An Environmental Life Cycle Approach to Design : LCA for Designers and the Design Market

This book introduces readers to Life Cycle Approach (LCA)-supported design solutions, through non-geometric-data-driven methodologies, to provide a clear picture of how to optimize individual designs in addressing ecological challenges. By offering LCA, the book gives designers a complimentary set of science-based perspectives and techniques with a focus on high data quality for clarity and public accessibility. While most design solutions and resources are meant to appeal to people by solving everyday problems, this book uses LCA designs to appeal to people through a combination of practicality, accuracy, and the need to decelerate ecological destruction through products offered to marketplace consumers. In essence, the book teaches designers how to craft environmentally responsive designs for their clients at little to no extra cost, but with necessary ecological benefits. The book analyzes the human desire for consumption, and suggests design innovations for promoting "best practices". LCA tools, data, and methodologies are explained and offered as these potential innovations for affecting positive environmental change. As an underlying component of LCA, the book defines the energy essentials related to environmental problems, and how LCA design solutions must address these factors while also appealing to a designated client-base. The book also teaches designers how to consider corporate incentives for trusting LCA designs, such as investor confidence, loyalty, and consumer trust. The book will appeal to a broad range of designers interested in sustainable and data-driven design, and may be utilized by non-LCA specialists in expanding their design perspectives and goals in the marketplace. Preface Acknowledgments Contents About the Author Chapter 1: Do Nothing: The Danger of Believing in a World Without Limits 1.1 Living Large: The American Dream 1.2 The American Way of Life 1.2.1 The Pursuit of Happiness 1.3 No Going Back: Impossible to Do Nothing 1.3.1 Humans in the Ecosphere 1.3.2 Creating the Technosphere (30,000 BCE) 1.3.3 The Holocene (11,700 Years) 1.3.4 Human Civilization (2500 Years) 1.3.4.1 Increases in Population Magnify Impact 1.3.4.2 Urbanization 1.4 Relative Comfort and Quality of Life 1.4.1 Standard of Living Disconnected from External Impacts 1.5 Sustainable Development 1.6 Measurement References Chapter 2: The Energy Essential: Physical Forces Animate All Things 2.1 Design Shapes the Natural World 2.1.1 Powering the Four Industrial Revolutions 2.2 What Is Energy? 2.2.1 More Precise Energy Terms: Exergy, Anergy, and Entropy 2.3 Four Primary Forces 2.3.1 Electrochemical Forces 2.4 Sharing Knowledge Accelerates Energy-Intensive Inventions 2.5 Sadi Carnot’s Caloric Thermal Energy 2.5.1 First Three Laws of Thermodynamics 2.5.2 Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics 2.6 Joule: The Official Energy Unit 2.6.1 Power Is Flowing Energy Measured Over Time 2.7 Chemical Balance 2.8 Work and Value 2.8.1 Animal Power 2.9 Burning Fossil Fuels Releases Stored Carbon-Based Energy 2.10 Matter Is Embodied Energy 2.10.1 The Jevons Paradox 2.11 Design’s Role References Chapter 3: Trash Can Living 3.1 Environmental Impact of Exporting the American Way of Life 3.1.1 Waste 3.2 Earth 3.2.1 Our Global Footprints 3.2.2 Pre- and Post-Consumer Solid Waste Components Travel 3.3 Air 3.3.1 Denial 3.4 China 3.4.1 Off-Shoring: Far, but Not Away 3.4.2 Atmospheric Ozone 3.4.3 Rational Global Policy and Action 3.5 Water 3.5.1 Solid Waste Disposal into the Water 3.5.2 Chemical Waste Runoff 3.5.2.1 The Effect of Nutrient Contamination in Water 3.6 Disordered and Harmful Out-of-Place Elements 3.6.1 Feedback Loops Affecting Solids, Liquids, and Gasses 3.7 Conclusion References Chapter 4: Do Something: Mid-twentieth Century Developments 4.1 Purpose-Driven Managed Resources 4.2 New Priority: Consumption 4.3 Military Roots of the Modern “Life Cycle” 4.3.1 RAND and General Systems Theory 4.3.2 End of Life and Early Obsolescence 4.4 Corporate Origins of Environmental LCA 4.4.1 The Coca-Cola REPA 4.4.2 Two REPAs Measure Similar but Not the Same Indicators 4.4.3 The Record Reveals Clear Intentions 4.4.4 The Results 4.5 Three Basic “Rs” 4.6 Conclusion References Chapter 5: Life Cycle Assessment 5.1 Proto-LCA to Standardized Practice 5.2 What Is an LCA for and What Exactly Does It Measure? 