A STRUCTURED
APPROACH TO LIFE
CYCLE ENGINEERING
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING
T2 - 2024
Prof Sami Kara
S.Kara@unsw.edu.au
• Class matters and questions!!
• Recapping of week 1
• Week 2 lecture
Today’s Lecture
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Week 1: Key points
• Sustainability definition and models:
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Week 1: Key points
Sustainable
Development
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Three-Legged Chair
Model
Triple Bottom Line
Model Bio-economic
Model
• Sustainability definition and models:
•Reflects the co-
dependency reality
•Economy and society
only exist within
environment
•One dimension(s) can
be represented bigger
hence more important
•Leads to trade-off
•Creates a perception that
economic, environmental, and
social legs look separate and
equal.
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Sustainability is an absolute term, not relative
Week 1: Key Points
•Necessity of life cycle thinking and hence engineering of whole product
life cycle (Life Cycle Engineering)
Aim: Reducing Environmental Impact as a society and staying within
planetary boundaries
Hauschild, M ., Herrmann, C., Kara, S., 2017, An Integrated Framework for Life Cycle Engineering, Procedia CIRP.
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Week 1 Key Points: Life Cycle Engineering Framework
Industrial Ecology
Life Cycle Management
Life Cycle Engineering
After Sales-/
Service
Engineering
Reuse,
Remanufacturing,
Recycling, Disposal
Raw
Materials
Extraction
Manufacturing
IMPACT
POPULATION
AFFLUENCE
TECHNOLOGY
Top-Down
Bottom-Up
Civilization Span
Scope of Temporal Concern
Single Product Life Cycle
Multi Product Life Cycle
Earth‘s Life
Support System
Societies
Economies
X Companies
One Company
X Products
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Product Development
One
Product
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P
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Methods and Tools to support
Life Cycle Engineering
Sustainable Development
Sustainability
Hauschild, M., Herrmann, C., Kara, S. (2017), “An Integrated Framework for Life Cycle Engineering, Procedia CIRP.
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Product life cycles, background and foreground systems
• Structured approach to life cycle engineering (LCE)
• Environmental target setting
• LCE mitigation strategies and technology solutions
Week 2 Learning Outcomes
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Engineering activities with a life cycle view and thinking that aim
to fulfil the needs of both present and future generation without
exceeding the boundaries of Earth’s life support system as
defined by the planetary boundaries.
Revisiting Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Definition*
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
*Kara, S., Hauschild, M., Herrmann, C., (2018), Target Driven Life Cycle Engineering: Staying within the Planetary Boundaries”, Procedia CIRP, Vol 60, pp. 3-10.
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
ImpactProduct = Allowed Impact / Volume
Target Setting for Product(s)
Carrying
capacities
1
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
ImpactProduct = Allowed Impact / Volume
Target Setting for Product(s)
Carrying
capacities
1
Techno-Environmental
Evaluation (Pb-LCA)
2
Life Cycle
Impact
Assessment
Goal and
Scope
Definition
Life Cycle
Inventory
Analysis
Interpretation
Carrying
Capacity /
Product
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
ImpactProduct = Allowed Impact / Volume
Target Setting for Product(s)
Carrying
capacities
1
Techno-Environmental
Evaluation (Pb-LCA)
2
Life Cycle
Impact
Assessment
Goal and
Scope
Definition
Life Cycle
Inventory
Analysis
Interpretation
Carrying
Capacity /
Product
Target Fulfillment: Absolute Sustainability Ratio
(ASR = EIas-is/EIAllocated SOS)
3
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
ImpactProduct = Allowed Impact / Volume
Target Setting for Product(s)
Carrying
capacities
1
Techno-Environmental
Evaluation (Pb-LCA)
2
Life Cycle
Impact
Assessment
Goal and
Scope
Definition
Life Cycle
Inventory
Analysis
Interpretation
Carrying
Capacity /
Product
Target Fulfillment: Absolute Sustainability Ratio
(ASR = EIas-is/EIAllocated SOS)
3
Environmental Focusing
4
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
ImpactProduct = Allowed Impact / Volume
Target Setting for Product(s)
Carrying
capacities
1
Techno-Environmental
Evaluation (Pb-LCA)
2
Life Cycle
Impact
Assessment
Goal and
Scope
Definition
Life Cycle
Inventory
Analysis
Interpretation
Carrying
Capacity /
Product
Target Fulfillment: Absolute Sustainability Ratio
(ASR = EIas-is/EIAllocated SOS)
3
Environmental Focusing
4
Engineering
Mitigation Options
Life Cycle
Foreground System
Product
Life Cycle
Background System
5
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
ImpactProduct = Allowed Impact / Volume
Target Setting for Product(s)
Carrying
capacities
1
Techno-Environmental
Evaluation (Pb-LCA)
2
Life Cycle
Impact
Assessment
Goal and
Scope
Definition
Life Cycle
Inventory
Analysis
Interpretation
Carrying
Capacity /
Product
Target Fulfillment: Absolute Sustainability Ratio
(ASR = EIas-is/EIAllocated SOS)
3
Environmental Focusing
4
Engineering
Mitigation Options
Life Cycle
Foreground System
Product
Life Cycle
Background System
5
Techno-Economical
Evaluation
6
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering
Planetary Boundaries - Life Cycle Assessment (Pb-LCA)
Ecosphere
Life Cycle Background System(s)
Energy System Waste Management System… …
Life Cycle Foreground System
Raw Material
Production Manufacturing
Recycling,
DisposalUse/Service
Product
Technosphere
ImpactProduct = Allowed Impact / Volume
Target Setting for Product(s)
Carrying
capacities
1
Techno-Environmental
Evaluation (Pb-LCA)
2
Life Cycle
Impact
Assessment
Goal and
Scope
Definition
Life Cycle
Inventory
Analysis
Interpretation
Carrying
Capacity /
Product
Target Fulfillment: Absolute Sustainability Ratio
(ASR = EIas-is/EIAllocated SOS)
3
Environmental Focusing
4
Engineering
Mitigation Options
Life Cycle
Foreground System
Product
Life Cycle
Background System
5
Life Cycle Engineering
Techno-Economical
Evaluation
6
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Carrying capacity*
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
*Bjorn et all., 2019
• Maximum persistent impact that the environment can sustain without
suffering perceived unacceptable impairment of the functional integrity
of its natural systems or, in the case of non-renewable resource use,
that corresponds to the rate at which renewable substitutes can be
developed.
• The carrying capacity relates to the maximum sustainable total impact caused
by humans (anthropogenic) instead of the maximum number of humans.
• Higher the population, lower the per capita impact so that the total impact stays within the
carrying capacity
• Carrying capacity*
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Scientists and and governments officials agree that 350ppm is the safe level of
CO2
• PPM” stands for “parts per million” which is a way of measuring the ratio of carbon dioxide
molecules to all of the other molecules in the atmosphere
• Since the beginning of human civilization, our atmosphere contained about 275 ppm of CO2.
• Carrying capacity*
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• The carrying capacity are generally based on different sources, since there is
no single comprehensive source that covers all impact categories.
• Early PB-based methods were based on Rockström et al (2009) whilst more
recent ones refer to Steffen et al (2015b).
• Several methods use the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement (1.5–2
degrees of global warming, UNFCCC 2015) instead of the stricter PB for
Climate change
• Assigning carrying capacity and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Planetary Boundary
Safe Operating Space
(SOS)
Sector
Share of SOS for Sector
(SoSOS)S
Organisation
Share of SOS for Organisation
(SoSOS)O
Absolute
Sustainability
Assessment
Absolute Sustainability
Ratio (ASR)
*Adopted from Hjalsted et al., 2020
• Assigning carrying capacity and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
*Adopted from Hjalsted et al., 2020
Planetary Boundary
Safe Operating Space
(SOS)
Individual
Share of SOS for Individual
(SoSOS)I
Organisation
Sector
Household
Product
Absolute Sustainability
Assessment
Absolute Sustainability Ratio
(ASR)
Nations
• Assigning carrying capacity and setting targets
• Environmental impact reduction targets should consider all impact
categories
• At the moment “Climate Change” is the main focus under the “Net Zero”
discussions and GHG (CO2eq) emission as main indicator, hence the
focus of the lecture
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Rockstrom et all., A Safe Operating Space for Humanity, 2009, Nature, Vol. 461.
• Assigning carrying capacity and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• The three scopes of GHG protocol:
• Scope 4: avoided emission –
reduction that occur outside of a
product’s life cycle but because
of the use of that product.
• Assigning carrying capacity and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Carbon neutrality, net-zero
emission and climate neutrality
https://100percentrenewables.com.au/meaning-carbon-neutral-net-zero-climate-neutral/
• Net-zero emission does not
mean zero emission, rather
reduced plus removed
emission.
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
Structured Approach to Life Cycle Engineering*
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• The Safe Operating Space (SoS) or
carbon budget of the world is defined as
the total GHGs emission volume that
keep the temperature rise below 2ºC
(revised as 1.5ºC) compared to
preindustrial temperature (Based on
Paris agreement).
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• The total environmental impacts from all anthropogenic systems can be directly
compared to carrying capacities to understand if they are environmentally
sustainable or not in aggregate
• When assessing a single anthropogenic system (e.g., country, organization,
product or person), it is necessary to assign a share of carrying capacity,
hence setting targets, based on one or more sharing principles
• These are downscaled to product or industry level using
sharing principles that are based upon distributive justice
theories.
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• The EU’s production and consumption-based performance (2007-2013)
Stockholm Resilient Centre Technical Report, July 2018
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• The annual Share of the Safe Operating Space per capita for climate in 2020, 2030, 2040, and
2050 based on IPCCs SSP1-1.9 scenario (IPCC, 2018) and projections for the global population
(United Nations, 2019 for projections and TheWorld Bank, 2020 for population in 2020).
