New LCA tool for PEF calculations gives new insight into complex supply chains with global sale

Main Presenter:    Anders Koefoed 

Co-Authors:   Morten Gulbrant Sørensen                                               

A web-based LCA tool has been developed which calculates Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)-compliant results for products with long, multi-tier supply chains and global markets. It has taken the company Målbar 5 years to develop the tool, and it is currently being used extensively by producers from mostly the furniture and lighting industry.

Long supply chains with many supplier tiers and complex global distribution chains are especially challenging as they demand handling of extensive transport and End-of-Life calculations. This because production waste will happen in many different countries. Such situations have in LCA studies typically been simplified by an average of European or Global geographical data. This introduces an inaccuracy of the result as Use stage and End-of-Life in different parts of the world can greatly influence the LCA result.
The tool addresses these challenges by coupling companies supply-chain information with its yearly sales records and hereby models transport flows and geographically differentiated Use stage and end-of-life treatments. Together with typically substantial material losses in manufacturing across supplier tiers, it ensures consistency with PEF requirements.

Another challenge addressed by the tool is that many producers are merely brands without own production. Their knowledge of production and LCA is typically limited. Therefore, the presentation, will show how extensive secondary data on most industrial production is applied and how it is translated into a language which the brand understands well enough to select correctly.

The material loss during component production can amount to significant proportions which is often underrated by LCA practitioners and brands. The presentation will show how default amounts of material loss can be applied to the various selectable industrial production processes in case the user has no primary data.

Examples of supply chain insights obtained by users will be presented, showing how systematic identification of environmental impact drivers is highlighted. E.g. company-wide visibility of climate footprint hotspots, resolved down to individual materials, processes, and suppliers. All this supporting prioritization, improvement strategies, and PEF-aligned reporting at scale.
Free licenses of the tool are granted to non-commercial users for collaboration and research into the environmental effect of supply chains.

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