Are product carbon footprints the way forward? Practical experiences from LCAs of ICT product systems

Transcription

1 Are product carbon footprints the way forward? Practical experiences from LCAs of ICT product systems Pernilla Bergmark Ericsson Research

2 Total impact on: Supply chain Manufacturing (Ericsson) Product operation Entire life cycle of product, network or service Global warming potential: CO 2 Acidification Eutrophication Ozone depletion / creation Toxicities (human, land, water) Abiotic depletion End-of-life Ericsson AB Page 2

3 Two conflicting trends Interest in PCF/ PEF as a purchase criteria => demand for high accuracy Request for simplifications => reduced accuracy ICT products too complex to be represented by one value Time spent on methodology rather than on studies Ericsson AB Page 3

4 Goal and Scope Setting Scenarios Boundaries Functional unit Inventory Analysis Product modeling Process modeling Scenarios Allocation Data transparency Data availability and relevance incl. geographical and time factors Impact Assessment Choice of assessment method Climate change broad scientific agreement less consent for others Toxicity highest uncertainty Regional effects less in focus Interpretation LCA competence A lot of data Limitations in results The impact from scenarios, assumptions, cut-offs, use of proxy data Suppliers not used to provide LCA data Ericsson AB Page 4

5 Total energy and volumes with high accuracy Volume Product A Product B Product C Product D Rough estimate per product category Time Ericsson AB Page 5

6 LCA UNCERTAINTY CATEGORIES Parameter uncertainty Scenario uncertainty Model uncertainty Uncertainty in input data Variations due to methodological cases Insufficinet knowledge of the studied system Example: Measurement accuracy of weight and electricity Example: Allocation between product lines Impact from usage scenario Example: Unknown environmental mechanism Uncertainty analysis (semi-quantitative approach) Ericsson AB Page 6 Sensitivity analysis Not possible to analyse

7 ICT LCA uncertainty sources Life cycle phase Activities included Important uncertainty sources Raw materials Production Use Raw material extraction Raw material processing ICT goods production Support goods production ICT goods use Support goods use Support activities Complex supply chain, Variations in geographical location World market variations Large supplier base which changes continuously Allocation of facility data Life time, geographical location, traffic scenario model. Network design and energy use variation Variation in electricity and power production supply End of Life Treatment ICT specific EoLT Other EoLT Future processes principally unknown Variations between suppliers and regions Allocation of facility data Ericsson AB Page 7

8 Sensitivity analysis Table 1 Sensitivity analysis scenarios Variation Description of variation Motivation for variation End of Life Treatment scenario (EoL500) Increasing the End-of-Life Treatment model by a factor of 5 Expansion of site model to model rural conditions (ExtendRBS) Importance of PBA model (IncPBA) Importance of PCB waste (IncPCB) Including foundation, containers and antenna towers at RBS to represent a typical rural RBS site Increasing chip area by a factor of 3 and the PCB energy by a factor of 2 55% instead of 20% PCB* waste applied for production Uncertainty in LCI model and principal uncertainties of future processes Only urban RBS site conditions applied in the reference scenario The chip area was measured in a lab environment and is considered as quite precise. However, due to the importance and influence for the final result and inherent uncertainty in the model used, the area was varied with sensitivity analysis to understand the importance of the chip model to the overall results. Data variation between earlier studies of about 20%. * PCB (Printed Circuit Board may also be referred to as PWB (Printed Wiring Board) Interpretation of results and understanding their limitations Is critical to reach correct conclusions [%] Abiotic Depletion Freshwater Aquatic Ecotoxicity Climate Change Ozone Layer Depletion Ericsson AB EoLT500 ExtendRBS IncPBA IncPCB Figure 1 Influence from different scenarios, provided as deviation from total result for the reference scenario (corresponding to 0% in the figure). In addition to climate change impact results for some other selected impact categories are is shown. Ericsson AB Page 8 Source: TENNG

9 Typical Assumption Areas Product system definition: End-user equipment (amount, Network type) equipment Deployment (amount, type) scenario (rural vs urban) Configurations Modelling of support parameters Network growth dimensioning Transmission type (micro-link vs fiber) EoLT: Ericsson AB Page 9 Raw materials acquisition: Transport scenarios Virgin/ recycled materials ratios Production: Spare-parts and repair Distribution between products Handling of production infrastructure Location of EoLT Future EoLT base on Recycling ratios today s processes Use: Data traffic per subscriber Cable lenghts Allocation between nodes Throughput requirements Subscribers per RBS Lifetime Variations between sites Selection of representative suppliers Current electricity mixes represent the future Use of power saving features over time

