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DO BIO-BASED PRODUCTS MOVE US TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY? A LOOK AT THREE CASE STUDIES
Citation:
Curran*, M A. DO BIO-BASED PRODUCTS MOVE US TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY? A LOOK AT THREE CASE STUDIES. Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy. American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, NY, 22(4):277-292, (2003).
Description:
The movement to buy "environmentally-friendly" products was recently reinvigorated by the signing of the 2002 Farm Act that requires all federal agencies to give preference to products that are made (in whole or significant part) from bio-based material. This paper addresses the reality behind widely held beliefs regarding "green" issues showing how complex the choice among alternative products can be. Examples are presented in which the USEPA used different approaches, all based on life cycle assessment (LCA), to evaluate the environmental trade-offs of bio-based alternatives. These examples incorporate various combinations of life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). The first example is from the results of an effort by USEPA's Office of Research & Development (ORD) called the Framework for Responsible Decision-Making (FRED). The FRED framework used a set of impact categories in an LCIA. Motor oil, wall insulation, and asphalt coating alternatives were studied using the FRED approach. The second example is a pilot study in the USEPA's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) program. Using a mix of LCI and LCIA, transformer oil and hard surface cleaner alernatives were evaluated. Finally, the preliminary LCI results of another ORD effort that compares fuel additives (ethanol and MTBE) are presented. These examples demonstrate that the move to biobased products is not an across-the-board "win" for the environment. While LCA's cannot at this time provide a definitive answer as to the preferability of bio-based products, it is the best tool to identify environmental trade-offs, thereby providing additional information to support decision-making.