Environmental Life Cycle Thinking and the Circular Economy - Term Paper Example

Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: ABSTRACT Life cycle thinking and the circular economy is one of the major aims each country is aiming at achieving in the 21st century and beyond. This report therefore looks at the approaches to life cycle thinking in industrial sector and how it can be applied by other stakeholders such as government and consumers. The importance of the life cycle thinking and the circular economy is quite enormous both in economical aspect and creation of sustainable environment for future generation. Most countries have but in place legislation and ensured consumers are well educated on environmental matters. Industries are also gaining a competitive edge on life cycle thinking and therefore, some are going beyond compliance of the laws put in place by the government. The life cycle thinking and the circular economy is discussed in five major parts that is introduction, reason for the life cycle thinking, approaches to it, impact to other stakeholders and lastly, conclusion. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 2.0 REASONS FOR LIFE CYCLE THINKING AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY 2 3.0 INDUSTRY APPROACH TO LIFE CYCLE THINKING 3 3.0.1 LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT 4 3.0.2 LIFE CYCLE COSTING 5 3.0.3 DESIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT 7 3.0.4 PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM 8 3.0.5 LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT 9 3.0.6 INTEGRATED PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE POLICY 10 4.0 IMPACT TO OTHER STAKEHOLDERS 11 4.0.1 Government 11 4.0.2 Consumers 12 5.0 CONCLUSION 13 REFERENCE 13 APPENDICES 15 Appendix 1: Product life cycle 15 15 Appendix 2: Waste management Hierarchy 15 1.0 INTRODUCTION Life cycle thinking refers to approach where we become conscious on the environmental impact that we create in our daily life. This involves evaluation of each activity we undertake in our daily life, for example we can look at a product right from extraction of raw material then to processing, final product, its consumption and lastly its disposal. In Europe, each person consumes approximately 16tonnes from which 6tonnes are disposed as waste. Therefore, according to life cycle thinking, industries are supposed to formulate and adopt environmental policies that take care of disposal of such waste caused by consumption of their products. This policies includes, use of bio-degradable packages, re-use, recycling and disposal guideline. Through adoption of such policies on how to utilize waste generated after consumption of goods and services results to circular economy where nothing goes to waste or cause negative environmental impact such as global warming which is a major threat in the world today. Life cycle thinking and the circular economy has become popular among 21st century industries all over the world. This has come due government regulation that emphasizes on industry formulation and adoption of clear environmental management of waste right from production to consumption of their products. Though being a mandatory requirement to have environmental policies, some industries go beyond government compliance since it gives them competitive hedge among their major competitors and also industry’s consciousness in creating sustainable environment by enabling circular economy (Carlsson Reich, 2005). Life cycle thinking does not only apply to economic activities but also social activities such as cooking, entertainment and tours since we consume energy for example in form of electricity or gasoline. Therefore, life cycle thing is a broad subject and it affects all aspects of our life. This report aims at elaborating reasons behind life cycle thinking and the circular economy by industries, the approaches towards its achievement and application by other stakeholders such as consumers, government and transport sector. Lastly, the success of life cycle thinking in creating a sustainable environment and achievement of circular economy in addressing major threats on environment. 2.0 REASONS FOR LIFE CYCLE THINKING AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY Life cycle thinking approach tries to draw awareness to the industry to be conscious on holistic impact caused by production and consumption of their products by consumers and avoid instance of only emphasizing on formulating environmental policies that only applies to production process and shifting the burden of disposal to the consumer or community at large (Cobut, Beauregard and Blanchet, 2012). Therefore, life cycle thinking in industries helps to develop and avails alternative that enables reduction of pollution to environment caused by internal factors such as technology used in production and externally which entails consumption of the products by consumers. For example, automobile industries are adopting manufacture of electric cars and trains as an alternative of burning fuel which emit gasses that posses danger to ozone layer (Cooper et al., 2005). Though, electricity is created from other sources such as coal, it is more preferable than use of gasoline due to presence of other renewable sources of electricity such as waterfalls, sun and wind which form part of source of electricity to the national grid. Technology has been major contributor in promotion of life cycle thinking