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DO BIO-BASED PRODUCTS MOVE US TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY? A LOOK AT THREE USEPA CASE STUDIES
Citation:
Curran*, M A. DO BIO-BASED PRODUCTS MOVE US TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY? A LOOK AT THREE USEPA CASE STUDIES. Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy 22(4):277-292, (2003).
Description:
Do Bio-Based Products Move Us Toward Sustainability? A Look at Three Case Studies within the US EPA
Mary Am Curran
US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research & Development, Cincinnati, OH 45268; curran.maryann@epagov
Abstract The movement to buy "environmentally-friendly" products was recently reinvigorated by the sigiiing 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 and shows how complex the choices 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 (LCL4,). The first example is from the results of an effort by USEPA's Office of Research & Development (ORD) called the Framework for Responsible Environmental Decision-Making (FRED). The FRED framework uses 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, tmmfomier oil and hard surface cleaner alternatives 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 tradeoffs, thereby providing additional information to support decision-making.