Siti Syuhaida Mohamed Yunus, EIF Project Research Associate
What is a life cycle assessment?
A life cycle assessment (LCA) is the systematic analysis of a product or service’s potential environmental impacts. It typically involves calculating carbon emissions at different stages of a product’s build and use, for example, cradle-to-gate, which covers production to consumer delivery, or cradle-to-grave, which measures from manufacture to disposal. It has evolved from a niche application into a mainstream methodology for guiding environmental decisions related to products, policies, business strategies, and communications.
How are life cycle assessments calculated?
During life cycle analysis, you consider upstream (e.g., suppliers) and downstream (e.g., waste management) processes. The assessment can include production (raw, auxiliary and operating materials; methods), use, and disposal (such as waste incineration). Accuracy will depend on how much information you have about the processes and materials involved in making the product, such as the amount of metal used or the distance it travelled from mine to factory.
The International Organization for Standardization provides guidelines and requirements for conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (ISO 14040 and 14044).3 The main potential environmental impacts of a product according to the ISO framework are:
- climate change (known as Global Warming Potential)
- eutrophication (overfertilization of water that can lead to loss of biodiversity)
- acidification (absorption of carbon dioxide into oceans that acidifies the environment)
- photochemical ozone creation (the generation of ground-level ozone that can be harmful to health)
- particulate matter (pollution in the air that includes dust and soot)
- toxicity impacts (the effects of chemicals on the environment)
There are numerous databases and software packages that provide data on the environmental impacts of different materials, processes, and industries. For example, ecoQuery4 (ecoinvent), Nexus5 (openLCA), and Sphera6 (GaBi).
LCAs and their use in the screen industries
A 2020 study by the British Film Industry and BAFTA sustainability consultancy albert (‘A Screen New Deal’) found that carbon emissions from blockbuster films with budgets over £53.5m average 2,840 tonnes of CO2 per production[i] – equivalent to the amount absorbed by 3,700 acres of forest in a year. Around 51% of the emissions come from transport, with 70% from land travel and the rest by air. The other products and services that the study included in its findings on carbon emissions were production energy utilities, accommodation, fuel, and air travel.[ii]
There are many other applications of LCAs, too, and increasing numbers of researchers are investigating the environmental impacts of the sector at different stages of a film’s life cycle. The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking Project, for example, is interested specifically in props and filmmaking costumes, and aims to compare LCA data on physical versus digital builds. By deploying scientific methods in research on the creative industries, then, we can better understand where and how environmental harm occurs. From the data we create, we can find alternative of working, such as using renewable energy, using recycled materials, and more environmentally friendly technologies.
Notes
[i] British Film Institute, albert, and ARUP, A Screen New Deal: A Route Map to Sustainable Film Production, British Film Institute, 2020, p.4. See https://www.bfi.org.uk/strategy-policy/policy-statements/sustainability
[ii] Ibid, p.12.
3 Matthias Finkbeiner, Atsushi Inaba and Reginald Tan, et al. “The New International Standards for Life Cycle Assessment: ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.” International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 11, no. 2 (2006): 80-85.
4 ecoinvent. “Database.” ecoinvent, 2023. See: https://ecoinvent.org/the-ecoinvent-database/
5 openLCA Nexus. “openLCA Nexus.” Green Delta, 2023. See: https://nexus.openlca.org/
6 Sphera. “Search Managed LCA Content (GaBi).” Sphera, 2023. See: https://sphera.com/product-sustainability-gabi-data-search/