5.2.1 Two Conjoined Standards: ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 5.3 Goal and Scope Definition 5.3.1 Goal 5.3.2 Scope: What Is the Product or Service System and What Is Its Function? 5.3.3 How Specific Is Specific Enough? 5.3.4 What’s In and What’s Out? 5.3.5 How Little of Something Is Too Little to Include? 5.3.6 What if the Process Used to Make One Thing Simultaneously Produces Other Things? 5.3.7 What Are a Design’s Most Important Physical Impacts to the Environment, and How Are They Indicated and Modeled? 5.3.8 What If the Most Reliable, Accurate, and Precise Primary Data Are Not Available? 5.3.9 What Is the Standard Accuracy and Precision Level of LCI Data? 5.3.10 What Data Assumptions Apply to the Study? 5.3.11 What Are the Limitations of the Study? 5.3.12 What Subjective Value Choices and Optional Elements Beyond the Primary Inputs and Outputs Influence the Study? 5.3.13 How Will the Results of the Various Parts of the Study Be Systematically Interpreted? 5.3.14 What Type of Final Report Is Required for the Study and How Is It to Be Formatted? 5.3.15 Is a Third-Party Critical Review Required to Validate the Final Report? References Chapter 6: Addressing Resistance to a Fact-Based Approach 6.1 Fast and Slow Decisions 6.1.1 Sustainable Choices 6.1.2 Biases 6.2 Climate Change Story 6.2.1 The False Debate over Fundamental Causes of Climate Change 6.3 Taking Issue with Life Cycle Assessment 6.3.1 The Attributional LCA Time Scale 6.4 An Appeal to Reason 6.4.1 Impossible to Do Nothing 6.4.2 Inventory Analysis (LCI) 6.5 Dominance of Geometric Data Models in Design Education 6.5.1 Aesthetic/Technical Split in the Academy 6.5.2 Bridging the Divide 6.5.3 One Country’s Call to Measure and Assess References Chapter 7: LCI Data and Design 7.1 Designers Engaging with LCI Data 7.2 Use of LCI Databases in LCIA Tools 7.2.1 Athena Sustainable Materials Institute Database 7.2.2 ecoinvent Database 7.2.3 GaBi Database 7.2.4 USLCI Database 7.2.5 NIST Databases 7.3 Transparency of LCI Data to Designers 7.3.1 Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings 7.3.2 BEES 7.3.3 BIRDS 7.3.4 Tally 7.3.5 SolidWorks Sustainability 7.3.6 One Click LCA 7.3.7 SimaPro and Other LCA Tools 7.4 Agreement in LCI Data References Chapter 8: Dashboard 8.1 The LCIA Dashboard 8.2 Life Cycle Impact Assessment and Interpretation 8.2.1 A Note on Interpretation 8.2.2 LCIA Tools for Designers 8.3 Impact Assessment Methods 8.3.1 TRACI 8.3.2 ReCiPe 8.3.2.1 Eco-indicator 99 8.3.3 CML-IA 8.3.4 IMPACT World+ 8.4 WBLCA Tools 8.4.1 A Note on Typical WBLCA Practices 8.4.1.1 Low Mass Material Assessment 8.4.2 Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings 8.4.2.1 Establish a New Project 8.4.2.2 Add Project Assemblies 8.4.2.3 Additional Features 8.4.2.4 View Results 8.4.3 Tally 8.4.3.1 Establish a New Study 8.4.3.2 Assign Materials 8.4.3.3 Additional Features 8.4.3.4 Save Report 8.4.3.5 View Results 8.4.4 One Click LCA 8.4.4.1 Define Object of Study 8.4.4.2 Assign Materials 8.4.4.3 Additional Features 8.4.4.4 Establish a New Study 8.4.4.5 Additional Information Required 8.4.4.6 View Results 8.5 LCIA Tools at Different Scales 8.5.1 SolidWorks Sustainability 8.5.1.1 Access the Dashboard 8.5.1.2 Part File: Assign Materials 8.5.1.3 Additional Features 8.5.1.4 View Results 8.5.1.5 Assembly File: Assign Properties 8.5.1.6 View Results 8.6 Comparison of LCIA Tools 8.6.1 WBLCA Tools 8.6.2 SolidWorks Sustainability 8.7 Other LCA Tools 8.7.1 Rhino.Inside.Revit 8.7.2 NIST BEES and BIRDS 8.7.3 SimaPro and Other LCA Tools 8.8 Conclusions References Chapter 9: Case Studies 9.1 The MIA 9.1.1 Functionality of LCIA Tools 9.1.2 Results 9.1.3 Environmental Versus Aesthetic Considerations 9.2 Building 197 9.2.1 WBLCA Study 9.2.2 Structural System Comparison 9.2.3 Adaptive Reuse 9.3 Window LCA Study 9.4 Environmental Product Declarations 9.5 Future Tools References Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Index