|
|
|
|
 |
|
Steel industry appeals for governments to use life cycle thinking in environmental impact studies
Sep 30, 2008
Speaking in Shanghai at the Third Baosteel Biennial Academic Conference, Clare Broadbent, Manager Life Cycle Assessment of the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) issued an appeal that governments need to work together with the steel industry to utilise life cycle thinking as the most effective holistic approach that considers potential impacts on the environment from all stages of manufacture, product use and end-of-life.
Clare Broadbent said: "The key to this is the recognition that a life cycle approach is the best way to assess a product’s impact on the environment and is therefore the best way to help society make informed decisions on the use of materials and their economic importance. Focusing solely on one aspect of a product’s life, such as the material production, distorts the real picture because it might ignore increased impact during another life cycle phase, such as the use phase".
"Life cycle assessment takes into account the environmental impacts of the manufacturing processes of a product," she continued, "the extraction of the raw materials used by these processes, the use and maintenance of the product by the consumer, its end-of-life (recycling, reuse or disposal) as well as the various methods of transport occurring between every link of the chain".
"An excellent example of the use of LCA is demonstrated in automotive studies, where the use of Advanced High-Strength Steels in the vehicle’s body structure results in CO2 savings when compared to other competing materials over the whole of the vehicles life, including manufacture and end of life as well as the use phase and tail-pipe emissions of the vehicle. So if all the cars produced in 2008 were made with Advanced High-Strength Steel then approximate greenhouse gas savings over their lifetime would be 156 million tonnes," she concluded.
In addition, make sure to read these articles:
IISI changes name to World Steel Association (worldsteel)
Steel industry appeals for governments to use life cycle thinking in environmental impact studies
Steel industry launches global CO2 emissions data collection programme
IISI short range outlook
A global sector approach to CO2 emissions reduction for the steel industry
World crude steel output increases by 7.5% in 2007
2007 will be another strong year for the steel industry
Global approach for steel to address climate change
Steel industry - key challenges
Steel industry commits to reduce CO2
|
 top of page
back
Tell a friend
print
read times
© 2008 GRIPS Intermedia GmbH All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
|
|
 All external sites will open in a new browser.
GRIPS media does not endorse external sites.
|
|
