Life cycle and rebound effects

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Life cycle and rebound effects
And demand management
Andy Dixon, Life Cycle Design Group, School of
Engineering, Sheffield Hallam University
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Outline of presentation
Life cycle environmental impacts Life cycle
thinking Life cycle assessment Rebound
effects Areas to explore
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Starting point 3 statements
Demand management measures are the primary means
of increasing water efficiency - providing the
same level of service with less water...
Every demand management measure has a material or
technical component which in turn has
environmental impacts associated with its
manufacture, use and disposal...
If life cycle issues are not assessed then we
cannot be sure that the environmental benefits
achieved through increased water efficiency will
not be offset by environmental impacts in other
parts of the economy.
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Which way will it fall?
Environmental benefits from water saving
Life cycle environmental impacts
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Environmental benefits from water saving
Life cycle environmental impacts
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Typical product life cycle
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The Hippo life cycle
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What is LCA?

• LCA is a systems analysis method.
• The whole life cycle to produce the function must
  be known.
• All inputs and outputs are identified and
  measured.
• The system boundary is carefully drawn.
• The outputs must be expressed in useful terms for
  conclusions to be drawn.
• No economic or social effects are considered!

In basic terms 1.Break it down into materials
and processes 2.Look at effects on humans and
environment 3.Summarise and aggregate data to
make it more manageable and communicable
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The LCA system
Human environment impacts
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Stages of an LCA

• 1. Goal definition and scoping
• Why are we doing it? What is the system? What
  is the functional unit? What is the time scale?
• 2. Inventory analysis
• 3. Impact assessment
• 4. Interpretation

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Example LCA of d/w and rainwater for toilet
flushing 1. Defining the boundaries of system
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2. Inventory analysis

• A complete record of quantities of
• Inputs of energy, fuel, etc.
• Raw materials by type
• Transport used (hence fuels, energy, etc)
• Outputs to air, water solid waste

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Inventory analysis Energy, materials and
emissions
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The inventory is normally a spreadsheet or table
of many entries
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3. Impact assessment

• The inventory is usually translated into a set of
  environmental effects

Use of non-renewable resources Global
warming Ozone depletion Human toxicity Ecosystem
toxicity Acidification Eutrophication COD, BOD in
water Smog Noise... etc.
Fuels energy Raw materials (Land) (Water) Solid
waste Air CO2, NOX, SOX, etc. Water Acid,
nitrates, phosphates, etc. Waste heat
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Impact assessment - characterisation
The total impacts can then be added up and
compared
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4. Impact assessment - interpretation

• The last stage, optional - and controversial
• Impacts can be normalised by comparison with the
  pollution, etc. caused by an average European
• If subjective values are placed on health,
  ecosystems, etc. - then the impacts can be valued
  in a single unit
• Most common example Dutch EcoIndicator method
• suggests relative importance of impacts
• the whole LCA can be expressed in terms of Points
• only valid for a country or region, e.g. EC
• good for internal comparisons used by Philips

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Some key points of LCA

• Results of LCAs are sometimes unexpected, or
  difficult to anticipate,
• LCAs are data intensive they require a lot of
  high quality data,
• The boundary conditions of an LCA must be defined
  with care since they may have a significant
  effect on the LCA results. Key issues are spatial
  boundaries, time scale over which life cycle
  comparison is made, scale at which comparison is
  made and the level of detail that the study goes
  into.
• LCAs are necessarily specific and limited. They
  relate to physical issues and do not account
  fully for other spheres of value such as
  bio-diversity, public amenity, habitat, and
  aesthetics.

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life cycle and rebound effect

Processing of materials
Manufacture of products
Extraction of raw materials
Resale
End of life Disposal and dissipation
Maintenance and repair
Sale and distribution
Use
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Rebound effects
Sustainability concepts that rest on the idea
of resource or energy improvements due to
technological progress tend to overestimate the
actual saving effects because they ignore the
behavioural responses evoked by technological
improvements that lead to rebound effects
(Binswanger, 2001)
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Different types of rebound effect

• Direct rebound effect e.g. spending longer in a
  shower with a low-flow fitting.

• Indirect rebound effect money saved on water
  bill is spent on further consumption (e.g.
  holiday in Greece)

• General equilibrium effects involving producers
  and consumers and representing the result of
  myriad adjustments of supply and demand in all
  sectors.

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General equilibrium effects
Financially most significant industry sectors to
the Water supply and distribution sector
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Some conclusions
Water management must be considered and practised
in the context of the wider economy if the full
life cycle environmental impacts are to be
accounted for. A preliminary review revealed
that little research has been carried out into
life cycle thinking and assessment in the field
of water conservation and demand management.
LCA is a useful tool with well known
limitations. Design and implementation of demand
management measures will evoke a behavioural
response that may lead to a net increase in
environmental impact. These impacts may be
outside of the water sectors traditional
boundaries.
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• Some possible directions for future work
• Carry out a study of how LCA is used in the
  water industry,
• Develop tools to enable water industry
  professionals to incorporate systems and life
  cycle thinking in their work,
• Have a Watersave workshop on life cycle and
  rebound effects with presentations from invited
  experts,
• Investigate the design of Sustainable Service
  Systems for our water system,
• Promote interdisciplinary groups and consensus
  building discussion,
• Understand human needs related to water system,
• Look at the connectivity of water system to
  other systems (e.g. industry, society, natural
  systems etc.)

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