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							                      Life Cycle Assessment –News Letter
                                                        No-1 Inaugural Issue                              April,2009

                                               Life cycle                                 with a wealth of data and
                                                                                          methods, but these are
                                               assessment made                            mostly European. PRé has
In this issue:
                                               practical in India                         been funding a stage one
Life cycle assessment made                                                                database        development
practical in India:                                                                       project, and we are now
Mark Goedkoop, MD, Pre Consultants             Environmental policies are                 also looking into how to
bv, Netherlands
                                               more and more based on                     adjust        the     typical
Why Life cycle approach? & What                life cycle thinking, as                    European              impact
is Life cycle assessment: Dr. V.A.             people have come to                        assessment methods. As
Mhaisalkar, Professor, VNIT, Nagpur
                                               recognize     production                   you can read in this
Development of Life Cycle                      processes are part of a                    newsletter, the Indian data
Inventory for India: Krishna Manda             value chain.                               on energy, transport and
Life cycle approach to Waste                                                              steel    will     be   made
                                               Lifecycle thinking means
Management : Dr. A. Nema Of IIT                                                           available soon to SimaPro
Delhi & Ms. Poonam Ahluwalia of TCE.           global      thinking,   as
                                                                                          users.
                                               lifecycles do not stop at
LCA cases : Courtesy lca-centre,
                                               borders. So it is great to                 We have also become
Denmark
                                               see many LCA activities                    aware of the fact we need
Carbon Offsets vs. Renewable                   starting in India. Why                     to     enhance      capacity
energy certificates [ REC]                     would India not develop its                building in India, and the
                                               own skills, why would it                   most effective way to do
We     at    Simapro    software
                                               wait till Europe or Japan                  this is to provide access of
Development India Pvt Ltd                      determine the way life                     SimaPro       software    to
[SIPL] are extremely happy and                 cycles     need     to  be                 students. PRé and SIPL
feel privileged     to present                 assessed, why wait, and                    are now providing free
before you the inaugural issue                 not be more proactive?                     faculty licenses, to all
of „LCA Newsletter‟. Its our                                                              recognized       educational
endeavour      to   keep     you               One great thing I have
                                                                                          institute.    Under     this
informed        about      latest              witnessed       in      the
                                                                                          license each university
developments in the field of                   development       of    the
LCA in India. We also urge you                                                            may distribute SimaPro to
                                               activities of SIPL is the
to actively take part in sharing                                                          its students and staff.
                                               “hands on” mentality. The
your valuable thoughts and                                                                With this investment in
                                               focus is on solutions, not
development taking place in                                                               the Indian market we want
your organisation in the areas                 on discussing problems in
                                                                                          to show our commitment
of life cycle assessment. We                   great detail. Not because
                                                                                          to grow and nurture a
welcome your suggestions to                    there are no problems, but
                                                                                          healthy and active LCA
improve this news letter.                      because we need to tackle
                                                                                          community in India.
                                               them. In this newsletter
Sunil Kumar, Head, SIPL.
                                               you will be able to follow                 We    think    India  can
                                               the              pragmatic                 become a powerhouse in
An advanced two days workshop on
                                               developments you as a                      LCA, as there are so many
“Effective LCA with SimaPro” is being
                                               company      or      as   a                well educated people. We
organized on 11-12th May at Delhi.             researcher      need     in                also       think      this
Please see page no-7 for details or            practice. SIPL supplies the                powerhouse can do great
contact simaproindia@gmail.com or call         most widely used LCA tool                  things in developing a
91-9911921666 .
                                               in the world, named                        more sustainable and very
                                               SimaPro. That tool comes                   competitive India.


