Designer’s Intuitive Ratings of Sustainability

Author(s):  
Cassandra Telenko ◽  
Kristin Wood

Life cycle analysis (LCA) is often used to compare the sustainability of product concepts, but how our intuition factors into analysis and innovation is rarely considered. Intuitive evaluations of sustainability by designers not only help scope LCAs, but can be a dominant force in early stage decision making and concept creation. To elicit intuitive responses from experts, eight environmentally conscious products were presented to 22 designers as part of a professional workshop survey. Participants rated their own experience in design and sustainability and rated the sustainability and innovativeness of each product from low to high. These ratings are compared with available LCAs and environmental impact information. The results indicate that self-perceived expertise in sustainability does not significantly change perception of the sustainability of products and that sustainability ratings and innovativeness ratings were moderately correlated.

2005 ◽  
Vol 895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Moropoulou ◽  
Christopher Koroneos ◽  
Maria Karoglou ◽  
Eleni Aggelakopoulou ◽  
Asterios Bakolas ◽  
...  

AbstractOver the years considerable research has been conducted on masonry mortars regarding their compatibility with under restoration structures. The environmental dimension of these materials may sometimes be a prohibitive factor in the selection of these materials. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that can be used to assess the environmental impact of the materials. LCA can be a very useful tool in the decision making for the selection of appropriate restoration structural material. In this work, a comparison between traditional type of mortars and modern ones (cement-based) is attempted. Two mortars of traditional type are investigated: with aerial lime binder, with aerial lime and artificial pozzolanic additive and one with cement binder. The LCA results indicate that the traditional types of mortars are more sustainable compared to cementbased mortars. For the impact assessment, the method used is Eco-indicator 95


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Giraldi-Díaz ◽  
Lorena De Medina-Salas ◽  
Eduardo Castillo-González ◽  
Max De la Cruz-Benavides

2018 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 01006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Břetislav Teplý ◽  
Tomáš Vymazal ◽  
Pavla Rovnaníková

Efficient sustainability management requires the use of tools which allow material, technological and construction variants to be quantified, measured or compared. These tools can be used as a powerful marketing aid and as support for the transition to “circular economy”. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) procedures are also used, aside from other approaches. LCA is a method that evaluates the life cycle of a structure from the point of view of its impact on the environment. Consideration is given also to energy and raw material costs, as well as to environmental impact throughout the life cycle - e.g. due to emissions. The paper focuses on the quantification of sustainability connected with the use of various types of concrete with regard to their resistance to degradation. Sustainability coefficients are determined using information regarding service life and "eco-costs". The aim is to propose a suitable methodology which can simplify decision-making in the design and choice of concrete mixes from a wider perspective, i.e. not only with regard to load-bearing capacity or durability.


2021 ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Abeer Ali Khan

As the high demand of energy of the developing countries is met by importing energy and different energy technology, it has become increasingly necessary to discuss the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of those technologies and make better decisions. Developed in the late 1960s, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become a wide-ranging tool used to determine impacts of products or systems over several environmental and resource issues. The LCA approach has become more prevalent in research, industry and policy with growing concern for the environment. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to introduce the use of LCA in the decision-making process while selecting an energy technology. In this way, more environmentally conscious decisions will be made as LCAs can provide a better basis for this process.


2018 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 11003
Author(s):  
Andreas Pramudianto

Basically each product or service has its own life cycle. Life Cycle Analysis Method can be used to assess the impact of an activity both production and service activities. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Analisis Mengenai Dampak Lingkungan (AMDAL) is one of the activities that must be fulfilled in order to obtain an environmental permit. EIA activities have a life cycle process that needs to be known and understood so that environmental permits can be obtained. Therefore this study aims to find out the use of the LCA method in EIA procedures. In addition, with the LCA method, EIA activities are expected to be well studied according to the function of this service. LCA can provide to reduce the least impact from environmental damage. This research will be useful for the development of environmental science, especially related to the study of environmental impacts, especially EIA. It is expected that the results of the study will provide a complete picture of the relevance of the LCA method with EIA and the benefits that can be taken. The results of this study will be an important recommendation for decision makers regarding the importance of EIA in development, especially sustainable development through the method used, namely LCA.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2917 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Lozano-Miralles ◽  
Manuel Hermoso-Orzáez ◽  
Carmen Martínez-García ◽  
José Rojas-Sola

