Q&A - The role of LCA in Eco-Design
Here we have collected answers to some of the questions that couldn’t be addressed during our webinar on December 3rd 2024, due to time constraints.
Q: Is there any requirement in the new EU directive that is different from previous eco-design methodologies?
A: Yes, the new EU directive that differs from previous Ecodesign methodologies is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). This regulation, which came into force in July 2024, replaces the old Ecodesign Directive and significantly expands the scope of ecodesign requirements.
Based on current documents, the key differences include:
Expanded scope: the ESPR now covers almost all physical goods traded within the EU, not just energy-related products.
Entire lifecycle focus: the regulation addresses the entire life cycle of a product, from manufacture to disposal.
Emphasis on durability and repairability - The ESPR aims to design products that maximize their useful life and facilitate easy repair or component replacement.
Digital Product Passport(DPP): the new requirement aims to improve transparency, helping both consumers and companies make more sustainable product choices.
Broader stakeholder responsibility: it expands to more stakeholders such as fulfillment service providers and online marketplace operators in addition to manufacturers, importers, and retailers.
Comprehensive sustainability criteria: The regulation focuses on improving various aspects of product performance, including durability, repairability, recyclability, and energy efficiency.
Indeed Innovation has also a blog post on this topic.
Q: Incoming legislation may mean that PET bottle material used for fabrics will not be accessible for companies like Logitech. What alternative sources of recyclable material would they use if that happens?
A: While rPET (recycled PET) offers some environmental benefits, it has limitations that may make it unsuitable for long-term use. These challenges include lower fiber quality, downcycling into lower-value products, contamination during recycling, risks of microplastic pollution, and limited recyclability in textiles. The ESPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) suggests that rPET should be seen as a transitional solution rather than a permanent sustainability strategy. Instead, the focus will likely shift towards more comprehensive approaches, such as: prioritizing materials that are easier to recycle, avoiding hazardous production processes, developing advanced recycling technologies, or encouraging innovative textile recycling methods.
These alternatives would help companies like Logitech transition to more sustainable materials while addressing the limitations of rPET.
Q: Incoming legislation may mean that PET bottle material used for fabrics will not be accessible for companies like Logitech. What alternative sources of recyclable material would they use if that happens?
A: While rPET (recycled PET) offers some environmental benefits, it has limitations that may make it unsuitable for long-term use. These challenges include lower fiber quality, downcycling into lower-value products, contamination during recycling, risks of microplastic pollution, and limited recyclability in textiles.
The ESPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) suggests that rPET should be seen as a transitional solution rather than a permanent sustainability strategy. Instead, the focus will likely shift towards more comprehensive approaches, such as: prioritizing materials that are easier to recycle, avoiding hazardous production processes, developing advanced recycling technologies, or encouraging innovative textile recycling methods.
These alternatives would help companies like Logitech transition to more sustainable materials while addressing the limitations of rPET.
Q: What is the difference between cradle-to-grave and cradle-to-cradle?
A: The main difference lies in what happens at the end of the product's life. Cradle to Cradle refers to a product being recycled into new raw materials, whereas Cradle to Grave means the product is not fully recycled, often ending up in landfills or being incinerated.
Additionally, Cradle-to-Cradle is a certification scheme that models products after nature’s processes, where materials circulate in healthy, safe metabolisms. In contrast, in LCA, Cradle to Grave covers the entire life cycle of a product, including all possible end-of-life scenarios such as landfilling, incineration, recycling, or reuse—each contributing to other new product life cycles.
Q: LCA processes are usually complex and time-consuming. Are there other methods to analyze the impacts of a product/service that can offer similar accuracy?
A: An LCA does not have to be complex and long if it's conducted for internal purposes or as a high-level screening. It can also be done in parallel with the product design, adding details to support decision-making along the way. The quality of an LCA improves with more accurate data and more time spent on it. Any other methods will work the same way - there are no shortcuts to obtaining accurate environmental impact data without making an effort, although modern tools will speed up the process.
Q: Is there an established/accepted methodology for including or excluding environmental impact categories in an LCA, and how to balance or prioritize impact categories?
A: The choice of impact categories to include in an LCA depends on the goal of the study. Typically, it makes sense to focus on the categories where the impacts are most significant. Prioritizing impact categories is a matter of values and preferences. One method for this is weighting, which helps balance different impacts. If you're unsure how to approach it, the EF method provides guidance. To determine which impacts are most significant, a process called normalization can be used. For example, impacts can be compared to the total annual impacts of an average global or European person.
Q: What are your tips on implementing LCA in product development? Is there a common way of working with LCAs in a manufacturing company? Which roles commonly work with LCAs?
