From: Gerald Rebitzer 
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 12:50 AM
To: Doug Huizenga; data2@lcacenter.org
Subject: RE: Data Availability - LCA Considerations in EPP 

Dear Doug,

> Eun-sook,
>
> I believe that the the use of LCA for purchasing decisions faces
> a hurdle -
> the expected (suspected) cost of using LCA.  Change in the system
> is always
> opposed by the current system.
>
> Can the economic costs of implementing the use of LCA be estimated?

I think it is not difficult to estimate this, but it really depends on the
implementation (eg., one study or a routine system). However, please do not
forget the economic benefits of conducting an LCA, this should also be done
and has been carried out within total cost assessments, at least
indirectely. But the latter is definitely the more tricky part. One approach
is to do it in a roundtable with purchasing, processing, waste management
etc. in order to estimate the implications of LCA induced changes. To my
knowledge this has been quite successfully carried out eg. in the automotive
industry.

> Do the environmental benefits of using LCA outweigh the impacts
> of doing the
> LCAs?

Do you mean this on an economic level? Of course, here you can add avoided
external costs to the business costs described above and the result shold be
higher, at least if the LCA is not misused.

There is an article by Greg Norris "Estimating the Value of LCAs" in the
proceedings of the Life Cycle Management Conference 2001, that was held in
Copenhagen, which discusses aspects related to your question.

Gerald

_________________________________________

Dipl.-Ing. Gerald Rebitzer
Sustainable Development/
Life Cycle Management

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
EPFL-ENAC-GECOS
Life Cycle Systems Group
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
Email: Gerald.Rebitzer@epfl.ch
Tel.:	+41-21-693-5526
Fax: 	+41-21-693-5760
_________________________________________