Coppelia Marincovic PE International, Inc
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study Claudia Capitini Eco-Products LCA XI Conference, October 2011
1. About Eco-Products 2. Background of the project 3. The tool 4. How Eco-Products used the tool 5. Feedback and next steps
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study LCA XI Conference, October 2011
1. About Eco-Products 2. Background of the project 3. The tool 4. How Eco-Products used the tool 5. Feedback and next steps
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study LCA XI Conference, October 2011
About Eco-Products: “Green Is All We Do™”
Headquarters in Boulder, CO
Solar Power at HQ
“Sustainable” product solutions that have a reduced impact on the environment and human health
Near Zero Waste Facility Alternative Transportation Bonus
Impact Assessment
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1. About Eco-Products 2. Background of the project 3. The tool 4. How Eco-Products used the tool 5. Feedback and next steps
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study LCA XI Conference, October 2011
Background of the project
Challenges faced by companies: Increasing customers‘ requests around products‘ sustainability But Life Cycle Assessments can be time and budget consuming
200+ products in portfolio Uses sustainability as a marketing differentiator and needs information on many products, in a timely fashion “Discovery”: Non-LCA practitioners (but learning fast!) Solution: a tool (i-report) with contains A customized LCA model, same for all products A user-friendly interface to easily adapt the model parameters A pre-defined report that is automatically updated to new parameters Drop-down menus for mostly used products/ most common conditions 6
1. About Eco-Products 2. Background of the project 3. The tool 4. How Eco-Products used the tool 5. Feedback and next steps
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study LCA XI Conference, October 2011
How does i-report look like?
Parameters of the system
Results in a report
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System boundaries
1. Materials manufacturing 8. End-of-life
2. Transport
7. Transport to end-of-life
3. Product manufacturing
6. Distribution to retailer
4. Packaging 5. Transport to warehouse 9
Details on parameters
Parameters include: Scaling (production volume) # of times the product is used Product design Drop-down menus: Pre-defined products design Converters (~10) Units, etc. Packaging materials Transport (modes and distances)
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Details on pre-defined report
The report includes: An executive summary Color-codes tables Graphs Detailed results: To understand the Life cycle profile Improve product design/supply chain Summary of parameters “Input” areas to add text
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1. About Eco-Products 2. Background of the project 3. The tool 4. How Eco-Products used the tool 5. Feedback and next steps
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study LCA XI Conference, October 2011
How Eco-Products uses/will use the tool
Streamlined footprinting of: individual products products categories overall company impact Use of those footprints in sales materials: info graphic for their national catalogue website sales training programs Scenarios for internal product development in their existing supply chains raw materials and design comparison for product improvement over time Suppliers’ engagement to get better manufacturing data over time, and increase their awareness around sustainability
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Example: In the Marketplace Available to Customers
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LCA Online: Eco-Products presents “Greenology”
http://www.ecoproducts.com/impact_assessment.html 15
LCA on our Website: Directly on Product Pages for Customers
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1. About Eco-Products 2. Background of the project 3. The tool 4. How Eco-Products used the tool 5. Feedback and next steps
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study LCA XI Conference, October 2011
Feedback and Next Steps
This is very new for Eco-Products Feedback is very positive Significant departure from old presence and cutting edge in industry Next steps are to integrate this information with operations The LCA project has advanced the level of information on products considerably “Now the real work begins� Changing impacts Incentivizing an extremely thin-margin, profit driven company to alter its supply chains
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Questions?
Coppelia Marincovic PE International, Inc c.marincovic@pe-international.com
Streamlined LCA, a Case Study
Claudia Capitini Eco-Products
LCA XI Conference, October 2011