PUre facts. Polyurethane a Life Cycle Assessment

Transcription

1 PUre facts Polyurethane a Life Cycle Assessment

2 What is Life Cycle Assessment? Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique used to assess, in the main, the environmental impacts relating to each stage in the life cycle of a product, service or process. Polyurethane as an insulating material saves over 70 times more energy during its lifecycle than was needed to manufacture it. In its most comprehensive form an LCA from cradle to grave will cover every life cycle stage from the way in which the raw materials for a product are extracted and processed through the manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance of the product to its final disposal or recycling. If a product is recycled, the LCA is usually described as from cradle to cradle. Evaluating sustainability A range of assessment tools exists to evaluate the sustainability of products and processes, focusing on different aspects (environmental, economic and social) and using different methods. Life cycle assessment methodologies were developed in the 1970s after the energy crisis. While life cycle thinking simply involves taking a life cycle approach, an LCA is a structured tool for assessing the environmental burdens across the entire product life cycle, either to identify improvement areas or make comparisons with other product or service systems. 2

3 Why perform LCAs? Consideration of the whole value cycle People, Planet, Pro t Responsible Care*, a global chemical industry initiative running in more than 50 countries and for nearly 30 years, is a voluntary HSE commitment by thousands of chemical companies to act responsibly. In practical terms this involves raising safety levels at chemical plants as well as enhancing occupational health and environment protection standards. To meet the demands of today s world, the Responsible Care concept has been extended to include contemporary sustainability concepts, and life cycle assessments (LCAs) are a practical, comprehensive and concrete sustainability tool. The scope of LCAs may vary, but the purpose behind them is basically identical: investigating a particular product, process or the operations of a company or organization to discover possible ecological risks, systematically check for any weak spots, and unearth optimization potentials. By comparing all the environmental impacts assignable to a product, an LCA can help to improve the processes associated with each stage of its life cycle. Furthermore, an LCA can support the environmental policy of an organization or company, and deliver the facts and figures on which informed decisions can be taken. All decisions within the Covestro organization (e.g. procurement, HR, R&D, CAPEX investments) must support the PPP mindset. Each decision has to support at least 2 Ps and must not harm one of the three. Our position People, Planet, Profit Covestro pursues a People, Planet and Profit policy in its business operations. This means we view value creation cycles in their entirety, i.e. from a social, environmental and economic perspective. And thus we are highly committed to reducing any negative impacts on the environment wherever we can and, at the same time we work hard to strengthen our value added for the benefit of society. and fostering life cycle thinking One important aspect of our People, Planet and Profit policy is to promote environmental life cycle awareness within the company. And one of our 2020 Sustainability Targets (see p. 7) is to foster life cycle thinking. * Reduce impact on the planet... Reduce impact from Our operations Our raw materials Our logistics Reduce impact from Reduce impact from Endof-life Customer operations Foster Life Cycle Thinking Use of product Drive development of PPP product solutions Enable our partners... and increase profit for society 3

4 Measuring environmental impact more accurately 4 All over the world, commercial and non-commercial organizations are attempting to measure their carbon footprint*. Though these efforts are certainly laudable, merely quantifying an organization s carbon footprint does not say much about the environmental impact or all the relevant impact categories of its products, services or processes over their entire life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA), in contrast, does just that. LCAs are regulated by the global ISO standards ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006, which are then adapted to regional or national standards, e.g. by the European Standardization Committee CEN or the German Standardization Institute DIN. Although these global standards provide a good framework, every life cycle project needs a precise definition of the assessed product or service, data sources, and allocation methods. Since innumerable goods and services could theoretically be assessed, the standard cannot regulate all the details of a potential assessment. Instead, those carrying out an LCA need to carefully consider which system boundaries, allocation schemes, data sources, and methodologies should be used. * Carbon footprint: Recent developments have focused on just one of the various environmental impacts over the life cycle of a product, service or organization that of its greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon footprint. This reflects the recent focus on climate change and the need to manage and reduce carbon emissions. LCA the main phases An LCA, which is concerned with protecting the key areas of human health, the environment, and resource use, is normally composed of the following phases: 1) Goal and scope definition: Defining the functional unit for the product or service, i.e. the service delivered to society and the boundaries of the system that are included. 2) Life Cycle Inventory (LCI): Identifying all the material and energy inputs and outputs associated with delivering the functional unit. 3) Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA): Evaluating the significance of environmental impacts using the LCI results. In general, this process involves associating inventory data with specific environmental impact categories and category indicators, thereby attempting to understand these impacts. Product-related resource inputs and emissions are classified in order to show the significance of their contributions to a recognized set of environmental categories. In all cases, the selection of a characterization model is mandatory. Normalization, grouping, weighting, and data quality analysis are optional elements.

