The several centuries - Free Essay Example

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background. Over the several centuries, In order to adapt to a rapid changing environment, organizations must continuously improve their efficiency on production, increase competitiveness, and boost productivity (Chin and Dale, 2000; Kanji and Asher 1996). the the rapid changing business and the environment competitiveness over the global market drive Industrial to put effort on investigating the development of production technology to gain a higher productivity, cost effectively production process, and better quality service and product. In the past, organizations mostly concern on improving quality of the product to fulfill the customers expectation, As a result, t management theories and practices were developed becoming more maturely. Also, the organizations channeled their concerns into developing innovative product in order to increase their market share (Patri et al., 1998). But in recently decade, business and organization started to focus on social responsibility because they realize the quality of the environmental performance is closely linked to the environmental effects of their product (Kaplan and Norton, 2004). The environmental problem caused by industrial activities is getting serious by the huge demanding of energy. In accordance with the report from World Resources institute, a list of the top emitter of CO2 from industry, there is over a thousand million of CO2 emitted from china. As resulted, the world is polluted, and the environment is damaged by rapid growing industries and the continuously changing living environment. In fact, the situation have drive the world attention on the problem in order to less the industrial impact to environment, and various set of regulation have been published to deal with the impact. In the US, Europe and Japan, manufacturers are required to produce and recycle product that meet government regulations on e nvironmental protection ( Le Fvre, 2002). Most commonly, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Subtances RoHS are consider as the basic requirement for import product.. Furthermore, deteriorate of global environment have aware the public concern on environment too, global warning and acidification effect, have been heightened over the last few years. It made people realize that how serious do the problem is. It drive people give attention to reducing wastes and pollutants in their lives, and consumers are willing to pay more money for product which have claim that they are environmental friendly, Industries and businesses who have not take responsibility for the impact of their product are not able to satisfied consumer with their product or service quality only. This has inspired organization by making their products to be more environmentally friendly, many businesses have responded to this awareness and claimed that they are providing greener products and applying greener processes to their goods or service. thereby gaining a larger market share for their business.The environmental performance of products and processes has become a key issue to the development of business In order to complying those requirements from global market and gain the good reputation to their business, the most efficiency method for industrial is to deal with the product and the production process, to improve it environmental performance. Government and eco organization over the world have already tackled on the issues, and various set of environmental management standards are published to assist industry to optimize their product and manufacturing method, thus to accomplish the goal of green design and green manufacturing, for example; ISO 14000 series, Environment Management system, ECO-Labels and Life Cycle issue, apart from the method mentioned, different sophisticated evaluation tool for environmental assessment has been developed together, to help manufacturer to review the existing product and production process if there is any space for betterment. An impact assessment tool can help to determine the level of impact induced by different alloy product. A specifically d esigned assessment tool can predict the potential environmental damages created throughout the entire product life cycle. The sources of environmental impact can then be identified and therefore corrective actions can be applied to reduce the damages. In this report, difference evaluation tool within the environmental sector will be introduced; it will show the way to implement the selected assessment tool thought a case study which is going to define the environmental performance of the selected product. 1.2 Aims The purpose of this report is to study the various assessment methods and try to apply the selected assessment tool to the largest volume product in my company 1.3 Objective To achieve the aim, the following objectives were formulated To review the currently available impact assessment method and understand their strengths and weakness, thus find out the possible approach for my company. To Study and scoping the function and function unit, process of the selected product, to identify critical factor to measure and assess the impact. To implement the select approach to the selected product, thus assess the production process and the product to seek any chance of improvement To review the obtained result and comment. Provide the useful information and specific recommendation for manufacturing similar product. 1.4 Scope of Research The scope of this research is the environmental damage in the product life cycle of aluminum casing. It includes the impact assessment for the product, such as the evaluation and the quantification of the environmental impact caused in life cycle of a aluminum profile. It analyses each life cycle stage by defining the critical assessment criteria, which must be considered in the impact assessment. In addition, it includes a demonstration of the impact assessment model by using a detailed case study. 2. Literature Review There are different kinds of literature surrounding environmental protection in manufacturing sector, in this chapter; it will introduce the concepts Life cycle thinking, approaches of environmental management system and life cycle assessment. The ideal of Life cycle thinking is help to have entire review of a product or service, environment system provides a framework for organization to have guideline in handling the environmental issue. The life cycle assessment is widely accepted as a tool in the environmental management system to evaluate environmental impact of a product. In this study, several existing impact assessment approaches are reviewed, and the advantage and disadvantage of those approaches are identified. The reviewed approaches in this report include Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA), Environmental Priority Strategies (EPS), Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistrys life-cycle impact assessment (SETAC), Life Cycle Environmental Cost Analysis. 