American Center for Life Cycle Assessment Rita Schenck ASTM-International E-60 Meeting, Atlanta 18 October 2009.

American Center for Life Cycle Assessment

Rita SchenckASTM-International E-60 Meeting,

Atlanta 18 October 2009

Rita Schenck

• Education in Oceanography, specialization in ecotoxicology and biogeochemistry

• Worked as an environmental manager in industry (GE & GTE)

• Represented the US in negotiating the ISO standards on LCA

• Founder & Executive Director of IERE

Institute for Environmental Research and Education

• Environmental non-profit (501c3)• Supports Fact-based Environmental

Decision-Making• Headquartered in Washington State• Diverse funding base (private, public,

business, fee-for-service)• Strongly believes that Business must

drive environmental improvement• Programs in Energy, Agriculture,

transportation and buildings, and ACLCA• Focus on energy independence and green

collar jobs

American Center for Life Cycle Assessment

www.lcacenter.org

• Jointly founded with Mary Ann Curran, Joyce Cooper in 2001

• Professional society for LCA in the USA

• Annual Conference, growing over 30% per year

• Next year in Portland November 2 – 5

• Certification for LCA Professionals

ACLCA Advisory Council

• Paul Bertram, Kingspan• Bob Boughton, State of CA• Michael Deru NREL • Nuno da Silva PE Americas • Roland Geyer UCSB • Tom Gloria Life-Cycle

Services LLC • Anne Landfield Grieg Four

Elements Consulting, LLC • Gary Jakubcin, Owens

Corning

• Mike Levy American Chemistry Council

• Lise Laurin Earthshift• Margaret Mann NREL• H. Scott Matthews Carnegie

Mellon University • Omar Romero ITAM, Mexico • Beverly Sauer Franklin

Associates • Rita Schenck IERE • Wayne Trusty Athena Institute

2006 2007 2008 20090

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Attendance, InLCA Series

2007 2008 20090%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

OtherNGOsGovernmentConsultantsAcademiaIndustry

US59%Canad

a18%

EU16%

Asia/Oceania4%

Latin America3%

LCAIX, Boston 29 September - 2 October

Content of the LCA IX Conference

• Workshops– Land use and biofuels– Water footprinting– Uncertainty analysis

• Meetings of the SETAC-UNEP Life Cycle Initiative

• Classes in carbon footprinting, beginning & advanced LCA

• LCACP Exams

• Sessions on – Industrial applications– Biofuels– Databases– Uncertainty– Social LCA– International Capability

development– Dynamic &Temporal LCA– Agriculture– And many more (about 250

presentations)

LCA X, Portland OR2 – 4 November, 2010

• Expect 450-500 attendees• Expect several classes to be given on

the 1st

• Planning workshops afterwards in partnership with SETAC (their conference is the next week)

• Anticipate more industry participation as the economy improves

ACLCA Conference Sponsors

Life Cycle Assessment Certified Professional

• Started with survey in 2007• Followed ISO 17024 “Conformity

assessment — General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons

• Produces an Entry-level certification• All details of development and use can be

found on the ACLCA websitewww.lcacenter.org/certification

Committee Developing Program

• Gontran Bage • Marc Binder • Amy Costello • Mattias Fischer • Jennifer Gaalswyk • Roland Geyer • Tom Gloria • Annie Grieg• Barbara Hanley • Richard Heinisch• Sebastien Humbert

• Gary Jakubcin • Neils Jungbluth • Mike Levy • Manuele Margni • Sean McGinnis • Michael Richardson• Rita Schenck • Ines Sousa • Sangwon Su • Bo Weidema • Liila Woods

Prerequisites (pick one)

1. A degree in LCA at the undergraduate or graduate level

2. A degree in environmental science or environmental engineering plus an LCA internship

3. LCA skills gained through experience: an LCA that is either critically reviewed or published in a peer reviewed journal

4. College-level class work

• General Chemistry• Statistics• Economics• Systems analysis or systems dynamics• Environmental Toxicology

Plus an internship

LCACP Criteria (Topic of Exam)

• General• Inventory• Impact assessment• Project Management• Data Quality

management

• Post-impact calculations

• Modeling & Software• Statistics• ISO• Ethics

ACLCA ethics statement sworn to by all LCACPs

Format of Exam

• Closed book• Multiple choice• 3.5 hours• 183 questions• Graded correct 1

point, incorrect -.25 points (just like SAT)

COSTS

• Application fee $200– Verifies meeting prerequisites

• Examination fee $295– Pays for taking the test itself

• Maintenance fees $300– Every three years– Requires continuing education

Current and Ongoing Status• Exam given twice• About 40 LCACPs

– http://lcacenter.org/lcacp-dir/ • Three exams tentatively scheduled in 2010

– Delaware– Michigan– Portland

• In discussions to partner with other countries

• In discussions to develop other certifications– Validation for the US LCA database– Interpretation of LCAs

US LCI Database• ACLCA has been the secretariat for the US LCI

database over the last year– Camp Long Declaration

• Goal to develop quality plan and sustainability plan for the database

• Redesigning the database to make it more robust and useful

• First draft for public comment out in a few weeks

Walmart• LCA is the basis of its sustainability

program• Using LCA in Packaging Program now–Data on every single package

• Planning EPD with a sustainability index for all products

*

France

• Grenelle de l’Environnement Law (2007) – omnibus legislation

• Required that all consumer products sold in France have an EPD effective 1/1/11

• Anticipate that the program will spread to all of the EU

• Plastics Europe EPDs already available

Without EPDs, cannot sell to France: likely rest of EU will follow

Japanese LCA Based Laws

• Laws come from MITI (Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry)– Kyoto Protocols– Climate Change– Recycling Oriented Economy– Chemical Integrated Policy (Hazardous Chemical Management)

• Japan’s focus is internal– Development of Life Cycle Inventory (US$11MM)– Recycling in-country– Development of EPDs (Ecoleaf)– Requiring carbon footprint EPDs in 2011-2012

US Policy Use of LCA

• Energy Independence Act of 2007

• Versions of current legislation proposing requirement for LCA

• States and local governments using LCA for policy

• National EPD legislation on the horizon

The Outlook for LCA from Here

• LCAs and EPDs will become the norm – They will be

calculated automatically

– EPDs will remain mostly a B-to-B tool

• LCA certification will become more important

• Countries will develop inter-communicating LCI databases

• LCA consultants will be like outside accountants

• Academic research will be better funded in the USA & Worldwide