The construction industry is responsible for 40–45% of primary energy consumption in Europe. Therefore, it is essential to find new materials with a lower environmental impact to achieve sustainable buildings. The objective of this study was to carry out the life cycle analysis (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of baked clay bricks incorporating organic waste. The scope of this comparative study of LCA covers cradle to gate and involves the extraction of clay and organic waste from the brick, transport, crushing, modelling, drying and cooking. Local sustainability within a circular economy strategy is used as a laboratory test. The energy used during the cooking process of the bricks modified with organic waste, the gas emission concentrate and the emission factors are quantified experimentally in the laboratory. Potential environmental impacts are analysed and compared using the ReCiPe midpoint LCA method using SimaPro 8.0.5.13. These results achieved from this method are compared with those obtained with a second method—Impact 2002+ v2.12. The results of LCA show that the incorporation of organic waste in bricks is favourable from an environmental point of view and is a promising alternative approach in terms of environmental impacts, as it leads to a decrease of 15–20% in all the impact categories studied. Therefore, the suitability of the use of organic additives in clay bricks was confirmed, as this addition was shown to improve their efficiency and sustainability, thus reducing the environmental impact.


Author(s):  
C-y Tung ◽  
M H Wang

Increasing awareness of environmental burdens has led companies and designers to initiate design for the environment (DFE) programmes, which consider the design of products from the ‘cradle to grave’ and is also known as ‘life-cycle design’. In this paper, the use of a novel environmental performance technique to be used at the early stage of product design is presented. This technique, which is to be used as a framework for green product design, is demonstrated in this paper by evaluating the environmental performance between plastic and steel fuel tanks. The fuel tank comparison can be divided into five steps. In the first four steps, a modified house of quality (HOQ) is used to analyse the performance of fuel tanks in terms of requirements of environmentally conscious design. The final step is an overall assessment that synthesizes the results from the previous four analyses. As a result, the comprehensive environmental effects in the whole life cycle of fuel tanks are captured in the early stage of design.


Author(s):  
Sara Naranjo ◽  
Vidya Patil ◽  
Vijitashwa Pandey

Rapid innovations in technology lead customers to frequently upgrade to new products. Their current products, now obsolete in terms of technology, aesthetic features and performance, leave behind an ecological footprint that is harmful to the environment. Product take-back systems and remanufacturing methods that promise to minimize the environmental impact are gaining attention among researchers and practitioners in the manufacturing field. A common objective is to find the best option for end of lifecycle (EOL) decisions on whether a product and the components comprising it should be reused, recycled, remanufactured, or disposed. These decisions must entail proper analysis while taking into account customer preferences, which can vary considerably from customer to customer. Mass customization, considered a plausible solution for this problem, is not viable model for many products. In this paper, therefore, we approach this problem from a preference aggregation perspective, particularly, the benevolent dictator model. Using this understanding of aggregated preferences, we address the take-back and possible remanufacturing of products. Once collected, it is questioned whether efficiency enhancing new technology or features should be added in take-back products to improve its performance or add any value. If that is the case, will these remanufactured products, with new technology or features, help in cost-effectively reducing the lifecycle environmental impact of the product, compared to a remanufactured product with original specifications? A home HVAC system was selected to exemplify the design and reuse problem, and show the benefit of favoring environmentally conscious customers in lifecycle decision making.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 8242
Author(s):  
Jazmín Maciel Martínez ◽  
Eduardo Baltierra-Trejo ◽  
Paul Taboada-González ◽  
Quetzalli Aguilar-Virgen ◽  
Liliana Marquez-Benavides

Agave distillates, such as tequila and mezcal, are alcoholic spirits representative of Mexican culture. In recent years, the demand for mezcal has increased, and with it the requirement for raw materials, bringing with it a series of difficulties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential environmental impact and energy demand of the production of young craft mezcal from an endemic agave (Agave cupreata) found in the central and southern Pacific area of Mexico. The potential environmental impact of the mezcal studied was obtained through the life cycle analysis methodology using a midpoint approach by the ReCiPe method to calculate the potential environmental impact with SimaPro software (version 8.2.3.0., PRé Sustainability, Amersfoort, The Netherlands). The functional unit is a young craft mezcal bottle of 750 mL with 46% Vol. Alc. The stage of highest contribution to the environmental impact of mezcal was the manufacturing/processing, contributing 59.6% of them. The energy demand of the craft mezcal resulted in 163.8 MJ/bottle of 7.5 dl. The kg CO2eq in mezcal (1.7) is higher than beer (0.63) or white wine (1.01), but lower than whisky (2.25) or pisco (3.62). These findings could allow the search for alternatives for the development of sustainable production.


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