2.1 Definition of Environmental Impact Environment Impact is defined as the damage to environment; it is the relative results for both of the humans and eco-systems, and the change to the environment that is directly caused by any activities related to a product system or a service. It includes in direct consequences that relate to the direct changes to environment (CSA, 1994), The environmental impact can appear as chain reactions because the consequence of one impact may be the cause of another impact ( Chatagnon and Nibel, 1997). The impact includes secondary and tertiary consequences that are in connection with the primary changes to the environment, Therefore, it is necessary to trace back the beginning stage to find out the Stressor that cause the impact. The concept of stressor is introduced here, Stressor can be a substance or a condition that causes impact to human health or the eco-system, or which depletes the earths resources. Stressor can be generated from different product system, or any activities, such as carbon dioxide(CO2), chlorofluorocarbons(CFC), lead, and cadmium(Cd). Different stressors may cause different kinds of environmental impact. The related environmental impact may be global warning, acidification and ozone depletion. Figure 2.1 shows an example of the interrelation of the stressor and environmental impacts. 2.2 The Definition of Environmental Assessment In order to understand the principle of environment assessment, we need to get into the definition of environment first, environment includes areas of air, water, animals, and plants on the earth. It consists of the relationship between mankind and the natural and physical surroundings. Also, some other aspects like cultural, social and economic were recognized as element of environment too. All of these elements should be considered in implementing the environmental assessment. The close relationship between human and the environment encouraged practitioner starts to study the environmental issues. The formal environmental assessment was started in the late 1960s. The Coca-Cola Company was trying to determine the better bottle: glass or plastic. Since glass is a natural material, commonly people expected that glass would be the better environmental choice. But in Coca-Cola study, they find that the plastic bottle is having the best environmental performance in assessment. But in this study, the effect on environment and Human health were not taken as considering factor. A year after, There was an energy crisis, the event had became the prime movers the U.S and British governments to develop the analysis of energy consumption. Now there are concern for protecting the environment every where, and there are different ways to carry out environmental assessment Nowadays, environmental assessment knew as a tool to determine the environmental impact of an activity or project, including any positive or negative changes, the scope and depth of the assessment can vary considerably, but there are several basic steps to follow. Understand and define clearly the actions that are involved in the assessment. For example, the material or resources invoved, the taks to be carried out, and the alternatives to achieve the purpose should be described in detail. Understand the areas, from biophysical and socioeconomic points of view, that may be affected by the action. For example, all possible effects on the environment should be defined for the boundary of the study. Preconceive the implementation of the proposed action. Determine the possible impact, and quantify the impact if possible. Interdisciplinary analysis of the impact is required by the current federal law. Report the results of the study so that the evaluation of the possible environmental impact of the suggested action can be used in decision-making process. 2.3 Issues in Environmental Assessment There are a wide range of issues should be considered when conducting an environmental assessment, All of them are describing the problem is affecting to human health and environment. There are several issue will be discuss in most of the environmental assessment, they are global warming, acidification, ozone depletion, eutrophication, resource depletion, and toxicological stress. Global Warming: The energy from the sun heats the earths surface, and the earth radiates the energy back into space. The atmospheric greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and water vapour, act as the glass panels of a greenhouse to trap some of the energy and thus the heat on the earth is retained. The global warming effect is such that the concentration of the greenhouse gases keeps multiplying, thereby increasing the global temperature. Acidification: Acidification is actually the effect of acid deposition. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are confirmed to be the causes of acidification.They are oxidized and dissolved into the water vapor to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid in the atmosphere. Wet deposition refers to acidic rain, fog, and snow. This acidic water affects a variety of animals and plants by flowing over the ground. Dry deposition refers to the acidic gases and particles that fall back to the earth surface. Ozone Depletion: Ozone depletion is referring to the destruction of the stratospheric ozone. The cause of the effect is that chlorine atoms and bromine atoms are released when the steady Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) and other ozone-depleting substances react with the Ultra Violet (UV) light. The ozone layer is then destroyed by these atoms, but the ozone-depleting substance still reminds the same. The consequence is that the Strong UV light penetrates the destroyed ozone layer and increasing the probability of skin cancer in humans. Eutrophication: Eutrophicaton means the blooms of algae that are caused by the high nutrient concentrations in an aquatic eco-system. Naturally, the process occurred as a result of aging of lakes; however, By discharging of nutrients and organic substances into aquatic eco-system through industrial activities, the process is hurried. The over actuate of the growth of algae interferes with the health and diversity of indigenous fish, plants, and animal populations. Resource Depletion: Resource depletion refer to the consumption of both of the renewable resources and nonrenewable resource. For example, renewable resource like wind and water, and the nonrenewable resources, like minerals (zinc, copper, nickel, etc.). Mostly the evaluate methods of resource depletion in impact assessment are based the concept of supply of the specific mineral and is usually confined to natural resources like coal, oil, gas, minerals, and water. Toxicological Stress: Toxicological effect is an important issue that is considered in many environmental assessments as it affects the human health both directly and indirectly. Some typical examples of toxic materials are heavy metals, persistent organic substances, and volatile organic compounds. They affect the human health through different chronic effects. 2.4 Environmental Assessment of Product Nowadays, with the technologies and materials developed, there are many product were replaced and fade out. The reason could be for better function or ease manufacturing. However, the new materials used or the up to date production processes for those products, have caused different degrees of impact to the environment. Hereby, the application of environmental assessment is extended to different types of product. Mostly, the impact of a product is environmentally benign when either being to be used or storage, the impact always comes up in the production stage and disposal stage. According to the definition of impact above, impact mostly appear when there is a change in the environment by process. Therefore, the best way to perform an environmental assessment of a product is to follow through the entire life cycle of the product. The definition of the environmental assessment to a product can be To define and quantify the service provided by the product, to identify and to quantify the environmental exchanges caused by the way in which the service is provided, and to ascribe these exchanges and their potential impact to the service. Wenzel et al. (1997) In general, the environmental assessment of products is referring to assessment based on the life cycle thinking, which can be named as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), also termed as Life Cycle Analysis. LCA is a popular technique used to perform impact assessment on products. It consists of several standardized phases used to carry out the assessment. The details of Life cycle thinking and LCA will be described in the following sections. 2.5 Life Cycle Assessment Life Cycle Assessment is a tool that is used to evaluate the impact form a product, process or activity. For a product, the assessment would start from raw material extraction to disposal. It is called Life cycle to product. 2.5.1 Life Cycle Thinking The life cycle refers to the entire product life cycle in a sense from cradle to grave, that is from material preparation to product disposal. A typical product life cycle usually includes the stages of material preparation, manufacture, distribution, operation, and disposition, as shown in Figure 2.2. In defining the environmental performance of a product or service, some of us might not considering the output of supply chains or the use and end-of-life processes associated with the products. Also we might only focus on a specific country or region, and might not able to recognize the impacts or benefits that can occur in other regions or that are attributable to their own levels of consumption. It is very obvious that information in a single stage of the products life cycle cannot sufficiently describe its environmental impacts. Life Cycle thinking provide a broader perspective, it is given attention to a life cycle of a product included raw material used, supply chains, product u se, the effects of disposal and the possibilities for re-use and recycling. In a product life cycle, the longest period is the stage of use, sometime it might be the periods of storage in the life cycle, but mostly these stages will be environmentally benign. At the end of Life cycle, it has shown a feedback loops which is presenting the potential for recycling, remanufacturing and reuse. In a entire life cycle, recycling can be occur any stages, to environmental protection, but it not mean the process of reuse or recycling is having less environmental impact, every stage with different material in product life cycle will have its energy consumption and environmental impact. Through the study we able to identify possible improvements of goods and services in the form of lower the environmental impacts and reduced use of resources. The benefit of life cycle thinking can avoid burden shifting of each stage. It means once try to minimizing the impacts at one stage of the life cycle or particular impact category, also avoid increasing the impact in other stage. 2.5.2 Life Cycle Assessment The Methodology of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was designed based on life cycle thinking; it aims to focus on the material flow in existing products. The concept of life cycle assessment dates back to a famous case from 1969. The Coca-Cola Company was trying to determine the better bottle: glass or plastic. Because glass is a natural material, most people expected glass would be the better environmental choice. By using a form of life cycle assessment, they determined that a plastic bottle would ultimately be the best environmental choice. In the 1970s, an energy crisis encouraged U.S and British governments to continue the study, LCA was used as a tool to measure and evaluate the energy consumption of processes (EPA 1993). After the energy crisis, the interest of LCA diminished as well. Not until the early 1980s, there was a re-emerging interest in LCA caused by the extensive use of resources in packaging in Europe. The LCA was again applied in different studies of energy and e nvironmental issues, such as transportation, recycling, and packaging (Bouwman, 2002; CSWS 1990; Ekvall, 1999). From the late 1980s, LCA becomes the most frequent discussed concept for review the product and processes, assessment methodology was used in broader areas, and the products and systems being assessed were more complex. According to the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) (SETAC, 1993), a generic framework to perform an impact assessment should include three complementary steps. The first step is Inventory Analysis, which is the step to classify the input and output resource, the input of the inventory could be energy and materials consumptions, the output is the product or the emissions with respect to the different impact categories to which they contribute. The next step is Impact Analysis, which characterizes the environmental impact of a stressor contributing to its impact category. The third step is Improvement Analysis. This is an evaluation of different alternatives to reduce the environmental impact brought out in the entire life cycle of a product, process, or activity. Assessment includes quantitative and qualitative measures of improvement, for example, material selection, product and process design, usages and waste management. These phases are the basic component s of impact assessment, forming the basic framework of LCA. This LCA framework was reaffirmed at a later time. Goal Definition and Scoping was incorporated into the impact assessment as refinements after considerable debate (Fava et al., 1993), as shown in Figure 2.3. 2.5.3 Elements in Life Cycle Assessment The LCA framework was modified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and categorized un the ISO 14000 series, the definition that ISO introduced is to evaluate and compile the input, output and the environmental burdens in the entire product life cycle (Ong et al., 1999). The organization of the ISO 14000 standards was showed in figure 2.4 As mentioned from above, there is four interrelated phrase in LCA, they are; Goal Definition and Scoping is the phase of the LCA process that defines the purpose and method of including life cycle environmental impacts into the decision-making process. In this phase, the following items must be determined: the type of information that is needed to add value to the decision-making process, how accurate the results must be to add value, and how the results should be interpreted and displayed in order to be meaningful and usable. Inventory Analysis -Inventory Analysis is a phase to construct the product systems in the study. The product system is used to show the different unit processes. For example, production process, transportation, waste disposal and recycling. The consumption of the energy, water and materials usages and the environmental release from the product system boundary will be Identified and quantified. Such as the emissions of pollutants and extraction of resources, are used in Impact Assessment. Impact Assessment The Impact assessment is used to group and transform the resource consumption into the related impact categories. Mostly the categories studies are Global Warming Potential, Ozone Depletion and Eutrophication. In this phase, a weighting step will be applied to the result by calculate with a factor, in order to obtaining the final impact score of the product syste. Interpretation Evaluate the results of the inventory analysis and impact assessment to select the preferred product, process or service with a clear understanding of the uncertainty and the assumptions used to generate the results. 2.5.4 Review the Application of LCA Since the growth of concern of environment, LCA has been applied in different study both in the public and private sector (Gloria et al., 1995). Obviously, it is because the function of LCA is acting as an important role in product development by helping product designer and decision maker to quantify and evaluate the environmental impact of product and services. Thought the LCA, the decision maker can obtain the evidence to certify that the design is environmentally friendly and gain the market advantage of green products. There is another benefit to manufacturer, is that with the approach of the LCA, they are able to choose greener manufacturing processes, thus improve the production efficiency and the expense in dealing with the pollutant from production process. Categories Reference Descriptions Automobile Dobson 1996 Two alternative painting processes in automobile industry Kasai 1999 Propeller shafts in vehicles Maclean and Lave 1998 Fuel cycle in terms of toxic discharges Electronic Huybrects et al. 1998 Two photographic films in the printed circuit board industry (silver film vs. Mastertool) Pollock and Coulon 1996 Inkjet print cartridge Terho 1996 Fibre optic cable Energy Furuholt 1995 Production of three different fuel product (diesel, regular gasoline and gasoline with MTBE unghi et al., 2004 A molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) system for landfill-gas recovery Waste Treatment Mendes et al., 2004 Comparison of the environmental impact of the incineration and the land filling of municipal solid waste Suh and Rousseaux, 2002 Comparison of five alternative treatment scenarios of sewage sludge in the French context Package De Monte et al., 2004 Comparison of different coffee packaging system Recycling McLaren et al., 2000 Materials flow analysis in recycling systems Ross and Evans, 2003 Recycling of portable nickel-cadmium batteries 2.6 Review of the impact Assessment Approach Different impact assessment approaches will be reviewed to address the objective, scopes and assessment criteria of the assessment model. Also it will state the characteristic, assessment method, the advantages and disadvantage of the assessment. 2.6.1 Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) In traditional LCA, resource input acquisition and environmental discharge data is the most critical information in assessment, but it is hard to quantify the data since the source may report by different unit. In order to deal with the limitation of traditional Life Cycle Assessment, the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) is introduced (Hendrickson et al., 1998). The EIO-LCA approach is a method able to estimates the materials and energy resources required for, and the environmental emissions resulting from any activities in our economy. There are three basic steps in performing EIO-LCA, they are; Determine the physical assumptions of the product system. Calculate the economic effect relevant to physical assumption. In put the monetary values of the relevant purchases. The Environment output is resulted by the following equation: Bi = Ri X Where Bi is the vector of environmental output Ri is the environmental impact per dollar of output X is the economic output at each process stage. By the EIO-LCA approach, the economy effect associated with the energy consumption and emission can be resulted by the life cycle analysis. Practitioner able to obtain a economy wide and comprehensive assessment. The environmental impact will be ranked by the resulted values and worked as a reference for decision maker to define the critical problem, though the assessment, industrial is able to review the initial problem of their product or product process, thus obtain the solution. However, EIO-LCA is having a limitation which is th result of the assessment might not available for assessing the latest situation since the economic data is obtained from the past practices. Also the results estimate the environmental emissions or resource depletion with the life cycle of an industry sector, but do not presenting the actual environmental or human health impact. 2.6.2 The Swedish Environmental Priorities System The Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) and Volvo motor Company developed the Environmental Priorities System (EPS) (Ryding et al., 1993; Steen and Ryding, 1992), the function of EPS is assisting product designers for selecting components and subassemblies with the minimum environmental impacts. The total impact of the product are determine with five safeguard factor, they are (1) Resources, (2) Human Health, (3) Production (4) Biodiversity and (5) Aesthetic value. The equation for impact calculation is; Total Impact = Where ELIi is the environmental load unit Mi is the mass of the used material i Each stressors ELI is a product of five factors as shown in the follows: ELIi = F1 F2F3F4F5 Where F1 is the unit effect determined based on the five safeguard subjects. It is determined on the basis of the monetary amount that the society is eager to pay for avoiding damages on the safeguard subject F2 is the scope of the effect of the effect based on either the number of people or in area F3 is the intensity or frequency of the effect on the safeguard subject F4 is the duration of the effect F5 is the normalization factor The EPS approach is based on the recommendations of SETAC, the actual damages, and characterizes the damages in monetary value is defined. The advantages is that the approach is widely accepted for any application, but the assessment is difficult to implement as it adopts cost instead of worth. This approach is also being questioned as to whether the economic and environmental science is able to provide the necessary data for the extensive valuation. 2.6.3 Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Impact Assessment The SETAC defines the impact assessment as a three-step process for LCA (Fave et al., 1993), The aim of the approach is to drive the assessment to be more transparent and scientific. In SETAC Assessment, the considered impact categories mostly are biotic and abiotic resource depletion, global warning, ozone depletion, human and ecosystem toxicity, smog, acidification and eutrophication. The three step are; (1) Classification, (2) Characterization, (3) Valuation (Figure 2.5). Classification the process of identifying and classifying the environmental impacts of the stressor into several defined impact categories Characterization the process of estimating the magnitude of the environmental impacts on ecological health , human health or resource depletion Valuation The assignment of relative values or weight to different environmental impacts such that the quantified environmental impacts are aggregated into one single index The SETAC LCA approach is widely accepted in any organization and able to provide the extensive environmental assessment on different product and activities as it attempts to account for all the environmental impacts of the three main impact categories. In the other hand, the size of scope has become the issue the application which made the assessment to be complex and costly to implement. The model requires a lot of data relating to resource depletion, human and ecosystem toxicity. Also all the information have to be clarified before perform the assessment, otherwise, the undesired result could be obtained. 2.6.4 Life Cycle Environmental Cost Analysis The Life Cycle Environmental Cost Analysis (LCECA) is a life cycle environmental cost model that is used to evaluates the effect of eight eco-cost in whole product life cycle. The eight eco cost are the cost of effluent control, treatment and disposal, environmental management system, eco-taxes, rehabilitation, energy, and saving of reuse and recycling strategies. The relationship between the eco-cost and the estimated total product life cycle cost, Tc are presented by the equation. Where is the estimated value of the total life cycle cost of a product a is a constant which reflects the y-intercept of the regression line are the estimates of slopes of the regression lin (of each eco-cost) are the cost of the effluent control, treatment and disposal, environmental management system, eco-taxes, rehabilitation, energy, and saving of reuse and recycling strategies Similar to EPS approach, the LCECA tries to assess the environmetal impact based on the cost instead of accounting for the damages. It increases the difficulty in implementing the assessment. Also, uncertainty still exists in the result as the secondary data with low or medium quality were mostly used in the impact assessment. 2.7 Conclusion to the Reviewed Approaches The environmental concerns of different parties raise the need to develop a systematic approach for evaluating and assessing the environmental performances of products or processes, After investigating a number of impact assessment approaches, it is found that the main aspects considered in those approaches are the resource depletion and environmental effect on the ecosystem and human health. Most of the approaches perform the impact assessment in the life cycle perspective, in which the environmental effects of the waste stream on different life stages are considered. The accuracy of the evaluation results depends on the availability of precise data as the impact assessment approaches are usually data intensive. Most of the impact assessment approaches are difficult to implement because of the complexity of the evaluation procedure. The applicability of the impact assessment approach is limited as the sources of data for impact assessment are also limited. Few of the impact assessment approaches take care of the three main environmental concerns. Performing an LCA study is expensive in terms of the resources and time. To sum up, an effective tool for impact assessment should have a correct balance between the ease of use and the depth of study in a scientific way. 2.8 Simplified Life Cycle Analysis Since LCA is the environmental assessment of a product or production process throughout the entire life cycle. It is very complicated to conducting a full scale LCA because it involves a lot of information, thus a complete LCA could be an expensive and time consuming process (Curran 1996). In order to make LCA to be easier to be implement, some method describe as follow is applied to simplified the LCA, the development techniques are described as a shortcut method of the LCA, also known as streamlined LCA or abridged LCA(Graedel et al. 1995) ; 1. Narrowing the boundaries of study Since organization may not interest in all the stages of the product life cycle, either they just concern about their own operation, practitioners could set their research to a boundary that is the greatest interest. For example, A mobile phone manufacturer might neglect the study of the environmental impact when using. The advantage is that the practitioners can control the size of the study, as the environmental assessment only focuses on the selected (critical) stages of the product life cycle, it is easier to collect data. However, this approach does not assess the whole life cycle of the product, it cannot show the full picture about the environmental performance of the product. 