and it is being utilized by most industries in order to cut on the environmental pollution. For example, cleaning of the smoke produced in the industry before being released and putting detectors to measure excess emission of poisonous gases or waste released to water bodies is a major milestone on technology to protect the environment (De Jaeger and Eyckmans, 2008). Online purchase is another indirect technological factor since it reduces number of vehicles used by consumers to buy the products since through online purchase one car can be used in doing delivery for purchases of a given town or region. Industrial sector are major contributors to environmental pollution. Therefore, It’s adoption of the life cycle thinking will be much needed than other stakeholders since it will help industries mitigate pollution cost through avoidance pollution cost shifting to other stakeholders, identify negative environmental impact its processes, educate consumers on their how to utilize their product without or causing little environmental impact, enable industries to be more conscious on the impact of their activity to environment, identification of cost cutting possibilities, formulation and adoption of framework on production and consumption of their products and lastly, creation of culture that promotes environmental sustainability by all major stakeholders of the industry such as consumers and community within which the industry is built (Grieves, 2006). 3.0 INDUSTRY APPROACH TO LIFE CYCLE THINKING Industry can adopt life cycle thinking from several perspectives in order to create circular economy. Circular economy will only be achieved by ensuring that pollution cost cut in one process is not transferred to the next stage of its life cycle (Ibitayo, 2002). These approaches aim at analyzing each stage of the product life cycle. The product life cycle can be illustrated by appendix 1 This approach includes life cycle management, life cycle costing, life cycle design for the environment, product service system and integrated product policy. These approaches can be applied as elaborated below; 3.0.1 LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT This approach aims at investigating impact of the product at all stages of its life. For example, analysis of a product right from, extraction of raw material to disposal of waste from production and consumption of industry’s product (Obersteiner et al., 2007). The major case study done on life cycle assessment is Copenhagen case study which aimed at finding new way of managing drinks packaging, both metallic and plastic packages. The assessment was carried out in order to help in decision making on the best method of packaging and disposal that will reduce impact to the environment and less costly to the industry. The major evaluation areas included greenhouse gases and acidification impact, thus taking into account measurements of carbon dioxide and SO2 released to the atmosphere. The case study involved analysis of four alternatives in comparison with the current system where drinks packages were disposed in the same place with other waste. This alternatives elaborated in the case study includes centralized collection at recycling centre, collection at existing glass bottle bank, street collection and separate collection in containers next to existing glass bottle bank (Manfredi et al., 2011). Collection at the existing glass banks became the most preferable method since it was saved cost for the industry and saved emission of CO2 (110tonnes) and SO2(0.4tonnes) to the environment. Though, street collection proved to be saving large amount of CO2 (230tonnes) and SO2 (0.6tonnes) but it was costly for the industry from economic perspective. The trade-off between environmental impact and economic cost therefore, reached at use of existing glass bottle bank. Life assessment approach has proved to be very important for each industry since it enables the industry to assess the best economical position of waste disposal without shifting the burden to other stakeholders. This approach utilizes life cycle thinking, therefore creating sustainable environment through reduction of harmful remittance of the substance to environment and costly methods of waste collection. 3.0.2 LIFE CYCLE COSTING This approach requires industry to carry out comprehensive cost analysis of the entire production process. These include cost incurred by the industry and the cost caused to the society due to its environmental impact it causes from its production. It is advised that industry needs to review system cost in order to establish the best alternative which is less costly (Lichtenvort, 2008). The life cycle cost analysis is always integrated in life cycle assessment discussed above. This achieved through determination of the comprehensive economic cost to be used in evaluation of the best alternative that will bring balance between the economic cost to the industry and environmental cost to other stakeholders. According to SETAC Working Group, they elaborate life cycle costing to be all cost linked to products life cycle which is directly to one or more participators in products life cycle with complimentary inclusion of externalities expected in order to internalize them when decision formulation regarding future plans of the industry (Lichtenvort, 2008). The cost to community is always compensated by including the cost in tax remitted by the industry to the government. This revenue