JLCA NEWS ENGLISH EDITION Februaly.2009

No.6

JLCA
NEWS LETTER
Life-Cycle Assessment Society of Japan

Contents

Summary of LIME2 Working Group Activity Result ………………………………………… 1
LCA-Based Approach to reduce CO2 Emissions from Recycling Plants

…………

7

Implementation of LCA to Support Environmental Management of ………………… 16
the Toshiba Group
Information ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 21

Special Article

Summary of LIME2 Working Group Activity Result
Norihiro Itsubo
Associate professor
Faculty of Environmental and Information Studies Musashi Institute of Technology• Creation of the LIME2 Users Guide Book and distributionof information to society through publication of the guidebook.

1. Introduction
LIME2 was developed through the 2nd National LCA Project (2003 to 2006 with the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI), NEDO, Japan Environmental Management
Association for Industry (JEMAI), and Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST)). LIME2 is the newer version of LIME1 (Itsubo and Inaba, 2005) which can conduct
LCIA on 11 areas of environmental impact and 1,000 typesof substances based on the Japanese environmental conditions. A large number of LCIA implementers are expected touse LIME2 once the LIME2 coefficient list is released.
For this updated version, the visual presentation of theassessment coefficients, scope of assessment, and coefficient list have been changed. A new function has also been
added so that uncertainty analysis can be carried out. Features of LIME1 and LIME2 or important points to remember
when using them, however, have not been sufficiently communicated to users. It is therefore desirable that technicalinstructions be provided to the implementers such that they
can appropriately and easily use the new functions of
LIME2.
With LIME2, LCIA method developers can examine thevalidity of new methods by studying case examples and also
can discuss research topics that receive much public attention such as the sick building issue and the waste material
issue. It is also expected that they can identify future
research topics from the case example study results.
If these case example study results are released as the
LIME Users Guide, those who wish to start using LIME canlearn appropriate use and interpretation methods inadvance. As for general consumers, they can obtain useful
information for environmental communication based on asimple index.
Based on the background described above, corporate LCA
implementers and LIME developers formed a working groupto carry out joint research under the control of the LCA
Japan Forum. This article reports the results of the LIME2
working group activity.
1

Figure 1 shows the working group activity. Corporate
members independently set the assessment target anddefined the scope of investigation, and conducted inventory
analysis based on this setting. LIME developers disclosed
the LIME coefficient list, and at the same time, distributed atool to support LIME-based environmental impact assessment (LIME calculation sheet). They also provided advice
regarding how to review the assessment result as well as
how to interpret and discuss the result.
Members (12 companies)• Assessment target selection and definition of the application• Identification of the objective and the scope of the investigation• Defining of the application of LIME
• Collection of inventory data
• Execution of LCIAAIST LCA Center
Monthly meetingand discussion• Provision of the latest LIME list
• Explanation of how to use LIME
• Introduction of LCIA research trends• LCIA support• Review of LCIA result

Significance of this working group
Internal contribution• Incorporation of inputs from the working group into the environmental report• Development of LCIA skills• Acquisition of information that contributes to achievement of environmental management• Application of inputs from the working group into eco-efficiency and environmental accounting• Advertisement of corporate activities• Acquisition of the initiative as a pioneering organization in the LCA field

Social contribution• Disclosure of environmental information• Release of inputs from the working group at
exhibitions• Increase of information exchange• Creation and release of the LCIA Implementation
Guideline

Figure 1: Structure and significance of the LIME2 working group

Table 1 shows the major processes that take place at theworking group. The assessment target and the scope ofinvestigation were decided in the beginning (the 1st working
group meeting). Then, each member collected data and carried out inventory analysis. Their results were reviewed atthe 2nd working group meeting. There, the results were
inputted in the LIME2 calculation sheet for environmental
impact assessment. The LIME2 calculation sheet is an environmental impact assessment tool developed by AIST. It
contains the LIME2 coefficient list, and inputting of inventory
data allows automatic assessment following the characterization, damage assessment, and integration steps(Figure 2)2.

2. Description of the Activity
The LIME2 working group was organized in order toachieve the following:• Accumulation of case example study findings using LIME2
and effective dissemination thereof to society• Promotion of operators' understanding of the LIME2
methodology by providing explanation• Interpretation and discussion of case example study
results, and improvement of assessment efficiency throughcritical review by developers

1[Individual discussion] Review of characterization and damage assessment result[Task for individual members] Execution of integration[Task for individual members] Selection of the assessment target (e.g. particular product, corporate
activity, and so on) and setting of the assessment goal (e.g. environmental report)
September, 2007 Kick-off meeting
Finalization of the assessment target
and the scope of investigation

January, 2008 Organization of calculation result • Organization of information that can be learned from the result• Important points to remember when creating a report• Discussion regarding report creation[Discussion]• Selection of the assessment target• How the special seminar should be run[Individual discussion] Review of the integration result[Individual discussion] Consultation regarding interpretation of the life cycle[Task for individual members] Interpretation of the life cycle[Task for individual members] Inventory analysis and examination of environmental burden data
November, 2007

Organization of inventory analysis
result[Lecture] How to use the LIME sheet

February, 2008 Discussion of the report[Individual discussion] Inventory discussion (product level or corporate level)[Individual discussion] Consultation regarding integration[Task for individual members] Execution of integration
December, 2007

Organization of calculation result• Review of the report content[Task for individual members] Creation of a document to describe the result
March, 2008

• Report and review of the result• Discussion regarding future study themes

Summarization of the result• Internal report on the calculation result using PowerPoint• Use of the calculation result

External presentation meeting (hosted by the LCA Japan Forum)
Voluntary presentation (environmental report and website)

Table 1: LIME2 working group schedule (1 of 2)

Table 1: LIME2 working group schedule (2 of 2)• Spreadsheet software allows easy and simple calculation.
• Calculation results can be automatically displayed as graphs.
• Uncertainty analysis can be carried out.

Figure 2: Image of a LIME calculation sheet

The LIME2 working group explained how to use the tooland provide practice sessions using specific inventory datain order to avoid incorrect use of the tool as much as possible. For the obtained environmental impact result, themethod developers carried out critical review (the 3rd working group meeting). They also interpreted the result with theimplementers, and as necessary, the developers provided
advice on how to disclose the assessment result or how toestablish an eco-design policy. The implementers actively
exchanged opinions about interpretation of the result andhow to use the tool (the 4th working group meeting).
At the end, each member created a report on the study
achievements (the 5th working group meeting). The report
was created based on a standardized format, and the members tried to create an easy-to-read report for the recipients.

Through these activity processes, the implementers experienced a series of flows including preparation for the use of
LIME2, assessment using the tool, interpretation of theresult, and disclosure of the result.
We then reviewed the activity processes from October,
2007, to March, 2008 (6 months).
The achievement of this working group was presented at
the FY2008 LCA Japan Forum Seminar (June 3rd, 2008).
Detailed information on the presentation is available on the
LCA Japan Forum website (www.jemai.or.jp/lcaforum/seminar/
02_01.cfm). Also a poster summarizing the evaluation result
was also created at the same time as the creation of thestudy achievement report. This report and the poster will
also be published on the LCA Japan Forum website in thenear future.
2

3. Assessment Target

4. Major Results

Table 2 shows the companies that participated in the working group and their assessment target. This working group
was able to cover a wider range of business fields thanoriginally expected such as building materials, automobiles,
electric products, office equipment, containers and packages, heath-related products, electricity, and services. The
implementers were responsible for selecting the area ofenvironmental impact to be assessed. Environmental
impacts such as global warming, consumption of fossil fuels,
air pollution in city areas, and acidification were included inalmost all case examples. Some included indoor air pollution, noise, waste material, and toxic chemical material,
depending on the assessment purpose or target.

