Product Stewardship and Life Cycle Assessment
Consumers are more environmentally-conscious than ever before. Understanding this, major retailers are increasingly requiring their suppliers to understand the life cycle environmental impacts of their products. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA, also referred to as eco-balance) is the assessment of the impact of a product on the environment from “cradle to grave,” beginning with acquisition of materials for product manufacture, through manufacturing to product packaging and distribution, through product installation, use by the consumer, and ultimately disposal at the end of its useful life. Product Stewardship calls for a product manufacturer to not only understand but to reduce their product’s environmental life cycle by reducing supply chain and manufacturing environmental impacts and by facilitating reduction of impacts by distributors and consumers of the product.
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
EORM offers several LCA approaches based on the goal of analysis. For product competitor comparisons, we would conduct a screening level Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of the differences between a company’s product and a benchmark standard product using an appropriate performance-oriented comparison basis. We determine the appropriate life cycle stages for consideration, the LCI system boundaries, appropriate de minimus thresholds for environmental inputs/outputs, and basic but appropriate allocation of material and energy balances and their impacts to the product itself (for example: separation of energy used in direct product manufacture from that used to support manufacturing).
EORM’s Product Stewardship services include:
- Advisement and implementation assistance with product stewardship regulations and initiatives including RoHS-WEEE, EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool), Eco-Labeling, packaging requirements, and voluntary product takeback
- Training product design teams regarding requirements and trends in hazardous materials use, recycled content, environmental emissions, energy efficiency, modularity/ upgradeability, design for disassembly, and product packaging and labeling
EORM’s expertise in industrial processes and operations, combined with our experience in design for environment and identification of environmental risks and impacts, makes us well qualified to perform LCA.
For more information, contact a local office or call us at 800.648.1506.
More Sustainability Services:
