JLCA NEWS ENGLISH EDITION NOV.2006

No.2

JLCA
NEWS LETTER
Life-Cycle Assessment Society of Japan

Contents

From LCA to Eco-Efficiency ................................................................................ 1
Impact of global warming

associated with detached housing ........................... 2

LCA Activities of Toyota Industries Corporation .................................................. 4
Improvement of spark plugs using the LCA ......................................................... 6
Comparing LC-CO2 by the cooking method of pasta pomodoro ......................... 8
Discoveries through the LCA of wood products ............................................... 13
LCA and Environmental proposition of industrial adhesives development ........ 15

JLCA News Letter No.2

From LCA to Eco-Efficiency

Graduate School of Engineering,
University of Tokyo

Yasunari Matsuno

In recent years, a growing number of companies and organizations have been using eco-efficiency as anindicator of environmental performance. While the definition, aims, and calculation methods used for ecoefficiency tend to differ from company to company and case-by-case, essentially this measure is defined as
the ratio of the “value” represented by a product or organization (numerator) to the corresponding
environmental impact (denominator). Here, we consider the question, “Why is it necessary to calculate theenvironmental efficiency of products and services as the ratio of value to environmental impact?”
Normally, the term “environmental impact” in the denominator is quantified by LCA (life cycle assessment).
However, LCA has been recognized as having various limits. LCA is a technique for evaluating theenvironmental impact of a product or service based on a functional unit. In specifying the functional unit,
subjectivity enters and gives rise to differences in evaluation results. When comparing an emerging
teleconference and an existing face-to-face meeting which requires business trip, one would come up with aquestion about how to set a functional unit. The teleconference is found advantageous as its attendees do notneed to move around but its effectiveness should be limited, compared with that of the face-to-faceconference. The differences in these values, however, are not subject to assessment when “holding a
conference for a certain time” is used as a functional unit. Therefore, a new framework is required forevaluating the value of products and services that cannot be properly evaluated in terms of the functional units
used in existing LCAs.
With this background, in 2005 the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry enlisted the Japan Environmental
Management Association for Industry to form a working group consisting of eight major IT corporations
participating in the Japan Environmental Efficiency Forum (Canon, Toshiba, NEC, NTT, Hitachi, Fuji-Xerox,
Fujitsu, and Matsushita) and the University of Tokyo, and to formulate the Guidelines of Eco-Efficiency
Evaluation for Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The guidelines provide a generalframework, a set of principles, and the requirements for evaluating the environmental impact and ecoefficiency of ICT activities as well as for making comparative evaluations. The aim of the guidelines is toprovide an objective method for evaluating the effect of ICT on the environmental impact made by individuals
and companies, and the society they make up—in particular, the environmental impact of the CO2 emissions
that contribute so significantly to global warming.
All of the IT companies involved in this effort develop and sell solutions/services that make use of various
kinds of ICT. Their customers need to be shown that such solutions/services are effective in reducing costs
and environmental impact. To ensure the objectivity and reliability of any environment-related claims, it has
become increasingly important to establish some common rules for environmental impact evaluations.
Recognizing this need, these companies voluntarily came together and set out to draft guidelines for theevaluation of eco-efficiency. The working group was made up exclusively of specialists who have done
pioneering work in the field of LCA.
In the drafting of these guidelines, the most contentious point of debate was the question of how to quantify
the value of a product or service. If companies set the values for their products and services to suitthemselves, such that they utilize eco-efficiency indexes to “pardon” themselves, then the credibility of ecoefficiency indicators would inevitability erode. Personally, as a chairman of the Working Group, I believe theseguidelines must give the highest priority to transparency and objectivity.
The indicators to express value vary according to the level of the object of the eco-efficiency evaluation (e.g.,
product, enterprise, country) and the purpose of the evaluation. In addition, value can be expressed by avariety of indexes. The principles used to decide the indexes for expressing value were determined.
The Guidelines are currently published on the website. I hope that the creation of these guidelines for theevaluation of eco-efficiency help to improve and more widely promote the understanding and credibility of ecoefficiency indicators in the field of ICT as well as in other industrial sectors.

JLCA News Letter No.2

1

Case Study
Impact of global warming
associated with detached housing

Toshiya Chikada

Sekisui House, Ltd.
Comprehensive Housing R&D Institute

1. Introduction

the manufacturing of components.

Since the oil crisis, energy-saving measures for housing havefocused on energy conservation in the phase of habitation, and ourmain activity has been to reduce air-conditioning load byimproving heat insulation and air-tight sealing as a housing
manufacturer. In particular, it was about 10 years ago when we
started to see an increase in housing that promised superinsulation, but just before that, we started to read about LCA ofbuildings in research papers. I remember the idea of life-cycle
including the phases of building and disposal as well as energy
consumption in the phase of habitation seemed very fresh.
The outcome of the calculation showed that the load is great in thephase of habitation, but there was no doubt that the building phasethat housing suppliers are directly associated with must also be
considered for change. It was also when the utilization of recycledbuilding materials and the improvement of waste disposal werestarting to get attention, and there was a need to know theinventory data on our products (housing). As such, we decided tomake an estimate by process analysis without using the InputOutput table based database calculated by the Architectural
Institute of Japan. Here, I will present the outline of the estimation
work and the overall picture of the impact of housing on global
warming.

3. Estimate including life in general in the home
With regards to the habiting phase that is considered to produce
the most CO2 emissions in the housing life-cycle, we have carriedout estimates on the various activities of life in the home in addition
to energy consumption such as electricity, gas and heating oil thathave been estimated before. The annual consumer spending on
approximately 550 items in the general household is summarized
in the Family Income and Expenditure Survey annually publishedby the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. From thissurvey, we extracted 344 items related to life in the home, andestimated the amount of emission by multiplying the CO2 emission
rate by value. The items included water supply, sewage,
food/drink, newspaper/books, durable goods such as furniture andclothes, home appliances, consumable goods, maintenance andrepair of housing, and various repair services. We also added CFC
substitutes such as HCFC for air conditioners and refrigerators andhousehold garbage, which have been feared to have impact on
global warming, although they were not included in the said survey
since they are not directly considered as household spending.

