The desire to go green and to be more environmentally friendly has led an increasing number of manufacturers and associations to analyze the environmental impact of their products through the use of life cycle assessments, or LCAs. The studies, which can look at the entire life cycle of a product from cradle to grave, or just a portion of the cycle, provide long-term information that allows architects, contractors and consumers to make more informed decisions about the products they use.
“The goal of any LCA study is to consistently and accurately assess the environmental impacts created by the existence of a product or process, and to allow a manufacturer to weigh the impacts of proposed process or product improvements,” says Bob Zabcik, PE, LEED AP BD+C, director of research and development, NCI Group Inc., Houston. “Furthermore, the results can be used to establish the relative performance of the product versus proposed alternatives.”
With green building moving towards being more performance based, Jennifer O’Connor, president of the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, says, “LCAs are important to construction if we want to truly know that our environmental decisions are making a real impact.”
“LCAs are a great tool to provide digestible information to consumers about the overall costs and benefits of a specific product and allow them to make informed choices about their purchases,” explains James Lewis, communications department at the Aluminum Association Inc., Arlington, Va.
Benefits
LCAs have benefits to both individual manufacturers and industry associations. According to O’Connor, the advantage of doing LCAs for a manufacturer includes setting itself apart from the crowd, while associations use LCAs to assist in their marketing efforts against other materials. Because associations are not interested in competing against their member companies, doing an average product LCA allows associations to share the cost while providing data to compete against alternative materials in their sector.
Geoff Weisenberger, director of industry sustainability at the Chicago-based American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), says that LCAs are important because they can help identify successes and areas for improvement using an actual case study.
Zabcik agrees, saying: “LCAs help us promote our benefits over competing materials, which benefits the entire industry. Doing this through an association will not only provide a level of credibility, but it will also provide an accurate baseline for member companies to consider proposed improvements in their own manufacturing processes with the desire to reduce environmental impacts.”
“The advantages of having an association perform an LCA as opposed to a company are that associations are going to be able to draw on a wider base of resources, and are perhaps going to be seen as more credible and more as experts than an individual company,” explains Weisenberger. “Associations … are going to be more interested in promoting and improving the industry as a whole. A manufacturer will be more inclined to look at its actual product whereas a construction material association will be looking at the whole framing system/building.”
The Studies
According to Zabcik, the Metal Construction Association (MCA) and the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (MBMA), along with the added support of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the National Coil Coating Association (NCCA), have combined resources to perform LCA studies. He goes on to explain that while trying to determine the scope of the study, it became apparent that multiple studies were needed, resulting in two studies-one led by the MBMA and one by the MCA.
“This was because some manufacturers sell their products as component parts while others tend to go to market with systems custom designed on a project-by-project basis,” Zabcik says. “These different business models had major implications to the scope and made it difficult to have an all-inclusive study. At the same time, there is quite a bit of overlap across the studies, so they are being carefully coordinated to ensure compatibility.”
“These studies will be available to member companies for process improvement and code/standard compliance,” he continues. “The results will also be published to the public for comparative analysis, which benefits the entire industry. These studies are being conducted with peer review in accordance with the ISO 14000 series of standards to be consistent with the requirements of the next generation of high-performance green building standards gaining popularity.”
During the first quarter of 2012, the Aluminum Association plans on publishing a life cycle assessment of semi-fabricated products. This will cover the first four boxes (see diagram at right) starting at bauxite/aluminum scrap and will include elements of the recycling cycle for aluminum which requires 5 percent of the energy and releases 5 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with primary production. Completed with the assistance of Boston-based PE Americas, Lewis explains that the semi-fabricated LCA will allow product producers to add their life cycle information through the fabrication and finishing of a product to develop an individual life cycle assessment for a specific product.
“The goal of the Aluminum Association’s LCA is to provide accurate, useable and methodologically rigorous, peer reviewed data to all stakeholders,” Lewis explains. “With this data, the Aluminum Association and industry can more effectively communicate its environmental impacts and sustainability benefits to consumers, individuals selecting materials, such as architects, and the industry. Internally, the industry can use this data to identify areas for improvement and continue to develop new means of producing a material that achieves the triple-bottom line of sustainability.”
While the Aluminum Association’s LCA can be used as a starting point for individual manufacturers, the recently completed LCA by the AISC compares the environmental impact of a steel-framed building versus that of a concrete-framed building. The study, done through HDR Engineering, an architecture, engineering and consulting firm headquartered in Omaha, Neb., and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada-based environmental consultant Five Winds International Inc., focused on comparing the structural systems of two similar, existing medical office buildings located in Omaha on a per-square-foot-of-completed-building-space basis. The study only included material production, fabrication, construction and end-of-life deconstruction/landfill burden for the structural system, and did not include use and maintenance, exterior shell or interior finishes, which were considered to be equal in both buildings. The study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, showed the structural steel building outperformed the concrete-framed building in all but one category. However, the differences in all categories were less than the 15 percent differential required to conclusively recommend one material over the other.
