Abstract
This paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) for the industrial Light Emitting Diode (LED) luminaire by using Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology. The assessment is carried out for raw material, assembly, distribution, use and end of life (EoL) stages, and all upstream emissions are considered. The analysis results show that the electricity consumption in use stage is the significant contributor for the overall impacts. Environmental benefits are identified from the EoL scenario analysis due to the adopted WEEE treatments. Electricity mix for the UK and other European countries are modelled for the comparison study that shows the use of renewable resources for electricity generation has lower overall impacts from the PEF view, but the impact towards land use that is caused by using biomass energy source for electricity production is noticeable, which is barely mentioned in the existing LCA studies. This research has made the following original contributions: 1) it is the first study examining the LED luminaire environmental performance by using the PEF methodology; 2) the electricity mix modelling for the European countries in the comparison study reveals the possible trade-off between using renewable/non-renewable resources for the electricity generation, which would be beneficial for further policy development for lighting and energy sectors; 3) the availability demonstration of the current PEF database for luminaires, and the reported analysis results would assist future similar LCA studies.
Highlights
Lighting is responsible for about 15% of global electricity consumption and 4.6% of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (UNEP, 2017)
While assessing the impact of generating the same amount of electricity in the EU based on the EU average energy source proportion as defined in the product environmental footprint (PEF) database (i.e. 2012 datasets), the results show that the absolute value for climate change fossil is 0.71789 kg, which means generating the same amount of electricity in China and the EU, the climate change fossil impact in China would be approximately 2.26 times than that in the EU, due to the high proportion of traditional petroleum resources for electricity generation in China compared to the counterpart in the EU
This study reports the assessment results of an industrial luminaire by using PEF methodology from the life cycle perspective, taking into account all the stage of the luminaire life cycle
Summary
Lighting is responsible for about 15% of global electricity consumption and 4.6% of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (UNEP, 2017). All lighting products have to comply with this new action in the EU member states, the energy and environmental benefits of LED technologies have been proven but insisting sustainable luminaire development is still crucial for reducing emissions and increase energy efficiency, examining its performance throughout life cycle perspective. In 2013, the European Commission proposed a multi-standard indicator under the Single Market for Green Products Initiative (European Commission, 2013b), which is named as product environmental footprint (PEF) and aims to measure the environmental performance of a product throughout life cycle (Manfredi et al, 2012; Lehmann et al, 2016; Wu and Su, 2020). Common methods to measure and communicate the life cycle environmental performances for PEF and OEF (Organization Environmental Footprint) have been defined in a specific EU recommendation (European Commission, 2013a). PEF and OEF pilots have been conducted by the European Commission during 2013e2016, which includes 26 pilots covering different type of product or sectors
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