in this sec-
result in increased use of the product in other life cycles. tion, is unlikely to be feasible. The most obvious line of
simplifications is to restrict the detailed analysis to the prod-
Co-operation between economists and engineers is probably uct substitutions that are expected to be the most important
required to model the general market effects. Since price to the conclusions of the LCA.
elasticity values etc. can be difficult to obtain, simplifications
are also required to make the consequential LCI methodol-
ogy applicable (cf. Section 3). The most obvious simplifica- 7 Identification of the Marginal Technology
tion is to reduce the size of the system investigated: to re- A specific product might be produced by means of different
strict the study to the activities that are expected to be most technologies. Electricity, for example, can be produced with
affected by the environmefital impacts of the action, regard- technologies with quite diverse environmental properties.
less of whether these activities are located within or outside As stated above, a consequential LCI aims at describing the
the life cycle of the product investigated. consequences of changes. This means that the input data
used for modelling the production of a specific product identify the marginal technology of this market. The identi-
should reflect the relevant properties of the technologies that fication of the relevant market segment is described in Sec-
would be affected by a change in the life cycle investigated. tion 6. The subsequent steps (c--e) describe the identifica-
If the effect of a decision on the total production volume of tion of the marginal technology in this market.
a product is small enough to be approximated as infinitesi-
mal, it is termed a marginal effect. The technology affected c) What is the trend in the market?
by such marginal changes is called marginal technology. If a market is affected, the next step is to identify the overall
The procedure presented below can assist in identifying trend in the demand on the relevant market segment. This is
marginal technologies. It is based on a five-step (a-e) proce- often given by statistical time series. The trend need not be
dure presented by Weidema et al. (1999) and essentially aims precisely described. It is sufficient to determine whether or
at answering two questions: not the overall demand on the relevant market segment is de-
1. What is the situation in which the studied change in de- creasing at a rate that is higher than the replacement rate of
mand occurs? The first three steps (a-c) deal with this existing production capacity. If so, the long-term marginal tech-
nology is the technology that is most likely to be phased out.
question,
2. Given this situation, what specific technology is affected If the demand is increasing or decreasing at a slower rate, the
by the change? The last two steps (d-e) aim at identify- long-term marginal technology is likely to be the technology
ing this technology. chosen when new production capacity is installed.
a) What are the relevant time aspects? d) What technologies are flexible?
Economists distinguish between short-term and long-term ef- If the production capacity - or the rate of change in terms of
fects of a change. Short-term effects only include effects on capacity - of a technology is fixed, its capacity cannot be
the utilization of existing production capacity. The capacity affected by any decisions based on the LCA results. Hence,
itself is assumed to be constant in the short-term perspective. it can never be the long-term marginal technology. If the
When long-term effects are investigated, the production ca- production volume - or the rate of change in production (cf.
pacity is assumed to adapt to the change, and the utilization Section 4, and case 3 in Section 2) - is fixed, it cannot even
of this capacity is assumed to be constant. be the short-term marginal technology. There may be many
reasons for a technology to be constrained in its ability to
In reality, any change can be expected to have a combina- adjust its production capacity or its production volume:
tion of short-term and long-term effects. In addition, short- 9 natural constraints: e.g., the amount of water available
term as well as long-term effects can be fairly complex in a in a specific region (cf. Section 4),
dynamic system. For example, the short-term effects of an 9 political constraints: e.g., emission limits, quotas, ban
increased electricity demand are likely to concern technolo- on specific technologies (cf. Section 4), and
gies for production of a mixture of peak-hour and base-load 9 market constraints for co-products: e.g., co-generated
electricity. The long-term effects can include consequences heat, animal products (cf. case 3 in Section 2).
for investments in various technologies (Mattsson et al.
2001). Hence, the actual marginal effects can be too com- In some cases, these constraints can be affected by changes
plex to model accurately. in the life cycle investigated. For example, a change in the
electricity demand may influence the political constraints
In this case an obvious line of simplification is to adapt the on nuclear power in Sweden and Germany (Ekvall et aL
distinction made by economists between a short-term and a 1998) or on coal power in Denmark. Ideally, the effects of
long-term perspective_ and to include in the model either the changes on these constraints should be taken into account
short-term or the long-term marginal effects. What effects in a consequential LCA. In reality, such effects are probably
should be included depends on the time perspective of the too difficult to model. Hence, an obvious line of simplifica-
study as a whole but, in most cases, we expect that the long- tion is to treat the constraints as fixed entities when the model
term effects will be the most relevant to the model, because is developed. This means that any effects on the constraints
environmental studies are typically driven by a concern for are disregarded.
the long-term situation, and because individual short-term
decisions contribute to the accumulated trend in the market
volume, which is the basis for decisions on capital invest- e) What technology is actually affected?
ment (i.e. long term effects). The marginal technology is among the technologies where
the production or the production capacity can be adjusted
A second line of simplifications is to ignore the dynamics of in response to changes in the life cycle investigated. Long-
the system. This means that the system is modelled as a static term effects will take place either in the technology that is
system before and after the implementation of any changes most likely to be phased out or the technology that is most
in the life cycle investigated. likely to be installed (see above). These preferences are typi-
cally determined by the production cost per unit. The tech-
b) Are specific processes or overall markets affected? nology to be phased out is likely to be the installed technol-
If a decision will only affect a specific process, then the tech- ogy with the highest short-term costs. The technology to be
nology of this process is per definition the marginal technol- installed is likely to be the technology with the lowest long-
ogy. If the decision influences a market, it is necessary to term costs.
models generate d i f f e r e n t and c o m p l e m e n t a r y types of in- Ekvall T (2000): A Market-Based Approach to Allocation at Open-Loop
formation. T h e y suggest that an integration of different tools Recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 29, 91-109
EkvaU T (2003): Tools for consequential modelling. Poster presented at
entails a risk t h a t the specific advantages of the different
13th SETAC-Europe Annual Meeting, Hamburg, Germany
tools are lost. H o w e v e r , in this case, the integration o f tools Ekvall T, Finnveden G (2001): Allocation in ISO 14041 - A Critical
- LCI and p a r t i a l e q u i l i b r i u m analysis - w o u l d result in a Review. J Cleaner Prod 9 (3) 197-208
n e w tool w i t h specific a d v a n t a g e s with r e g a r d to m o d e l l i n g Ekvall T, Tillman A-M (1997): Open-Loop Recycling: Criteria for Allo-
the consequences o f changes. cation Procedures. Int J LCA 2 (3) 155-162
Ekvall T, Person L, Ryberg A, Widheden J, Frees N, Nielsen PH, Pedersen
It is r e a s o n a b l e to e x p e c t that the uncertainties in the eco- BW, Wesn~es M (1998): Life Cycle Assessment of Packaging Sys-
n o m i c analysis w i l l be significant. Describing the conse- tems for Beer and Soft Drinks - Main Report. Milj~projekt nr. 399,
quences of decisions also means facing the general challenge Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark
Finnveden G, Ekvall T (1997): On the Usefulness of LCA in Decision-
o f futures studies. T h e future is inherently uncertain, a n d Making - the Case of Recycling vs. Incineration of Paper. Presenta-
the actual future c o n s e q u e n c e s of decisions are highly un- tion Summaries, 5th LCA Case Studies Symposium, Brussels, Bel-
certain. Dealing w i t h this uncertainty requires that m e t h o d s gium, 9-17
of futures studies a r e a p p l i e d in the consequential LCI. T h e Frischknecht R (1997): Goal and Scope Definition and Inventory Analy-
large uncertainties also m a k e it impossible o r pointless to sis. In: Udo de Haes H, Wrisberg N (eds) Life Cycle Assessment:
State-of-the-Art and Research Priorities. LCA Documents, Vol. 1,
estimate the c o n s e q u e n c e s far d o w n the cause-and-effect
Ecoinforma Press Bayreuth and ecomed publishers, Landsberg, Ger-
chains. This implies t h a t the boundaries of the system inves- many, 59-88
tigated s h o u l d i d e a l l y be defined at the p o i n t w h e r e the con- Grubbstr6m RW (1977): Decision and gambling theory. Studentlitteratur,
sequences are so s m a l l , o r the uncertainties so large, t h a t Lund, Sweden (in Swedish)
further e x p a n s i o n o f the b o u n d a r i e s will yield no i n f o r m a - Hauschild M, Wenzel H (1998): Environmental Assessment of Prod-
t i o n that is significant for any realistic decision. ucts - Vol. 2: Scientific Background. Chapman & Hall, London, UK
Heijungs R (1997): Economic Drama and the Environmental Stage -
Formal Derivation of Algorithmic Tools for Environmental Analy-
Acknowledgements. As stated in the introduction, this paper is based sis and Decision Support from a Unified Epistemological Principle.
