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Illustrative Case Study: Life Cycle Assessment of Four Window Alternatives

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Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

This report serves as an example report on how to perform an LCA according to the guidance given in Chap. 37 and how to structure the report according to the reporting template in Chap. 38. The goals of the LCA were (i) to perform a benchmarking of a prototype wood/composite (W/C) window made out of glass fibre against three alternative window types currently offered in the market (made of wood (W), wood/aluminium (W/ALU), and PVC) and (ii) to identify environmental hotspots for each window system.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Mikołaj Owsianiak, Anders Bjørn, Sónia M. Carvalho, Leise Jebahar, Jon Rasmussen, Caroline M. White & Stig Irving Olsen

  2. CIRAIG, Polytechnique Montréal, 3333 Chemin Queen-Mary, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Anders Bjørn

  3. Ecolabelling Denmark, Danish Standards Foundation, Göteborg Plads 1, Nordhavn, Denmark

    Heidi B. Bugge

Authors
  1. Mikołaj Owsianiak
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  2. Anders Bjørn
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  3. Heidi B. Bugge
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  4. Sónia M. Carvalho
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  5. Leise Jebahar
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  6. Jon Rasmussen
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  7. Caroline M. White
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  8. Stig Irving Olsen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mikołaj Owsianiak .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Michael Z. Hauschild

  2. IRSTEA, UMR ITAP, ELSA Research group and ELSA-PACT, Environmental and Social Sustainability Assessment, Montpellier, France

    Ralph K. Rosenbaum

  3. Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Stig Irving Olsen

Additional information

Disclaimer

This report is based on an LCA that was delivered as part of the requirements to pass the MSc course “Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Systems”, given at the Department of Management Engineering of the Technical University of Denmark. The report has been reworked somewhat to serve as an example report to illustrate to students how to perform and how to structure the report on an LCA according to the requirements of ISO 14044:2006 (ISO 2006) and the reporting template in Chap. 38 from the ILCD Handbook (EC-JRC 2010).

The reader should note that it is not the intention to provide an example of “the perfect LCA study” or “the perfect LCA report”. The results of this LCA should not be directly used to inform a choice between windows, not even in Denmark. As a result of students collaborating in project teams of 5–6 members during one semester (~13 weeks, 10 ECTS MSc course), this is primarily the result of a well-achieved learning experience from LCA beginners. Its main purpose is to illustrate reporting, not good or best LCA practice, which is why many details are not necessarily handled the way they should be according to part II of the book, because there are many constraints on what can be achieved in one semester of learning LCA. LCA studies and reports produced by experienced LCA professionals can have a wide range of different structures and follow different emphases depending on the goal of the study.

Appendices

39.4 Annex (Public)

1.1 39.4.1 Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methods and Normalisation Factors

See Table 39.11.

Table 39.11 ILCD methods and normalisation factors for the impact categories considered in this study (EC-JRC 2011)
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1.2 39.4.2 Bills of Materials and End-of-Life Options

See Tables 39.12 and 39.13.

Table 39.12 Amounts of materials (in kg) required to produce one window
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Table 39.13 End-of-life options for window materials (percentage recycled/incinerated/landfilled) in Denmark and EU27 (given in brackets)
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1.3 39.4.3 List of Assumptions

See Table 39.14.

Table 39.14 List of assumptions
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1.4 39.4.4 Unit Processes and LCI Results

See Tables 39.15, 39.16, 39.17, 39.18, 39.19, 39.20, 39.21, 39.22, 39.23, 39.24, 39.25, 39.26, 39.27, 39.28, 39.29, 39.30, 39.31, 39.32, 39.33 and 39.34.

Table 39.15 Inventory of the unit process “Use of window, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.16 Inventory of the unit process “Assembly and packaging of window, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.17 Inventory of the unit process “Production of window frame, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.18 Inventory of the unit process “Production of window pane, 2-layered, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.19 Inventory of the unit process “Disassembly of window, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.20 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of aluminium, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.21 Inventory of the unit process “Aluminium recycling, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.22 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of EPDM, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.23 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of glass, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.24 Inventory of the unit process “CH: disposal, building, glass pane (in burnable frame), to sorting plant, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.25 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of silicone, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.26 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of wood, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.27 Inventory of the unit process “Wood incineration, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.28 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of steel, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.29 Inventory of the unit process “Steel recycling, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.30 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of polyvinyl chloride, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.31 Inventory of the unit process “Disposal of composite, U, MIOW”
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Table 39.32 Inventory of the unit process “Heat, DK, SERF”
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Table 39.33 Inventory of the unit process “Heat, EU27, MIOW”
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Table 39.34 LCI results (elementary flows for each window product system)
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1.5 39.4.5 Normalised Sensitivity Coefficients

Normalised sensitivity coefficients were computed for the perturbance of the following parameters: amount of wood, aluminium, steel (W/C window only), and PVC (PVC window only) in the window frame, the amount of glass in the pane, amount of paint, electricity needed for assembly, U-value, and transportation distance from Nor-win to retailers. Thereby, we found that impact scores are most sensitive to U-value, and three other parameters (amount of wood and steel in the frame, and amount of glass in the pane). The normalised sensitivity coefficients for these four parameters are presented in Tables 39.35,39.36, 39.37 and 39.38.

Table 39.35 Normalised sensitivity coefficients computed for 10% perturbance of amount of wood in the frame
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Table 39.36 Normalised sensitivity coefficients computed for 10% perturbance of amount of steel in the frame
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Table 39.37 Normalised sensitivity coefficients computed for 10% perturbance of amount of glass in the pane
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Table 39.38 Normalised sensitivity coefficients computed for 10% perturbance of U-values
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39.5 Annex (Confidential)

No confidential data were used in the study.

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Owsianiak, M. et al. (2018). Illustrative Case Study: Life Cycle Assessment of Four Window Alternatives. In: Hauschild, M., Rosenbaum, R., Olsen, S. (eds) Life Cycle Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56475-3_39

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