10 Gold production: Low tech vs high tech processes LCA databases does not offer data for each component type and size => Use of proxy data => Scaling critical (weight, surface) Modeling of end-user behavior of computer sites: - 30 to 5000 kwh/year per household (390 kwh in average) Source: Zimmermann IC for a smart phone: 7% (Older ecoinvent data which underestimated size of silicon die) vs 28% (PE international data) Source: Nokia Data age and electricity mixes critical for the fast moving ICT industry: 2006 and 2010 data changed relative importance of RBS from 40 to 20% per subscriber Ericsson AB Page 10

11 Use (3 year). [% CO 2 e of total life cycle per scenario respectively] 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 4 year lifetime 3 year lifetime Typical smart phone model Scenario 1 Scenario 2 2 year lifetime [% CO 2 e of total lifetime result] year lifetime 3 year lifetime Typical model Scenario 1 2 year lifetime [% CO 2 e of total lifetime result] year lifetime 3 year lifetime 2 year lifetime Ericsson AB Scenario 2 [% CO 2 e of total lifetime result] Ericsson AB Page 11 Use (3 year). Production of all ICs Production of all ICs Raw material acquisition and Production of parts other than ICs. Raw material acquisition and Production of parts other than ICs. Ericsson AB Variations in importance of life cycle stages Impact from life time assumption Scenario 1: Increased usage, changed electricity mix for usage and IC production Scenario 2: Lower usage, no stand-by Changed electricity mix for usage and IC production Source: TENNG

12 LCA can be used for: Identification of opportunities to improve environmental performance Information to decisions-makers to assist their policy choices Selection of relevant indicators of environmental performance for monitoring Understanding of the potential impact of new services and solutions Understanding of improvements between product generations LCA is less suitable for: Ericsson AB Page 12

13 Conference papers: Opportunities and limitations of using life cycle assessment methodology in the ICT sector (Guldbrandsson and Bergmark, Electronics Goes Green (EGG), 2012) link Guldbrandsson et al (2011). Quantifying the life cycle assessment uncertainty in the information and communication technology sector (Guldbrandsson et al, Life Cycle Management (LCM), 2011) link EU Commission pilot project: Study on the Usability of Different Standards and Methodologies for Assessing Environmental Performance of ICT Organisations, Products, Networks and Services (TENNG consortia, TeliaSonera, Ericsson, Nokia, NSN, GSMA, 2012) available at request White paper: Quantifying emissions right - a holistic approach to assessing the climate-positive effects of ICT (Ericsson, 2012) link Standards: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of ICT equipment, networks and services; General methodology and common requirements (ETSI TS , 2011) link Methodology for the assessment of the environmental impact of information and communication technology goods, networks and services (ITU-T L.1410, 2012) link Ericsson AB Page 13

14 summary LCA studies are complex - because reality is complex LCA offers comprehensiveness but inherently has many uncertainty sources A trade off between accuracy and simplifications and a trade off between comparability and relevance LCA a tool for understanding not for accounting Gives magnitudes and improvement areas Limited LCA resources best spent on getting the overall picture ICT products too complex to be represented by one value Results should always be presented in their context One size fits nobody => bad purchase decisions The ICT specific LCA standards from ETSI and ITU are good enough Ericsson AB start Page 14 using them!

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16 Abstract Use of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology for estimating environmental impact of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment, network and services is growing in importance. The complexity of conducting LCA for ICT has led to the development of several new methodologies (supplementary to the LCA standards from ISO ISO14040/44) from organizations such as ETSI, ITU-T and the GHG protocol. These methodologies were also reviewed by stakeholders in a recent road-testing project initiated by the European Commission. Further, the role of so called carbon footprints is gaining high focus, and this focus is expected to increase due to the publication of the carbon footprint standard of ISO, ISO 14067, this month (May 2013). This presentation uses the long experience of Ericsson in LCA (about 20 years), our findings from the European road-testing, and analysis from our previous peer-reviewed papers, to show the opportunities and limitations in the use of LCA and carbon footprints. It also presents some practical challenges and recommended ways of working to best leverage LCAs potential to assist stakeholders in determining where to put the effort to improve life cycle environmental performance and to monitor performance changes over time, as well as to assist decisions-makers in their policy choices. Ericsson AB Page 16

17 TENNG conclusions The conclusion is that LCA is a powerful methodology that can be used to help estimate the relative importance of different parts of a life cycle in determining environmental performance, and also the change in performance over time. TENNG fully acknowledges LCA as the most important methodological platform for environmental assessment. LCA of goods, networks, services and LCA-based environmental inventories of organisations is recommended for companies to help assess, monitor and improve environmental performance. It is also recommended for policy-makers and other stakeholders to inform policy choices at a high level, e.g. to focus on key stages in a product s life cycle or to focus on the main environmental impacts for a product or an organisation. LCA is not suitable for quantitative benchmarking and comparison between LCA studies on different products or organisations, or for aggregation of results from different studies to give sector or industry results. Ericsson AB Page 17