Ambiguities in Decision-Oriented Life Cycle Inventories: The Role of Mental Models and Values

ISBN-13: 9781402032530 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 400 str.

Frank Werner

Opis

In an environmental life cycle assessment of products (LCA), an unambiguous, scientifically based, objective attribution of material and energy flows to a product is pure fiction. This is due to the fundamental epistemological conditions of LCA as a modelling process under the complexity of our socio-economic system. Instead, various mental models and values guide this attribution. This leads to a functional model in a specific decision situation. This book shows for the first time how mental models and values influence this attribution in the life cycle inventory step of LCA. One of the key findings is that the different management rules for a sustainable use of materials must be taken into account for the attribution of material and energy flows to a product. Otherwise, improvement options recommended by an LCA might turn out to even worsen the environmental situation if reassessed from a meta-perspective. As a consequence of this book, the claim of unambiguitiy ( objectivity ) of the life cycle inventory must be abandoned. A group-model building process for LCA is developed that allows one to grasp the decision makers' mental models and values in the inventory analysis on a case- and situation-specific basis. Only by this, LCA results will become relevant in a decision-making process. Two case studies on the modelling of recycling and other end-of-life options of aluminium windows and beech wood railway sleepers in LCA complement the methodological part. This book is a must have for researchers, consultants and practitioners in the fields of decision-oriented life cycle assessment as well as product-related environmental management, modelling and decision-making."

Spis treści

The Functionalistic Perspective of LCA Modelling and Application - a Foreword Part I: Introduction 1. Introduction Part II: Requirements of Product Systems and Their LCIs in Product-Related Decision-Making 2. LCA as Method and its Modelling Characteristics 3. Requirements of LCIs in Product Design-Related Decision-Making Part III: Mental Models and Value Choices in the Life Cycle Inventory Analysis 4. Introduction 5. Analysis of ISO 14041 for Mental Models and Values 6. Allocation Procedures for Open-loop Recycling 7. The Decision-Maker’s Mental Models and Values in Inventory Analysis Case study I: Development of the Value-Corrected Substitution for Aluminium Windows 8. Introduction 9. Material and Market Characteristics of Aluminium 10. Development of the Value-Corrected Substitution for Aluminium Windows 11. Selected Allocation Procedures for Comparison 12. Application in an LCA of Aluminium Windows 13. Methodological Conclusions Case Study II: Modelling End-of-Life Options for Beech Wood Railway Sleepers 14. Introduction 15. Material and Market Characteristics of Wood 16. Sustainable Wood Flow Management 17. Wood Processing Chain and Attribution in LCA 18. Modelling End-of-Life Options of Beech Wood Railway Sleepers 19. Conclusions Part VI: Conclusions and Outlook 20. Review of the Theses 21. Consequences for LCA as a Decision Support Tool 22. Consequences for a Revision of ISO/EN 14041 23. Toward a Group-Model Building Process in LCA 24. Future Research Needs