Life cycle analysis is a term used to explain how much energy is used up creating, using and throwing away something.  In the case of your business, it will be the product you make and sell to customers.  By explaining life cycle analysis, this article will help you to understand the energy processes involved in your product design and how you can reduce the energy and carbon inputs of your product.

Life Cycle Analysis:  Four Stages

There are four stages in the life cycle of your product.  Some stages will be bigger than others, but this is dependent on your individual product.  All products have varying life cycles.  The four stages are set out below:

1. The first stage is the amount of energy used to make raw materials.  Raw materials are minerals which come out of the ground.  They need processing to make them into materials such as glass, plastic and metal.  Energy is spent in processing and in the transportation of the raw material to the processor.

2. The second stage is the manufacture of your product from these raw materials.  The energy used in manufacturing can be from heating, lighting, packaging and transport.

3. The third stage is the use of the product by the consumer.  If the product is an electrical item or has an engine, it is likely to use significant amounts of energy in its lifetime.

4. The fourth stage is what happens to the product when it is no longer used and is thrown away as waste.  The energy costs come from landfill, recycling and cleaning up pollution from the product.

The most important stage

The most important stage for your product is the one which uses the most energy.  It is this stage where energy savings can usually be made when redesigning your product.

Examples of product life cycles and energy savings

• Levi Strauss and Co. found that the third ‘use’ stage had the most potential for energy savings.  They found that ‘consumers can reduce the full lifecycle climate change impact of their jeans by up to 50% just by line drying and washing them in cold water’ [1].
• The California Redwood Association found that the ‘raw material’ stage makes a difference to energy savings.  It claims that “Across the board, wood outperforms plastics, steel and concrete. Using concrete instead of wood, for example, can generate 80 percent more greenhouse gases and require about 40 percent more energy” [2].
• Daylesford Organic redesigned their milk product by taking into account the whole life cycle of the packaging.  They are using a lightweight pouch made mainly from chalk to hold the milk.  This has made energy savings in the ‘manufacture’ and ‘waste’ stages.  “According to the manufacturers, the pouch material uses less energy and resources in its production than conventional plastic, causes less air and water pollution, and creates fewer waste by-products” [3].

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References

[1] http://www.levistrauss.com/sustainability/product/life-cycle-jean

[2] http://www.calredwood.org/Green+Living/Life+Cycle+Assessment.htm

[3] http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=jusGScfbhRU%3d&tabid=353