     Simapro Software Development India Pvt. Ltd, e-mail: simaproindia@gmail.com; Mobile: 91-9911921666           Page 1
                  Life Cycle Assessment –News Letter
                                                      No-1 Inaugural Issue                                April,2009

Why A Life Cycle                            What is Life Cycle                        Over the period, methods have
                                                                                      been developed for quantifying
Approach?                                    Assessment ?                             product or service impacts on
8                                                                                     different      categories      of
...Awareness that our selections           As     environmental        awareness      environmental problems (such as
are not isolated,                          increases,         industries      and     global warming and resource
but influence a larger system.             businesses are assessing how               depletion. Conducting LCAs for
Buying office paper is a good              their     activities      affect    the    alternative products or services
example. If you knew that it takes         environment. Society has become            allows for improved understanding
24 trees to create 50,000 sheets of        concerned about the issues of              and comparisons to be made.
office paper and 2.3 cubic meters          natural resource depletion and
of landfill space to dispose of it,        environmental degradation. The             Benefits of LCA
you might choose paper made                environmental performance of
from recycled material and elect           products and processes has
to support paper producers that            become a key issue, which is why           LCA can be used by decision-
source from sustainably managed            some companies are investigating           makers to develop strategic
forests.                                   ways to minimize their effects on          policies that can lead to a
… Making choices for the longer            the environment. One such tool is          minimization of the environmental
term       and      considering      all   LCA. This concept considers the
                                                                                      burden resulting from various
environmental and social issues            entire life cycle of a product. Life
associated with those. Life cycle          Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool           stages of product development.
thinking helps us avoid short term         for the systematic evaluation of the
decisions         that      lead     to    environmental aspects of a                 By performing an LCA, analysts
environmental degradation – such           product or service system through          can:
as over-fishing or polluting our air       all stages of its life cycle. The          • Develop a systematic evaluation
with mercury.                              assessment begins with the raw             of    the    environmental      loads
… Improving entire systems, not            materials input, proceeds through          associated with a given product.
single parts of systems, by                the manufacturing processes,               • Analyze the environmental trade-
avoiding decisions that fix one            energy use, maintenance, and               offs associated with one or more
environmental problem but cause            transportation. It considers use,          specific products/processes to
another unexpected or costly               reuse,      and      recycling,    and     help gain stakeholder (state,
environmental          problem    (like    concludes            with         waste    community, etc.) acceptance for a
mitigating      air     pollution   yet    management, the environmental              planned action.
increasing water pollution). Life          impact of packaging, and ultimate          • Quantify environmental releases
cycle thinking helps avoid shifting        disposal of the product. LCA               to air, water, and land in relation to
problems from one life cycle stage         provides an adequate instrument            each life cycle stage and/or major
to another, from one geographic            for      environmental         decision    contributing process.
region to another and from one             support. Life cycle assessment             • Assist in identifying significant
environmental medium (air, water           has proven to be a valuable tool to        shifts in environmental impacts
or soil) to another.                       document        the      environmental     between life cycle stages and
… Informed selections, but not             considerations that need to be part        environmental media.
necessarily „right‟ or „wrong‟ ones.       of     decision-making          towards    • Assess the human and ecological
Life cycle thinking simply helps us        sustainability. A reliable LCA             effects of material consumption
put our decisions in context with          performance is crucial to achieve a        and environmental releases to the
facts from all parts of the system         life-cycle economy. The key                local community, region, and
or life cycle. It means we look for        elements of LCA are given below:           world.
unintentional impacts of our               1. Identifies and quantifies the           • Compare the health and
actions and take some action to            environmental loads involved; e.g.         ecological impacts between two or
prevent those impacts (such as             the energy and raw materials               more rival products/processes or
purchasing office paper from               consumed, the emissions and                identify the impacts of a specific
sustainably managed forests or             wastes generated (Life Cycle               product or process.
coffee certified “fair trade”). For        Inventory Analysis).                       • Identify impacts to one or more
instance, if the shop around the           2.     Evaluates       the     potential   specific environmental areas of
block from your office sells coffee        environmental impacts of these             concern.
grown by workers who receive a             loads      (Life      Cycle      Impact
fair wage on the world market,             Assessment).
cultivated without pesticides that         3. Assesses the options available
harm people planting or harvesting         for reducing these environmental
the beans and from a plantation            impacts
that did not cause an endangered           (Interpretation of Life Cycle
forests to be chopped down, you            Inventory analysis and Impact
might choose to purchase your                                                         Author: Dr. V.A. Mhaisalkar
                                           Assessment).
daily cup from that shop.
