Combined Life Cycle Assessment And Life Cycle Costing In The Eco-Care-Matrix: A Case Study On The Performance Of A Modernized Manufacturing System For Glass Containers

The objects of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) case studies are often individual components or individual products. Studies focusing on larger industrial manufacturing systems are relatively rare. The purpose of this case study was to assess environmental and cost-related performance of an updated complex manufacturing system for glass containers (i.e. jars, glass bottles, etc.) compared to the predecessor manufacturing system. The objective was also to identify the most relevant drivers for the environmental and the cost profile of the system solution in application context by the means of Life Cycle Assessment, as well as Life Cycle Costing (LCC). The results were then to be displayed in an Eco-Care-Matrix (ECM) in order to quantitatively visualize the improvements when comparing the updated manufacturing system to the previous one and they were to be discussed in terms of (i) ecodesign levers, (ii) efficiency of the LCA process and (iii) their relevance for the speed and cost of the decision-making process. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652616312446