therefore, is used to protect environment for example relocating community in polluted environment, treatment of water bodies and rivers, waste collection, land reclamation and carrying out environmental campaigns. Social cost is therefore important since it shows industry ability and position in upholding code of good practice set by the UNEP-SETAC in 2009. This involved identification of the social and economic impact of the product to its potential stakeholders. This environmental impact comprises of both negative and positive results of a given product throughout its life (Valdivia et al., 2012). The industry is therefore required to identify social targets whose production might affect which includes impact on workers for example formulation and adoption of the waste disposal requires more employees thus creating employment and reducing the environmental pollution but it increases the cost of production. Impact to local community needs to be analyzed also since they form part of the stakeholders in industry production. Therefore, industry can analyze cost incurred from acquisition of disposal or treatment sites, pollution of air and destruction of the landscape due to waste disposal and extraction of raw material. Lastly, industry need to evaluate impact on society as a whole from perspective of time and space that is need to dispose, re-use and recycle waste (Valdivia et al., 2012). Monetization of social cost is the tricky part since we cannot easily quantify the social cost. Social cost is therefore an approximation of the most likely cost incurred by the society due to externalities caused, this cost are internalized within industry operations. Monetization plays crucial role in carrying out cost-benefit analysis of the production process. Where the industry has several alternatives in production or packaging, Monetization gives ability to compare production process that is cost effective both economically and in environmental perspective (UNEP-SETAC, 2009). The only major weakness to this method is absence of standardized measure in measuring social cost thus greatly dependent on approximation which can be underestimated by some industries. 3.0.3 DESIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT This entails concentration of re-engineering of the product production process, packaging material and direction on disposal, re-use and recycling of the waste created. It is abroad and important area that needs to be utilized more in creation of a clean environment (Hauke, Latimer and Werner, n.d.). This approach originated from United State in 1992 where they started design for the environment program championed the need to go green by use of environmental friendly fuel, bio-degradable packaging and labeling the product on disposal procedure or campaigning for re-use and recycling of the waste. This approach is cost effective and easy to implement for example use of bio-fuel in airline industry helps in reducing the amount of CO2 emitted to the environment and reduction of landscape destruction and other emission during extraction and refining of the crude oil into gasoline and other forms of fuels. Virgin Atlanta airline are major innovators in use of bio-fuel utilization in their operation, this is has contributed greatly in saving emission of CO2 and SO2 to the environment thus reducing greenhouse effect, the use of renewable sources of energy such has sun and wind is major step in the production design which has cut large amount of harmful gases due to coal or fuel combustion (Hauke, Latimer and Werner, n.d.). The adoption of biodegradable packaging is another major milestone in product design which has lead to abandoning of use of polythene bags which pose greater danger in the environment beauty since it is non-degradable and burning such waste which is common also emits large quantities of CO2 which depletes the ozone layer causing ultraviolet light which pose great effect on human health (Kloepffer, 2008). It also causes greenhouse effects which results to floods and sporadic rains. Industries also have adopted packages which can be re-used for example plastic containers being used for storing other products or as water containers, Industries also have adopted manufacture of strong plastic bags can be used for more than once due to its ability to withstand stretching, the design is also appealing thus attract one to use it for other purposes. The approach utilizes the prevention approach as illustrate by waste management hierarchy (appendix 2) The design for the environment approach is among the most effective and broad area that utilizes the life cycle thinking in conservation of the environment and creation of circular economy. It is largely applied by industries since they are the major emitters of the hazards substance to environment. 