                                                                                      Professor ,VNIT, Nagpur
                                           Interest in LCA has increased
                                           manifold in the last two decades.
                                                                                      vasantmhaisalkar@yahoo.com


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                  Life Cycle Assessment –News Letter
                                                       No-1 Inaugural Issue                                          April,2009

  Development of                                                                               What LCI processes have

    Life Cycle                                                                                 been developed for India
                                                                                               so far?
Inventory for India:
                                                                                               Indian specific inventory is being
 A necessary step to                                                                           developed with the support of PRe
support LCA activities                                                                         consultants which has commissioned
                                                                                               LCI projects to promote the use of
       in India                                                                                LCA in India.
Life cycle inventory (LCI) is a crucial
                                                                                               Table 1 show the list of inventory
step in conducting LCAs of products
                                                                                               processes developed for India so far
or services to improve their
                                                                                               and some main reasons for
environmental sustainability. This
                                                                                               differences with EU inventory. Owing
article discusses the status of the        Fig1: Phases of an LCA [ISO-1997]
                                                                                               to the reasons mentioned in the
development of India specific LCI.
                                                                                               table,   emissions     from    Indian
                                           wastes and resources change                         processes significantly differ from
What     is    Life            Cycle       according   to the  employed                        European processes.
                                           technology.
Inventory (LCI)?
                                                                                               This list of Indian specific LCI would
                                           For example, environmental impacts
In order to analyze any product or                                                             increase in the coming months due
                                           associated with electricity use vary                to our continuous efforts in making
process by using LCA, we need to           according to the supply of electricity
know the inputs and outputs related                                                            new inventory for India.
                                           mix (coal, oil, gas, hydro, nuclear
to all the processes involved in           etc) to the grid. Differences in the
making that product during various                                                             This initiative can be sped up if all
                                           core technologies, use of pollution
phases such as extraction of                                                                   Indian stakeholders can effectively
                                           control equipment, their efficiencies,
minerals from mines, transport, and                                                            participate and help us in making
                                           and properties of fuels used render
manufacturing of the product, use,                                                             new sector specific inventory for
                                           varying environmental emissions
disposal of the product and so on.                                                             India. So that every industry sector
                                           from each unit process.
                                                                                               of India can make use of LCA to
LCI is the stage where we collect all                                                          improve        their   environmental
                                           This clearly shows that in analyzing
the inputs and outputs of each unit                                                            performance by reducing GHG
                                           any product or process to improve its               footprints of their products and by
process. Hence LCI forms a very            environmental           performance
crucial phase of LCA since it decides                                                          developing new cost effective green
                                           holistically we need to use LCI of                  strategies.
the quality of LCA[ Fig1]. In LCI, we      that country. This necessitates to
synthesize outputs in terms of             make country specific LCI.
elementary flows i.e emissions,                                                                These India specific inventories are
wastes from each unit process and                                                              available with Simapro LCA software.
inputs i.e material and energy inputs
to each unit process. These                Type          Inventory processes developed          Some reasons for difference
elementary flows from LCI stage are                      for India                              with European inventory
used in the next phase, LCIA, where        Energy        Electricity from                       Properties of fuel, efficiency and
grouping of various elementary flows                           i.          Coal                 type of technology and usage of pollution
to corresponding impact categories                             ii.         Lignite              control equipment.
                                                               iii.        Diesel/oil
i.e CO2 to climate change etc takes
                                                               iv.         Natural gas
place.
