Without a doubt, it is very important to ensure the future of future generations, that is why it is of great importance to provide them with a suitable and adequate environment so that they can develop.
Due to globalization, companies not only seek the interest of selling a product, but also seek to be on par with satisfying customer needs as well as being able to maintain a quality standard that is environmentally friendly. It is very well known that the issue related to the environment has taken a very important force in our society since people really look for time and natural resources that are related to the products and / or services they receive.
That is why companies have found a new choice, not only must they offer quality products that in turn satisfy the needs of customers, but they must also be products and / or services that preserve the environment.
It must be made very clear that the impact that a product has on the environment starts from the obtaining of the raw material until the product is consumed.
That is why the great importance of the life cycle is because it is a methodology that will help us to locate and quantify what are the potential effects that the product will have on the environment.
ACV origin and evolution
The development of Life Cycle Analysis started almost on a par with some European countries in the United States. The first institution in charge of applying the life cycle analysis was the Midwest Research Institute for the CocaCola company in 1969, where the analysis focused on the decrease in resource consumption, bringing with it a decrease in the environmental emissions.
The studies continued in the 1970s, however, the agency in charge of environmental protection indicated that life cycle analyzes were not carried out in small companies, since this involves high costs and time. Other authors such as Lan Boustead, carried out an analysis based on the energy that was used in the production of beverage containers.
However, the life cycle analysis had a great growth in the eighties, since in this decade two very important aspects emerged: The first one was the creation of new methods to quantify the footprint that the product was going to leave environmental problems. On the other hand, the analysis of the life cycle began to be available to all audiences, that is, anyone could do it. (Fullana and Puig, 1997)
The society for environmental toxicology and chemistry was the organization that developed the discussions related to life cycle analysis, since in 1993 it carried out the first international code called the code of practice for life cycle analysis, in order to to be able to standardize all the studies carried out to date so that all will base the same methodology, bringing with it a strong impact worldwide, since workshops, conferences and laws related to life cycle analysis began to be held. Seeing the great growth that this methodology brought, the ISO began to give it the necessary support to be able to unify a well-established structure in terms of the way in which it was going to work, which involved unification of forms, methods, procedures and terminologies.(Zaénz and Zufía, 1996)
How it has been seen, in the last 30 years the life cycle analysis has made incredible progress despite what is in the development stage.
ISO methodology
- The ISO 14040: 1997 standard determines that the life cycle analysis is a tool that will help us locate all those aspects related to the environmental impact that the development of a product or service brings. The ISO 14401 standard: 1998, specifies the needs and procedures to be able to define the objectives, scope of the study which will help to carry out a report of the inventory analysis of the life cycle. ISO 14042: 2000, it is described and established a general structure of the impact analysis phase, where they will be related to other phases of the Life Cycle Analysis. ISO 14043: 2000,In it they provide the recommendations to be able to carry out the interpretation phase of the life cycle analysis. In this I do not specify methodologies to carry out this phase. The ISO 14048 standard, this standard provides information on all the data that serve as a fundamental basis for The evaluation of the Life Cycle Analysis. The ISO 14049 standard has examples that very clearly illustrate the application of the ISO 14041 guide.
Analysis of the Life Cycle and its environmental impact
The stages are: study objective and scope, inventory analysis, impact analysis and interpretation.
In the stage of objectives and scope of the study, objectives must be specified which lead to the conduct of the study as well as the delimitation of the system to be analyzed in order to identify the components of the life cycle. For this, three very important aspects must be defined:
- Function of the system: The functions that require the system under study must be represented. This is of utmost importance in those cases where the product can fulfill different functions. If LCA is carried out to environmentally contrast several systems, it must be guaranteed that they fulfill the same function. Functional unit: The functional unit is described to the calculation base on which the material and energy balances will be developed. In the case of comparative LCAs, a functional unit must be selected that reflects the function to be compared. System limits: The set of unit processes or subsystems that approve the production of the product under study must be located. This includes obtaining the primary resources, all the manufacturing and transportation processes of the product components and their raw materials,in addition to all phases of the life cycle of the finished product. It is essential to resolve which processes and stages of the system are going to be included in the study, as well as the criteria used for such a decision and their compatibility with the LCA objectives. It is important to establish the geographical limits of the activities to be included in the LCA, since they can be affected by local conditions.
