Use of Life Cycle Assessment through an Objective Framework Constructed by Simulation

Abstract

Mounting social pressure in the form of media and political attention are encouraging industry to focus more on environmental responsibility and resource management. This has promoted many methodologies to achieve a more responsible utilization of materials and energy. The optimization of production processes is a complex task that is only made more difficult by unclear and sometimes contradictory metrics of success. To optimize a production process, a complete understanding of the life cycle of the product in question must be attained. A thorough understanding of a process' environmental impacts may be obtained through life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool that can assist in the optimization of processes and the creation and support of environmental laws. When life cycle assessment is combined with the power and speed of simulation technology, a realistic representation of the entire life cycle of a product can be created from cradle to grave. To prove that this combination of tools is feasible, a computer simulation for a product's life cycle was created. This model was used to prove that a simulation was a viable method to model a product's life cycle, and that computer simulation could assist in the rapid comparison of altered models. This combination of simulation and life cycle assessment was proven successful through the use of an example scenario constructed from a 2005 study on diapers that was performed by the Environmental Agency of the U.K