1. Introduction

You are required to compete and report on a streamlined comparative LCA, using an existing life cycle inventory, coupled with publicly available emission factors. You will be assigned to compare either:

1. Tesla Model S vs VW Passat or
2. Stainless steel dishwasher vs plastic dishwasher

A country of use will also be assigned (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States)

You will be provided with a basic life cycle inventory of the material inputs, use phase inputs, and end-of-life assumptions in an Excel spreadsheet, together with a reference to the original LCA report.

The Excel spreadsheet also contains details on the required functional units, and other assumptions required for your calculations.

Greenhouse gas emission factors for all inputs are available either in the Excel spreadsheet or in the Inventory of Carbon and Energy.

2. Deliverables

You are to produce a streamlined comparative LCA report, between 8 – 10 pages, including title page and references. The format of the report should include:

• Title page: Include your name, student number, date, the system you studied and the country of study
• Executive summary (1 page maximum)
• Introduction (1 page maximum)
• Methodology, including documentation of methods used, assumptions (including assumed life span), system boundary, and functional unit
  • Emission factors for all material, water and energy inputs, and end-of-life emission factors must be reported in a table, with appropriate units.
  • There should be enough detail for an independent person to repeat your results.
• Results
  • Comparison of life cycle impacts for the two systems. Report on greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO₂-eq) only
  • Results should be reported per functional unit
  • Tabulate your results against your functional unit with the following life cycle stages:
    • Production
    • Use
    • End of life
    • Total life cycle impacts
  • Discussion
    • Discuss the important results.
    • Validate your results against one other similar study, including identifying and describing potential reasons for differences between your results and the identified study. You are encouraged to validate against the study cited in the inventory, and other publicly available studies.
    • Describe issues associated with your modelling (e.g. assumptions, including any proxy materials used in the inventory), and how these may affect the results.
    • Identify other environmental indicators that you think should be considered in a full life cycle assessment, including justification for these.
  • Conclusions and Limitations
  • Reference list (make sure you also include in-text citations)

3. Guidance on modelling and data

It is recommended that you use a spreadsheet for your calculations; LCA software is not required for this assessment task.

All data has been provided. You will need to check the appropriateness of some of the material substitutions made.