124
known as Mill and Fill) that contained 10 % recycled materials but required overall
more materials and extensive road work or to utilize a less cost and resource intensive maintenance technology like micro-surfacing more frequently (due to its
shorter lifespan) in order to achieve the same desired road performance. The ecoeffi ciency study along the whole supply chain with a cradle to grave approach
showed that micro-surfacing consumes about 40 % less primary energy and
resources than hot mix overlays over the 40 year life cycle of the road. Hot mix
overlays scored higher due to higher bitumen consumption, hotter production and
application temperatures as well as increased fuel requirements for transporting
larger amounts of materials to and from the job site.
Having detailed results depicting how the individual system components contribute to the overall impact category is essential for informed decision making. Of
particular interest was the discovery of the signifi cant environmental impact the
road markings had over the life cycle for micro-surfacing. Thus to further improve
the overall eco-effi ciency of micro-surfacing it may be necessary to look at optimizing other aspects of the system components which make up the overall technology.
By using more sustainable products and solutions, it clearly was shown that the
micro-surfacing technology has a signifi cantly reduced environmental fi ngerprint.
These benefi ts can be directly attributed to its more effi cient use of resources, its
lower energy consumption as well as lower overall emissions to the environment.
By combining its preferred environmental profi le with its reduced life cycle cost
(25 % less than hot mix overlay), clearly places micro-surfacing as a more ecoeffi cient material for the base case analysis.
With any rigorous analysis that involves copious amounts of data, it is essential
that the results are presented and communicated in a way that facilitates clear understanding as well as helps bring into context the signifi cance of the fi ndings. The
eco-effi ciency methodology by BASF through the use of the environmental fi ngerprint and portfolio is well suited to distilling vast amounts of data and presenting it
in a concise, balanced format (Saling et al. 2002 , 2005 ; Landsiedel and Saling
2002 ).
As many important stakeholders of LCA or eco-effi ciency studies are not as well
versed in many of the common units of measurements (e.g. grams SO 2 equivalents
for assessing acidifi cation potential or mega-joules for energy consumption) they
are sometimes not able to adequately assess the relative signifi cance of the measured impacts. Thus communicating the results in more commonly understood
terms or equivalencies is an essential aspect to effectively communicating the results
and ultimately facilitating strategic review and decision making.
Just considering the context of the micro-surfacing study which was for only a
single mile stretch of urban road over 40 years, the advantages of micro-surfacing
over hot mix overlay could additionally be expressed in more commonly understood equivalencies such as:
• Approximately 540,000 kg less material required
• 34 t less material sent to land fi ll
• Energy effi ciency (EIA 2005 ):
P. Saling
known as Mill and Fill) that contained 10 % recycled materials but required overall
more materials and extensive road work or to utilize a less cost and resource intensive maintenance technology like micro-surfacing more frequently (due to its
shorter lifespan) in order to achieve the same desired road performance. The ecoeffi ciency study along the whole supply chain with a cradle to grave approach
showed that micro-surfacing consumes about 40 % less primary energy and
resources than hot mix overlays over the 40 year life cycle of the road. Hot mix
overlays scored higher due to higher bitumen consumption, hotter production and
application temperatures as well as increased fuel requirements for transporting
larger amounts of materials to and from the job site.
Having detailed results depicting how the individual system components contribute to the overall impact category is essential for informed decision making. Of
particular interest was the discovery of the signifi cant environmental impact the
road markings had over the life cycle for micro-surfacing. Thus to further improve
the overall eco-effi ciency of micro-surfacing it may be necessary to look at optimizing other aspects of the system components which make up the overall technology.
By using more sustainable products and solutions, it clearly was shown that the
micro-surfacing technology has a signifi cantly reduced environmental fi ngerprint.
These benefi ts can be directly attributed to its more effi cient use of resources, its
lower energy consumption as well as lower overall emissions to the environment.
By combining its preferred environmental profi le with its reduced life cycle cost
(25 % less than hot mix overlay), clearly places micro-surfacing as a more ecoeffi cient material for the base case analysis.
With any rigorous analysis that involves copious amounts of data, it is essential
that the results are presented and communicated in a way that facilitates clear understanding as well as helps bring into context the signifi cance of the fi ndings. The
eco-effi ciency methodology by BASF through the use of the environmental fi ngerprint and portfolio is well suited to distilling vast amounts of data and presenting it
in a concise, balanced format (Saling et al. 2002 , 2005 ; Landsiedel and Saling
2002 ).
As many important stakeholders of LCA or eco-effi ciency studies are not as well
versed in many of the common units of measurements (e.g. grams SO 2 equivalents
for assessing acidifi cation potential or mega-joules for energy consumption) they
are sometimes not able to adequately assess the relative signifi cance of the measured impacts. Thus communicating the results in more commonly understood
terms or equivalencies is an essential aspect to effectively communicating the results
and ultimately facilitating strategic review and decision making.
Just considering the context of the micro-surfacing study which was for only a
single mile stretch of urban road over 40 years, the advantages of micro-surfacing
over hot mix overlay could additionally be expressed in more commonly understood equivalencies such as:
• Approximately 540,000 kg less material required
• 34 t less material sent to land fi ll
• Energy effi ciency (EIA 2005 ):
P. Saling