4. Overall structure of the impact on global warming

2.Study on 5,000 types of components

Fig.1 shows the result of the overall structure of life-cycle CO2 after
adding to the result obtained from above the CO2 emission basedon the field survey on energy consumption in the construction
phase, the dismantlement site and the intermediate treatment site.
The method of estimate differs slightly, but it shows the outcome oftimber construction and RC (Reinforced Concrete) construction by
conventional construction methods together. According to theoutcome, the order of emission rate associated with a building's
structural elements from great to small was “component
manufacturing”, “dismantlement, disposal”, “maintenance, repair”
and “construction”. However, the emission rate of such structuralelements against all stages including the habitation phase wasabout 25% even with the largest RC structure and under 20% withother construction methods, indicating that energy consumption
such as electricity, gas and heating oil in the habitation phase, andeven more so the amount of emission associated with other life
activities had a huge percentage.
The CO2 associated with life activities other than energy
consumption is hard for inhabitants or housing suppliers to reduce
directly. However, presenting such an outcome to inhabitants
would enable them to be aware of the impact their individual life
activities have on the environment, and such awareness could leadto an effective review of life. Housing suppliers should not leave it
up to the inhabitants but should actively support their efforts.
Finally, parts of this estimate were made roughly and it is notbased on stringent methods. But it is enough to give an idea of thewhole picture, and we believe that it could be very useful instudying various efforts once it has been carried out at this level.

Although detached housing is prefabricated, it is a single-building
production and it is rare to build houses that are exactly the same.
A detached house is an assembled product with a lot of
constructional elements manufactured by several components
manufacturers, which are assembled on site by builders or housing
manufacturers. However, since it is near impossible to estimate allbuildings by each building, we wanted to get the “responses on
average buildings” and the “gap due to different conditions” first.
With that, we studied several buildings with different construction
methods, scales, shapes and specifications.
Our houses consist of approximately 1,000 components per house.
Since we were to study three construction methods and 10 houses,
we needed to study about 5,000 types of components. About 80%of them were composite materials that consist of several parts.
“The type of parts that constitute the component”, “The weight ofeach part”, “The energy used in the manufacturing process”, and“The energy used in transport” were studied, and it was easy to
imagine that it was going to be quite an arduous study. And since
we had no choice but to ask the components manufacturers (132companies at the time), which supply components to our company,
to cooperate with the most difficult work, it was a rather
uncomfortable job. We have of course tried to simplify the work as
much as possible by enabling them to obtain the information
required by processing the data that is calculated daily in order toreduce the work of the person in charge as much as possible. We
also created a special data input tool that operates on the PC toeliminate careless errors such as missing data as much as
possible. We created the original database on 5,000 components
by adding the processing energy at our factory to the information
gathered through the study. Although this is only part of thecomponents that our company handles, it became possible to see
in some small measure the condition of the load associated withJLCA News Letter No.2

2

References(1)Toshiya Chikada & Takashi Inoue: Whole picture of the impact of
housing on global warming, Architectural Institute of Japan Journal
Volume 1, pp.55 -61, 2.2003.
(2)Architectural Institute of Japan: Action plan for the promotion ofan anti-global-warming lifestyle, July 2005

Fig.1 Overall structure of life-cycle CO2 for detached housing

16000(kg - CO2 /Household/ Year)
Light steel
frame

Woodenframe

RC construction

Heavy steel

Dismantling, disposal

moment frame
Conventional
woodenconstruction

14000

Construction
Member production

12000

10000

Building
structure

House maintenance& repairOrdinary waste
Air -conditioner &refrigerator refrigerant
Various repair services

Other maintenance& repairCommunication

Consumables

Education, leisure

Newspapers, books

8000

BeautyHealthcare

Home appliance

Clothes

Durable goods such as
furniture & clothes

Laundry
Cleaning

6000

4000

Life ingeneral in
the home

Lighting

Food, drink

Heating
Cooling
Sleeping

Water supply& sewage

BathingHeating oil

Hand & face washing

Gas

Flushing toilet

2000

EnergyCooking, eating &drinking

Electricity

Heating oil
GasElectricity
Consumables
Water supply &sewageHeating oil
GasElectricity

Durables:Furniture, clothes
Home applianceFood & Drink

Water & sewage
Gas
Electricity0
By life activity

By item

JLCA News Letter No.2

Home appliance3Case Study
LCA Activities of Toyota
Industries Corporation

Nobuaki Suzuki
Engineering Administration Office, Research & Development Center
Toyota Industries Corporation

1. Introduction

Particulate Filter (DPF II) emits less particle matter than theStandard Muffler (Fig.1.) The reason why DPF II emits a lot of CO2
is due to electricity usage for recovering the filter.

Toyota Industries Corporation is involved in a wide range ofbusinesses such as textile machinery, variety of industrial vehicles
including forklift trucks, material handling systems, car air
conditioning compressors, engines, automobiles, semiconductors
and electronics. Considering that environmental preservation is
one of our top priorities for corporate management, we are placingemphasis on the three themes in particular the prevention of global
warming, improvement of resource productivity, and reduction ofenvironmental risks. With regards to LCA, we initiated a trend
survey from the latter half of fiscal 1999, and have implemented
LCA on some products to date.

(2) Comparison of internal combustion forklift trucks andelectric forklift trucks (2002 report)
We assessed a diesel engine-powered forklift trucks (rated loading
2.5 tons), currently our core model, (hereinafter, "internal
combustion forklift trucks") as well as an electric-powered model(hereinafter, "electric forklift trucks") of the same class.
We consequently found that both the internal combustion forklift
trucks and electric forklift trucks were emitting most of the CO2 andair pollutants in their usage stage, and that the electric forklift
trucks was emitting 50% less CO2 than the internal combustion
forklift trucks. We also found that the electric forklift trucks wasemitting more SOX than the internal combustion forklift trucks(Fig.2.). Air pollutants in using the electric forklift trucks are emitted
when electricity is generated while charging the battery at a
generating station and between the time when fuel for generating
electricity is mined and refined.

2. Examples of LCA
Here are examples of LCA we have carried out in the past. The
following have been reported in the environmental reports of eachfiscal year.
(1) Comparison of mufflers attached to diesel engines forforklift trucks (2001 report)
The forklift trucks installed with a diesel engine (1DZ-II) has asetting for options for two types of mufflers, and we made acomparison with the Standard Muffler (STD). We found that theCatalytic Muffler (CAT) emits less CO and NMHC than theStandard Muffler, and the Soot-Reducing Muffler with Diesel

Fig.1 Comparisons of mufflers

Ceramic filter

Catalyst

Heater

STD(Standard Muffler)

DPFⅡ

CAT(Catalytic Muffler)

2
Emission(STD ratio)

STD

DPFⅡ

1.5

1

0.5

0

JLCA News Letter No.2

CAT

CO2

CO

NMHC

4

PM

NOx

Fig.2 Comparison of internal combustion
forklift trucks and electric forklift trucks
Disposal
Maintenance
Usage

Parts/Product manufacturing
Material manufacturing

3. LCA promoting activities within the company
Based on the LCA technique used until now, we have created our
LCA guidelines so that we could implement LCA on all our
products. The guidelines are available on our in-house intranet andcan be perused by the designers of each division. We have alsoestablished our in-house rules in an aim to promote thedevelopment of improved environmentally friendly products bystudying and grasping the environmental load and impact of eachproduct. These in-house rules establish the implementation of LCA
as a mechanism of the stages of development, and stipulate thatthe target value of the reduction of environmental load is checked
and followed as an item of assessment similarly as quality,
performance and costs in the design review (DR) of new productdevelopment.