This section introduces an overview of some of the caseexamples of assessment conducted by the working group.
Assessment was carried out for all the characterization,
damage, and integration steps, but this section introduces
the result for the integration step.
Figure 3 shows the result of assessment of a wall material
called MOISS conducted by Tostem. MOISS has a mechanism for absorbing and degrading VOC that is dispersed
inside a room. When adhesives using formaldehyde as asolvent are used, an extremely small amount of chemical isreleased for a long period of time and causes the sick building syndrome. When MOISS is used, however, it has beenfound that formaldehyde is degraded and the indoor air pollution can be dramatically reduced. It has also been foundthat degradation of formaldehyde involves the generation of
CO2. The assessment result has indicated that the reduction of indoor air pollution was greater than the environmental impact caused by warming. Due to the size of the wastematerial, the assessment result has also indicated that the
future issues to be focused on will be stages other than the
product use stage, such as processing of waste materials
produced in construction and recycling.

Company
ToshibaRicohTargetAir conditioners andelectric devices
Copy machines madewith recycled material

Company

TargetFuji Electric Systems

Distribution boards andswitching devices

UniCharm

Automatic urine collector
Power generating facilities(thermal power generation andnuclear power generation)
Interior materials having a volatileorganic compound (VOC) absorption
and degradation mechanism

Nissan Motors

Corporate activities

Chubu Electric Power
Company

Mitsubishi Motors

Rear-end trim using
natural materials

TostemSekisui Chemical

Adhesives and building
materials

Toyo Seikan Kaisha

Steel can TULC

HitachiLiquid-crystal projectors

Fujitsu Laboratories

IT solutions

Table 2: LIME2 working group participants and assessment targets

Product use stage is not included

Product use stage is included

Indoor air pollution

Waste material

Warming
MOISS ver.1
Abiotic resource
Eutrophication
Human toxicity (water)
Ecotoxicity (soil)

Normal wall ver.1
Global warming
Photochemical Oxidant
Human toxicity (soil)
Waste material

MOISS ver.2
Ozone-layer depletion
Air pollution in urban areas
Ecotoxicity (air)Indoor air pollution

Normal wall ver.2
Acidification
Human toxicity (air)Ecotoxicity (water)

Figure 3: Result of environmental impact assessment of a VOC absorbing and degrading wall material (Tostem)(the unit for the vertical axis is yen); the left half of the graph is the assessment result when the product use
stage is not included; the right half of the graph is the assessment result when the product use stage is included.
MOISS is the VOC absorbing and degrading wall material.

3

must be noted that the risk of accidents or radiation was notwithin the scope of assessment. Furthermore, Japan has
good environmental equipment such as desulphurizationequipment and denitration equipment, and the volume of air
pollutant emission is much smaller than other countries4).
For this reason, when the same type of assessment is carried out in other countries, it is necessary to focus not only
on warming and but also on air pollution.

Integrated result [yen/kWh]Figure 4 shows the result of automatic urine collector
assessment conducted by UniCharm. An automatic urine
collector pumps urine; therefore, the frequency of changing
diapers can be reduced (when using paper diapers: 2 diapers and 6 pads, and when using an automatic urine collector: 2 diapers and 2 pads3). Here, the environmental impact
of not only the urine collector but also the paper diapers thatare used together with the urine collector were assessed.
Although manufacturing and use of the automatic urine collector caused an increase in CO2 emission, the environmental impact associated with production and disposal (warming
and waste material in particular) was reduced due to thedecreased consumption of diaper pads. Therefore, theassessment result indicated that the environmental impact
was greatly reduced.

Other
Uranium
Coal
Sulfur dioxide
Crude oil
MethaneNitrogen oxide
Natural gas
Carbon dioxide

Coal

Crude oil

Nuclear power
generation

Thermal power Thermal power Thermal power Thermal power Nuclear power
generation using generation using generation using generation using
generation
LNG
LNG
coal
oil

Figure 5: Result of environmental impact of power generation(Chubu Electric Power Company). The unit for the vertical axis is yen. The partial graph presentation in the small
window is an enlarged image of the result of nuclear
power generation assessment.

Waste material

Conventional toileting
assistanceToileting assistance using
the urine collector

Toileting assistance usingthe urine
collector (advanced processing)

Sulfur dioxide

General waste material(unknown, same amount for all bars)
Crude oil

Nitrogen oxide

Particulate matter (PM10)

Coal

Natural gas

Other polluted sludge

COD

Total phosphorus

Total nitrogen

Carbon dioxide

Toshiba proposed the originally developed environmental
index "Factor T." Environmental impact assessment was
included as a part of Factor T, and LIME was used for it.
The most distinctive characteristic of Toshiba's assessment
was that the factor calculation was used in all products.
Figure 6 shows the summary of factor calculations.
Although the environmental impact of each product largely
varies with the type of product, a consistency tendency wasobserved in the life cycle stage breakdown. Highperformance products with a relatively short life such as
mobile phones or notebook PCs had a large environmental
impact in production of their constituent materials. On theother hand, products with a long service life and large power
consumption such as air-conditioners, lighting fixtures, andwashers tended to have a large environmental impact in the
product use stage. Toshiba now uses LIME not only toassess their products but also to assess the environmental
performance of the entire company and also to set a longterm eco-efficiency target.

Figure 4: Result of environmental impact assessment of an automatic urine collector (UniCharm). The left bar shows thecase where the automatic urine collector was not used.
The center bar shows the case where the automatic urine
collector was used. The right bar shows the case where
the assessment included the urine treatment process.
The unit for the vertical axis is yen.

Chubu Electric Power Company assessed the environmental impact of power generation. The assessment resultis shown in Figure 5. The result indicated that thermal
power generation using coal, oil, or LNG greatly influences
CO 2 emission. Among these three above, LNG had low
CO2 emission strength and also had low air pollutant emission; therefore, LNG had a small environmental impact.
Coal is in general collected through open-pit mining, and it
uses more land area for collection than oil or natural gas.
The reason why the environmental impact of coal is larger
than oil or natural gas is that it influences biodiversity or
primary production due to the land use during resource collection. Nuclear power generation has a low environmental
impact overall compared to thermal power generation, but it4

SD memory card
Mobile phone
Notebook PC
Liquid crystal module
X-ray CT diagnosis device
CCD camera for X-ray
LCD TV
Cleaner
Switching gear
Elevator
Condenser for railways
Washing machines and dryers
PC server
IH cooking heater
Dish washer and dryer
IH thermal pot

Material
procurement

Home-use iron

Manufacturing

LED downlight

Distribution

Transformer

Product use

Air-conditioner for shops and offices
Compact fluorescent lamp

Disposal

Turbine generator

Recycling

Main motor

Figure 6: List of electric product Factor T calculation results (Toshiba): breakdown of the environmental impact integration result

5. Conclusion and the Future Visionenvironmental impacts on global warming, fossil fuel consumption, and urban air pollution compared to the otherimpact areas. At the same time, some assessment results
directly reflected product characteristics. For example, theassessment result for containers, packages, and building
materials showed that the impact on waste material had tobe focused on. The assessment result for high performanceThis article has reported what the LIME2 working groupstudied. In summary, Table 3 shows the breakdown of theenvironmental impact area from the assessed product andassessed result perspective. Through the study activity, wewere able to conduct assessment on a wide variety of products, and the result indicated that these products had large