                                           Transport     Rail: Electric and Diesel Tractions    Properties of fuel, emission standards,
                                                         Road: Diesel/petrol cars and           average speed and load carried by vehicles.
 Why LCI is needed for                                   commercial vehicles of different
India?                                                   duty
                                           Metals        Iron and Steel                         Mining practices, raw material mix from
                                                                                                domestic and abroad sources, mode
Life cycle inventories are site specific                                                        of transport and distances travelled
due to technologies employed during                                                              by raw materials, efficiency of processes
extraction, production, distribution                                                             such as coking, sintering etc.
and end-of-life phases of products         Table 1. List of processes developed for India and some main reasons for their differences with
vary from country to country. This is      EU inventory
called local technical uniqueness
which decides the quantities of                                                                Author: B. M. Krishna Manda
resources used, emissions generated                                                            M. Tech (IITB), M.SC. (Sweden )
and wastes accumulated during the                                                              Freelance          Environment
transformation of resources in each
                                                                                               Management           consultant.
unit process involved in the entire
life cycle of the product or service.                                                          bmkrishna@gmail.com
Hence       environmental      burdens
associated with these emissions,

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                   Life Cycle Assessment –News Letter
                                                           No-1 Inaugural Issue                                      April,2009
Life cycle approach                         decision aids, the use of multi criteria             incorporating economic, institutional,
                                            methods is a more suitable method                    perceived risk and social issues in
                                            for making decisions in the area of                  the context of complete life cycle of
to waste management                         waste management. While multi-                       waste.
                                            criteria methods can be applied to
                                            any complex decision and can                         Moreover, when to shift from one
Life Cycle Approach (LCA) can be
                                            consider criteria such as risk,                      stage of hierarchy to another, is an
broadly stated as assessment over
                                            economics, safety, etc., depending                   involved        decision     warranting
the life of a product, i.e., from cradle
                                            on what is considered important, the                 inclusion of several case specific
to grave. There is now a widespread
                                            application of LCA methods, by their                 issues. The proposed life cycle based
agreement        amongst        industry,
                                            very nature, is always in the                        multi-objective model can help
government and other stakeholders,
                                            environmental area.                                  decision makers in integrated waste
that     environmental      issue    and
                                                                                                 management. The proposed model
impacts must be considered from a
                                            LCA based Model for                                  has been applied to a case study of
life cycle perspective. Several
                                                                                                 computer waste scenario in Delhi,
researchers have adopted LCA based          Computer     Waste                                   India. A representative diagram
methodology         to      characterize
                                            Management:      An                                  showing the Flow of waste during its
environmental considerations with
                                                                                                 life cycle is shown in Fig 1.
respect to an array of pollutants. LCA      Example
is currently being used in several                                                               The model has been used to
                                            The accelerating pace of waste
countries to evaluate different                                                                  evaluate management cost and
                                            generation from used electrical and
strategies for integrated solid waste                                                            reuse time span or life cycle of
                                            electronic equipment is of growing
management        (ISWM)       and     to                                                        various streams of computer waste
                                            global concern. Within this waste
evaluate treatment options for                                                                   for different objectives of economy,
                                            stream, computer hardware is quite
specific waste fractions. While most                                                             perceived risk and environmental
                                            significant in terms of both volume
life cycle studies have been                                                                     impact. The model results for
                                            and risk to the environmental
comparative        assessments         of                                                        different     scenarios   of   waste
                                            because of the hazardous materials
substitutable products delivering                                                                generation have been analyzed to
                                            within it. The waste management
similar functions (e.g. glass versus                                                             understand the trade-offs between
                                            hierarchy of Prevention, Reuse,
plastic for beverage containers),                                                                cost,      perceived     risk    and
                                            Recycle, treatment and disposal in
there has been a recent trend                                                                    environmental impact. The optimum
                                            Landfill is accepted as a universal
towards the use of LCA in comparing                                                              life cycle of a computer desktop was
                                            guideline for waste management.