1

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

CO2

CO

NOx

SOx

PM

NMHC

IC forklift
Electric forklift

IC forklift
Electric forklift

IC forklift
Electric forklift

IC forklift
Electric forklift

IC forklift
Electric forklift0

IC forklift
Electric forklift

4. Conclusion
It is extremely difficult for the designer to hand calculate the LCA
with complicated data gathering, organizing and calculation in thedevelopment period shortened (short-term development) by SE
activities that utilize CAE and 3D-CAD. It is particularly moredifficult for a product that has many parts. And it is difficult to use
the LCA results of a product as a product appeal compared to thecosts and performance. Due to these reasons, LCA tends to beshunned by designers. Given this factor, we are currently
developing an in-house system that could calculate the LCA,
recycling rate and factors with the view to eliminate as many manhours of inputting and operating for designers to calculate LCA. By
utilizing this system, and by establishing the QCD+E as an item of
DR assessment as mentioned above, we will carry out the activities
that enable the designs for the environment to be promoted further
by getting the designers to be thorough with PDCA cycles toachieve the target value, while being aware of the reduction ofenvironmental load from the initial stage of development.

(3) Comparison of new and old forms of hydraulic fittings usedin forklift trucks (2003 report)
We evaluated the amount of air pollutants emitted from new andold hydraulic fittings used in forklift trucks that differ due to their
manufacturing methods, which link the oil cylinder for forklift trucks
tilt with a hose. This LCA was carried out only from the process ofmanufacturing the materials to the process of manufacturing the
products. In the result, we found that the new products emitted
20% less CO2 and air pollutants, since their manufacturing method
has been simplified (bending of thick-walled tube + machining)
compared to the conventional products which follow the process offorging and machining a round bar (Fig.3.).

*The case studies were evaluated based on Japanese data.

Fig.3 Comparison of new and old forms of hydraulic fittings(Forklift trucks and hydraulic fittings)(Conventional and new products for comparison)

Conventional

New

Conventional product(CO2)
New product(CO2)
Conventional product(NOx)New product(NOx)Material manufacturing

Conventional product(SOx)

Processing

New product(SOx)

Transport

Conventional product(PM)Assembly

New product(PM)0

JLCA News Letter No.2

0.2

0.4

0.6

5

0.8

1

Case Study
Improvement of spark
plugs using the LCA

Fumihiko Nakamura
Environment & Safety Management Department
NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

Introduction

and those made of precious metal for improved performance andlongevity have become popular in recent years. We have carriedout the LCA on three types of spark plugs for four-wheel vehicles:
the standard type, the lightweight type, and the lightweight, longlife platinum type.

At NGK Spark Plug, we have been evaluating environmental
impact at the design stage to assess our products, but in order toimplement a more specific evaluation we have introduced the LCA
from FY2002.

Implementation of LCA
Overview of spark plugs
We carried out the LCA to measure the environmental impacts of
one spark plug and to specify the causes that increase thoseenvironmental impacts. We established the system boundary to befrom the collection of raw material to the manufacturing of the
product, and the landfill disposal of the used plug. We alsomeasured five environmental impacts: consumption of resources,
global warming, destruction of the ozone layer, acidification andsolid waste.

Our anchor product, spark plugs for automobiles, plays an activerole for the normal functioning of the engine, and it influences fuelcombustion and fuel consumption. Over 2 billion spark plugs are
currently produced throughout the world, and there are various
environmental impacts in their production process. Since aboutfour to six spark plugs are fitted on one gasoline engine vehicle,
we could say that the spark plug is a critical component in theenvironmental aspect of automobiles.

Outcome
Details of LCA activities
As a result of implementing the JEMAI-LCA, we were able tospecify the extent of the environmental load and the causes ofeach of the five environmental impacts. The following concerns theimpact on global warming.

The types of spark plugs include those for four-wheel vehicles,
two-wheel vehicles, and those for agricultural, marine vessel andindustrial use. They are also categorized by their performancesuch as the standard plug, plugs for racing, iridium plug andplatinum plug. Among them, compact and lightweight spark plugs

High

RacingRacingplug
plug

Ignitability

IRI series
plug
Iridium
IX plug

VX plug

Iridium
MAX plug

Iridium plugGreen plug
Green
plug

Platinum plug

Register
plug
Regis
t er plug

Multiple groundelectrodes plug

Durability

HighStandard

JLCA News Letter No.2

6

LightweightLightweight, long-life(platinum plug)(1) Impact per plug
The global warming impact in CO2 equivalent was 13% less for thelightweight type than for the standard type with 240g for the
standard type, 210g for the lightweight type and 226g for thelightweight/long-life type.

(2) Impact during a 100 thousand km drive
We carried out the LCA to examine the plug’s longevity. During a
100 thousand km drive, the lightweight, long-life type requires noreplacement, but the standard and lightweight types need to be
replaced every 20 thousand km and require five plugs, therefore
creating five times the environmental load. Accordingly, although
the load for the light, long- life type remains at 226g, the load forthe lightweight type becomes 1,049g, and that for the standard
type 1,201g, creating great differences.

Conclusion
By evaluating the spark plug as well as the scale of environmentalload created in each manufacturing process, we were able toconfirm the points of improvement in the products and processes.
We will continue to further promote environmentally friendly
designs for our products and facilities by utilizing the LCA
technique.

