xiii
5 Life Cycle Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.1 Proto-LCA to Standardized Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.2 What Is an LCA for and What Exactly Does It Measure? . . . . . . . . 81
5.2.1 Two Conjoined Standards: ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 . . . . 82
5.3 Goal and Scope Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3.1 Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3.2 Scope: What Is the Product or Service System
and What Is Its Function? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.3.3 How Specific Is Specific Enough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3.4 What’s In and What’s Out? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.3.5 How Little of Something Is Too Little to Include? . . . . . . . 88
5.3.6 What if the Process Used to Make One Thing
Simultaneously Produces Other Things? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3.7 What Are a Design’s Most Important Physical Impacts
to the Environment, and How Are They Indicated
and Modeled? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.3.8 What If the Most Reliable, Accurate, and Precise
Primary Data Are Not Available? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.3.9 What Is the Standard Accuracy and Precision Level
of LCI Data? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.3.10 What Data Assumptions Apply to the Study? . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.11 What Are the Limitations of the Study? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.12 What Subjective Value Choices and Optional Elements
Beyond the Primary Inputs and Outputs Influence
the Study?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.3.13 How Will the Results of the Various Parts of the Study
Be Systematically Interpreted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.3.14 What Type of Final Report Is Required for the Study
and How Is It to Be Formatted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.3.15 Is a Third-Party Critical Review Required to Validate
the Final Report? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6 Addressing Resistance to a Fact-Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.1 Fast and Slow Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.1.1 Sustainable Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.1.2 Biases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.2 Climate Change Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.2.1 The False Debate over Fundamental Causes of Climate
Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.3 Taking Issue with Life Cycle Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
6.3.1 The Attributional LCA Time Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.4 An Appeal to Reason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.4.1 Impossible to Do Nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.4.2 Inventory Analysis (LCI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Contents
5 Life Cycle Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.1 Proto-LCA to Standardized Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.2 What Is an LCA for and What Exactly Does It Measure? . . . . . . . . 81
5.2.1 Two Conjoined Standards: ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 . . . . 82
5.3 Goal and Scope Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3.1 Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.3.2 Scope: What Is the Product or Service System
and What Is Its Function? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.3.3 How Specific Is Specific Enough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3.4 What’s In and What’s Out? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.3.5 How Little of Something Is Too Little to Include? . . . . . . . 88
5.3.6 What if the Process Used to Make One Thing
Simultaneously Produces Other Things? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3.7 What Are a Design’s Most Important Physical Impacts
to the Environment, and How Are They Indicated
and Modeled? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.3.8 What If the Most Reliable, Accurate, and Precise
Primary Data Are Not Available? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.3.9 What Is the Standard Accuracy and Precision Level
of LCI Data? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.3.10 What Data Assumptions Apply to the Study? . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.11 What Are the Limitations of the Study? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.12 What Subjective Value Choices and Optional Elements
Beyond the Primary Inputs and Outputs Influence
the Study?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.3.13 How Will the Results of the Various Parts of the Study
Be Systematically Interpreted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.3.14 What Type of Final Report Is Required for the Study
and How Is It to Be Formatted? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.3.15 Is a Third-Party Critical Review Required to Validate
the Final Report? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6 Addressing Resistance to a Fact-Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.1 Fast and Slow Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.1.1 Sustainable Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.1.2 Biases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.2 Climate Change Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
6.2.1 The False Debate over Fundamental Causes of Climate
Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.3 Taking Issue with Life Cycle Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
6.3.1 The Attributional LCA Time Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.4 An Appeal to Reason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.4.1 Impossible to Do Nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.4.2 Inventory Analysis (LCI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Contents