2. Using qualitative and quantitative date For evaluation, it is necessary to collect reliable quantitative data for assessment, also it is the most critical part of conducting LCA, it is because some of the environmental hazards may not be quantifiable, and hard to collect supply data from various organizations, in accordance with such situation, qualitative data is used to ensure the analysis as possible as it can. In the other hand, it makes lake of depth and sufficient information for the assessment. 3. Focusing on a few critical environmental impacts. Since LCA is the study to find out the environmental impact of the entire product life cycle, it could be very expensive and take time to list out all the environmental impact. Though this approaches, only the particularly important impact will be addressed, The advantage of the approach is centralize the relevant information to gain a better result for decision maker. 2.8.1 Abridged LCA In order to making a balance between scientific precision and practical applicability is the significant advantage of the simplified LCA. The ATT case is a typical example of showing the application of the abridged LCA (Graedel et al. 1995). ATT has developed an abridged matrix approach for the LCA. This is a semi-quantitative, and uses a 55 matrix to facilitate the assessment. The 55 matrix, called the environmentally responsible product assessment matrix is the central feature of the assessment system. As shown in Figure 2.6, the matrix arrays five life cycle stages. There are premanufacture, product manufacture, product packaging and transport, product use, and refurbishment-recycling-disposal, and against five categories of environmental concern (materials choice, energy use, solid residues, liquid residues and gaseous residues. In this approach, a group of assessors is drawn from the various departments of the organization, checklists are provided to the assessors as guidance i n the assessment exercise. The assessors are asked to assign ratings, ranging from 0 (highest impact) to 4 (lowest impact), to the five categories of environmental concern for each life-cycle stage. It is obvious that the assessment is quite subjective. Once the assignment of rating is done, the overall Environmentally Responsible Product rating(RERP) can be computed as shown below: Where i is the life cycle stage; j is the category of environmental concern M is the element value in the environmentally responsible product assessment matrix Environmental concern ife Cycle Stage Materials choice Energy Use Solid Residues iquid residues Gaseous Residues Totals Premanufacture (1,1) Product Manufacture Product Delivery Product Use Refurbishment, recycle disposal ATT feel that the matrices provide a usefull overall assessment of a product, but in order to display the results to be more effective, the target plots is developed for this purpose. (SETAC 1999), A target plots is constructed by using 25 elements around the circumference of a circle. Points on the circumference represent a value of zero. A good product then has more points toward the centre of the circle. Figure 2.7 show the ATTs Target Plot for the generic automobiles. The advantage of conducting the streamlined life cycle assessment is that the model provided a simpler and cost efficient evaluates method to assessor to review the input and output of the entire life cycle, since some of the assessment approach involves a lot of information and data which is may not be quantifiable, also some of the data could be confidential document to organization, like data of waste inventory or waste treatment. As streamlined LCA is able to let the assessor based on the existing data, the time and cost expend could minimized. Moreover, the Streamlined LCA is a straightforward assessment which is good for perform comparison for similar product. Assessor can base on the score of two product to determine which the environmental friendly product is. In this study, the most importance is the available to perform the assessment to the product and the completeness of the evaluation, The streamlined LCA will be choose to performance the assessment to the product. 3. METHODOLOGY The project will started with Goal and Scope Definition, it aims to defines the purpose and method of including life cycle environmental impacts into the decision making process. By determining the time and resources needed, It will ensure that the breadth, depth and detail of the study are compatible and sufficient to address all the issue. The entire life cycle of the product will be studied, thus we able to address all the input and output from all stage. Through the study of product life cycle, we could gain the data of the product, i.e. the usage of material, energy consumption during the production process or transportation and any waste or byproduct, Then, based on the resulted information to compile a inputs and outputs inventory which is called Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). The life cycle inventory is a used to quantify the input and output of the life cycle of the product, process or activity, like material requirement, atmospheric emission, waterborne emission, solid waste, and other releases, all the information will have address through a system boundary. The quantified data of the input and output of the product will be used in assessment to evaluate the environmental performance of the product. 3.1 Goal and Scope Definition In Goal and Scope Definition, several decisions should be made in order to make effective use of time and resources, the statement in Goal definition are the purpose of the study, the Intended application, the intended audience. In scope definition, it should include the function of the product, the functional unit and system boundaries. .1.1 Goal Definition 3.1.1.1 Goal The goal for this LCA study was to identify main environmental issues of the product. The goal was to get an overview of the environmental impact thus to find out if it has any chance for improvement. 