O

G

A

U

P

Eu

T

Ec

I

N

M

F

B

L

W

Paper diaper
Plaster board
VOC degrading building material
Adhesive
Natural adhesive
Steel canCar parts
GV
DV
Car
Thermal power generation using LNG
Thermal power generation using coal
Thermal power generation using oil
High-voltage panel
Urine collector
Liquid crystal projector
Copy machine
Air conditioner
50% or higher

30〜50%

10〜30%

O: Ozone-layer depletion G: Global warming A: Acidification U: Urban area air pollution P: Photochemical oxidant Eu: Eutrophication T: Toxic chemical substance Ec : Ecotoxicity
I: Indoor air pollution N: Noise M: Mineral resource consumption F: Fossil fuel consumption B: Biological resource consumption L: Land use W: Waste material

Table 3: List of important environmental impact areas for each product type5

electric products such as liquid crystal projectors and copy
machines indicated that energy-saving as well as chemical
substance management was important. It was also foundthat, from the perspective of comprehensive environmental
impact control, implementation of measures to deal withindoor air pollution or consumption of biological resources5)
would be effective for wall materials, and as for automobiles,
measures against urban air pollution as well as noise would
be effective. The assessment results presented at this time
were provided by particular companies with regard to particular products. Therefore, they were not to be regarded as
typical assessment results for any product groups. Still,
however, we believe that these assessment results haveprovided useful information for identifying potentially serious
environmental impacts.

• Updating of the assessment method for major environmental impact areas: Global warming and resource consumption
have been indicated as the major environmental impact
areas for a lot of products. Improvement of the assessment
method for these areas should be effective in improvementof the overall LCIA accuracy.
• Construction of a platform to promote sharing of information: The tool to promote the use of LIME was distributed at
this working group meeting; however, there were cases
where evaluation results that were inconsistent with thefacts were outputted due to improper use or misunderstanding or where the results were not properly interpreted. In
the future, it is desirable to enhance the function to assist
smooth assessment by the implementers by publishing a
guidebook that describes the LIME2 methodology or an
instruction manual that shows how to use the tool and provides explanation on case examples.

Joint case example studies in cooperation with companies
contributed not only to the sharing of study results and promotion of LIME2 but also clarification of future issues withregard to development of the environmental impact assessment method. The future issues to be addressed are as
follows:[References]
Norihiro Itsubo and Atsushi Inaba: Lifecycle Environmental
Impact Assessment Method. Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry (2005).

• Development of a method to assess overseas environmental impacts: LIME2 reflects Japanese environmental conditions and cannot accurately assess overseas environmental
impacts. Currently, environmental burdens generated overseas are assessed based on the assumption that theycause the same environmental impacts as the environmental burdens generated inside Japan. Therefore, development of an assessment method to reflect overseas environmental conditions through collaboration with overseas
researchers is desired. Even though global warming is the
key when using electric products within Japan, when thesame products are used overseas, particularly in areas
where environmental equipment at power generation facilities has not been sufficiently installed, air pollution may be amore serious issue than global warming.

Masaharu Motoshita, Ryota Ii, Hironori Nogami, Norihiro
Itsubo, and Atsushi Inaba: Spreadsheet Software-Based
Impact Assessment Program -LIME Calculation Sheet-.
Collection of Presentation Materials at the 3rd Japan LCA
Forum, pp. 104-105 (2008).
1) Life-cycle Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint
modeling
2) For the content of the LIME2 calculation sheet, refer tothe Collection of Executive Summaries of the Presentation
Meeting of the 3rd Japan LCA Forum (Motoshita, et al.,2008).
3) Based on UniCharm's investigation result.
4) Compared to 0.05 g per kWh of SO2 emission and 0.09 g
per kWh of NOx emission (2002) by Chubu Electric Power
Company, SO2 emission was 1.2 g per kWh and NOx emission was 0.7 g per kWh in Germany (1999), and SO2 emission was 4.8 g pr kWh and NOx emission was 2.1 g per
kWh in the United States (1999) (from the Chubu ElectricPower Company website)5) When wood building material is used.

• Further expansion of case example study: So far, manycase examples of LIME-based assessment are about industrial products such as electric products, cars, and materials,
and not enough assessment has been conducted withprimary industries such as agriculture, fishery, mining, andforestry. However, it is highly possible that the environmental impact areas to be focused on in these industries aredifferent from those of industrial products such as land use,water, chemical substance, and accidents. Assessment ofstructures such as civil engineering and construction, ICT,and service has also been insufficient.
• Consistency with inventory: Although LIME2 covers 15
environmental impact areas, at this working group meeting,too, many of the case example studies focused only on a
few areas such as warming or urban air pollution. Therefore, the extent of the assessed environmental impact areas
has not been checked. Execution of screening assessment
using data that fully covers inventory items will be an important requirement for avoiding improper decision making.
6

METI Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau Award Winning Article

LCA-Based Approach to reduce CO2 Emissions from
Recycling Plants
Akira Nakajima
Representative Director and CEO
Re-Tem Corporation

1. Introduction

2. Material Flow and Inventory at the Mito Plant

It is believed that, in terms of resource efficiency, a healthy
product life cycle consists of a flow of raw material → manufacturing → use → recycling.
There is no such thing like ‘waste’ , it is ‘fortune’ in the wrong
place; therefore, it is necessary and urgent to establish aresource circulating society where recycling, manufacturing,and consumption are all included to close the loop of materialflow.
One of the possible approaches is to apply LCA to identify themost appropriate recycling process for each recycling plant andtype of waste material in order to reduce environmental burdens as much as possible. To investigate the environmental
burden generated in our Mito Plant during its operation, LCA
data for the entire plant were collected for the year 2002 and2003. Although data was available for individual waste material, i.e. used car or home appliance, system-level LCA data
covering entire recycling plant was lacking at that time;
By analyzing the data,a number of solutions were recommended which have contributed to the reduction of energy consumption at the plant. Until now, the company has been constantly applying LCA to further reduce environmental burdens
while searching for improving recycling efficiency.
In addition, the company is conducting LCA for recycling plant
construction for Re-Tem Tokyo plant - the first attempt in recycling industry.
Since analysis and comparison based on LCA result could
effectively assist companies to conduct quantitative assessment of the volume of CO 2 emission, it is necessary that it
become a recognized tool to assist reducing CO2 emission for
the industry.

To examine the environmental burden produced in the Mito
Plant during its operation, material flow and process-specificinventory data for the Mito Plant were created.
A disposal plant has not only horizontal but also vertical lines,
and it takes a large amount of time and effort to conduct
measurement at each point. In the material flow, the recycling
process in Mito Plant was divided into five sub-processes
including P1, P2, IR, NF, and C1, and created charts for theprocesses at each of these sub-processes.
First, the material balance (= environmental burden) must be
visually checked. Materials such as plastic, chlorofluorocarbon(CFC) products, fluorescent lamps, and batteries that can beconverted into environmentally-friendly material are first materially sorted and processed by shredders. The output of theprocess could be inputed as raw material for electric furnaces
or non-ferrous metal and is required to provide the products
high quality. Because of this material conversion, both of theplants produced "zero" CO2 emissions. Due to the sophiscation of material flow, its outline is shown in an easy-tounderstand manner in Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the flowat the Re-Tem Mito Plant. As for the inventory data, eachprocess at the P1 sub-processs is provided.
The examination result showed that CO2 emission per ton ofprocessed waste was the largest in the shredding process at
the P2 sub-plant followed by the shredding process at the P1
sub-plant and the cutting process at the IR sub-plant. As forthe ratio between electricity and fuel consumption and the total
CO2 emission for each process, the electricity and fuelconsumption at the P1 sub-plant accounts for almost 80%, andthis suggested P1 is the priority area to be improved.

