Questions 1. Consider a computer from the following perspectives:

a computer user

A computer user uses personal computer every day and consume a lot of energy in form of electricity. The computer omit a lot of radiation and heat while using that is not good for the environment.  In the IT buildings the use of computer is higher that result is massive radiation. The impact can be reduce by using indoor plants in the builds and offices to reduce radiation, the desktop use can also put cactus beside the computer that absorb most of heat.

a computer manufacturer

During the stage of computer manufacturing, a lot of material combine together that also required a lot of energy use. For effective process of LCA in the manufacturing stages can be improved by enhance the energy efficiency during manufacturing of glass and decreases in content of lead. Some of the materials, for example sulfur hexafluoride, in the manufacturing process is of concern because of its influence to the global warming, and must be focus in an overall computer life cycle improvement assessment (Rivm.nl, 2011).

C.    a cloud computing company housing data farms (ex. Dropbox, Google, etc.)

Cloud computing products like Dropbox, Google, etc. can decrease their overall consumption of energy, lesser their emissions of carbon and cut their main IT resources expenditure. It can be said that the use of cloud computing services by companies can reduce the overall impact on environment because it is a good solution to reduce the energy consumption.

D.    a printer manufacturer

It is obvious that printer is a byproduct of computer cannot work without using computer. The computer eventually responsible for all devices like printer, scanner that work by using the computer. The use of printer through computer further increase the overall impact of computer on environment that also include paper and energy consumption. The best quality of computer is that it keep data in soft copies and reduce the paper consumption, the use of printer minus this quality of computer (Rivm.nl, 2011).

E.     a computer recycler/electronic waste processer

Computer electronic waste processer is also required energy consumption but the good thing is that the material not need to be made from initial stage and a lot of waste can be reduced in doing this. All in all it is a good solution to reduce the waste and overall energy consumption.

Questions 2. Select a product or activity on which to perform a comparative LCA.

a.      What is the product or activity?

Today, plastic shopping bags are hot topic as they are causing massive trash and result in plastic pollution both in land and oceans. In order to save the planet and ocean creatures it is very important to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags and go for other alternatives that are more ecofriendly (Unruh, 2015).

b.      What alternatives are being considered?

There are many alternatives of plastic shopping bags have introduced in the market, which are made of ecofriendly material. Some of the examples of the alternatives are Canvas bags made of cotton, biodegradable material bags, Juco bags that are beneficial for environment (Unruh, 2015).

c.       What are the major environmental concerns you are aware of?

The use of plastic shopping bags is of great concern because its impact on the environment is very bad. It is true that plastic never goes away it eventually thrown in to Oceans and can never disposed. According to many environmental sciences research, it is known that the plastics in many forms is ruining the life in Oceans and generating massive trash all over the world every day.

d.      How is the product and its alternatives made?

The plastic shopping bags are made of plastic that can never be disposed and cause land and ocean pollution. A lot of energy is consumed while making the plastic bags. The alternatives like are Canvas bags, biodegradable material bags, Juco bags are made of materials that is eco-friendly and disposable under natural circumstances. Although some of energy also consume but they are reusable.

e.       How is it used?

The plastic shopping bags are mostly used by shopping malls and local shops as a carrier of shopping material for their customers.

f.        How is it disposed of?

It is harsh reality that anything including plastic bags can never be disposed under natural circumstances. Soil, water nothing can dispose a plastic and natural habitats suffer a lot because of non-disposable properties of plastic.

Questions 3. Problem exercise #2 150

Service 1: Energy (Electricity) Service

The ways of delivering this service are (Unruh, 2015):

·         Solar Power

·         Burning Fossil Fuels

·         Hydro Electrical Power

Service 2: Data Storage Services

The ways of delivering this service are:

·         Paper

·         Computer files

·         Cloud computer storage

Questions 4.

Dr. Jeremiah Johnson, Association Professor of Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Seminars Summary:

It is describe in the seminar that there are there factors that have an impact of the whole life cycle of a product, that are economy, society and environment. The sustainability of any product is lies on the core of economy, society and environment. In this video, an example of electrical car and internal combustion engine is presented to understand that which one of them is more sustainability as far as the impact on the environment, economy and society is concern. There is a question raise that which car is better for the environment. In order to answer this question it is very important to know that what is we meant by “better for the environment”. It is obvious that the car that have more efficient and optimistic life cycle would be better for the environment.

