Life Cycle Assessment
To obtain certification under Greenhouse Friendly™, 100% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the life cycle of your product or service must be offset through approved greenhouse gas abatement measures. This abatement can be generated internally or by an abatement project external to your company.
A comprehensive greenhouse gas Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) needs to be undertaken to determine the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to your product or service.
The ISO 14000 Family of International Standards provide the general framework, principles and requirements for conducting and reporting your LCA.
A Greenhouse Friendly™ LCA for your product or service will need to include:
- Scope - Provide a clear statement on the scope of the LCA (include any limitations that may affect its validity). Describe the features and functions of the product or service that will undergo assessment. Assess the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with your product or service across all relevant stages (production, delivery, use and disposal) of the life cycle. Clearly define the system boundaries for your product or service.
- Aspects of energy use to be considered - Consider all practical aspects of energy use in the life cycle of your product or service, e.g. energy used in feedstock materials, energy used to manufacture, transport and package a product, energy used in the operation of the product, etc.
- Emission factors - Apply current emission factors relevant to the life cycle of your product or service using the AGO Factors and Methods Workbook. If emission factors are not available in the Workbook then other emission factors may be used subject to approval from the Australian Greenhouse Office.
- Inventory analysis - Outline the data collection and calculation procedures you will use to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your product or service.
- Emissions attributable to each stage of the life cycle - Convert all your energy consumption and other activity data into quantities of carbon dioxide equivalent to estimate the total attributable emissions for the full greenhouse gas life cycle of the product or service.
Life Cycle Assessment Panel
You can also contact a member of the Greenhouse Friendly™ Life Cycle Assessment Panel, which the Australian Greenhouse Office has established for Greenhouse Friendly™ applicants and participants seeking LCA expertise.
| Life Cycle Assessment Panel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energetics | Mary Stewart | 02 9929 3911 stewartm@energetics.com.au |
Level 7, 132 Arthur Street North Sydney NSW | |
| JTP Australia Pty Ltd | Jean Wiegard Director | 03 9817 2042 0429 378 323 jtp-aust@bigpond.net.au |
1 Edmond Street BALWYN VIC 3103 | |
| Life Cycle Strategies Pty Ltd | Tim Grant Director | 03 9925 3490 tim@lifecycles.com.au tim.grant@rmit.edu.au |
2 Allowah Terrace RICHMOND VIC 3121 | |
| Syneca Consulting Pty Ltd | Ignatius Verbeek Director | 0413 082 593 ignatiusverbeek@syneca.com.au |
44 Seventh Street North Lambton NSW 2299 | |
For more information
The Greenhouse Friendly™ Guidelines provide more information on the LCA requirements for a product or service to be certified under Greenhouse Friendly™.
- Greenhouse Friendly™ Guidelines - refer to Step 2 of Part One, and Annex 1: Guidance on Preparing LCA Reports
