This paper has two purposes: it examines the Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) of a book (with identical contents) published traditionally on paper and as a screen-based book on diskette, concluding that the diskette-held version has far less overall environmental impact than the paper version; and it points out, for those who are approaching LCA for the first time, that although this particular comparison seems to give a clear and valid result, there are none the less a number of difficulties -- both in calculation and in the underlying concepts and assumptions -- in arriving at this conclusion.

Such difficulties include, for instance, assumptions which must be made concerning the lifetime power consumptions of the two versions, which for the electronic book will vary considerably according to the type of personal computer on which it is read and the time employed in doing so; and the need (as in monetary accounting) to decide where particular categories of environmental costs should be properly be attributed for example, what part of the environmental cost of a lithium battery used to power a notebook computer should be attributed to a book being read on it).

The full version of this paper, appropriately, is itself available only as an electronic, screen-based 'book' on diskette.

 Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was established in 1990 by Bill Franklin, with some early work done by Dr Ian Boustead at the Open University in the UK. LCA is a decision support tool which can help design cost-efficient and environmentally less impact products. It is a methodology that involves the quantification of the use of energy and raw materials to air, water and land as well as associated impacts to environmental concerns. Many LCA projects are as a result of top-level decisions being commissioned by the Chairman, with management through a designated project manager and multi-functional team. Projects are often complicated and a key problem is collecting, managing and analysing complex data and information. Due to the growing interest in the area, ISO (International Standards Organisation) are developing a standard on LCA.

The key elements of LCA are:

• scoping/goal definition
• inventory e.g. volume of CO2 emitted by a system
• impact assessment e.g. the potential impact of CO2 on climate change
• interpretation

 A key element of any LCA project is the communications of LCA data to different stakeholder audiences. If the LCA has been used as a platform for corporate environmental reporting then there maybe a need for Peer Review, to provide third party assessment.

 A case study was presented on the redesign of a electrical switch manufacturing by Telemecanique (Schneider Electric Group). There were key motivations to undertaking an LCA relating to the use of cadmium - as a competitive issue- and the impact producer responsibility, particularly in Germany. The use of LCA identified the following design opportunities in the existing product:

• reduction of energy consumption during the 'USE' phase
• reduction of nitrates release
• reduction of cadmium release
• reduction of waste, including hazardous waste

 LCA was then used in relation to the development of a new switch, indicating the compatibility with eco-design/DfE. There are further developments planned- with the aim of:

• phasing out hazardous substances
• designing products to ease disassembley
• designing products for easy reuse, recycling or incineration with heat recovery

  Ecobilan are in the process of developing an eco-design/DfE tool for designers - EIME (Environmental Impact Evaluation)- which aims to take into account the whole lifecycle of the product. The key aim of the tool is to improve the environmental performance of electronic and electrical equipment. EIME is being trialed with IBM, Schneider Electric, Thomson and Legrand.

Discussion:

• It is essential to have top level commitment and have clear objectives?
• There is an emerging concept of two different levels of LCA:

#1 "where are we now?"
#2 opportunities

• cost savings
• innovative solutions
• elimination of environmental problems
• hazardous materials
• energy inefficient components
• competitive advantage

• How do you manage and measure the LCA project? should you build the expertise internally? or should you use external expertise?
• Who should be included in the project team? accountant? environmental manager?
• It is important to clearly define the boundaries of the LCA project? what do you screen in? what do you screen out?
• A key issue is how you manage information overload.
• It is essential to use appropriate statistical tools to analyse quantitative data generated through the LCA e.g. sensitivity analysis.
• There is a need to question
  
• what is behind the data?
• how was it collected?
• what is the source of the data?
• are there variations of measurement by country?
• are we ALL using the same metrics?
  
• A key element is to develop an appropriate comparative unit of measurement i.e. environmental load unit
• Due to the nature of the issues there is a need to add qualitative elements to environmental data i.e. how important is climate change in relation to the LCA? how do we make that judgement? should we use Delphi approach bringing together a range of experts?
• There will be a movement from assessing the environmental management aspects of suppliers, to the assessment of their products. Should high priority suppliers be required to undertake LCA's?
• There appears to have been relatively little work done of extracting targeted environmental data/information for internal environmental 'issue' champions i.e. waste, energy, etc.