A Decision Analysis Approach to Electronics Standard Development Informed by Life Cycle Assessment Using Influence...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Engineering
• Decision Science

Background:

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) offers comprehensive environmental impact data.
• Integrating LCA with Decision Analysis (DA) focuses assessments on key performance measures.
• Sustainable electronics standards require robust methods for material inclusion criteria.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel framework integrating LCA and DA (DA-LCA) for enhanced LCA application.
• To demonstrate the DA-LCA framework through a case study on sustainable electronics.
• To develop a material inclusion criterion for recycled or biobased content in electronics.

Main Methods:

• A five-step DA-LCA framework was developed, tracking information flow between LCA and DA.
• A case study focused on post-consumer-recycled or biobased content in laptop enclosures.
• Stakeholder elicitation, means-ends network structuring, and utility-based influence diagrams were employed.

Main Results:

• The DA-LCA framework successfully linked material inclusion levels to environmental objectives.
• The approach explicitly incorporated non-environmental factors and constrained product options.
• Optimal material inclusion for laptop enclosures was determined to be 5% or 10% recycled/biobased content.

Conclusions:

• The DA-LCA framework provides a structured approach for decision-makers using LCA results.
• This integrated method enhances the practical application of LCA in developing standards.
• The study offers a blueprint for informed decision-making in sustainable product development.