alternative production processes.                                                                observed to be shorter by 25% while
                                            The contemporary concept of
                                                                                                 optimizing cost than while optimizing
LCA has been stated as one of the           integrated solid waste management
                                                                                                 impact to the environment or that
tools     in     the   "environmental       is very complex comprising of not
                                                                                                 perceived by public. The model can
management toolbox", which should           only the environmental aspects or
                                                                                                 serve as a decision support tool for
not be used in isolation to decide          the technical aspects of the waste
                                                                                                 determining the optimum life cycle of
issues such as which waste                  management hierarchy, but also
                                                                                                 the waste considering case specific
management option, is to be
                                                                                                 issues.
preferred. LCAs have been mostly                                           Product Manufacture
restricted around environmental
impacts issues, although several
studies      extend    the    lifecycle                                                                                   Material
assessment         methodology       to                                                                                   Recycle
incorporate an economic evaluation
of such issues.
                                                                                                                              Residue
LCA is a comparative tool that                               Reuse                       Reuse    Third/ Fourth
reduces data to mass loading based          Primary User               Second                         User
                                                                                                                           Landfill
                                                                        User
on simplifying assumptions and
subjective judgments and hence it
can add independent effects into an
overall hazard score on a system
wide basis. It requires a risk                                           Life Cycle of Waste
assessment,      an     environmental
impact assessment or both, to
address these issues in a more                                Fig. 1 : Flow of Waste during its Life Cycle
detailed way. Models that consider
                                             Authors : 1. Arvind K. Nema
the full life cycle of products in                                                                      2. Poonam Ahluwalia
deciding on a waste management              Associate Professor
strategy are complex and very                                                                            Manager (Environment)
detailed. A major difficulty associated     Indian Institute of Technology
                                                                                                   TCE Consulting Engineers Limited
with LCA is establishing where the          aknema@iitd.ac.in
boundary is and the definition of the                                                                      poonama@tce.co.in
functional unit.
Moreover,   though  multi-criteria
methods and LCA methods are both

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                   Life Cycle Assessment –News Letter
                                                       No-1 Inaugural Issue                                April,2009
Some of the applications of                  ladders to be welded to the tower.        among other things developed an
LCA in different companies:                  "Each time you weld or drill a hole in    EcoDesign program which considers
                                             a tower, the tower construction is        the life cycle of the whole product in
                                             weakened. To uphold the strength of
Nokia’s effort to fit life cycle                                                       the development phase. When a
                                             the tower, the tower is then made
knowledge into practice                                                                product meets certain requirements
                                             thicker. Avoiding the welding or
                                             drilling, you can save materials on       in the EcoDesign program it might
Nokia has been involved with LCAs                                                      reach a status as “Green Flagship”.
                                             the tower construction and thereby
and developing them since mid
                                             minimize the weight", explains Jakob      For the time being Philips has more
1990s. This firm uses LCAs as a
                                             Larsen.                                   than 160 “Green Flagships” in the
strategic tool to assess the
environmental       impacts      of    its                                             market.
products and conducts periodic LCAs          Vestas has implemented life cycle
whenever      there      is   a     major    assessments as a tool in their            The choice of Philips to focus on
technology shift like from 2G mobile         product development. This is done in      EcoDesign in connection with the
phones to 3G mobile phones. This             order to supplement other decision
                                                                                       development of their products,
organization also has an IPP                 parameters           with          the
(Integrated Product Policy)                  environmental aspects since LCAs on       matches with the coming EuP
approach        to      “reduce       the    systems can give input which are          directive which makes increased
environment impacts from products            relevant    to    the     choice    of    demands to the design of energy–
through their life-cycle, harnessing,        technological and material solutions.     consuming products. The EuP
where possible, a market-driven                                                        directive aims at improving the
approach,           within          which    Vestas operates with a term called        environmental performance of the
competitiveness        concerns       are
                                             "energy-balance".      Energy-balance     energy-consuming products through
integrated”. The company is                  tells how long time the mill is
working on developing suitable                                                         their whole life cycle by integrating
                                             supposed to be running before it has      environmental aspects already in the
methods         for        environmental     produced the amount of energy
assessments of electronic products,                                                    design phase.