Standard

240

Light weight

210

Light, long-life

226

1 plug1201

Standard

1049

Light weight

100 thousand km

226

Light, long-life
0

500

1000

1500

(g-GWP)

Spark plug’s longevity
Standard & lightweight: 20 thousand km
Light & long- life: 100 thousand km

JLCA News Letter No.2

7

Case Study
Comparing LC-CO2 by the cooking
method of pasta pomodoro
Introduction

Kunimitsu Sato*1), Susumu Tsujimoto1),
Masayuki Hirata2)
1) Technology & Engineering Center, Ajinomoto Co., Inc.,
2) Environment Department, CSR Division, Ajinomoto Co., Inc.

portions of ingredients used for each cooking method is shown in
Table-1.
Since the easy-cook pasta cooks quickly, we used quick-cook
pasta that can be cooked in 5 minutes for the home-cooked
pastas.
As for the cooking procedure of home-cooked pasta, we followed
the one that can be found in common cookbooks. To make thepomodoro sauce, we fried garlic slowly in olive oil on simmer, andadded chopped onions once the garlic started to turn light brownand produce aroma, and fried the onions on medium heat until
they turned light brown. Next, we added pureed tomato prepared
beforehand, simmered it for 3 to 4 minutes until the sauce
thickened, seasoned the sauce by adding salt, pepper and basil
and simmered for another minute. We put the pasta in a boiling pot
of water with added salt, boiled the pasta on high heat for five
mimutes, and drained. We then tossed the drained pasta andsauce in a frying pan.
Easy-cook pasta was cooked following the instructions on thepacket. We placed 500ml of water, two portions of pasta and thepowdered sauce in a frying pan and heated it up on high heat until
it boiled. After it boiled, we turned the heat down to medium, stirred
it occasionally, and took it off the heat once the sauce started tothicken and the pasta was cooked to the desired firmness. It took
about six minutes to cook.
The amount of city gas was measured using a gas meter installedin homes, and the amount of city gas was measured for therespective unit processes of each cooking method.

Easy-cook pasta for one person that can be prepared in 5 minutes
from boiling the pasta to tossing it in sauce was launched in 2003.
Easy-cook pasta comes in a packet containing pasta andpowdered sauce mix, which is placed in a frying pan and cookedadding a specified amount of water. We made a comparison of thelife-cycle CO2 (LC-CO2) between easy-cook pasta and homecooked pasta to see the difference in the environmental load.
We chose pasta pomodoro with cheese for comparison. We
compared three cooking methods: (1) Home cooking using
imported cans of whole tomatoes, (2) Home cooking using fresh
tomatoes bought from the market, and (3) Easy-cook pasta using
dry tomato powder. To recreate the actual setting of cooking tomeasure the amount of gas used in cooking, we measured theamount of city gas while cooking with a pot and frying pan found in
the kitchen of ordinary households.

2. Estimation Technique2-1. Cooking method and measurement technique of theamount of city gas
The noodles of easy-cook pasta have a diameter of 1.7mm. To
have the same texture, we used noodles with a 1.7 diameter or thequick-cook pasta with a diameter of 1.5mm (Cooking time: 4-5min)for the home cooking. They were each cooked more than twice tocompare the average of the collected data. The amount of pasta
cooked each time was two portions, and the amount of two

Table-1. Amount of ingredients used and CO2 emission factor
CO2 emission
factorunit

Home-cook
pasta (1)Consumption

Home-cook
pasta (2)Consumption

Easy-cook
pasta:
Consumption

Sourceg-CO2/unit

unit

unit

unit
160

Pasta

g

a)

0.55

160

160

Cooking salt

g

a)

0.78

16

16

Can of whole tomato

g

b)

0.97

280

Fresh tomato

g

a)

0.54

Powdered tomato

g

b)

4.79

Natural cheese

g

a)

2.98

Powdered cheese

g

b)

7.45

Fresh onion

g

a)

0.18

Dried onion

g

a)

1.57

Olive oil

g

a)

0.82

Other

g

a)

Packaging

Packet

280
17
22

11
57

57
4

30

30
41

46

2

Notes a) Calculated from 3EID and prices in the Input-Output Tablesb) Calculated using the process analysis method

JLCA News Letter No.2

228

2-2. Estimation technique of CO2 emission factor ofeach ingredient

Table-2. LC-CO2 of a can of whole tomatoes
imported in Japan

The ingredients for which the CO2 emission factor was estimatedby process analysis in Table-1 are those predicted to be with large
usage and have a great ratio in the outcome of CO 2 load
calculation of cooked pasta. The packaged materials were
calculated using our LC-CO2 calculation system. The estimation
technique of the CO2 emission factor of tomatoes and processed
tomatoes is explained in the following section. Other ingredientswere calculated from the Embodied Energy and Emission Intensity
Data for Japan Using Input-Output Tables (3EID) 1995 publishedby the National Institute for Environmental Studies and the
producers’ prices listed in the domestic production table by sector
and by commodity in the 1995 Input-Output Tables for Japan. For
those without a listed producers’ price in the Input-Output Tables,
we checked the wholesale price or factory purchase price, andused it as the producers’ price. The CO2 emission factor of theingredients is also shown in Table-1.

CO2 emission
factorBasic unit

LC-CO2unit
Source

g-CO2
/unit

unit/
kg-whole
tomatog-CO2/
kg-whole
tomatoTomato for processing

kg

a)

105

1.05

110

Vapor

kg

b)

256

0.20

51

Electricity

kg

c)

505

0.025

13

Can (Size4)

kg

b)

113

2.5

283

Cardboard box

kg

b)

210

0.104

4

Transport

kg

d)

21

23.5

972

c) Italy-s electricity emission factor: APME,Brussels July 2003

3. Outcomed) http://nippon.zaidan.info/seikabutsu/2000/00964/mokuji.htm

3-1. CO2 emission factor of cultivated tomatoes

3-3. LC-CO2 of powdered tomato
The LC-CO2 of cultivation of tomato for eating fresh based on theprocess analysis is available to the public, which is 104g-CO2/kgtomato (outdoor culture) and 676g-CO2/kg-tomato for basic
greenhouse cultivation1). Tomatoes for processing are grown in the)summer, and their price is stable at ¥47 per kg2 . When we
calculate from the 3EID and price, the emission factor is 105gCO2/kg. The LC-CO2 of outdoor cultivated tomatoes indicated fairconsistency between the method based on the Input-Output
Tables and the process analysis method.
The emission factor of tomatoes for eating fresh was 541g-CO2/kgtomato when we used its yearly average price from the 1995 InputOutput Tables and calculated it in the same way. From the above
results, the emission factor of tomatoes for processing was 105 gCO2/kg, and tomatoes for eating fresh was 541 g-CO2/kg.

