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LCA and the Working Environment 1 IntroductionThe present report gives an overview and a discussion of a new methodology for including the working environment in the gene.ral EDIP-LCA methodology. The new methodology is seen as a good alternative the methodology that was described in EDIP97 [1] but only was tested to a limited degree. The main reason for including the working environment in LCA is the same as for EDIP97, i.e. to give a possibility to examine whether environmental product improvements are implemented on the expense of a deteriorated working environment. The method has therefore been developed in order to make it possible to perform a general assessment of the changes in working environmental impacts that are induced by changes in the choice of materials and processes. This knowledge can subsequently be combined with more specific knowledge about potential hazards in relevant sectors and form the basis for a dialogue between the actors in a product chain. WE-LCA can thus be seen as a natural component in the efforts for development of products with less impact on the environment and human health. It is, however, not possible to examine or protect against deterioration as a consequence of company-specific changes, e.g. an increased tempo or efficiency, by using the developed LCA-methodology. For this purpose, work place assessments for each employee is a better suited tool that WE-LCA cannot replace. The main reason for suggesting the new methodology is that with the new approach and the accompanying database it is much less demanding in terms of time and resources to include the working environment in LCA. Furthermore, the methodology is built on statistical information which - at varying levels of detail - is available in most countries. It is therefore our hope that the working environment will be a natural part of many LCAs, both in Denmark and in other countries. 1.1 The development processThe development of the new methodology has been performed in three phases:
1.1.1 The first workshopAt the first workshop in the project, the Phase 1- review of existing methods were presented and discussed with the about 65 persons present at the workshop. The general conclusions from the discussions at the workshop were that
These conclusions can be transformed into a demand for a methodology that give a broad and yet precise overview of the working environmental impacts in a life cycle perspective without being too demanding in terms of resources. Whether the method should or would be used for improvements at the company level was an open question at the workshop. In addition to these conclusions the project group felt that there was an imminent need for an operational method if the working environment should survive in present and future LCA developments. As a result of these considerations the project group aimed at developing a method that would satisfy some, but not all, of the requirements stated above. More explicitly, the project group recognised that the demand for a high degree of precision could not be met at the same time as the demand for a less resource demanding method which was operational at the end of the project period. 1.1.2 Phase 2: Testing of the EDIP-methodologyThe two main elements in the EDIP97 methodology, i.e. the process and the sector [2] assessment, are described in some detail in the Appendix. The basic idea behind the methodology is that for internal processes at a company, specific data are established using the process assessment, while for external processes the sector assessment is applied. The two different kinds of information can subsequently be aggregated by further data treatment, using the working/exposure time per functional unit as the common denominator. The data for the sector assessment can be expressed in a simple formula:
As an example, the impacts from producing one kWh in Denmark can be calculated by dividing the total number of impacts in the electricity producing sector with the total amount of electricity being produced. However, at the end of EDIP97 development, only a limited number of data were available for WE-LCA, i.e. data on electricity production, transportation, and steel production. In order to be able to test the EDIP-methodology, the first step was to extend the database for working environmental LCA. How to establish new data for the EDIP97 method is not described in detail in the reports, but supply statistics in combination with information on work-related accidents and damages was seen to be a main element in the development of the few sector-related data in the original database. It was also stated in the reports that the sector assessment methodology was best suited for large and homogenous productions. The problem in using supply statistics was experienced by the project team already during the first efforts towards extending the database. Here, Statistics Denmark were asked to provide supply statistics for the plastic processing sectors, i.e. the sectors with the following NACE-codes: Table 1.1. NACE-codes for plastic processing sectors in Danish statistics
A given company is in the statistics identified by the NACE-code that covers the main economic activity. This means that companies in other sectors also can be processing plastics, e.g. the chemical industry, toy producers, insulation companies, automotive and electronics industry etc. On the other hand the sectors in Table 1.1 may also have other activities than processing of plastics. The information from Statistics Denmark showed that it was only possible to establish supply statistics on the four-digit NACE-code level, i.e. NACE-codes 2521, 2522, 2523 and 2524. In comparison, the statistics from the Danish Labour Inspectorate can be established on a five-digit NACE-code level, giving a possibility for an increased level of detail. Furthermore, it turned out that the imported amounts in the supply statistics are allocated to both companies making their own imports and wholesale dealers, e.g. regional offices of multinational plastic producers, that subsequently sell the imported plastics to companies in all sectors. As about half of the amount of plastic raw material is imported by wholesale dealers, the actual amounts being processed in each of the four four-digit NACE-codes can only be calculated with a high degree of uncertainty. In conclusion, the sector method described in EDIP97 is not well suited for handling sectors with a wide variety of products being produced, the main problems being achieving a sufficient level of detail as well as precision. It should be mentioned in this context that the above mentioned problems probably will be even more pronounced in sectors where there is both a Danish production and an import of raw materials, e.g. the steel industry. It was therefore decided at the second phase of the project to develop an alternative method for sector assessments in the third phase of the project. The following chapters describe in detail the new sector assessment method that is suggested to replace both the sector and the process assessment methods in EDIP97. 1.2 About the new methodThe new methodology can be seen as a simplification of the methodology outlined in EDIP97. This simplification was not intended a priori in the project, but emerged as an operational solution to many of the problems that were identified during the review and testing of the old methodology. The main difference between the old and the new method is that the new method is a sector assessment which is purely based on statistical information whereas the old methodology relied on both statistical and process/company spe.cific information. One practical implication of this is that it is not necessary to col.lect information on specific processes at the company level, thereby significantly reducing the necessary amount of work. Instead, most - if not all - of the information can be extracted from the database that has been established. The method is thus (almost) fully operational, also for LCA practitioners without a thorough knowledge of working environmental impacts. Seen in view of the minor attention that has been given to the working environment in LCA so far, this is regarded as a significant progress. At the same time it must be recognised that some level of detail is lost when excluding the process assessment and also that there are some inherent uncertainties in the new method. Therefore, the pre.sent methodology should not be regarded as final, but rather as temporary solution allowing the working environment to be in.cluded in LCA without having to start from the beginning in every LCA. Meanwhile, detailed information on the working environment can still be collected on the company level and be the basis for improvement efforts. Several tools for this, especially work place assessments, are already available and may prove to be of great value when establishing product related information. Footnotes¨[1] "EDIP97" is in the present report a common denominator for the methodology descriptions that can be found in Hauschild and Wenzel: Environmental Assessment of Products. Volume 2: Scientific background. Chapman & Hall, 1997 (Danish version: Hauschild (ed.): Baggrund for Miljøvurdering af produkter, Miljøstyrelsen/Dansk Industri 1996), Wenzel, Hauschild and Rasmussen: Miljøvurdering af produkter, Miljøstyrelsen/Dansk Industri 1996, and in Broberg og Rasmussen: Arbejdsmiljø fra vugge til grav, Arbejdsmiljøfondet 1996. [2] The terms "sector" and "sub-sector" are throughout the report used to describe economic activities at different levels of detail, i.e. economic sectors are divided into a number of sub-sectors, see for example . However, the two terms do not describe a fixed level of detail. It should also be mentioned that the term "branches" can be used to describe both sectors and sub-sectors.
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