Manual softing (iron)

Sorting and disassembly

Shredding

Magnetic separation

Sorting and disassembly

ShreddingSieving

Aluminum sortingGas cutting

Cutting (shear cutting)Sorting and disassembly
Manual disassembly

Sorting and disassembly

Fluorescent tube shredding

CFC collection
P1: Special shredding section
P2: Special fine shredding section
IR: Iron scrap section
NF: Non-ferrous metal section
C1 : Copy machine section

Sorting and disassembly

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the flow at the Re-Tem Mito Plant

7

Manual softing (non-iron)

[Input]
Used product[Input]11
12

Waste motor (home appliance)
Waste OA device

772.3
2,595.4
3,367.7

Total
EnergyElectricity
Fuel (light diesel oil)
Fuel (gasoline)
Service water

Water
Indirect material[Output]
Process output

Used product1112

EnergyElectricity
Fuel (light diesel oil)
Fuel (gasoline)
Service water

Water

Process output
2 3 Aluminum
2 4 Non-ferrous composite materials
2 5 Copper
2 9 Substrate
3 0 Monitor and CRT
3 1 Paper
4 1 Substrate
5 2 Iron scrap
5 3 Iron composites
5 4 Iron
1 1 Waste motor and compressor
3 2 Lead battery
3 4 Recycled waste plastic
3 5 Waste plastic (RDF)
3 5 - 1 Waste plastic (land filling)3 6 Paper
5 5 Iron
3 3 Stainless steel

Total
CO2

Waste motor (home appliance)
Waste OA device

Total

3.4 MWh6.7 kl
0.6 klOxygenPropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)Emission

t
t
t

395.4
74.4
4.9
26.8
29.2
790.6

m3
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

2,463.8
1.3
29.3
0.5
5.9
2.9
1.0
0.5
21.0
15.1
20.4
772.3
9.9
1.3
6.6
0.0
10.91
0.5
4.7
3,367.7

t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t
t

Indirect material

OxygenPropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

[Output]
Process output
23
24
25
29
30
31
41
52
53
54
11
32
34
35
35-1
36
55
33

Process output
AluminumNon-ferrous composite materials
CopperSubstrate
Monitor and CRT
Paper
Substrate
Iron scrap
Iron composites
Iron
Waste motor and compressor
Lead battery
Recycled waste plastic
Waste plastic (RDF)
Waste plastic (land filling)
Paper
Iron
Stainless steel

Total
Emission

20.5 ｔ

CO2

229.3
770.7
1,000.0kg
kg
kg

1.0 kWh
2.0
l
0.2
l
kg
0.1
22.1
1.4
8.0
8.7
234.7

m3
g
g
g
g
g

731.6
0.4
8.7
0.1
1.7
0.9
0.3
0.1
6.2
4.5
6.1
229.3
2.9
0.4
2.0
0.0
3.2
0.2
1.4
1,000.0

kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

6.1

kg

Table 1 P1-1 Sorting and disassembly inventory[Input][Input]Used productIn-process input
From the IR sub-plant
92 Non-ferrous composite materials
From the IR sub-plant 11-1 Waste motor
From the Non-ferrous metal section 12 2
Non-ferrous composite materials
From the Copy machine section 16 4Iron composites
16 5 Non-ferrous composite materials
Non-ferrous composite gold materials
From the Game machine section 15 5
Total

2, 463.8
11.3
1.7
1 66.2
2 05.99 45.236.9
3,831.0t

Used productIn-process input
From the IR sub-plant
92 Non-ferrous composite materials
From the IR sub-plant 11-1 Waste motor
From the Non-ferrous metal section 12 2
Non-ferrous composite materials
From the Copy machine section 16 4Iron composites
16 5 Non-ferrous composite materials
Non-ferrous composite gold materials
From the Game machine section 15 5
Total

t
t
t
t
t

643.1
3.0
0.4
43.4
53.8
246.7
9.6
1,000.0

kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

303.8 MWhkl

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

79.3 kW hl

Indirect material

Tool (damper)(rotor cap)
(hammer)
OxygenPropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

1 73.5
6 87.1
8 53.7
449.7
84.7
5.5
30.5
33.2
899.3

t
t
t
m3
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

Indirect material

Tool (damper)(rotor cap)
(hammer)
OxygenPropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

45.3
179.4
222.8
117.4
22.1
1.4
8.0
8.7
234.7
.

kg
kg
kg
m3
g
g
g
g
g

3, 479.8
3 51.2
3,831.0tｔｔProcess output

908.3
91.7
1,000.0kg
kg
kg

1 17.6ｔ

Emission

30.7kg[Output][Output]

Process output

22

In-process output
Collected powder material

Total
EmissionCO2

22

In-process output
Collected powder material

Total

Table 2 P1-2 Shredding inventory

8

CO2[Input]
Inside the process

In-process input

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

563.6
106.1
6.9
38.2
41.6
1127.0

m3
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

Magnetic matter
Table 4 P1-4 Sieving inventory

1,321.3
2,158.5
3,479.8

t
t
t

3.5

t

[Output]
Process output
13

3,479.8

9.0 MWh
t

Total
CO2

Emissiont[Input]Inside the process

In-process input

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

[Output]
Process output
13

Magnetic matter
Table 4 P1-4 Sieving inventory

Total
CO2

Emission

1,000.0kg

2.6 kWh
kg
0.2
30.5
2.0
11.0
12.0
323.9

m3
g
g
g
g
g

379.7
620.3
1,000.0

kg
kg
kg

1.0

kg

Table 3 P1-3 Magnetic separation inventory[Input]Inside the process

In-process input

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

155.1
29.2
1.9
10.5
11.5
310.2

m3
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

Plus sieveGold and silver slag

834.0
487.3
1321.3

t
t
t

1.7

t

[Output]
Process output

15
14

1,321.3

4.3 MWh
t

Total
CO2

Emissiont[Input]Inside the process

In-process input

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material[Output]
Process output

1,000.0

kg

3.3

kWh
kg

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

0.1
22.1
1.4
8.0
8.7
234.7

m3
g
g
g
g
g

Plus sieveGold and silver slag

631.2
368.8
1000.0

kg
kg
kg

1.3

kg

1000.0

kg

3.0

kWh
kg

Total
CO2

Emission

Table 4 P1-4 Sieving inventory[Input]Inside the process

15

Plus sieve

834.0

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

97.9
18.4
1.2
6.6
7.2
195.8

m3
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

Plus sieve
Aluminum

650.2
183.8
834.0

t
t
t

1.0

t

[Output]
Process output

16
17

Total
Emission

CO2[Input]Inside the processt

2.5 MWht

15

Plus sieve

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

0.1
22.1
1.4
8.0
8.7
234.7

m3
g
g
g
g
g

Plus sieve
Aluminum

779.6
220.4
1000.0

kg
kg
kg

1.2

kg

[Output]
Process output

16
17

Total
Emission

CO2

Table 5 P1-5 Aluminum sorting inventory9[Input][Input]Plus sieve

650.2

t

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

0.7

MWh
t

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

76.3
14.4
0.9
5.2
5.6
152.6

m3
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

Indirect material

Stainless steel
Gold and silver slag with plastic

11.8
638.4
650.2

t
t
t

0.3

t

16

[Output]
Process output

20
19

Total
Emission

CO2

16[Output]
Process output

20
19

Plus sieve

1000.0

kg

1.0

kWh
kg

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

0.1
22.1
1.4
8.0
8.7
234.7

m3
g
g
g
g
g

Stainless steel
Gold and silver slag with plastic

18.1
981.9
1000.0

kg
kg
kg

0.4

kg

1,000.0

kg

1.01

kWh
kg

0.1
22.1
1.4
8.0
8.7
234.7

m3
g
g
g
g
g

Iron

1,000.0

kg

CO2

0.4

kg

Total
CO2

Emission

Table 6 P1-6 Manual sorting inventory[Input][Input]13

Magnetic matter

2,158.5t

Inside the process

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

2.18

MWh
t

EnergyWater

Electricity
Service water

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

253.4
47.7
3.1
17.2
18.7
506.7

m3
kg
kg
kg
kg
kg

Indirect material

Oxyge
PropaneAcetylene
CO2
Welding rod
Packing and transportation material (flexible container bag)