                                             required for the entire life cycle of
an example of this being the Key             the mill - from extraction of raw
Environmental               Performance                                                LCA - The best option at
                                             material to final disposal.
Indicators (KEPIs). KEPI consists of a                                                 Novozymes
small      number         of     product
environmental               performance      Vestas' newest windmill (V90-3.0
indicators validated as representative       MW offshore) needs 6.8 months to
of the most important environmental          pay for itself. That is 2.2 months less   By means of gene technology
impacts of an electronic product life        than its predecessor (V80-2.0 MW          Novozymes       produces   enzymes,
cycle, and may provide a good and            offshore). V90-3.0 MW windmill has        which among other things can be
simple assessment tool for use in the        a life span of 20 years after which       used as replacement of hazardous
electronics industry. Nokia also             approx. 80% of the materials from         chemicals in the leather industry.
applies other tools such as the              the windmill can be recycled.
                                                                                       Novozymes , by means of LCA,
Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA)
                                                                                       compares different processes such
and MIPS (Material Input per Service         Philips uses their life cycle
Unit).                                                                                 as tanning of skin by use of
                                             based EcoDesign to develop                chemicals and by use of enzymes.
LCA complements other
decision parameters in the                   products - "Green Flagships"              Instead of asserting that enzymes
development process at                       - that are less damaging to               are better for the environment, they
Vestas.                                      the environment.                          now get some actual figures they
                                                                                       can relate to and show their
When       the     Danish     windmill       Philips produces a number of
                                                                                       customers.
manufacturer Vestas is to develop            electrical and electronic products
new products, focus is directed              which besides causing environmental
towards one thing - reducing the             damage through their energy               The used methods for LCA meet the
material consumption of the mill in                                                    ISO standards and are internationally
                                             consumption, also have other
relation to the energy it produces.                                                    approved. It is no coincidence that it
                                             environmentally        inappropriate      is LCA, which Novozymes uses to
                                             properties, for instance content of       document        the     environmental
Vestas' vision is wind, oil and gas.         inappropriate chemical substances.        advantages       of   the    products.
Being a reliable supplier of wind                                                      “It is a really good tool. And then it
power plants, the idea is that Vestas'                                                 has more strength to use the
                                             Based on the principle, that
customers see wind in the same way                                                     approved systems and methods than
as oil and gas. Here the reduction of        prevention is better than recovery,
                                                                                       to invent a methodology yourself”,
material consumption and especially          Philips has chosen to work on             Karen Oxenboll says.
steel is an important parameter.             minimizing the environmental impact
                                             of their products, processes and
                                                                                       (LCA cases courtesy lca-centre Denmark)
One example is the design of the             services.
towers, in which the use of magnets
has made it unnecessary for the              To meet this challenge Philips has

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                  Life Cycle Assessment –News Letter
                                                    No-1 Inaugural Issue                                 April,2009
                                          displaced    emissions    may    be        representing different environmental
 Carbon Offsets vs.                       disputable or subject to double            attributes and different criteria for
 Renewable energy                         counting. As such, it makes sense to       qualification     and      crediting.
 certificates [ REC]                      use RECs to “neutralize” Scope II
                                          emissions by matching out each             The markets for carbon and clean
                                          “dirty” megawatt of electricity a          energy credits are new and still in
To    understand      the   difference    company uses with a “clean”                the process of being defined. As
between offsets and RECs, it‟s            megawatt represented by a REC.             important decisions are made that
helpful to first take a step back and
                                                                                     have the potential to shape these
understand the three different
“scopes” of emissions that exist in a     Offsets approval require that the          markets, it‟s important that everyone
company‟s carbon footprint:               emission reduction credited be real,       -- from policy makers to your
• Scope I emissions come from on-         permanent, verifiable, and most            average      offset    purchaser    --
site, direct sources: a boiler or a       importantly, additional to a business-     understand       these    fundamental
generator at your office building, for    as-usual scenario. This “additionality”    differences.
example.