There are many factors includes in the whole life cycle of car for example material processing, manufacturing and eventually using the product. The framework of life cycle assessment is also described in this video that include goals and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation.  In the goals of the LCA includes, intended application, objectives of study, audience and results. Back to the performances of both car there is a need to compare the functions of cars for ex ample by observing the traveler per mile. The function unit of the car is said to be the one unit of service provided that is also important to compare the overall environmental performances of the products.

There are some of the midpoint impact categories for example climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, smog, human toxicity, eco-toxicity, and eutrophication.  In the impact assessment there are three phases one is emissions, second impacts and third is damages. There is a direct relationship between the inventory results, midpoints indicators and endpoint indicators. The factors of uncertainty and variability in this whole process are quantitative that include the review of the source, semi- quantitative that includes significant heuristics, pedigree matrix approach and quantitative that includes confidence intervals and analysis of the sensitivity.

 There are many of the studies are there regarding the performance of car depending on its functionality and impact on the environment. During the process of LCA the performance of the cars can be improved by change EV with clean grid, improve the efficiency of fuels and reduce the overall travelled miles of the vehicles. In this video there is a complete discussion on the functionality and impact of using both of cars from manufacturing and material processing stage to the phase of use. It is quite clear that the impact on the environment is not just about the use of car but the manufacturing and production process are also include in the impact of that car. So the matter is not just to make the use of car more sustainable but it is also very important to use sustainable methods while manufacturing and producing the cars.

Questions 5.

Dr. Steve Skerlos, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Seminars Summary:

 In this video, there is a discussion about the sustainability and its importance for humans and planet. According to the Sweden scientist the sustainability depends on the population and GDP. The planet, people and their prosperity are interrelated terms. The environmental impact of human activities directly have an impact on planet and people and prosperity very much depends on the environmental situations. As far as the sustainability of environment is concern there are three bottom line that are economic prosperity, social responsibility and environmental stewardship. One of the basic rule of sustainability of the environment that is very encourages is 3Rs reduce, recycle and reuse.

The first things is to reduce the use of anything that eventually cause harm to the environment. One of the best thing to evaluate the whole environment is the activity or product holistically throughout its life cycle. The first stage of the product life cycle is the raw material acquisition that include the overall processing of the raw material need to make a particular product. After the material processing stage there is a stage of manufacturing that includes the material manufacturing, fabrication of product and the end their packaging. After the manufacturing process the product is complete and ready to use that followed by maintenance and reducing process of the product at the final stage.

There are many of the factors involve in the whole life cycle of a product that somehow have an impact on the environment. There is a sub system that is the core of product life cycle. Energy, water and raw or intermediate material ate the inputs of the subsystems and products and co-products are the outputs of the sub systems. Other than the main products and output of the subsystem there are some other outputs including atmospheric emissions, solid wastes and water wastes that have a negative impact on the environment. There is a direct relationship between the inventory results, midpoints indicators and endpoint indicators. In the impact assessment there are three phases one is emissions, second impacts and third is damages.

All of the emission and other effect of the product is further categorized into the three types of impacts that are global impact that includes global warming, ozone depletion, regional impacts includes acidification, human toxicity and eco toxicity and local impacts that includes human toxicity, eco toxicity, hazardous waste  and nuclear waste.

 It is now quite clear that the life cycle assessment is not the same thing as the sustainability assessment. It is also an important question to know why the people are buying aluminum intensive vehicles and what its overall impact on the environment is and what is the best way to improve the sustainability of environment.  The consequential life cycle of the product is fits inside the economic prosperity and environmental stewardship. So it may be said that in order to make the sustainable design that are economically viable and it also reduce the negative environmental and social impact.

References Civil and Environmental Engineering

Rivm.nl. (2011, MAY 23). What is LCA? Retrieved from https://www.rivm.nl/en/life-cycle-assessment-lca/what-is-lca

Unruh, G. (2015, September 22). Strategic Sustainability Uses of Life-Cycle Analysis. Retrieved from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/strategic-sustainability-uses-of-life-cycle-analysis/