3.1.1.2 Intended Application To be used to define and guideline in coming product development project To build up the database to perform comparison to similar product 3.1.1.3 Intended Audience Aluminum Manufacturer: Aluminum Manufacturer would like to know their environmental performance of their process, thus seeking any improvement of product and make decision on production process. Product Designer: For product designer, they can based on the results to define what material or process can be use, to provide green design 3.1.2 Scope In this research, the assessment might not go though the entire product life cycle but will focus on the product life cycle from material extraction to transportation to other factor. Since the product will be assembled by other manufacturer, we are not able to monitor or control any energy consumption or impacts during installation of the product. 3.1.1.1 Unit Description The product under study is a casing for amplifier, the unit mostly supplied to sub manufacturer for pre-installation or for retail purpose. The product is comprises a top cover and bottom with total weight 500g. The top and bottom of the casing made by aluminum and assemble with some steel internal columns which contribute to 7% 8% of total weight. 3.1.1.2 Function and functional unit The function of the product is used to provide the complete protection of the product, by assembled with the main unit or the product, it could isolate the internal electronic product with other component, it have another function which is have better installation by designing the feature or the shape. The component could be tidier and well prepare for assemble, cost and production efficiency is enhanced, The material application for casing is aluminum. It is soft, durable, lightweight and malleable, By the characteristic mentioned, it provide the benefit that is high dimensional stability and less machining required. The functional unit of this is defined for all material as 2000 unit of 500g casing, the study would be applicable to the similar mass of aluminum product and with the same production process. 3.1.2.1 System Boundary In LCA, all flows should be followed until their inputs and outputs have all been translated into environmental interventions. In order to create a clear distinction between the product system and environment, and between elementary and other flows, the system environment boundary has to be clarify, On the top of the boundary, is represented where the resources are extracted and converted to feedstock material, i.e. Natural resource, raw material and ancillary material and water, it also represented the energy used for the system. In the boundary, it showed the entire production process and divided into step by step. At the bottom of the boundary, it shows the output of the whole process. The output could be product and services from the process, emission from the process, waste generated from the process, and byproducts and scraps from the production. All this information could be used in assess the environmental performance of the product. 3.1.3 Data Source The data of product boundary system is mostly reference to some free data source, but also literature and field data. In Table below, it has showed the data for production of energy, auxiliary materials and feedstock materials, also the quantified output from the production process. Direction Flow Type Substance I QTY O QTY Unit Environment Input Natural resource Brown coal 158 kg Ground Input Natural resource Crude oil 43 kg Ground Input Natural resource Hard coal 151 kg Ground Input Natural resource Natural gas 135 kg Ground Input Natural resource Alloying additives 18.6 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Aluminum ingot 1013 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Ar-gas 0.53 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Chlorine 0.081 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Electricity 749 kWh Technosphere Input Refined resource Fluxing agents 0.36 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource NaOH 28 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Nitrogen 0.3 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Paper and cardboard 3 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Refractory materials 1.2 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Steel 50 kg Technosphere Input Refined resource Water 30 m3 Technosphere Input Refined resource Wood 28 kg Technosphere Output Emission CH4 2.2 kg Air Output Emission Chlorides 0.002 kg Air Output Emission Chlorides 2.7 kg Water Output Emission CO 0.23 kg Air Output Emission CO2 860 kg Air Output Emission COD 0.003 kg Water Output Emission Dust 0.69 kg Air Output Emission HC 0.79 kg Air Output Emission HCI 0.1 kg Air Output Emission HF 0.01 kg Air Output Emission NH3 0.0016 kg Air Output Emission NOx 1.5 kg Air Output Emission Oil/grease 0.063 kg Water Output Emission SO2 3.2 kg Air Output Emission Suspended particles 0.33 kg Water Output Product Extruded aluminum profile 1000 kg Technosphere Output Residue Hazardous waste 1.6 kg Technosphere Output Residue Oil 1.7 kg Technosphere Output Residue Sludge 29 kg Technosphere Output Residue Solid waste unspecified 60 kg Technosphere 3.2 Scoring criteria for streamlined Life cycle assessment The scoring method for streamlined LCA is assign scores from 0-4 (0= poor performance, 4= excellent performance) to each part of the matrix, the score will be according to the set condition in different stage. Form the table blow, the score will be assigned according to the condition to each of the element of the Assessment matrix. Material Use Score Conditions 0 The material used in product can not be recycled. 4 Material used in product can be fully recycled 1,2,3 Subject to the rate of recycle or the product is Energy Use Score Conditions 0 20% lower of the energy are use to the produce/process 4 90% or above of energy are use to the product/process 1,2,3 Subject to the rate of the energy used to the product/process Solid Residues Score Conditions 0 Hazardous waste is produced/ material non recyclable 4 No hazard waste to produce and 1,2,3 Subject to rate of waste of product iquid residues Score Conditions 0 If waste water is 80% or above of the water input 4 If waste water is 20% or lower of the water input 1,2,3 Subject to the rate of waste water to water input Gaseous Residues Score Conditions 0 arge volume of greenhouse gas emitted from process 4 ow volume of greenhouse gas emitted from process 1,2,3 Subject to the amount of Based on the scoring criteria above, an environmental evaluation of the aluminium extrusion process was performed in Table 4.1, From the table below, we are able to recognized the Environmental concern ife Cycle Stage Materials choice Energy Use Solid Residues iquid residues Gaseous Residues Totals Premanufacture 3 3 3 4 3 16/20 Product Manufacture 3 1 2 2 1 9/20 Product Delivery 3 2 3 3 3 14/20 Product Use 4 4 3 4 4 19/20 Refurbishment, recycle disposal 3 2 3 2 2 12/20 Totals 16/20 12/20 14/20 15/20 