Shannon M. Lloyd

An Approach to Integrating Occupational Safety and Health into Life Cycle Assessment: Development and Application of Work Environment Characterization Factors

Integrating occupational safety and health (OSH) into life cycle assessment (LCA) may provide decision makers with insights and opportunities to prevent burden shifting of human health impacts between the nonwork environment and the work environment. We propose an integration approach that uses industry‐level work environment characterization factors (WE‐CFs) to convert industry activity into damage to human health attributable to the work environment, assessed as disability‐adjusted life years (DALYs). WE‐CFs are ratios of work‐related fatal and nonfatal injuries and illnesses occurring in the U.S. worker population to the amount of physical output from U.S. industries; they represent workplace hazards and exposures and are compatible with the life cycle inventory (LCI) structure common to process‐based LCA. A proof of concept demonstrates application of the WE‐CFs in an LCA of municipal solid waste landfill and incineration systems. Results from the proof of concept indicate that estimates of DALYs attributable to the work environment are comparable in magnitude to DALYs attributable to environmental emissions. Construction and infrastructure‐related work processes contributed the most to the work environment DALYs. A sensitivity analysis revealed that uncertainty in the physical output from industries had the most effect on the WE‐CFs. The results encourage implementation of WE‐CFs in future LCA studies, additional refinement of LCI processes to accurately capture industry outputs, and inclusion of infrastructure‐related processes in LCAs that evaluate OSH impacts.

Considering customer preferences for environmental protection in material selection

Abstract This paper presents a method for integrating environmental considerations directly into the material selection process. A design hierarchy is used to perform concurrent multi-attribute material evaluation on the basis of cost, physical properties and customer preferences. A proof-of-concept case study of material selection for beverage containers is presented. The results of a consumer survey are reported. Trade-offs between aluminium, glass and plastic containers are analysed. The price reduction necessary to make plastic competitive with aluminium for a particular market niche is calculated.

The work environment disability-adjusted life year for use with life cycle assessment: a methodological approach.

BackgroundLife cycle assessment (LCA) is a systems-based method used to determine potential impacts to the environment associated with a product throughout its life cycle. Conclusions from LCA studies can be applied to support decisions regarding product design or public policy, therefore, all relevant inputs (e.g., raw materials, energy) and outputs (e.g., emissions, waste) to the product system should be evaluated to estimate impacts. Currently, work-related impacts are not routinely considered in LCA. The objectives of this paper are: 1) introduce the work environment disability-adjusted life year (WE-DALY), one portion of a characterization factor used to express the magnitude of impacts to human health attributable to work-related exposures to workplace hazards; 2) outline the methods for calculating the WE-DALY; 3) demonstrate the calculation; and 4) highlight strengths and weaknesses of the methodological approach.MethodsThe concept of the WE-DALY and the methodological approach to its calculation is grounded in the World Health Organization’s disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Like the DALY, the WE-DALY equation considers the years of life lost due to premature mortality and the years of life lived with disability outcomes to estimate the total number of years of healthy life lost in a population. The equation requires input in the form of the number of fatal and nonfatal injuries and illnesses that occur in the industries relevant to the product system evaluated in the LCA study, the age of the worker at the time of the fatal or nonfatal injury or illness, the severity of the injury or illness, and the duration of time lived with the outcomes of the injury or illness.ResultsThe methodological approach for the WE-DALY requires data from various sources, multi-step instructions to determine each variable used in the WE-DALY equation, and assumptions based on professional opinion.ConclusionsResults support the use of the WE-DALY in a characterization factor in LCA. Integrating occupational health into LCA studies will provide opportunities to prevent shifting of impacts between the work environment and the environment external to the workplace and co-optimize human health, to include worker health, and environmental health.

Improving Life Cycle Assessment by Considering Worker Health and Comparing Alternatives Based on Relative Efficiency

Designing automobiles to support sustainability requires assessment of life cycle economic, environmental, and social impacts. Environmental and economic performance is increasingly evaluated with life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis. Analytical methods are needed to assess the associated life cycle social impacts. Additional sustainability criteria will make it more difficult to compare alternatives and select the “best” option. To enhance the evaluation of social impacts, a method for considering life cycle worker health impacts is proposed. To reduce reliance on subjective weighting, an approach using data envelopment analysis is proposed for comparing alternatives across multiple sustainability criteria. Conceptual approaches for both are presented as part of a case study focused on lightweighting vehicles through material selection.

Impact of Consumption and Cost Forecasting on United States Defense Fuel Budgeting

Between 2000 and 2011, Department of Defense (DOD) annual fuel expenditures were between

Characterizing, Propagating, and Analyzing Uncertainty in Life-Cycle Assessment: A Survey of Quantitative Approaches

1 and

Life Cycle Economic and Environmental Implications of Using Nanocomposites in Automobiles

9 billion higher than budget estimates (excluding 2009, when DOD underestimated fuel expenditures). Fuel budget variance is generally attributed to increasing fuel prices. However, DOD fuel expenditures are driven by two parameters — the unit cost of fuel and the amount of fuel consumed. Cost variance was responsible for 80 percent of the fuel budget variance on average. Crude oil price increase drove most of this cost variance. Consumption variance was responsible for the remainder of the fuel budget variance, and was particularly important during initial wartime operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consumption variance was driven by DODs planned use of emergency rather than base appropriations to pay for overseas contingency operations. Both increasing fuel prices and reliance on emergency appropriations puts defense operations at risk and increases costs to taxpayers. Improvements to current planning, budgeting, and financing practices are needed to manage this risk.