Iron

2,158.5t[Output]
Process output

CO2

0.8

t

Emission

Inside the process[Output]
Process output

18

Emission

13

18

Magnetic matter

Table 7 P1-7 manual sorting inventory

Fuel - CO2 (kg/t)
Electricity - CO2 (kg/t)

10

IR-6 CFC collectionIR-5 Shredding

IR-3 Cutting (shear cutting)IR-2 Gas cutting

IR-1 SortingP2-2 Shredding

P2-1 Sorting and disassembly

P1-8 Manual sortingP1-5 Aluminum sortingP1-4 Sieving

P1-3 Magnetic selection

P1-2 Shredding

P1-1 Sorting and disassemblyP1-6 Manual sorting

Figure 2 CO2 emission per processing of 1 ton

IR-4 Manual disassembly

Fuel - CO2 (kg/t)
Electricity - CO2 (kg/t)

Fuel - CO2 (kg/t)
Electricity - CO2 (kg/t)

P-1 (fuel)P-2 (electricity)

P-2 (fuel)Indirect material

IR (electricity)

IR (fuel)

Non-ferrous metal (electricity)
P-1 (electricity)
Non-ferrous metal (fuel)Copy machine (electricity)

Copy machine (fuel)Figure 3 Ratio between electricity and fuel consumption, and the total CO2 emission for each process

3. Environmental Accounting in Environmental
Business

The objective of environmental accounting is to quantify
environmental cost based on cost standards of a company
for each specific purpose. In environmental business wherebusiness is directly related to environment conservation
activities however, other costs rather than environmental
cost for each specific activity standard, and understanding
and classification of environmental effects are also quantified.

LCA does not cover labor cost. However, manual disassembling is widely used in many recycling methods, especially in developing countries like China and Southeast Asia
countires.
Therefore, the company included labor cost for theapproach of conducting LCA.

Mito Plant
Income from sales of valuable resources

Income from contract processing
149 million yen
P1, P2, and IR (shear cutting)Company(waste generator)

Waste products

Recycling

Refinery

Reuse

Manufacturer

Productmanagement

Sorting
Manual disassembly(unit: 1,000 yen)

P-1:copy machine P-2:non-iron

IR

Total

Manufacturing cost

66,69829,80824,569121,075

Pro-rata cost of product management

11,107

5,632

1,431

18,170Contract management cost

545

2,612

889

4,046
20,396Extra-process cost

Sales and
subcontracting

92 million yen

Transportation cost

4,343

14,632

1,421

Fuel cost (company owned car)

130

0

523

653

Sub-total

5,018

17,244

2,833

25,095

Total

82,823

52,684

28,833

164,340

Figure 4 Approach to environmental accounting
11

Industrial waste

Waste disposerthe CO2 emission for each aspect. As as result, the emission was highest for construction material, accounting for
54.6%, followed by installed equipment accounting for40.1% and construction work accounting for 5.3%.
By taking the depreciation period into account, the emission was the highest for installed equipment accounting for
71.6% and the construction material accounting comes tothe second of 26.1%. This is because, construction material
has a long depreciation period of 50 years, comparing toinstalled equipment, such as machinery or electric equipment, which has a shorter depreciation period of 15 years.

4. CO2 Emission during Construction period of theTokyo Plant
Although it is considered time-consuming, the company
determined to collect LCA data for the entire life cycle covering construction, operation, and demolition of a recycling
plant prior to construction of the Tokyo Plant. By comparing
the environmental burden between the scenario when material was recycled and when material was not recycled, thecompany has attempted to reach a better result using LCA.
First, construction LCA was conducted to measure theamount of energy consumed on construction. Construction
was divided into three aspects including construction work,
construction material, and installed equipment, and obtained

Figure 5 LCCO2 REPORT
CO2 emission in plant construction
Construction work
Construction material
Installation equipment
Total

CO2 emission

CO2 emission for construction material(for each building element)

CO2 emission per year

t-C O 2%242.5
2 517.2
1 847 .5
4607.15 .3
5 4 .6
4 0 .1
100%

t-CO2/year

4 .0
4 4 .8
1 2 3 .2
172 .0

2.3
2 6.1
7 1.6
100

Foundation
Foundation pillar
Aluminum-framed glass wall
Transportation (other than for planting)
Building material

CO2 emission in construction work(for each process)Machine operation Construction by Shimizu
Distribution by Hitachi
Soil transportation Construction by Shimizu
Distribution by Hitachi
Materialtransportation

Construction by Shimizu
Distribution by Hitachi

Utilities
Total

CO2 emission

t-C O 2%
198.2 81.7
211.9
13.7
5.6
0 .1
0
4.3
3 .3
1.4
0 .9
0.4
26.3
10.8
242.5
100

Concrete

CO2 emission per year
t-CO2/year
%

3.3
0.23
0.002
0.055
0.015

3.5

0.07
0.4
4.04 1

Interior material

81.7
5.6
0
1.4
0.4
10.8
100

Green roof
Wall material
Concrete
Lighting
Total
CO2 emission for installed equipment
ShredderAir classifier

CO2 emission for construction material(for each material)
Concrete
Iron
Aluminum
Glass
Electric wire
Other
Lighting
Planting
Transportation
Total

CO2 emission

t-C O 21180 .5
1 0 4 7.9
77 .8
4 4 .83 9 .0
8 .7
0 .0
0 .5
118 .02517.2

%
4 6.9
4 1.6
3.1
1 .8
1 .6
0 .3
0 .0
0 .0
4 .7
100

CO2 emission per year
t-CO2/year
%

19.9
1 7.7
1.6
0 .9
2 .6
0 .2
0 .0
0 .0
2 .0
44.8

Soundproofing of shredder room

44.5
3 9.4
3.5
2 .0
5 .8
0 .4
0 .0
0 .1
4 .4
100

Wet scrubber + No.1 fan
Cyclone separator + No.2 fan
Belt conveyor
Distribution board
Vibratory separator + trommel sieve
Elevator
Bug filter
Scale
Drum magnetic separator
Radiation detector
No.3 fan
Total

Table 8 CO2 emission in the Tokyo Plant construction
12

CO2 emission

t-C O 21651.5
439.0
122.7
118.0
104.8
39.0
35.6
4.6
1.6
0.5
0.0
2517.2

%
65.6
17.4
4.9
4.7
4.2
1.6
1.4
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.0
100

CO2 emission

t-C O 2
676.5
240.5
239.2
197.3
178.8
76.6
61.8
45.8
43.1
36.2
1 8.8
17.3
8.3
7.3
1847.5

