FUNDAMENTAL-STUDY OF LCA METHOD FOR ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES AND OFFICE AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT

In order to develop a life cycle assessment method, which can be widel y applied to electrical appliances and office automation equipment we have investigated resource depletion, energy consumption, and environm ental pollution in the manufacturing process of circuit boards, and we have identified the common units, such as 228 Mcal/kg of energy consu mption and 15.979 kg-C/kg of carbon dioxide emission. Using these comm on units, we have calculated the categorized impact for the environmen t (resource depletion, global warming, acid rain, and atmospheric poll ution) using a laptop personal computer, whose processing speed (PS) i s improved by 5 times, weight is decreased by 47%, and energy-consumpt ion is cut by 44%, compared with previous type. We have also shown tha t the life cycle environmental impact (EI) per personal computer decre ases by 38% in resource depletion, life cycle EI per processing speed decreases 87% in all categories, and environmental efficiency (=PS/EI) in all categories improves by a factor of approximately eight (factor value: 8).