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A DYNAMIC APPROACH FOR LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT. THE CASE OF DOMESTIC REFRIGERATORS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Federica Cappelletti ,
Marta Rossi  and
Michele Germani
Federica Cappelletti*
Affiliation:
Università Politecnica delle Marche
Marta Rossi
Affiliation:
Università Politecnica delle Marche
Michele Germani
Affiliation:
Università Politecnica delle Marche
*
Cappelletti, Federica, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy, [email protected]

Abstract

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The Life Cycle Assessment is a well-stated methodology whose application has recently spread over a multitude of sectors. Thus the need for very accurate and reliable analysis. The present work investigates how to achieve reliable and faithful results while still maintaining a micro-systemic approach and how to handle the evolution of the real cases through commercial solutions available. The works present an innovative dynamic approach that aims at filling the discrepancy between the attributional Life Cycle Assessment which is focused on the product at the point to appear short-sighted and isolated from the surrounding evolving system and the consequential, which is willing to include the consequences of the evolution of the surrounding system, with increased complexity. The approach is applied to the case of a domestic refrigerator; the application reveals a discrepancy of 16% between the results of the dynamic and attributional analysis and registered doubled environmental impacts than the consequential, carried out with the support of commercial datasets. The approach respects the 5 main criteria for methods in environmental systems analysis, namely feasibility, accuracy, easiness in communication, inspiration, robustness.

Keywords

Research methodologies and methodsSustainabilityProduct modelling / modelsEcodesign
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 131 - 140
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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