%
36.6
13.0
12.9
10.7
9.7
4.1
3.3
2.5
2.3
2.0
1.0
0.9
0.5
0.4
100

CO2 emission per year
t-CO2/year

27.5 2
7.3 2
2.45
1.9 8
2 .1 02 .6 00 .7 10 .0 90 .0 30 .0 30 .0 0
44.84

%
61.4
16.3
5.5
4.4
4.7
5.8
1.6
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.0
100

CO2 emission per year
t-CO2/year
%

45.1
16.0
15.9
13.2
11.9
5.1
4.1
3.1
2.9
2.4
1.3
1.2
0.6
0.5
123.2

36.6
13.0
12.9
10.7
9.7
4.1
3.3
2.5
2.3
2.0
1.0
0.9
0.5
0.4
100

5. CO2 Emission from the Tokyo Plant during its
Operation

went up again to 16 tons per month in March, 2007. Thisis due to largest amount of waste was processed during
the measurement period in March, 2007.
In the first year of plant operation (FY2005), due to various nonrecurring factors, a large amount of electricity andlight diesel oil were consumed for the amount of processing, resulting in the increased CO2 emission. In FY2006,
waste processing efficiency improved to realize processing of a larger amount of waste with the minimum amountof electricity and light diesel oil. This resulted in successful reduction of CO2 emission.

Figures of the "material flow at the Tokyo Plant","changes in CO 2 emission from the Tokyo Plant in its
operation," and "changes in CO 2 emission per 1 ton ofprocessed waste" were created.
CO 2 emission caused by operation of the Tokyo Plant
was 7.2 tons per month during initial stage of operation.
It then gradually increased to reach its maximum at 21
tons per month in March, 2006. Emission started todecrease from April, 2006, and it was within the range
between 7 to 10 tons per month after June. It however

ＯＵＴＰＵＴ

ＩＮＰＵＴ

Drum magnetic separator

Air classifier

Shredding

ShredderCFC collection

Vending machine

Manual disassembly

Reception and sorting

Contract processing and collected raw material
Raw material
ATM
Vending machine
Fixture and industrial device
Metal scrap
Iron
Non-ironGame machine
OA device and home appliance
Waste plastic
Other

Iron

Picking

Collected items
from picking

Non-iron

Trommel sieve

Vibratory
separator

Shredded ironSeparatedmaterial
at the top
Separatedmaterial
at the bottom

Fall

Non-ferrous metal composite
Non-ferrous metal composite
Non-metal composite
Dust and plastics

Items collected by the cyclone separator
Dust collector

CFC

CFC

Fluorescent tube

Fluorescent tube

Battery

Battery

Reusable parts

Reused parts

Electricity

Items obtained from heavy machine disassembly

Items obtained from heavy machine disassembly

CopperCopper (valuable resource)

Light diesel oil

Items containing precious metal

Items containing precious metal

Waste plastic

Waste plastic

EnergyCO2

Figure 6 Material flow at the Tokyo Plant

FY2006CO2 emission t-CO2/month

FY2005Figure 7 Changes in CO2 emission from the Tokyo Plant in its operation
13

Light diesel oil
Electricity

FY2005

Total

FY2006

Electricity

CO2 emission t-CO2/month

Light diesel oil

Figure 8 Changes in CO2 emission per 1 ton of processed waste

zero CO2 emission.
Under this concern,Re-Tem provides "green recycle "label to those who want them.

6. Green Electricity
Re-Tem purchase green electricity from Japan Natural
Energy Company Limited and act as a green electricity recycling plant by replacing all electricity used at Tokyo Plant
with natural energy generated through biomass power generation. This allows recycling of waste while maintaining

The Green Power Certification System acts as a bridge between companies that wish to use
green electricity and power producers. Upon request by Re-Tem, the intermediary, Japan
Natural Energy Company Limited (JNE), delegates green electricity generation to power producers. JNE then issues a certificate to Re-Tem, assuring that green electricity was produced
and that the volume of electricity currently under contract is green electricity.

④Certification of the result①Delegation of natural energy
power generation⑤Issuance ofgreen power
certification

Conventional
electricity
supply②Sub-contract

Japan Natural Energy
Company Limited

Contracted
power
producers

Power producers in the area
where natural energy power plants
have been built③Reporton power
generation
resultSale ofelectricity

In-plant
consumption

Re-Tem Tokyo Plant
Charge for purchased electricity

Figure 9 Green Power Certification System

14(using wind power, biomass, etc)

Recycling plant using
green electricity

Natural energy power producers

Green power certification organization
Sale ofenvironmental
added value

Sale and useof electricity

ton of processed material was lower than the previous year
at both the Tokyo and Mito Plants. The total emission forboth plants was also lower than the previous year by 18%.
,
In other words, the company s priority activity, which was
CO2 emission reduction, produced a positive outcome.

7. Comparison of CO2 Emissions at the Tokyo andMito Plants againsting the Previous Year
CO 2 emission at the Tokyo and Mito Plants between
FY2005 and FY2006 were compared. Mover, the total CO2
emissions between the Tokyo Plant and Mito Plant werealso compared. The results showed that CO2 emission per

Tokyo Plant
FY2005(9 months)

FY2006

Received material (tons)

5,311.0

9,671.9

Electricity used (kWh)Electric power consumption rate (kg/kWh)Electricity-based CO2 emission (kg)Light diesel oil used (L)Light diesel oil consumption rate (kg/L)

Mito Plant
FY2005(9 months)

FY200625 ,683.9

25,326.4

182 ,82 7

165 ,93 0 △ 16 ,897.0 1,147,67 0

902,90 2

0.3886

0.388 6

0.388 6

71,046.6

64,480.4

26,60 747,747

2.640

2.640

Increase/Decrease

4,360.9

0.388 6

△ 6,566.2 445,984.6 350,867 .7
21,140.0

116 ,83 3

109,74 8

2.640

2.640

Total
Increase/Decrease

FY2005(9 months)

FY2006△ 357 .5

30,994 .9

34,998.3

4,003.4△ 244,76 8 1,330,497 1,068,832△ 261,665

0.388 6

Increase/Decrease

0.388 6

△ 95,116. 9 517,031. 1 415,348. 1 △ 101,683.0△ 7,085

143,44 0

157,495

2.640

2.640

14,055Light diesel oil-based CO2 emission (kg)

70 ,242 .5 126 ,052 .1

55 ,809.6 308,439.1 289,734.7△ 18,704. 4 378,681. 6 415,786. 8

37,105.2

Total CO2 emission (kg)141,289.1 190,532 .5

49,243.4 754,423.7 640,602 .4 △ 113,821. 3 895,712. 7 831,134. 9△ 64,577.8

CO2 emission per tonof received material

26.6

19 .7

△ 6.9

29.4

25.3

△ 4.1

28.9

23.7

△ 5.2

82.0 %※275.8 %*1 CO2 emission basic unit
Electricity:
0.3886 kg-CO2/kWh, based on JLCA-LCA Database FY2005, 2nd Edition, by Japan Environmental
Management Association for Industry
Light diesel oil: 2.64 kg-CO2/L, based on the Ministry of the Environment Enforcement Regulation Emission Coeffi
cient List (fuel-specific basic emission unit) in the Ministry of the Environment Greenhouse Gases
Emission Calculation Method Examination Committee data from the Greenhouse Gases Emission
Calculation Examination Committee Report*2 Green electricity to be used at the Tokyo Plant from FY2007 will allow CO2 emission from electricity during
recycling to be reduced to zero. The figure for FY2006 incorporates this prediction.
Table 9 Comparison of CO2 emission in FY2005 and FY2006 between the Tokyo and Mito Plants

8. Re-Tem Integrated System of Management(RISM)
It is an attempt to integrate data and systems of the material flow by integrating ISO14001-based EMS, theISO27001-based ISMS, and the risk management system.
By incorporating other tool such as LCA, it is expected material flow management would be improved which would benefit both RISM and LCA.