5 The four iterative phases of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ISO and define the framework for conducting an LCA. 1 4 Goal and scope definition 2 Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Interpretation of results 4) Interpretation: In this phase, the findings from the inventory analysis and the impact assessment are considered together. The results should be consistent with the defined goal and scope, reach conclusions, explain limitations, and provide recommendations. The stage includes checks for completeness, sensitivity, and consistency as well as the final reporting. Product Environmental Footprints A Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) is a measure of the absolute environmental impact(s) over the full life cycle of a product, good or service in a specified application, as defined by the PEF World Forum ( The European Commission (EC) is testing this approach as a simplified and standardized yardstick for comparing products from an environmental footprint angle. The PEF developed by the EC s Joint Research Centre is based on existing methods and the EC is currently running an Environmental Footprint pilot phase with 3 Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) LCAs generate measurable, verifiable results reflecting the impacts of products to the environment and human health throughout their life cycle. three main objectives: Set up and validate the development process for product group-specific rules (the so-called Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules) Test different compliance and verification systems Test different B2B and B2C communication vehicles for PEF information A decision on how the EC will proceed once the pilot phase has been completed is expected in Life Cycle Assessments provide the best framework for assessing the potential environmental impacts of products currently available. European Commission 5

6 How does polyurethane perform? Since polyurethane (PU) is used in a wide range of applications, e.g. insulation material in buildings, and in everyday products such as mattresses, it is impossible to come up with a comprehensive life cycle assessment of polyurethane as such. However, LCAs have been carried out for specific PU applications, as these three examples show: PU insulation in low-energy buildings Since the construction sector worldwide is responsible for 33 % of CO 2 emissions, % of energy use, and % of raw material consumption, there is obviously great potential for improvements through sustainable buildings. A study 1 carried by the UK s Building Research Establishment for PU Europe concluded that PU insulation shows the lowest life cycle costs in a number of low-energy building designs. This was mainly due to higher energy savings or, in the case of insulation products with equal thermal resistance values (R-values), reduced material use and knock-on effects on the building. PU rigid foam in refrigerators An LCA carried out by Z_punkt 2 for Covestro proved that the positive sustainability effects of PU rigid form in refrigerators significantly outweighed the negative ones. This LCA analyzed the sustainability impacts of 2,100 metric tons of PU, an amount that can be used to produce some 328,000 refrigerators. The study weighed up the positive and negative effects and came to a clear conclusion: lower energy consumption, fewer CO 2 emissions, reduced air pollution and less waste generation. BAYTHERM Microcell, an innovative insulating material developed by Covestro since this study was conducted, has 40 % smaller pores than conventional rigid PU foam. PU in insulation boards Z_punkt also carried a sustainability check 3 on polyurethane insulation boards made of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and polyester (PES). Here again, the positive sustainability effects significantly outweighed the negative ones. After weighing up the positive and negative effects, the study came to an unequivocal conclusion: less energy loss, lower water consumption, fewer GHG emissions, reduced air pollution, less waste generation, and reduced heating costs. Despite the standout examples mentioned above, Covestro is determined to carry on exploiting the significant innovation potential polyurethane still offers 77 years after its discovery and improve its life cycle performance in other areas, e.g. flame protection. 1 The results of this study are contained in the PU Europe Factsheet No. 15: Life Cycle Environmental and Economic Analysis of Polyurethane Insulation in Low Energy Buildings 2 Z_punkt Sustainability Check PUR Refrigeration 3 Z_punkt Sustainability Value Balance MDI & PES for Insulation Boards in Germany By slowing down the temperature exchange, Microcell makes A+++ refrigerators possible and reduces their primary energy consumption. 6

7 Sustainable Industrial Policy in practice In 2008 the European Commission presented its Sustainable Consumption, Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan, which proposed a number of measures to support the implementation, in the European Union and internationally, of a policy to promote environmentally friendly consumption and production. At the heart of the Action Plan is a dynamic framework to improve the energy and environmental perform-ance of products and foster their uptake by consumers. The challenge is to create a virtuous circle, i.e. improving the overall environmental performance of products throughout their life cycle; promoting and stimulating the demand for better products and production technologies; and helping consumers to make better choices through more coherent and simplified labeling. At Covestro our response to this Action Plan is defined in our sustainability positioning: developing products and processes that improve people s lives, help conserve the planet, and move our business forward. What this means in practice is that we are working to create value through social responsibility, environmental stewardship, elimination of energy and materials waste, and economic growth. Outlook LCAs increasingly important Without a doubt LCAs will become increasingly important in years to come. They may even evolve into a mark of quality for end consumers. The consequence for us at Covestro is quite clear: We have to strive for complete transparency in all our products and throughout our value chain and across different impact categories. Naturally it is early days yet. But we have seen the writing on the wall and have made a good start. And as the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tse once said: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Sustainable value creation At Covestro our holistic approach to sustainable value creation led us to set a number of targets we are striving to reach by 2020: Reduce our dependence on fossil sources for raw materials and the environmental impact, while targeting an increase in energy and resource efficiency in our operations. Ensure that transportation of the finished products is as environmentally friendly and safe as possible. Enable our partners to generate more sustainable products and processes. Foster life cycle thinking by driving initiatives that support our dream for closing the carbon loop (i.e. recycling carbon dioxide), and by increasing the share of products in our portfolio that extend the lifetime of final goods. 7

8 Covestro Deutschland AG Business Unit Polyurethane Leverkusen Germany covestro.com This information and our technical advice whether verbal, in writing or by ways of trial are given in good faith but without warranty, and this also applies where proprietary rights of third parties are involved. The information is provided by Covestro without assumption of any liability. If any of the above mentioned regulations change after the date of declaration, this declaration is no longer valid. Covestro will strive to keep this information up-to-date. Our advice does not release you from the obligation to verify the information provided especially that contained in our safety data and technical information sheets, to check for updates of any information provided by us and to test our products as to their suitability for the intended processes and uses. The application, use and processing of our products and the products manufactured by you on the basis of our technical advice are beyond our control and, therefore, entirely your own responsibility. Our products are sold in accordance with the current version of our General Conditions of Sale and Delivery. Edition Order-No.: MS Printed in Germany