A new PVC sustainability tool which aims to help the producers of PVC products to reduce their environmental footprint has been launched.
Brussels, 03 May 2010 - The sustainability software, which is available online for free at http://www.ccalc.org.uk/, assesses the environmental and economic sustainability of PVC products and processes, enabling industry specialists and non-specialists to quickly estimate the costs, both to the planet and to their business.
The methodology is simple: users supply data on the consumption of raw materials, energy and emissions to air, water and solid waste. Based on this information, the tool calculates the impact of PVC production under six distinct categories; carbon footprint (global warming potential); acidification potential; eutrophication potential; ozone layer depletion potential; photochemical (summer) smog; and human toxicity potential. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results are calculated using the ISO 14044 LCA methodology.
The PVC software is the forerunner of a more generic tool, known as Carbon Calculations over the Life Cycle of Industrial Activities (CCaLC), which is being developed to cover other sectors. The project is led by Adisa Azapagic, Professor of Sustainable Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester. Professor Azapagic notes, “PVC is an important material but has been criticised by opponents for a range of sustainability issues. Not only will this tool help the PVC industry to estimate and ultimately reduce its environmental impacts, it will also help us to understand at what cost this may be achieved by calculating ‘value added’ along the supply chains.”
Professor Azapagic stresses that this tool has been developed using real examples, which are included in the software, and adds that if data is available for other materials, a ‘sustainability comparison’ could be made, “PVC window frames can be compared to the wood window frames, if the data for wood frames has also been assessed and analysed, however this tool focuses solely on PVC.” Once estimates are calculated, users can also view ‘hot spots’ in the system where economic and environmental costs could be reduced and carry out a ‘what if’ scenario analysis to see how the results vary depending on data input.
The tool was developed by a research group led by Professor Azapagic at the University of Manchester with the support of Ineos Chlor Vinyls, Loughborough University, ECOPLAS and Polyflor, as part of the EPSRC-funded project “Improving Sustainability of PVC through Novel Materials, Processes and Life Cycle Methodologies”. The tool is based in Microsoft Excel and is available to download at: http://www.ccalc.org.uk/