Globalenvironment

9. Conclusion
Environmental issues and global warming are widely discussed in the society. Many people think about environmental issues, talk about CO2 reduction and global warming, andare concerned about them.
Among a wide variety of environmental issues, Re-Tem
handles one of the most immediate problems: waste material and products - which makes Re-Tem obligated to implement practical measures through the business operations.
This provides great incentive for the company to continue
applying LCA to further improve the efficiency of recycling
operations.

Employees

Risk management
Compliance
Information security
Environmental protection
LCA
Contractor management
Emergency management system
Occupational health & safety

Laws &
Regulations

Clients

Figure 10 LCA and Re-Tem integrated system of management (RISM)

15

Chairman's Award

Implementation of LCA to Support Environmental Management of
the Toshiba Group
Norio Takeyama
Chief Specialist, Corporate Environment Management Division
Toshiba Corporation

1. Introductiontion, disposal, and recycling phases which were difficult toobtain uniquely and for designers to know. We then createda tool using this typical life cycle model to allow designers to
calculate environmental burdens in these phases based on
design information (Figure 1). Meanwhile, as for raw material procurement, manufacturing, and product use phases,
we first created an inventory database for material andenergy background data based on the result of input-output
analysis, and then installed it in the tool. As a result, designers were able to conduct LCA by inputting only foregrounddata. The simplified assessment tool so developed wasnamed "Easy-LCATM" and released in 1996. It was widelyused inside Toshiba and also was released into the market.

The Toshiba group started using LCA in 1993 and sincethen has been contributing to internal use and external dissemination of LCA methods by creating a database using
input-output tables and also by developing a simplified
assessment tool. The above achievements are named as
eco-efficiency factors in terms of service life cycle and business process (manufacturing phase) and are effectively
used in corporate environmental management. This article
provides an overview of LCA in the Toshiba group.

2. Simplified LCA
LCA by designers during the design method of a product iseffective in creation of an environment-conscious product,
and for LCA of a product containing a large number of parts,
development of a simplified LCA was desired. We therefore
used statistical data to create a typical life cycle model of ahome appliance, and created default values for transporta-

Establishment of a typical product life cycle modeland incorporation of it into a tool

Recycling-based burden
Rcol (%)

Recyclable
material

Collected
material

Rred (%)
Recycling

Raw material

Process

Process

Material

Lrec
Material procurement

Manufacturing

Distribution

Product use

Lprod

Disposal

Lprod = burden caused by manufacturing using original material
Rcol: recycle material collection rate
Rred: process reduction rate due to recycling

Creation of a disposal and recycling phase model

Creation of a distribution phase model

Typical processing in a government-designated city

Typical home appliance distribution route
Mass production
factory

Distribution center

Recycling

Electronics
retail store

Iron, copper, aluminum,
glass, paper, and cardboard
Collection
Total weight

Delivery distanceThe delivery distance is obtained byclassifying the relative weight of the
distance between the factory and 21
distribution centers nationwide basedon the amount of sales.
Loading condition
80% loading ratio on a 10-ton truck (40m3) (calculated based on the package
volume)Delivery distance
Fixed to 20 km.
Loading condition
80% loading ratio on a 2-tontruck (9 m3) (calculated
based on the package
volume)Transportation

Intermediate process

4-ton truck
Loading: 60%
Distance: 20 km

Except for recycled material

Transportation

Recycling facilities

4-ton truck
Loading: 60%
Distance: 20 km

Material: collection rate, material process
reduction rate

Electricity
Light diesel oil

Transportation
4-ton truck
Loading: 60%
Distance: 20 km

Iron:
Aluminum:
Copper:Glass:
Paper:
Cardboard:

Final disposal site

57.7%

Disposal in a government-designated city: 42.3%

Incineration

14.4%

97.4%,
36.4%,
36.4%,
10%,
51.3%,
60%,

65%
97%
90%
40%
32.4%
32.4%

Landfill
Input energy

Incinerated ash

Input energy: Garbage collection
Incineration
Ash discharge
Output energy: Carbon content in resin (PP): 85.7%
Carbon content in fiber (paper): 44.0%

Figure 1 Creation of a product life cycle model to establish a simplified assessment method16more detail (Figure 2).
Meanwhile, since the input-output tables only deal withdomestic shipment value statistics, environmental burdens
attributed to imported material may be underestimated. To
address this issue, we used the process method to analyze
the overseas processing of 9 major imported materials suchas ion-ore, aluminum metal, and crude oil. For other materials, we used the hybrid method where environmental
burden obtained from input-output analysis was added to
the result of the process method above. As a result, wewere able to accurately obtain inventories of imported materials (Figure 3).
The database was improved every year, and finally, it wasused as an optional database in Simapro, the LCA software
manufactured by a Dutch company called Pre having alarge number of users worldwide (http://www.pre.nl/simapro/
Toshiba-IOdata.htm). Together with Easy-LCATM which has
been on the market for 11 years, this database is also usedby many domestic as well as overseas users.

3. Uniquely Developed Database
The field of business of the Toshiba group covers consumer products such as home appliances and digital
devices, parts such as semiconductors, industrial devices,and social infrastructure products. For successful LCA inthis business field, creation of a general-purpose and practical database as background data was necessary. For thisreason, Toshiba created the database when LCA was first
introduced in 1994. We then focused our attention on
inventory analysis using input-output tables. We started
creating the database when LCA was first introduced in
1994. The database was updated as the 1985, 1990, 1995,
and 2000 editions as statistical data for the input-output
tables were updated. Subject inventory was only CO2 in the
beginning, but it gradually expanded to include SOx, NOx,
BOD, and COD. In the latest edition of the database, whichis the 2000 edition, 30 types of inventory are included. Material classifications also increased from approximately 400
to approximately 4,000 through price allocation based on
production statistic data so that the database could provide

Features of the database
Use of input-output tables (IO tables)
Item
Category- The latest Japanese 2000 IO tables are used.
Crude oil (fuel), coal, natural gas
Fuel
Consumption- Environmental burden basic unit for approximately
Crude oil (raw material), iron, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, manganese,
Resource nickel, chrome, sand, crushed stone, limestone, and wood
400 types of material is estimated.
BOD, COD, SS, Total-N, Total-P
Air- Accuracy of the data has been improved due to
Emission
Water
CO2, SOX, NOX, PM, HFC, HFC23, PFC, SF6
further itemization of data in the IO tables.
Energy (calorific power)- The 400 types of material above have been further
broken down into 4,000 types through price allocation.
Figure 2 Features of LCA Database
Use of the hybrid method- Overseas environmental burden is first estimated by
the process method and the result is added to theobtained domestic environmental burden.
Expansion of the range of subject environmental burden- Environmental burden of 30 types of material such as
CO2 can be calculated.
Overseas
Iron ore, copper ore,lead ore, zinc ore,aluminum metal, coal,crude oil, LPG, and LNG

Process methodJapan
IO analysis method

MiningImportTransportation

Transportation

Refining
ImportTransportation

Material and parts

Transportation

Material and parts
Assuming that
production takes
place in Japan

Refining

ImportTransportation

Product and service- Overseas processes for 9 major imported materials are analyzed (process method).
- Assuming that other materials are produced in Japan, domestic environmental burdens
are obtained and added to the analysis result using the process method (IO analysis method).
Figure 3 Hybrid method incorporating environmental burden of imported materials

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departments in the areas such as ICT solution or heavy
electric machinery for which LCA used to be considereddifficult to conduct. So far, LCA has been conducted forapproximately 80% of Toshiba group product groups, which
would account for approximately 360 models in total.