According to the importer, the production area is the northern partof Central Europe. Since we could not find tomato cultivation areasin the production area of powdered tomato on the statistics, wehypothesized that tomato paste produced in Italy has beenprocessed into powder after being transported by land to thenorthern part of Central Europe. The product is imported into
Japan on a container vessel. Its packaging consists of 15kg plastic
inner bags and 15kg outer cardboard boxes for powder.
As for the manufacturing process of the powdered tomato, its flowof process and basic mass balance are published on websites
concerning “tomato powder”5), 6). We used those numerical values.
However, since the vapor content used in the process is not listed,
we calculated it supposing a single-effect evaporator was used in
the concentration process, and hypothesizing the dehydration
thermal efficiency according to the description that dehydration iscarried out using a belt dryer or a tray dryer. The product’s watercontent is 5%. We identified the drying agent used in thedehydration process as potato starch according to the ingredientslabel and built up the mass balance. The manufacturing process of
powdered tomato and its estimated mass balance are shown in
Fig.1. The results of the estimate of the LC-CO2 of dried tomato
based on Fig.1 are shown on Table-3. Calculations were made bypresuming the CO2 emission factor of the packaging materials in
the table to be the same as that of the packaging materials inJapan.

3-2. LC-CO2of cans of whole tomato
Since the cans of whole tomatoes sold in the Japanese market are
mostly from Italy, we determined that the place of origin was
Naples, Italy, and that they were transported by ship to Japan on
container vessels. The LC-CO2 of processed tomato has alreadybeen stated in 3-1. We used the 400g can, which is mostfrequently found in the market for domestic use, measured its
weight and estimated the emission factor of a 400g can based on
the CO2 emission factor of small cans produced in Japan. We
estimated the sea transport distance to be 1.1 times that of thenautical distance, since the container vessels will have to stop by a
hub port. We used the documented value listed in Table-2 as theCO2 emission factor of the container vessel.
Cans of whole tomato are produced in the following manner:
Cleansing ⇒ Soaking in hot water ⇒ Pealing ⇒ Can filling ⇒Sterilization ⇒ Cooling ⇒ Boxing ⇒ Shipping. We referred totechnical books3), 4) for the unit energy consumption and unclear
areas were figured out from process analysis. The outcome isshown in Table-2.

JLCA News Letter No.2

9

The LC-CO2 of a can of imported whole tomato (home-cooked
pasta (1)), tomato for eating fresh (home-cooked pasta (2)), andpowdered tomato (easy-cook pasta) are shown in Fig.2,
respectively. The share of the LC-CO2 for a can of whole tomato
was 51% for sea transport and 29% for can manufacturing, and
20% for tomato cultivation and the canning process.

Fig.1. Estimated mass balance of powdered
tomato’s manufacturing process
Whole Tomato

Weight1.000 kg

0.072 kg
TS
(Total Solid)<Preparation>

Fig.2. LC-CO2 comparison of two portions oftomato ingredients

Washed Tomato

Sea transport<Juice Extraction>

Container, packaging materials
Manufacturing process energy<Juice Filtration>

Waste (Seed, Skin etc)

Starch for drying agent
Land transport

Electricity
Tomato Juice

WeightTS

Steam<Vacuum

5.0kg

Concentration

0.862 kg
0.054 kg

Cultivation and shipping of tomato for proccessing
Cultivation and shipping of tomato for eating fresh

Water Vapor

WeightTS

Concentrate(Tomato Paste)

LC-CO2 of tomato ingredients (g-CO2/two portions)0.2kWh

0.200 kg
0.054 kg

Steam
Potato Starch

3.3kg

WeightTS
Mixed Paste

WeightTS0.057 kg
0.054 kg
0.257 kg
0.108 kg

<Drying & Cooling>
Tomato Powder

Weight0.114 kg

TS

0.108 kg

300

250

200

100

Sea
transport

63

150

100

Can
manufacturing

Cultivation andShipping of
tomato foreating fresh

33

50

0
Home-cooked pasta(1)Home-cooked pasta(2)Easy-cook pasta

Table-3. LC-CO2 of powdered tomato
CO2 emission
factorunit

Tomato for processing

Basic unit

LC-CO23-4. Amount of city gas used in domestic kitchensg-CO2/
kg-wholtomatoWe made an actual measurement of gas volume for each unit
process following the respective cooking procedures. We have set
up four unit processes: Boiling of the water, cooking of the pasta,
peeling of the fresh tomatoes in hot water, and cooking of thesauce as well as the tossing of the pasta in the sauce.
The results are shown in Fig.3.

Source

g-CO2
/unit

unit/
kg-wholtomato

a)

105

8.8

kg

Tomato paste production processing energy

924
1,370
900

Powderd tomato processing energy
Potato starch

kg

a)

587

0.5

294

Inner plastics bag

pc

b)

502

0.067

34

Cardboard box

pc

b)

430

0.067

29

Land transport

tkm

d)

176

3.9

686

Sea transport

tkm

d)

21

26.5

Total

JLCA News Letter No.2

557
4,793

10

3-5. LC-CO2 comparisons of two portions of cooking pasta
The LC-CO2 comparisons of cooking pasta by the three cooking
methods are shown in Fig.4.
We also estimated the LC-CO2 produced in disposing the water left
over from boiling the pasta for the home-cooked pasta by
combining the publicly released data. The results were small at 1
to 2% of the whole, and since we did not believe that they would
influence the main point of discussion, they have not been
included in these comparisons.

Fig.3. City gas consumption volume of each cooking method

Pealing of fresh tomatoes in hot water
Cooking of sauce and tossing of pasta in the sauce
Cooking of pasta
Boling of water Cooking pasta

Fig.4. LC-CO2 comparisons of three cooking
methods of pasta pomodoro (two portions)
800

121

120

LC-CO2 of pasta pomodoro (g-CO2/two portions)

Gas consumption (Liter/two portions)

140

100

100
80
60
40

28

20
0

Home-cooked
pasta(1)Home-cooked
pasta(2)Easy-cook
pasta

When the cooking experiment is repeated, one wonders about thethermal efficiency caused by the cooking equipment. Given thisfactor, we tried to measure the thermal efficiency using a scale, analcohol thermometer and a city gas meter. The results are shown in
Table-4. The gas cooker we used was a domestic one that
produces 4,100kcal/hr on high heat value(gross calorific value).
The thermal efficiency changed by the shape and material of thecooking equipment and the gas flow volume, and varied greatly
from 27 to 41% (base on the high heat value).
Even simple cooking consumes 100 liters of city gas per cooking
as shown in Fig.2. If this could be improved by 10%, and if we
multiply the improvement by the number of households throughout
Japan, it will lead to significant energy saving. The improvement ofthermal efficiency of cooking equipment is expected to become atheme that should be considered in domestic energy-saving.