                                          requirement is central to ensuring
• Scope II emissions are indirect,                                                            Did you know?
energy-based emissions, such as           that the ton you use as an “offset” is
                                          fully equivalent to the ton you are
                                                                                        • Some predict the average
those from the electricity your                                                         global temperature to rise
company buys to keep the lights on.       emitting in its place. If the offset is
                                                                                        1°Celcius by 2030, due in
• Scope III emissions are all other       not additional, or is only partially          part to the greenhouse
types of indirect emissions sources,      additional to what would have                 gases we have already
including those associated with           happened otherwise, then there is             emitted        into       the
company travel, paper use, etc.
                                          the possibility that your emissions           atmosphere. Our actions
                                          will not actually be completely               today may in fact be
Carbon offsets, also known as VERs                                                      determining the climate for
or CRTs (carbon reduction tons),          neutralized.
                                                                                        2050.
represent the act of reducing,                                                          • The volume of goods and
avoiding, destroying or sequestering      In contrast, RECs are not typically           services we consume and
the equivalent of a ton of                held to „additionality‟ standards, and        discard is offsetting any
greenhouse gas (GHG) in one place         therefore can be supplied from                improvements               in
to “offset” an emission taking place      renewable     resources     that    are       production efficiency that
somewhere else. Offsets generally         business as usual, or only partially          Europeans       and    North
                                          additional to business as usual. In           Americans made over the
represent direct emission reductions                                                    past 20 years.
or sequestration -- for example, the      the U.S., for example, wind farms
                                                                                        • Exposure to hazardous
destruction of methane emitted from       produce more than 20 million                  chemicals       from      the
decaying manure at a dairy farm. So       megawatt hours of electricity per             manufacture,      use,   and
they can be used to offset direct         year, dwarfing the size of the REC            disposal of products has
emissions, like those from Scope I in     market. So even if the REC market             been linked to birth defects
a        company‟s         footprint.     intends to increase the demand for            and cancer in humans, and
                                          renewable energy over time, we can            substances like mercury,
                                          supply a lot of RECs from largely             chlordane, and DDT are
On the other hand, renewable                                                            still   accumulating       in
energy     certificates,  or    RECs,     "business as usual" renewables.
                                                                                        human tissues, in our
represent one megawatt hour (MWh)         Therefore, offsets should be used             planet’s polar regions and
of energy generated from a clean,         rather than RECs to neutralize Scope          other               sensitive
renewable source, such as wind,           III emissions, to ensure that each            ecosystems.
                                          ton       emitted        is      wholly       • In 1999, the average
solar, hydro, or certain types of
                                          counterbalanced by an additional              person used 2.3 hectares
renewable biomass. Since these                                                          of productive land and sea
renewable        energy     resources     emission                    reduction.
                                                                                        – considerably more than
generate little to no carbon as they                                                    1.9 hectares, which is the
produce energy, they represent an         To be clear, the question of offsets          earth’s carrying capacity?
indirect emission reduction, whereby      vs. RECs is not a question of better          Our population and our
a “clean” energy source “offsets” the     or worse. Offsets and RECs are                consumption are growing
demand for “dirty” fossil-fueled          simply different players in a similar         at such a rate that we’ll
energy.                                   game.      Both     represent    the          need 4 planets to sustain
                                          environmental benefits of certain             us by the year 2100.