3.0.4 PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM This is the recent approach all other approaches, it emphasizes on follow-up activities after sales of the product in order to ensure customer consuming industry product is fully satisfied. This shifts company from the traditional norms where the industry just concentrates on production and sales of the product and leave the rest for the customer to figure out for example, how to use the product, if it suits his/her need, shelf life and how to dispose waste out of it. Product service system approach is beneficial to both the industry and customer since customer is fully satisfied which results to high consumption volume thus higher profits (Kaya and Yokobori, 1997). The life cycle thinking comes in different aspects of product service system. First, it is evident that through follow-up services such as industries providing education services to its product consumers will reduce incident of wrong use for example, carrying out vehicle maintenance services regularly in order to avoid incomplete combustion which results to increased emission of poisonous gases thus reducing amount of harmful gases being released to the atmosphere. Secondly, product service system ensures that the product consumed doesn’t have negative impact on the environment or on health of their consumers for example, industries manufacturing herbicides and pesticide always should interview its users in order to ascertain that it is free from harmful side effects which was not identified during its research before releasing to the market. Lastly, disposal follow-up where products are labeled on how it should be used and disposed for example substance which are major air pollutant or non-biodegradable need to be burnt but buried deep in the ground, recycled or re-used, this is cost are internalized by the industry without shifting it to the final consumer (Kloepffer, 2008). Product service system therefore echoes the use of life cycle thinking in environmental conservation thus creation of sustainable environment through reduction of environment pollution and consumers health. This is achieved by selling both product and service together. 3.0.5 LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT This approach requires that the industry have exclusive control on the product throughout its life where the industry is required to utilize any opportunity or mitigate any likely risk that might arise within the product life. For example, most sugar cane factories have set-up electric generation plant which obtained by burning waste from sugar cane instead of disposing them and using other forms of energy such as fuel or coal which releases high quantities of poisonous gases to the environment. In short, life cycle management is process of ensuring little or no waste is released to the environment by making use of the waste rather than disposing them. Another good example that utilizes this approach is creation of biogas using degradable substance such as leaves, fruit peels and cow dung. Biogas is consider one the clean sources of energy therefore, industries might adopt this method by producing biogas in large quantities instead of disposing degradable waste to water bodies or burning them (Kloepffer, 2008). Life cycle management is therefore crucial just like other approaches in upholding life cycle thinking in industrial sector with common goal of creating sustainable environment and enhancing circular economy where nothing or less material are disposed as waste. 3.0.6 INTEGRATED PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE POLICY This approach entails close examination of comprehensive product’s life cycle by the industry in order to check on the crucial areas that can yield great results, if environmental policies are implemented in the identified stage. For example if industry uses chemicals to reduce days taken for wine preparation and from in-depth research, it established that the chemical is poisonous, the industry will be burned completely from production of wine or the chemical in production and in return substitute it to the slower means (Whitfield and McNett, n.d.). This approach therefore is important in consumer protection and avoiding likely avenue of cost shifting from producer to the consumer and it is greatly relied in Europe countries. Other measures includes increase in tax on harmful substance such as tobacco, vehicles and license to run industries in a given sector in order to discourage consumption and production of such products which poses great danger to both environment and society at large (Lundquist, 2000). Government policies find great relevance in application in this point since some industries find it hard to formulate and stick by the integrated product policy thus need of an external body to oversee formulation, application and its adequacy in mitigating risk exposed to consumers and environment. Application of integrated product policy therefore conforms to the principle of life cycle thinking since its major aim is to establish a sustainable environment by reducing harmful substance and processes which have high environmental and social cost. 4.0 IMPACT TO OTHER STAKEHOLDERS Environmental protection requires joint effort from all stakeholders which includes producers, consumers, government and society as all. The efforts of all stakeholders are interlinked since one fault needs to be identified and corrected by another. For example, government is always charged with formulation of minimum requirements need to be fulfilled by any given industry in its production and sale of goods and services while consumers act as government whistleblowers whenever producer are not adhering to the set guidelines (Lundquist, 2000). Government also oversees how consumers dispose the waste after consumption of the product while producer giving advice and educating consumer on how to dispose it, thus creating an interconnected relationship between consumers, government and producers. Life cycle thinking therefore can be applied by the consumers and government in many ways since they borrow common goal with the industries of creation of sustainable environment. Major application of this principle is therefore discussed below. 