Mouldedaluminiumpot

SUS inverse
truncatedcone pot

Aluminium
frying pan

27

29

32%

37

41%

High heat

5.8

6.7

31

35%

Medium high heat

5.0

5.8

31

35%

Medium low heat

3.0

4.0

34

40%

JLCA News Letter No.2

28%

100
Other
Cheese90
Other
Cheese500

66
Tomato400

Tomato

Pasta

300
Pasta

Other
Cheese200

100

Packagingmaterials

TomatoCity gas

City gas

Pasta
City gas

Home-cooked
pasta(1)Home-cooked
pasta(2)Easy-cookpasta

4. Summary
1) The results of the LC-CO2 comparisons of cooking pasta were:
Home-cooked pasta (1) > Home-cooked pasta (2) > Easy-cook
pasta, as seen in Fig.4. The main factors of the differences in thecooking methods were the differences in the cultivation andprocessing of tomato ingredients and the volume of city gas forcooking.
2) The city gas consumption volume used in cooking was homecooked pasta (2) > home-cooked pasta (1) > easy-cook pasta. The
results have shown that the easy-cook pasta only required 23% of
the city gas volume used for home-cooked pasta (2), and 28% of
the city gas volume used for home-cooked pasta (1).
3) Since easy-cook products require damp-proofing for the
powdered sauce, the LC-CO2 of the packaging materials becomes
relatively high. It made up for 20% of the entire LC-CO2 for theeasy-cook pasta.
4) As a result of measuring the thermal efficiency of domestic
cooking equipment, it was a third to a half of the 75 to 85% thermal
efficiency of boilers used in factories (both thermal efficiencies arebase on the high heat value), and it changed according to theshape and material of the cooking equipment and the gas flow
volume.

Thermal efficiency
Thermal power

6000Table-4: Results of the thermal efficiency measurement ofcooking equipment

Gas flowrate(Liter/min)

700

11

5. References
1) “FY 2000: Report on commissioned research of measures for LCA application associated with agriculture, forestry andfisheries”,
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Technical Information Society.
2) “Norin Kinyu”, August 2002, P.42-52
3) Kanzume Seizogaku, Eiichi Tanigawa, et al., Koseisha - Koseikaku Corp.
4) Kanzume Kojo, Hiroyuki Nozawa, Japan Canners Association
5) HYPERLINK "http://www.apctt.org/database/to7018html"
6) HYPERLINK "http://www.morningstarco.com/industry/prodtech.html"

Postscript
This report was created based on the contents presented in the same title at the 1st presentation meeting of the Institute ofLife Cycle Assessment, Japan.
Although the production of easy-cook pasta we studied for this paper has unfortunately been discontinued, we hope tocontinue with the study on the attributes seen from the environmental load of processed food.

JLCA News Letter No.2

12

Case Study
Discoveries through the LCA ofwood products
1. Introduction

Hideki Iwamatsu
NPO Donguri-no-kai

polymer carbon compounds such as cellulose and lignin. The factthat timber locks in the CO2 from the atmosphere is the greatest
characteristic of timber. Therefore, we defined the extent of the
LCA of wood products to be from the absorption of CO2 in theprocess of the tree’s growth to its disposal (Fig.1.).
Wood products for which we have implemented LCA this time werelacquered tables that are solely made of untreated materials
produced in Japan, and do not use any secondary materials suchas metals or urethane paint. Therefore, we only studied CO2 as anenvironmental load substance.
When we examine the LCA of wood products based on thesepremises, we can first point out thata) Absorption of CO2 equals c) Emission of CO2.
In other words, there is no burden on the environment, since theCO2 emitted into the atmosphere when a wood product is disposed(incinerated) is the CO2 that was absorbed in the process of thetree’s development.
Table 1 below shows the calculation of the amount of CO2 emitted
from the time a tree is felled to when it is manufactured and used
(Conversion per table.)

The non-profit organization Donguri-no-kai is involved in theplanting of approximately 10,000 broad-leaved trees each year.
The participants of our activities range widely. They are not only
those interested in environmental issues, but also those from thefisheries industry and residents in the downstream areas who
advocate that “rich forests make a rich sea,” and from this year,
sports equipment manufacturers and people involved in baseballalso joined the activity with an aim to create “baseball bat forests”
to pay respect to trees that are used for bats.
By implementing the LCA of wood products, we would like to takea specific look at what it means to plant trees, the role trees play inpreventing global warming, and the flow of people, materials andmoney surrounding trees from a slightly different perspective.

2. LCA of wood products
A tree grows itself by absorbing CO2 in the air and changing it toFig.1 Tree's Life Cyclec) Emission of CO2a) Absorption of CO2

DryingManufacturing

Hauling

DisposalLumberWood ProductHauling

Lumber

Felling

Log

Tree

Germination

Forestingb) Emission of CO2

Usage

Table 1Element
Felling-haulingCO2 source

Basic unit of CO2 emission

Truck(diesel oil)

Lumber sawing

Saw mill(electric)

CO2 (kg)per table

88.8 kg/t

5318.8 kg/m

2

3

8.7 kg/m

1110.9 kg/table

11

DryingDryer(heavy oil)

Processing andWood working

assemblymachine(electric)

Painting(lacquering)

Human power_0

Delivery

Truck(diesel)

25.6 kg/t

3

_

_

0

Total

32

Use

The result was: CO2 consumption (i.e. b) Emission of CO2) from felling to use = 32kg/table
Meanwhile, since nearly 50% of the weight of timber is carbon1 according to the molecular
structure of timber, the amount of CO2 locked in a 45kg table can be calculated as follows.
(45kg table x 50%) x (CO2 molecular mass 44 / Carbon atomic mass 12) = 82.5kg

JLCA News Letter No.2

13

From the above, we have found that the Amount of CO2 (32kg)
emitted in the manufacturing and using processes is less than theAmount of CO2 locked in the product (82.5kg). In other words, atable made using an untreated material produced in Japan has agreater amount of CO2 locked inside the table than the amount of
CO2 emitted by making the table. Because timber has CO2 lockedin and less energy is consumed in the manufacturing process (itdoes not require a high temperature like metal or glass), such a
relational expression can be formed. What this relational
expression represents is that we should use more wood in our lives
if we are concerned about preventing global warming. It shows theimportance of using a lot of timber in interior decorating, furniture,accessories and wooden dwellings and to continue to use andcare for them for many years.
When we looked further into this finding, we have found that thisrelational expression only works with untreated timber produced inJapan. For instance, we can see from applying LCA that it
becomes hard to form the above relational expression if we use
plywood instead of untreated timber, as plywood would emit fourtimes the amount of CO2 of untreated timber in the production
stage, and that the relational expression cannot be formed if we
use imported timber, as the amount of CO2 would increase in
several orders of magnitude during shipping. Even though they areboth timber, domestic is better than imported, and untreatedtimber is better than plywood.