A: In manufacturing, LCA is usually managed by R&D or Product Design teams, where employees have a strong understanding of products, production processes, and suppliers. People with data management and analytical skills, like engineers or business analysts, excel in conducting LCAs. Larger companies may have a dedicated LCA team within the Sustainability department. To implement LCA in product design, it's essential to educate the team on LCA and Life Cycle Thinking. It's also helpful to have a few experts in conducting LCAs to guide decision-making. Key practices include starting LCA early in development, setting clear sustainability goals, using simplified LCA tools to explore sustainable solutions, and adopting standardized methodologies for consistency.
Environmental Impacts Academy has an LCA implementation roadmap that can be downloaded from our web page.
To find out how to enrol your employees in our Environmental Impacts Academy’s Hands-on LCA training program, you can book a meeting with our CEO and Co-Founder Poul Lindqvist, here.
Q: How do you model the dynamic characteristics of "circular" materials, where thermal or mechanical loads reduce their lifespan, and recycling further reduces their durability? Does this mean recycled materials should not be modeled as a "loop", and environmental flows should vary?
A: Modeling recycling and recycled material processes in LCA, and assigning environmental impacts between products using recycled materials or those providing recyclable materials at their end-of-life, is complex. It's difficult to give specific advice without knowing the details of the product or material. The two main approaches used are the cut-off approach and the substitution approach, which can also be combined.
Q: What steps should one take to get accurate data for an LCA?
A: Some key hints: to ensure accurate data, start by familiarizing yourself with the materials and production processes involved, or engage with experts who are knowledgeable in these areas. It's also crucial to create detailed process flow diagrams to map out each step. Set up comprehensive data collection questionnaires and ensure you find the right people who can provide the necessary information. Finally, always validate the data to confirm its reliability and accuracy.
Q: What data would the Digital Product Passport require exactly, and with what data quality criteria?
A: The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a comprehensive and standardized dataset that offers essential information about a product's lifecycle and sustainability performance. It includes a unique product identifier for easy access to data, along with product identity details like name, model, and serial number. The material composition section provides transparency on materials and their origins, while technical specifications cover performance, dimensions, and weight. The DPP also outlines the lifecycle stages of the product, from production to disposal, including maintenance and end-of-life management. It offers data on environmental impact, recyclability, and compliance with regulations, supported by relevant certificates. To ensure quality, the information must be accurate, transparent, and regularly updated.
IIn Environmental Impacts Academy we have had a webinar about Digital Product Passport and we also wrote a Q&A document about it in our blog, both can be accessed on our web page.
Indeed Innovation also has a blog post about this topic.
Q: How can Life Cycle Assessment at the reuse platforms benefit implementation of textile extended producer responsibility?
A: When products are reused, it's essential to establish a method for distributing environmental burdens between the initial product lifecycle and the next one that reuses the materials. Common methods include the cut-off approach, where the impacts are assigned solely to the first lifecycle, and the substitution approach, which accounts for the benefits of using recycled materials in the next lifecycle.
Q: How do you find a compromise when a comparative LCA between an oil-based product and a biosourced product (with the same function) shows lower CO2 impact but higher impacts in other areas, such as water usage for the biosourced product?
A: This situation involves weighing different environmental impacts against each other, which means deciding how important certain impacts are compared to others. Regional differences can also play a role—water scarcity, for example, may be a bigger concern in some areas than others. Additionally, European normalization and weighting factors can be applied to aggregate the impacts of various environmental indicators into a single "sustainability score." However, even when using "accepted" factors, this process still involves subjective value choices regarding which impacts are prioritized.
Q: How can the degradation and efficiency loss of solar panels be accounted for in a Life Cycle Assessment?
A: In an LCA of a solar panel, the entire lifespan is considered, including the gradual decrease in efficiency over time. To accurately reflect this, the total energy the panel is expected to generate throughout its life should include the effects of degradation, giving a true picture of its long-term performance.
Q: How green can we consider solar energy, given that building solar panels may not be very ecological?
A: An LCA for a solar panel provides a clear answer to this question by calculating the environmental impacts per kWh of electricity produced. This takes into account the entire life cycle of the panel, including raw materials, manufacturing, delivery, installation, maintenance, land use, and end-of-life disposal. Additionally, the environmental impact of 1 kWh generated from solar panels can be compared to that of 1 kWh produced by other energy technologies or fuels, helping to assess how green solar energy truly is.
Q: How can I get in contact with the speakers?
A: You can for example connect with them on LinkedIn: Eunji Park, Matthias Schulz, Poul Lindqvist.
Q: How can my company get started with doing Environmental Life Cycle Assessment?
A: Upskill some of your employees or hire a young environmental talent at Environmental Impacts Academy. More information: https://www.environmentalacademy.org