ENG 519 Sustainability 2023 Summer
Group assignment (Four students per group)
Life Cycle Assessment
An internationally renowned chocolate company in Australia is seeking your service to find which product lines cause the most environmental impact. You are to carry out a complete Life Cycle Assessment per ISO 14040 using OpenLCA software for your project.
Product line includes:
- 99% coca Extreme dark chocolate bar
- 70% coca Dark chocolate bar
- 35% coca Milk Chocolate bar
The primary goal is to quantify the environmental impacts of chocolate produced and consumed in Australia. A further aim is to identify the supply chain’s environmental hotspots and improvement opportunities.
By conducting the LCA, you will be able to quantify which product(s) causes the most significant environmental impact.
After identifying the top three processes from the Cradle to Grave scenario, you recommend minimizing the impact by exploring which life cycle processes could be rectified.
The company request your economic (business consideration) and sustainable benefits recommendations by extending their processes from Cradle to Cradle. (hints: 1. you will need to identify the next phase of the end process that could be reused in another and/or within their industries. 2. By referencing the ‘consumer’ expectation in the class to deduce the most desirable production proposal).
This LCA project involves research and assumptions throughout to complete each phase.
Part A (10%) Due date week 3 Friday 5pm Darwin time
First phase (goal and scope) of LCA presented in a one page infographic.
Items to include
- Goal and scope (Functional units and scope)
System modelling (you are welcome to be using Vensim software (Freeware)
- Life cycle processes of each product line (Cradle to grave) Life cycle processes of each product line (Cradle to Cradle)
Part B (30%) Due date week 12 Friday 5pm Darwin time
- The complete LCA report (no more than 20 pages (1.5 spaces and 12 font size) and appendix no more than 10 pages summary of outputs) with Cradle to Grave and Cradle to Cradle scenarios.
- A 10 min group presentation on the LCA project (week 12 Wednesday 10-12)
Marking Criteria:
Part A – one page of infographics including clear items (10 marks)
- Goal and scope (20%)
- System modelling (30%)
- Life cycle processes (Cradle to grave) (20%)
- Life cycle processes (Cradle to Cradle) (20%)
- Progress oral presentation (workshop) (10%)
Part B Complete LCA report and final presentation (30 marks)
The content must include the following key phases of LCA for both report and presentation. You are required to provide and structure your subheadings. Your report must be within page limit and professionally presented.
Total marks (30 Marks)
- Goal and Scope (10%)
- Inventory analysis (C2G and C2C) (25%)
- Impact assessment (C2G and C2C) (25%)
- Interpretation (C2G and C2C + renewables) (30%)
- Oral presentation (10%) (week 12 Lecture 10 – 12noon)