product constantly emits CO2 from its manufacturing to disposal(Fig. 2 (i)). Meanwhile, the timber product absorbs CO2 throughphotosynthesis until it is felled, and its negative CO2 emission is
maintained even when it is processed into a product. This negative
CO2 emission status is kept the longer it is used (Fig.2. (ii)).
Although CO2 from the processed portion is emitted when the
product is incinerated, if we postulate that a tree was planted at thesame time another tree was felled (See Fig.2 (iii)), the CO2 balance
would perpetually be on the minus. In other words, recycling (ideal
inverse manufacturing system) in which good products are
manufactured and used without burdening the global environmentis established.
The point here is that it is just as important to plant trees as it is touse wood. As described above, timber can be made into a productwithout putting too much burden on the global environment.
However, if we were to maximize the attributes of wood further, it
would be important to have the awareness that wood is a rarematerial (recyclable resource) that allows us to do the natural act of
replacing what is used.

4. Caring for Trees Campaign and Tree Recycling
Project
Japan has promised in the Kyoto Protocol to reduce 6% of
greenhouse gas by 2020, and about two-thirds of that reduction(3.9%) relies on CO 2 absorption by woodlands. The Forestry
Agency has reinforced its efforts of promoting CO2 reduction byobtaining funds for woodland conservation by getting people touse more domestic timber in their lives through its Caring for Trees
Campaign since fiscal 2005. The LCA of wood products we carriedout revealed that this Caring for Trees Campaign not only promotes
the circulation funds, but is a very effective method of promoting

3. Establishing an ideal inverse manufacturingsystemThe following Fig.2 (i)-(iii) are the models created by comparing theamount of CO2 emitted over time for this wood product to that for
an ordinary manufactured product. The ordinary manufactured

Fig.2. Comparative Model of CO2 emission between wood product and other manufactured product(i) Ordinary manufactured product

CO2 Emission(ii) Wood product(iii) Tree planting following the felling

CO2 Emission

CO2 Emission

Disposal
Growth of the next tree

Disposal
Time

Time
Use

Use

Use

Tree's growth

Tree's growth
Manufacturing
Felling,manufacturing
Time

CO2 Absorption“Recycling society and timber” by Takanori Arima“Wood Information” Aug. 2002, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

JLCA News Letter No.2

14

CO2 Absorption

the absorption of CO2 by controlling its emission.
Finally, I would like to introduce a unique activity that is being
carried out at the private sector level. It is called the Tree
Recycling Project by the sports goods manufacturer Mizuno, thewoodwork manufacturer Oak Village, and the non-profit
organization Donguri-no-kai.
Mizuno has about 15,000 timber materials a year that cannot beprocessed into baseball bats due to the bur or split in the timberfound in the process of manufacturing wooden baseball bats.
These timbers that used to be disposed (incinerated) have beenpurchased by Oak Village to manufacture wooden accessories thatform parts of key-rings and cell phone straps, which are sold in
sports goods shops and various retailers. Part of their sale isdonated to the non-profit organization Donguri-no-kai, which isused as funds for its foresting activities. The officials of Mizuno,
former professional baseball players, boys’ baseball teams andofficials of Oak Village participated in the Baseball Bat Foresting
Ceremony hosted by Donguri-no-kai at the beginning of November
2005, and planted the seedlings of Japanese ash and magnolia.

b) Environmental effect:
It extends and lengthens the life of faulty timber, and creates new
woodlands through planting trees. It improves the consuming
public’s awareness that by buying Recycled Tree Goods they cancontribute to preventing global warming albeit in a small way.
c) Social effect:
The producer of baseball bats (Mizuno) and their users (people
involved in baseball) planted trees in the forest, and the staff of
Oak Village and Donguri-no-kai sold the recycled tree goods at
Koshien Stadium and Seibu Dome.
What we have found through the LCA of wood products was that a)Using a lot of domestically produced wood products in life and b)
Directly and indirectly supporting the efforts of woodlandconservation such as tree planting and thinning are effective incontributing to the prevention of global warming on a personallevel, and I have described here the Tree Recycling Project as the
specific system for achieving those efforts.

The project has the following three significances.
a) Economic effect:
Mizuno improved its yield, Oak Village expanded its new productdevelopment and market, and Donguri-no-kai obtained funds for its
activities.

JLCA News Letter No.2

15

Case Study
LCA and Environmental
proposition of industrial adhesives
development
1. Introduction

Daijiro AsaiGroup Manager
Specialty Functional Resins Development Group
1st R&D Center Aica Kogyo Company, Limited

modeling 1,2) (LIME) developed by the National Institute ofAdvanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST.)

Adhesives are used in various most kinds of manufacturingindustries such as paper/packaging, printing/publishing,constructions/public works architecture/civil engineering,
housing/building materials, electrical/electronics and vehicles.
Approximately 1 million tons are manufactured annually in Japan,
and they are classified into formaldehydes series, aqueous
adhesives, solvent-based ones, reactive ones, hot melts andpressure sensitive ones. Formaldehyde, toluene, ethylbenzene andxylene from adhesives have been noted to cause the sick-house
syndrome, but measures have been taken against formaldehyde
by the Amended Building Standards Law in 2002, and measures
for toluene and other chemicals mentioned above are due to beprovided for by the standard revision of School Environmental
Health Standards. Meanwhile, solvent-based type adhesives that
contain non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) arestill widely used. However, the Air Pollution Control Law wasrevised in 2004 to control the emission of VOCs, as they have been
identified to cause an increase of environmentally hazardous
photochemical oxidants and suspended particle matter (SPM)
when emitted into the atmosphere. LCA for industrial solvents are
not sufficiently implemented even though they are widely used in
the manufacturing industries and required inventory data. We havecarried out an LCA for five kinds of typical industrial adhesives
manufactured in our factory in Aichi prefecture, and studied thepossibility of developing environmentally friendly industrial
adhesives by also carrying out one of the integrated assessments,
the Life-cycle Impact assessment Method, based on Endpoint

2. Inventory analysis and Impact assessment offive kinds of industrial adhesives
Object products: Five kinds of industrial adhesives manufactured
by AICA Kogyo Co., Ltd.
(i) Aqueous adhesive: Polyvinyl acetate emulsion adhesive (PVAc)(ii)Aqueous adhesive:Acrylic Resin emulsion adhesive including
inorganic filler (RA)(iii) Solvent-free reactive: Silyl-terminated PolyEther adhesive
including inorganic filler (SE)(iv) Solvent-free reactive: Polyurethane adhesive including inorganic
filler (PU)(v) Solvent adhesive: Solvent based Polychloroprene rubber contact
adhesive (PCR)
Since any of the adhesives above can adhere an area ofapproximately 3.3 m2 with 1kg of adhesive, we established theirfunctional unit as 1kg, and conducted inventory analysis for raw
material extraction, materials, manufacturing, distribution, use anddisposal using the JEMAI LCA ver.1 software as shown in Fig.1.
We calculated the environmental impact as the social cost by LIME
on Excel sheet, and indicated the results by type of adhesive andtype of causative parameters in Fig.2.