4. Execution of LCA
Using the simplified LCA method that we developed as
described above, we conducted LCA internally using a large
number of case studies or at the site of development. Someof the examples are shown in this section (Figure 4).
The figure shows that the proportion of environmental burdens is different for different parts or characteristics of different products, and suggests that each type of environmentconscious product has different points to pay attention to indevelopment. Recently, LCA has been conducted in many

Proportion of environmental burden*
SD memory card
Mobile phone
TV
HDD
Switchgear
Cordless vacuum cleaner
Notebook PC
FAX machine
MFP
Medical X-ray CT equipment
Mail sorting machine
Vacuum cleaner
Electronic cash register
Bank note processing machine
POS
Ultrasonograph
Scanner
Computer for clerical work
Refrigerator
Automatic ticket gate
Medical MRI equipment
Barcode printer
Washing machine and dryer
Compact fluorescent lamp
Circle-type fluorescent lamp
Motor
Transformer
Air conditioner
Radio wave device
Power generator

50

0

100%

Material
Manufacturing
Distribution
Product use
Recycling
Disposal*CO2 emission ratio or the ratio of amount of damage obtained by the LIME method

Figure 4 Example of the result of Toshiba product LCA

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tal damage. Second, as product value, product functions
are weighted and integrated by QFD (*2). Third, ecoefficiency of business processes and products are integrated. Figure 5 shows the environmental impact integration process.

5. Environmental Management of the ToshibaGroup
The Toshiba group approaches environmental management from the product and service life cycle perspective as
well as from the business process (manufacturing phase)perspective, and LCA is used as a basic tool in bothaspects. LCA uses an eco-efficiency factor as assessment
measurement unit. In Toshiba group's environmental management, 3 types of integration take place in order to comprehensively assess the environmental impact which is adenominator of eco-efficiency and the sales (value) which isthe numerator of eco-efficiency. First, as the environmental
impact (denominator), environmental burdens are integrated
with LIME (*1) and expressed as the amount of environmen-

Easy-LCATM

Material*1 LIME (Life cycle Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint
modeling) is an LCIA method developed by Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST) through an LCA project.
*2 QFD (Quality Function Deployment) is a systematic process tointegrate production functions based on the importance of eachfunction for customers when they choose products.

Recycling

Manufacture

Distribution

Disposal

Product use

Environmental burden (inventory)
HFC, SOx, T-N, T-P, CO 2 , NOx, and so on

Ozone layer depletion

CancerPlant production

Social asset

Acidification

Overabundanceof nutrients

Decrease in aquatic life

Global warming

Malaria

Biodiversity

Primary production

Dengue fever

Human healthIntegration

LIME
Figure 5 Environmental impact (denominator of eco-efficiency) integration process

19

Air pollution

Respiratory diseasewere able to receive a lot of support and comments frominside and outside the group, and based on the support andthese comments, we made improvements and conducted alarge number of brainstorming sessions on the method anddatabases. Externally, we believe we contributed to domestic development of LCA by: dispatching employees to serveas committee members for the LCA international standards
such as ISO/TC207/SC5; participating in a number of academic conferences such as the International Conference on
EcoBalance; presenting academic papers at these conferences; and participating in LCA projects, LCA forums, and
LIME-WG. We hope that the scope of LCA will further
expand in the future and that LCA will contribute to the international standard as an essential tool for Eco-Design andenvironmental accounting.

The goal of Environmental Vision 2010 of the Toshibagroup is to double the comprehensive eco-efficiency in 2010(as compared to 2000) (Figure 6). Since approximately
20% of a product life cycle has something to do with creation, we made environmental goals for product ecoefficiency and for business product eco-efficiency, and these
two types of eco-efficiency combined is expressed as thecomprehensive eco-efficiency. So far, our environmental
activities have been going well, and in 2006, a value of 1.59
was achieved against the planned value of 1.52 (Figure 7).

6. Conclusion
In order to internally introduce and disseminate LCA, theToshiba group developed a simplified LCA method and created input-output table-based databases. As a result, we

Environmental Vision 2010
Contribute to sustainable development of the Earththroughout our business processes and products

Double overall eco-efficiency
FY2010/FY2000

Product
eco-efficiency

Business process
eco-efficiency

Factor-T: products
2.2

Factor-T: process
2.2

Product value / product life cycle
Improvement of environmental burden

Sales / business process
Improvement of environmental burden
Figure 6 Toshiba group's Environmental Vision 2010

Figure 7 Current status of Toshiba's comprehensive eco-efficiency
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Information
Eco-products International Fair 2009
March 19- 22, 2009
Manila, PHILIPPINES

APO
http://www.apo-tokyo.org/index.htm

Third International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment in Latin America, CILCA 2009
April 27- 29, 2009
Santiago, CHILE

Chilean Research Center for Mining and Metallurgy
http://www.cilca2009.cl/web/index.php

16th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE 2009)
May 4- 6, 2009
Cairo, Egypt

The Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS)
http://www.uwindsor.ca/lce2009

SETAC Europe 19th Annual Meeting World under stress: scientific and applied issues.
May 31- June 4, 2009
Göteborg, SWEDEN

SETAC
http://goteborg.setac.eu/?contentid=45

2009 ISIE Conference
June 21- 24, 2009
Lisbon, PORTUGAL

ISIE
http://www.isie2009.com/index.php

The 23rd National Congress for Environmental Studies
July 9- 11, 2009
Okinawa, JAPANThe Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
http://www.env-jsme.com/eng/index.html

LCM 2009
September 6- 9, 2009
Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA

Univ. of Cape Town / Pre Consultants
http://www.lcm2009.org/

Life Cycle Assessment IX
September 29- October 2, 2009
Boston, USA

American Center for Life Cycle Assessment
http://www.lcacenter.org/

Sustainable Innovation 09
October 26- 27, 2009
Farnham, UK

The Centre for Sustainable Design
http://www.cfsd.org.uk/events/tspd14/index.html

3rd International Conference on Eco-Efficiency Modelling and Evaluation for Sustainability: Guiding Eco-Innovation
November 18- 20, 2009
Egmond aan Zee, the NETHERLANDS

CML, Leiden University
http://www.eco-efficiency-conf.org/

SETAC North America 30th Annual Meeting
November 19- 23, 2009
New Orleans, USA

SETAC
http://neworleans.setac.org/

EcoDesign2009
December 7- 9, 2009
Sapporo, JAPANthe Union of EcoDesigners and AIST, Japan,
http://www.mstc.or.jp/imf/ed/

Planning & Information Sub-Committee:
Dr. Norihiro Itsubo
Musashi Institute of Technology
Mr. Kiyoshi Ueno
United Nations University
Mr. Yasuhiko Morita
The Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association
Dr. Kiyoshi Shibata
Chiba Institute of Technology
Mr. Junichi Nakahashi Asahi Kasei Corporation
Mr. Hajime Nishihara
Plastic Waste Management InstituteEditor's AddressLife 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: lca-project@jemai.or.jp
http://www.jemai.or.jp/english/
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