4.0.1 Government Government is tasked with formulation and implementation of regulation that govern both production, distribution and consumption products and services (Manfredi et al., 2011). Therefore, government should ensure organs given responsibilities of formulating such polices have extensive knowledge on life cycle thinking in order to create sound and adequate policies. These policies will ensure that producers don’t produce harmful waste going beyond the set limit by statutory framework. The government also is tasked with inspection of imports in order to avoid dumping harmful products to environment and citizens health thus reduction of environmental pollution thus improvement of environmental sustainability which is major goal in life cycle thinking principle (Manfredi et al., 2011). Thus modification of the approaches discussed will work well with government in upholding life cycle thinking. 4.0.2 Consumers Consumers are major stakeholders in creation of sustainable environment through extensive application of life cycle thinking. They can bring great impact to the environment in three ways. First, consumption behavior for instance if consumer decides to consume while taking into consideration the environmental impact, there could be great cut on waste emission to the environment. This results from avoidance of consumption of hazardous products. Secondly, consumers can impact environment through their consumption choices. For example, consumers should only consume products manufactured by producer who keeps environmental interest first than profitability of the company (Manfredi et al., 2011). This will reduce companies which do not adhere to set regulation on environmental protection for future sustainability. Lastly, usage rate of certain product by the consumer determines the environmental impact they create. For example if consumers realize that it is not economically for everyone to be driving his/her personal car but only have one family car or use public means. This will cut on CO2 and SO2 emission to the environment since will be having few cars on the road. This will result to reduction on the damaged of the environment caused by the emission of harmful substance thus improving environment sustainability thus achieving life cycle thinking and the circular economy principle. 5.0 CONCLUSION In conclusion, life cycle thinking and the circular economy is crucial in 21st century due its extensive application and impressive impact it has on the environment sustainability. Therefore, it is important that all the major environmental stakeholders to understand and apply it in their daily activities. Individual stakeholder effort should be encourage since it will yields greater results due to its interconnection property between all environmental stakeholders thus giving collective result which is much higher than individual effort towards the life cycle thinking principle in creation of sustainable environment. REFERENCE Carlsson Reich, M. (2005). Economic assessment of municipal waste management systems—case studies using a combination of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). Journal of Cleaner Production, 13(3), pp.253-263. Cobut, A., Beauregard, R. and Blanchet, P. (2012). Using life cycle thinking to analyze environmental labeling: the case of appearance wood products. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 18(3), pp.722-742. Cooper, J., Vigon, B., Curran, M. and Franklin, B. (2005). Life Cycle Assessment in Management, Product and Process Design, and Policy Decision Making: A Conference Report. Integr Environ Assess Manag, 1(1), p.60. De Jaeger, S. and Eyckmans, J. (2008). Assessing the effectiveness of voluntary solid waste reduction policies: Methodology and a Flemish case study. Waste Management, 28(8), pp.1449-1460. Editorial Board. (2012). Renewable Energy, 41, p.IFC. Grieves, M. (2006). Product lifecycle management. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hauke, P., Latimer, K. and Werner, K. (n.d.). The green library. Ibitayo, O. (2002). Public-private partnerships in the siting of hazardous waste facilities: the importance of trust. Waste Management & Research, 20(3), pp.212-222. Kaya, Y. and Yokobori, K. (1997). Environment, energy, and economy. Tokyo: United Nations University Press. Kloepffer, W. (2008). Life cycle sustainability assessment of products. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 13(2), pp.89-95. Lundquist, L. (2000). Life cycle engineering of plastics. Oxford: Elsevier. Manfredi, S., Pant, R., Pennington, D. and Versmann, A. (2011). Supporting environmentally sound decisions for waste management with LCT and LCA. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 16(9), pp.937-939. Obersteiner, G., Binner, E., Mostbauer, P. and Salhofer, S. (2007). Landfill modelling in LCA – A contribution based on empirical data. Waste Management, 27(8), pp.S58-S74. Valdivia, S., Ugaya, C., Hildenbrand, J., Traverso, M., Mazijn, B. and Sonnemann, G. (2012). A UNEP/SETAC approach towards a life cycle sustainability assessment—our contribution to Rio+20. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 18(9), pp.1673-1685. Whitfield, R. and McNett, J. (n.d.). A primer on sustainability. APPENDICES Appendix 1: Product life cycle Appendix 2: Waste management Hierarchy Read More