Fig.1 System Boundary of the Inventory Analysis of Industrial Adhesives

System Boundary (Adhesives)
Materials

Use ofProduct(Solvent scenario)

Monomer

InsideOrganic solvent isAICA

either recovered orOrganic

Jimokujiemitted into thesolvent

Factory

atmosphere

Imported

extract

naphthaion

Polymerization

Mixing

Crude oil extraction

Product

Crude

Solvent

User

Electric

Limestone
Calcium

Composite

Landfill

adhesive

Industrial waste(Aqueous scenario)
Wood

Wood chipadhesivematerial
recovery

Water

power
carbonate

Disposaladhesive

Aqueous(Solventless reactive scenario)
Destruction ofWood

the adherend

adhesive

Industrial waste

Wood chip

Crude
Nothing

Heavy oil

JLCA News Letter No.2

Cooling water

Reactive163. LIME assessment results for five types ofindustrial adhesives2) The four kinds other than the solvent types, most of the social
cost derived from material production, and there is a two-digit
difference in the social cost compared to solvent types with about¥4/kg for aqueous types to ¥8/kg for solvent-free reactive types.
We have found that these gaps in the social cost are proportional
to the usage rate of crude oil derived naphtha, which is the raw
material of adhesives.
3) There are two types of adhesive in the disposal scenario: onethat becomes industrial waste and one that does not. Since they do
not contain hazardous substances such as heavy metals, thesocial cost created by the industrial waste of adhesives is small.

The following results were obtained after carrying out the LCI and
LCIA based on LIME on five kinds types of adhesives.
1) When the NMVOC of solvent adhesives are emitted into theatmosphere, the photochemical oxidant and SPM that are
generated cause great damage to human health, primary
production and social assets. A typical synthetic rubber solvent
type is estimated to incur about ¥140 social cost per 1kg, so a shift
towards the installation of a solvent recovery equipment or use ofnon-solvents could reduce the environmental impact significantly.
Although the results for the NMVOC’s ability to generate
photochemical oxidants differs between Maximum Increment
Reactivity (MIR) and Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential(POCP), we can see that it is possible to reduce environmental
impact by selecting VOC with a less potential for creating
photochemical oxidants in the designing process.

There is great hope for utilizing such results of the LCI and LCIA
based on LIME in the design and development of industrial
adhesives.

Fig. 2 Types of adhesives and the social costs involved by causative agent
1.60E+02
Industrial waste

1.40E+02

Sulphur dioxide

1.20E+02

Particulate matter(PM10)
Non-methane VOC (Average)

1.00E+02
Social cost
8.00E+01(￥/kg)
6.00E+01

Nitrous oxide
Nitrogen oxide
MethaneCO2
UraniumNatural gas

4.00E+01
2.00E+01
0.00E+00
s
ou

ue

Aq

RA

s
ou

ue

Aq

Ac

PV

ss

e
ntl
lve

So

SE

ss

e
ntl
lve

So

PU

nt

e
olv

Crude oil
Coal

R

PC

S

Without non-methane NOV

9.00E+00

Industrial waste

8.00E+00

Sulphur dioxide

7.00E+00

Particulate matter(PM10)
Non-methane VOC (Average)

6.20E+00
Social cost 5.00E+00(￥/kg)
4.00E+00

Nitrous oxide
MethaneCO2
UraniumNatural gas

3.00E+00
2.00E+00
1.00E+00

Crude oil

0.00E+00
us

eo

u
Aq

c

RA

us

eo

u
Aq

A
PV

s

tle
en

lv
So

E
sS

s

tle
en

lv
So

U
sP

nt

lve

So

Coal

CR

P

References
JLCA News No.34, Norihiro Itsubo
JLCA News No.35, Norihiro Itsubo

JLCA News Letter No.2

17

7th International Conference on EcoBalance
Nov. 14 - 16, 2006
Tsukuba, JapanThe Institute of Life Cycle Assessment, Japan,
The Society of Non-Traditional Technology/ECOMATERIALS Forum
National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry/
Life Cycle Assessment Society of Japan
Institute for Building Environment and Energy Conservation
Center for Environmental Information Science

http://www.sntt.or.jp/ecobalance7/

SETAC Europe LCA Case Study Symposium
December. 7-8, 2006, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC)
Stuttgart, Germany

http://www.setaceumeeting.org/lca2006/

ISIE 2007
June. 17-20. 2007,
Toronto, Canada

International Society of Industrial Ecology

http://www.isie.ca/

14th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering
Jun. 11 - 13, 2007,
Tokyo, Japan

International Academy for Production Engineering

http://cirp-lce2007.jspe.or.jp/

3rd International Conference on Life Cycle Management
August. 27- 29, 2007,
University of Zurich,
Switzerland

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)

http://www.lcm2007.org/

IV Global Conference on Sustainable Product Development and Life Cycle Engineering
October 3-6, 2006,
Sao Paulo, Brazil,〜〜

University of Sao Paulo

http://www.gcsm.org.br/

Planning & Information Sub-Committee:
Mr. Kiyoshi UENO
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Dr. Norihiro ITSUBO
Musashi Institute of Technology
Mr. Tadashi KOTAKEJapan Automobile Manufacturers Association
Mr. Kiyoshi SAITO
Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association
Dr. Kiyoshi SHIBATA
National Maritime Research Institute
Mr. Junichi NAKAHASHI Plastic Waste Management InstituteDr. Yasunari MATSUNO University of Tokyo
Editors:
Mr. Ryosuke AOKI JEMAI
Mr. Katsuyuki NAKANO JEMAI
Adddress
Life Cycle Assessment Society of Japan (JLCA)LCA Development Office, JEMAI(Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry)
2-1, Kajicho 2-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0044
tel: +81-3-5209-7708
fax: +81-3-5209-7716
E-mail: jlca@jemai.or.jp
http://www.jemai.or.jp/english/
JLCA News Letter No.2