InLCA-LCM 2004

Jola

I have a question regarding my doctoral thesis I'm just preparing. I need to carry out LCA of processes in a coal mine (from digging of the shafts through storing the coal up to liquidation of a mining wall).
Have you ever made such LCA or do you know works in this area?
I would like to discuss this problem so thank you in advance for your notes.
I would like to use for this LCA the SimaPro software.
Note that this not LCA of a product but LCA of a processes, even technological processes.
And another request - I've seen that there will be discussion on article of Dr D Senthil Kumaran "USING LIFE CYCLE ENVIRONMENTAL COST ANALYSIS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION".
I would like to ask anybody who used the Life Cycle Environmental Cost Analysis to share the experience.
Mostly I would like to know how to assign data concerning environmental costs to each process in coal mine.
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Jolanta Baran, Poland
jolabolt@interia.pl

j.furt@terra.com.br · Guest

Facing the lack of local database for pollutants/residues in many countries, but considering the importance os such information for resource conservation, ecoeficiency and - ideally - sustainable development, how could one best justify the requirement of LCA data from industry, as part of Integrate Process Product Public Policies?

Rita Schenck · Guest

The best opportunity for using LCA for public policy lies in developing countries that do not yet have a command-and-control regulatory structure. If those countries choose to use LCA as the basis of their permitting process (as is being attemped in the Netherlands), and if they are willing to enforce their permits (i.e., actually close down facilities without permits), They have a powerful tool for requiring that industries disclose their LCI information. If the countries further format the information that must be provided, they will be able to clearly identify which industries are desirable in terms of social and economic benefits versus environmental impacts.

Overlaying LCA on an existing comand-and-control structure makes it very difficult to get companies to disclose their Life Cycle Inventories, because they have potential liabilities in doing so. If their emisisons appear to be higher than their discharge permits, they are open to legal action.

tomase

An alternative strategy that allows a combination of control structure and LCA is to include a reporting requirement into the control structure. When I started with LCA in the early 1990ies, I got the impression that it was easier to get environmental data from the companies in Sweden compared to other countries. The reason, I think, is that the major Swedish companies were obliged to monitor and report their environmental performance to the authorities, and that these environmental reports were public documents. Hence, the companies had a procedure for measuring emissions and staff for communicating the results. And they had little to loose by using these resource to provide LCA practitioners with input data.
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Tomas Ekvall, Associate Professor
Energy Technology
Chalmers University of Technology
Gothenburg, Sweden
tomas.ekvall@me.chalmers.se