                                                                                        • The diversity of plants
Any emission reductions that are          actions that can help mitigate
                                                                                        and animals on our planet
made occur at the utility where the       climate change and reduce our                 is decreasing, as is the
fossil-fueled energy generation is        reliance on fossil fuels. RECs and            availability of resources
being displaced, however, which           carbon     offsets,  however,    are          such as timber and fresh
means the ownership rights to the         fundamentally different commodities,          water.


Simapro Software Development India Pvt. Ltd, e-mail: simaproindia@gmail.com; Mobile: 91-9911921666                 Page 6
               Life Cycle Assessment –News Letter
                                                   No-1 Inaugural Issue                              April,2009
   Training Programme on                  Training date : Monday 11th                Tutorial (PDF)at our website
‘Effective LCA with SimaPro’                 May & Tuesday 12th                      www.pre.nl
                                             May, 2009                               The minimum number of
   This comprehensive two                                                            participants for seminar is 10
   days training seminar has              The training will start at 9.30            persons,     the    maximum
   been modelled on the                   AM and end at 4.30 PM in                   number is 15 persons.
   positive    feedback   of              the evening.
   previous seminar and                   Venue : Conference Room I,                   Cancellation policy
   utmost care has been                       YWCA of Delhi, Ashoka
   taken in selection of                      Road, ND-1                             PRé Consultants reserves the
   course module.                          It is conveniently located at             right to make changes in the
                                          Ashoka Road, New Delhi-01                  program, date, location and
    The Tutors : Mark                     near Gurudwara Bangla                      trainers or to cancel the
   Goedkoop, MD, PRé                      Sahib. Telephone: 91-11-                   training if enrolment criteria
Consultants , Netherlands &               23361043.                                  are not met or when
    Dr. Krishna Manda                                                                conditions beyond its control
                                            Participation Fees:                      prevail.
                                          The participation fees for this
  Course Module                           two days training are Rs.                    Information and
                                          10500.00 [Ten thousand five                  registration
1. Concepts and application               hundred including service
of LCA: How to start and                  tax] per person to be paid                 For registration send an e-
conduct LCA's                             through cheque/ DD in                      mail       confirming     your
                                          favour of ‘Simapro Software                participation               to
2. How to build up                        Development India Pvt. Ltd.’               sunil@simaproindia.com and
Inventories: Data collection              payable at Delhi and it                    /or simaproindia@gmail.com
strategies    and      ready              includes     Demo-software,                or send a letter confirming
available databases (such as              training materials, Buffet                 your participation at Simapro
ecoinvent and input-output                lunch and tea/ coffee, but                 Software Development India
data).                                    excluding               travel             Pvt. Ltd, SRC-15C, SHIPRA
                                          arrangements.                              RIVIERA,        INDIRAPURAM,
3. Structure of SimaPro:
                                                                                     GHAZIABAD-201014.         Note
Libraries and Projects.
                                             Conditions                              that your registration is only
4. Modelling a life cycle in                                                         definitive after confirmation
SimaPro: processes and                    Attendees need a basic                     by letter / e-mail and receipt
product     stages,      waste            understanding      of     the              of payment (Cheque/DD For
scenarios and life cycles.                operation    of     Windows                Rs.10500 only in favour of
                                          software. Every participant                Simapro               Software
5.    Impact    assessment:               is urged to come with their                Development India Pvt. Ltd
Theory     behind    impact               laptop so that SimaPro                     payable at New Delhi). If you
assessment methods. How to                training software could be                 have any questions regarding
select the most appropriate               loaded and training be                     the seminar, please contact
method and how to use in                  imparted.                                  Sunil at : 09911921666.
SimaPro.                                  To make sure all participants
                                          have a similar starting level,
6. Analyzing and interpreting             we request participants to go
results: Impact assessment in             through     our      SimaPro
practice

Simapro Software Development India Pvt. Ltd, e-mail: simaproindia@gmail.com; Mobile: 91-9911921666           Page 7

						
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