13/20 70/100 4.1 Justification of Matrix Scores It is having relative high performance in this stage. Since the raw material can be fully input in the product process, the In the product manufacture stage, consider factor is the use ability and scrape rate of material, the select product casing has applied aluminum alloys for top and bottom housing, and there is some steel have been applied for internal column. the performance in this area would be influence by the material characteristic and the type of production process. According to the data of product life cycle inventory, the use ability is having well performance, almost 90% of material contributed to the final product. Also, recycle process have occurred for the scrape produced during the production process. But in order to product the product, lot of package material is included. In the assessment of product delivery, the defeat may not occur to the product itself, but may cause impact to the package. The product is very durable and tough material, it need not to be any maintenance in the product stage. Also, the material is 70-80% recyclable. The aluminum and steel alloys used is 70% 80% recyclable, which is having very well performance in this assessment. Since the transportation of raw material is subject to the supplier distance and the type of transport. In this study, the assessment will be adjust according to the assumption have made. For the production process, it is energy intensive in the entire life cycle. The energy use of deliveries of the product is subject to where doit sell, the product delivery method could be various due to the client requirement. Assumption has been made in order to performance a complete assessment. The scored is given by allocate the output of a truck into number of unit per truck.in this study, assume that product will be transported 800 miles by truck supplied to other manufacturer. The function of the product doesnt need any energy to work with, no energy consumption in these stage Assume that there 2% scrap should be included for the material acquisition, the package material will be consider as waste. Solid wastes and oil will be generated when during the production process. And the scrap allow will be produced. In delivery of the product, a significant of packing material are generated, to prevent the scratch on the product finish. When the product is in operate, no solid waste will be product what make it have a high score in this area For the product itself, the casing top, bottom and even the column are made by aluminum and steel respectively, and such material are recyclable at 70-80%. In premanufacture stage, it should have not liquid waste generate during material acquisition. Mining of the alloy will be a significant source of liquid waste generation, other liquid wastes will be generated in part cleaning and trapping process. Very little liquid waste will be generated for the shipping. For the product, no liquid waste will be generated when using. Refurbishment, Recycle Disposal The liquid waste of the recycle stage should be more or less to the product manufacture. Gaseous wastes are subject to the type of product delivery, the score was made according to the assumption. Alloy smelting generates during product process, and subject to the working period for the extrusion process. The greenhouse gases is generated in product delivery. The score is more or less to prmanufacture stage. For the product, since it is not related to any energy consumption, zero emission is resuted. Refurbishment, Recycle,Dispossal Recycling the alloy is similar to the product manufacture and it will generate gaseous residues. According the Figure 4.1, the comparison of environmental performance in different stage of the product life cycle has been shown. The figure is constructed with In comparing the result, the product manufacture is resulted the lowest mark among the different stage, it represent it resulted the worst the environmental performance. The Figure also showed the best performance is the stage of product use. In order find out the most critical problem in this stage, we will go further into the contribution of difference environmental concerned element. CONCLUSION In this report, I have tried to evaluate the environmental impact of the product from my company, it is an aluminum case for an amplifier. The goal of this study is tried to introduce the environmental assessment method to my company, thus encourage management to implement the approach to the existing product or product process, moreover improve the environmental performance of the product or process though the approach. In order to achieve the goal, I have completed several objectives. In order to select the appropriate assessment tool, I have reviewed the concept surrounding environmental sector. Then I have study the concept of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), LCA is a tool that used to evaluate the impact of entire life cycle of a product. The use of LCA is able to identify the environmental impact from raw material extraction o disposal of the product to avoid burden shifting of each stage. Other than LCA, there are other assessment method is providing similar function. In this report, The Economic input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA), Environmental Priority Strategies (EPS), Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistrys Life Cycle Impact Assessment and the Life Cycle Environmental Cost Analysis are reviewed. Different approach is having its the advantages and disadvantages, after reviewed all the mentioned assessment method, it is resulted that although accuracy and complete analysis can carried out by implementing those approach, but most of them are data intensive, and those impact assessment approaches are difficult to implement due to the complex evaluation procedure. The cost and time consuming is another disadvantage to the process. Besides the method mentioned above, there is another approach which is developed with the aims of simplified LCA. The Developed method is called streamlined LCA or Abridged LCA, the streamlined LCA is method that using a 55 matrix to assess the environmental performance of a product and process, in the matrix, there are five life cycle stage which are premanufacture, product manufacture, product packaging and transport, product use, and refurbishment-recycling-disposal and against five categories of environmental concern. The advantage of the streamlined LCA is that able to provide a simpler and cost efficient assessment method to user, but also able to cover the input output of the entire life cycle. So the approach has been selected to assess the environmental performance of the product.