Data Collection
Data gathered during an LCA can be added into the different LCA databases that are then used in available LCA tools. “There is also the desire to incorporate the data into the publicly accessible U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database being kept by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which will allow future tools to utilize the results as well,” explains Zabcik. “Because this data will be in such wide use and will be used by architects to compare competing products, the ISO standards require a peer review to be conducted by a panel made of both industry and LCA experts to assess and question the data to ensure the ISO standards are being followed.”
“Over the months and years there will be a growing number of additional LCA studies comparing the environmental impacts of construction materials,” Weisenberger says. “These studies will be performed by a variety of organizations and may show differing conclusions. The keys to evaluating any future studies are the quality of inventory data used to model the materials and the basis upon which the comparison is performed.”
Additionally, LCAs provide the basis for manufacturers to produce Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), which O’Connor says that there’s been a big drive towards recently. The EPDs help make the study’s information more understandable, while showcasing what manufacturers are doing right. Manufacturers are doing EPDs “because they want to send a message to their customers that they’re taking the next step,” she says. “It’s not good enough anymore to just say you’re green, you need to actually put your data out there in a transparent, creditable way.”
“Manufacturers will begin to look more deeply at how they do things, so they can make industrial changes that will be more green,” O’Connor explains. “And [LCAs] allow manufacturers to let the public know that they are serious about sustainability and that they are taking action. It also allows the design community to know that when they make choices about what they put in a building, or how they design a building, there will be a measurable impact there as well.”
Codes and LCAs
In recent years, life cycle assessments have been showing up more and more in construction codes and standards. “There is a strong desire in the marketplace to apply a consistent practice of green building that considers all aspects of the triple bottom line: economics, environment and social,” explains Bob Zabcik, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, director of research and development, NCI Group Inc., Houston. “That’s why the new high-performance green building standards like ASHRAE 189.1, International Green Construction Code and programs like LEED and Green Globes have LCA as an option to less general metrics like recycled content, regional material and rapidly renewable materials. Thus, rather than judging a product on an arbitrary metric, an all-inclusive answer can be obtained.”
Here’s a look at how LCAs currently play into codes and standards:
LEED
The U.S. Green Building Council’s planned update to the LEED program, LEED 2012, will include LCAs in the update to the Materials & Resources credit category. The category, which addresses waste reduction while improving the environmental impact of materials selection and waste disposal, will include an increased focus on the application of LCAs.
Green Globes
The first national building rating system in North America to integrate LCA as a credit, Green Globes awards points for the educational experience of using LCA and does not credit any particular performance level.
International Green Construction Code
Published by the International Code Council, the upcoming 2012 IgCC is expected to have LCA available as an alternative compliance path to prescriptive material requirements at the whole building or assembly level.
www.iccsafe.org/cs/igcc/pages/default.aspx
ASHRAE 189.1
LCA is available as an alternative compliance path to prescriptive material requirements at the whole-building level in ASHRAE 189.1 “Standard for the Design of High Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings.”
Life Cycle Assessment Software
Here’s an overview of some of the life cycle assessment software currently available:
Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings
A whole building tool, the Athena Impact Estimator gives architects, engineers and analysts access to advanced life cycle inventory data. Applicable for new construction, renovations and additions, the software is used by design teams to explore the environmental footprint of different material choices and core-and-shell system options.
www.calculatelca.com/software/impact-estimator
Athena EcoCalculator
Available in a residential and commercial version, the Athena EcoCalculator provides designers a quick snapshot of a building footprint. The tool is equipped with pre-defined building assemblies that have already been processed by the Athena team through the Athena Impact Estimator. A structured Excel spreadsheet workbook, the EcoCalculator takes into account all life cycle stages.
www.calculatelca.com/software/ecocalculator
GaBi Software
Developed by PE International, Gabi 5 is the newest version of its product sustainability solution. Featuring a powerful Life Cycle Assessment engine, the software supports life cycle assessments, life cycle costing, life cycle reporting and life cycle working environment. The Gabi 5 software presents a visualization approach using process flow diagrams to reflect the real-world production process including all inputs and outputs, as well as potential environmental impacts.
www.gabi-software.com/america/software/gabi-software/gabi-5/