on chapter of a report developed within the framework of the SETAC- PhD thesis, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Europe working group on scenarios in LCA. Input and support from Heintz B, Baisn~e P-F (1992): System Boundaries. In: Life Cycle Assess-
Gerald Rebitzer and other members of this working group is gratefully ment- Workshop Report, Leiden, The Netherlands, 35-52
acknowledged. The development from report chapter to research pa- Hofstetter P (1998): Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment - A
per was funded, in part, by The Foundation for Strategic Environmen- Structured Approach to Combine Models of the Technosphere,
tal Research (MISTRA) in Sweden. Constructive criticism from two Ecosphere and Valuesphere. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
referees contributed to the improved, final version of the paper. It is ISO (1998): Environmental Management- Life Cycle Assessment - Goal
published with kind permission from SETAC. and Scope Definition and Inventory Analysis. ISO 14041:1998(E)
International Organisation of Standardisation, Geneva, Switzerland
Kfiberger T, Karlsson R ( 1998): Electricity from a Competitive Market
in Life-Cycle Analysis. J Cleaner Prod 6 (2) 103-109
References Mattsson N, Unger T, Ekvall T (2001): Marginal Effects in a Dynamic
Azapagic A (1996) Environmental System Analysis: the Application of System - The Case of the Nordic Power System. Presented to the
Linear Programming to Life Cycle Assessment-Volume 1. PhD the- International Workshop on Electricity Data for Life Cycle Invento-
sis. University of Surrey, Guilford, UK ries, Cincinnati, USA, 2001.10.23-25
Azapagic A, Clift R (1999) Allocation of environmental burdens in Palmer K, Sigman H, Walls M (1997): The Cost of Reducing Municipal
multiple-function systems. J Cleaner Prod 7 (2) 101-119 Solid Waste. J Environ Econom Manage 33, 128-150
Baumann H (1998): Life Cycle Assessment and Decision Making - Steen B (1999): A Systematic Approach to Environmental Priority Strat-
Theories and Practices. PhD thesis, Chalmers University of Technol- egies in Product Development (EPS). Version 2000 - Models and
ogy, Gothenburg, Sweden Data of the Default Method. CPM report 1999:5, Chalmers Univer-
Baumann H (1996): LCA Use in Swedish Industry. Int J LCA 1 (3) sity of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
122-126 Tillman A-M (1998): Use of LCA and its Implications for LCA Meth-
Baumann H, Ekvall T, Eriksson E, Kullman M, Rydberg T, Ryding S-O, odology. Handout, Environmental Engineering Research Event 1998,
Steen B, Svensson G (1993): Environmental comparison between New South Wales, Australia
recycling/re-use and incineration]landfilling.FoU nr 79, REFORSK, Tillman A-M (2000): Significance of Decision-Making for LCA Meth-
Malta6, Sweden (in Swedish) odology. Environ Impact Assess Rev 20, 113-123
Berlin J (2002): Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of Swedish Weidema BP (1993): Development of a Method for Product Life Cycle
semi-hard cheese. Int Dairy J 12 (11) 939-953 Assessment with Special References to Food Products (Summary).
Bouman M, Heijungs R, van der Voet E, van den Bergh JCJM, Huppes PhD thesis, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
G (2000): Material flows and economic models: an analytical com- Weidema B (2000): Avoiding Co-Product Allocation in Life Cycle As-
parison of SFA, LCA and partial equilibrium models. Ecol Econ 32, sessment. J Ind Ecol 4 (3) 11-33
195-216 Weidema BP (2003): Market Information in LCA. Environmental Project
Cowell SJ (1998): Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Agricultural no. 863. Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Copenhagen,
Systems: Integration Into Decision-Making. PhD thesis. University Denmark
of Surrey, Guildford, UK Weidema BP, Frees N, Nielsen P (1999): Marginal Production Techno-
Curran MA, Mann M, Norris G (2001): Report on the International logies for Life Cycle Inventories. Int J LCA 4 (1) 48-56
Workshop on Electricity Data for Life Cycle Inventories, US Envi- Weidema BP, Ekvall T, Pesonen H-L, Rebitzer G, Sonnemann GW,
ronmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, USA Spielmann M (2004): Scenarios in LCA. Society of Environmental
Ekvall T (1999a): System Expansion and Allocation in Life Cycle As- Toxicology and Chemistry, Brussels/Pensacola (in press)
sessment - With Implications for Wastepaper Management. PhD
thesis, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden Received: July 3rd, 2003
Ekvall T (1999b): Key methodological issues for Life Cycle Inventory Accepted: March 2nd, 2004
Analysis of Paper Recycling. J Cleaner Prod 7 (4) 281-294 OnlineFirst: March 7th, 2004