Heide et all., 2023
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Utilitarianism is the most used distributive justice theory that considers
industries and products, with its focus on maximizing the total welfare
• Egalitarianism is characterized by belief that the equality for all people
• Prioritarianism is a principle of distributive justice that gives priority to the
worse off in the distribution of advantages
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• There is no globally accepted and implemented allocation or sharing principle
• Science-based targets (SBTs) is the only initiative based on Paris Agreement
• Targets adopted by companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
are considered “science-based”
https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Commit Develop Submit Announce
Submitting the
commitment letter
indicates that the
company will work to set
a science based emission
reduction target
24 months is given to
the company to
develop a science-
based target with
certain methods
The company submit the
Target Submission Form
and the Science Based
Targets team will verify the
target against Science
based Target Initiates. The
company will be informed
about the results in terms
of approval or if additional
works is needed
Confirmed targets will
be showcased on the
Science Based Target
website
https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
• The SBTi has established a set of criteria that all targets must meet to be
validated as Science-based
• Boundary All company-wide Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions must
be covered
• Timeframe 5-15 years into the future
• Ambition Consistent with decarbonization required to stay below 2°C -
while encourage efforts towards 1.5°C
• Scope 2 Disclose whether a location or market-based approach is followed
• Reporting Disclose GHG emissions inventory on an annual basis
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
• There are three science-based target (SBT) setting approaches
based on the distributive justice theory:
• Sector-based (convergence) approach: The global carbon budget is divided by sector
and then emission reductions are allocated to individual companies based on its sector’s
budget.
• Absolute-based (contraction) approach: The percent reduction in absolute emissions
required by a given scenario (IPCC report) is applied to all companies equally.
• Economic-based (contraction) approach: A carbon budget is equated to global GDP
and a company’s share of emissions is determined by its gross profit, since the sum of all
companies’ gross profits worldwide equate to global GDP.
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Sector-based (convergence) approach: The global carbon budget is divided by sector and then
emission reductions are allocated to individual companies based on its sector’s budget (e.g., if an
industrial organisation has market share of 10%, then their carbon budget is the sector budget)
Power industry carbon
budget from 2011-2050
• A carbon budget is a maximum amount of cumulative net global anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions that can be emitted.
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Sector-based (convergence) approach:
Appropriate for ‘homogenous sectors’
with similar emission intensity
Used with sector-specific scenarios and
physical indicators
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
• Absolute-based (contradiction) approach: The percent reduction in
absolute emissions required by a given scenario (IPCC report) is applied to all
companies equally.
Emissions reduction expressed in absolute terms
(tones CO2e)
All companies with same level of disaggregation
reduce at uniform rate
• The minimum annual linear reduction rates aligned
with 1.5˚C and 2˚C are 4.2% and 2.5%, respectively.
• Assigning carrying capacity for climate change and setting targets
1. Carrying Capacities and Target Setting for Products
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
• Economic-based (contraction) approach: A carbon budget is equated to
global GDP and a company’s share of emissions is determined by its gross
profit, since the sum of all companies’ gross profits worldwide equate to global
GDP.
• If all nations (or companies) reduced their emissions per unit of GDP (value
added) by 5% to 7% per year, global emissions would be 50% lower in 2050
compared to 2010.
• Effectiveness of the method itself has not been robustly assessed since it
depends on idealized conditions where all companies are growing at the same
rate, equal to that of GDP, and GDP growth is precisely known.
Concluding Remarks
• Product life cycles, background and foreground systems have
been introduced
• A Structured approach has been introduced to operationalise
the life cycle engineering (LCE)
• First step of the structured approach has been explained in
detail.
• Several safe operating space allocation principles have been
explained.
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Concluding Remarks
• Product life cycles, background and foreground systems have
been introduced
• A Structured approach has been introduced to operationalise
the life cycle engineering (LCE)
• First step of the structured approach has been explaine din
detail.
• Next lecture will look into the LCE tools and techniques
(LCA) in detail.
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
Next Week
• We will continue with Tecno-environmental / Absolute sustainability
assessment by introducing Planetary Boundaries Life Cycle
Assessment.
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA
• Assignment 1 will be released, and a tutorial session will be allocated to explain
the assignment in detail.
Readings
• Kara, S., Hauschild, M., Herrmann, C., (2023), Operationalisation of Life
Cycle Engineering”, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Vol 190.
• Hauschild, M., Herrmann, C., Kara, S. (2017), “An Integrated Framework
for Life Cycle Engineering, Procedia CIRP.
• Kara, S., Hauschild, M., Herrmann, C., (2018), Target Driven Life Cycle
Engineering: Staying within the Planetary Boundaries”, Procedia CIRP,
Vol 60, pp. 3-10.
• Other readings as provided on Moodle
GSOE9340 LIFE CYCLE ENGINEERING by S.KARA