In the inventory analysis stage, a balance between matter and energy must be developed through the different components of the life cycle. The inventory analysis is a balance of matter and energy of the system, although it may include other parameters, such as: land use, radiation, noise, vibrations, affected biodiversity, etc. It includes the collection of data and the carrying out of the appropriate calculations to quantify the inputs and outputs of the studied system:
- Inputs: are raw materials and energy sources Outputs: are emissions to air, water and soil, and products
| Flow | Destination / Origin | Medium |
| Liquid waste treated | Destination: discharge to the sea | natural |
| Diesel | Origin: Refinery of
Petroleum |
Technosphere |
| Process water | Origin: River | natural |
| Solid waste | Destination: Waste processing | Technosphere |
| Solid waste incineration gases | Destination: Emission into the atmosphere | natural |
The recommended procedure for performing inventory analysis includes the following steps:
- Construction of the flowchart Establish the quality of the data (levels of precision required) Define the limits of the system Collection of the data and calculations of balances (Ecobalances) Redefinition of the objectives and scopes
At the impact analysis stage, the safety, integrity of people and the environmental effects that it will bring must be considered. Here, the environmental aspects to be included in the analysis must be identified in advance, as well as the relationship with the different stages of the life cycle. SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 1993) considers three steps in the evaluation of impacts:
- Classification. It is a qualitative step by which inputs and outputs are assigned to different impact categories based on the type of impact expected on the environment.
The allocation must be based on the scientific analysis of the relevant environmental processes and must allow answering the question: What are the expected environmental impacts of each input and output of the system?
The main purpose of this activity is to describe the potential environmental effects of inputs and outputs, and to decide what environmental impacts are considered in the assessment.
There are three broad categories of impacts:
- Natural ResourcesHuman HealthEcological Health
- Characterization. It is a quantitative step in which the relative contribution of each input and output in their assigned impact category is evaluated and the contributions within each category are totaled.
The characterization must also be based on the scientific analysis of the relevant environmental processes and must allow answering the questions: What is the potential contribution of a specific input or output to different environmental impacts? And what is the total potential contribution of the system to different environmental impacts?
- Assessment: It is a step that can be qualitative or quantitative, and in which the relative importance of the different environmental impacts is weighed. The assessment may not necessarily be based on scientific analysis, it may include values of an ethical, socioeconomic type, etc.
A simple and quick method of application is the approach to critical volumes, where the amount of pollutant emitted into the medium during the life cycle is assessed. The critical volume of each emission is the necessary dilution of each contaminant dissolved in air or water up to its legal limit. Each country has its own limits and the impacts in this case are not comparable; Furthermore, many pollutants do not have their limits established nor are their consequences known.
The ecopoints method is based on the concept of ecological singularity. The ecopoints evaluate the contribution of the various polluting compounds to the different impact categories considered: greenhouse effect, stratospheric ozone, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical fog, heavy metals, carcinogens, ionizing radiation, generation of waste, radioactive waste and depletion of energetic resources. The total impact will be the sum of the ecopoints associated with the entire set of emitted substances considered under each impact category.
Finally, in the interpretation stage, the measures that must be taken into account in order to reduce the effects on the environment must be identified and evaluated.
Location of Life Cycle Analysis within the framework of environmental management.
A large number of concepts have been developed within the framework of international environmental management. Among the beginner concepts, the following stand out: life cycle, ecodesign, clean technology, industrial ecology and total environmental quality management. These concepts help achieve a common goal; sustainable development.
The main objective of Life Cycle Analysis is to be able to provide a basis for making decisions related to products and / or services, in order to publicize what the environmental consequences could be.
Benefits of life cycle analysis.
Nowadays it is very important for companies to know what are the consequences that the realization of their products and services brings with them voluntarily or involuntarily to the environment, especially those consequences with legal and social problems, in addition to losses economic and how the image of the company would be affected.
The life cycle analysis as long as it is carried out according to the procedures agreed in ISO 14040: 1997, It is an environmental management tool that provides an adequate direction for the organization to make the relevant decisions in the elaboration or modification of a product and / or service.
conclusion
Today a large number of organizations and even governments have been concerned with developing techniques with life cycle analysis. However, as it is a relatively new tool, it has not been adequately followed up and, therefore, no record has been kept as such of the studies that have been carried out in our country, despite the great impact that this would bring.
As we have read, there are many laws that require organizations to strive to meet not only the specifications of a product, but also to comply with the environment. And this can only be achieved through a process of competitiveness in which the same organizations demand each other with compliance with the standards already established.
Bibliography
- Fullana, Pierre and Rita Puig "Analysis of the Life Cycle". 1st. Edition, Editorial Rubes, Barcelona, 1997, p. 143.Sáenz de Buruaga and Jaime Mayté y Zúfia. "Life cycle analysis to reduce environmental impacts generated by the Basque agri-food sector", Published in Rev. Agroalimentaria Vol. 49, 1996.Guía (2001). "Life Cycle Study Methodological Guide". Government of Chile, National Commission for the Environment. Waste Minimization Project from Packaging. ISO 14040: 1997 (E). Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework. International Standard Organization ISO 14041: 1998 (E). Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Goal and scope definition and inventory analysis. International Standard Organization ISO 14042: 2000 (E).Environmental management - Life cycle assessmente - Life cycle impact assessment. International Organization for Standardization. ISO 14043: 2000 (E). Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Life cycle interpretation. International Organization for Standardization.ISO / TR14049: 2000 (E). Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Examples of application.ISO 14048. Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - LCA data documentation format. International Organization for Standardization.Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - LCA data documentation format. International Organization for Standardization.Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - LCA data documentation format. International Organization for Standardization.
