Influence of quarry assets on aggregate products' environmental impact - can we continue to omit it?

Paper i proceeding, 2022

Demands for transparent environmental data concerning the products we consume is growing. One way of providing such information that is gaining popularity is through Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). These are standardized documents based on data collected from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the product in question, starting from the raw material extraction. This makes extraction industries key in ensuring specific data is available for downstream products. Most frequently, EPDs focus on one year of production data emitting any environmental burdens associated with the set up or extended life cycle of the production facility. For aggregate production, this leads to the omission of environmental burdens from assets or capital goods in the form of equipment and buildings on site, beyond that of yearly operational and maintenance inputs. This study aims to evaluate the influence of said assets on the overall environmental burden associated with aggregate products, to determine if the influence is in fact nominal and can be excluded, or if more work should be done to include assets in assessments. The study conducts an LCA at a crushed rock aggregate production plant in Western Sweden, to estimate the significance of asset related burdens on the products’ environmental impact in 13 impact categories including climate change. Three scenarios are analysed, and results show that at current estimates for Reference Service Lives (RSLs) for assets, a significant impact is seen for two impact categories: climate change and resource use. To reduce the impact of assets to below the significance threshold, increasing the RSL, improving machine utilization, and investigating downstream systems that can improve resource use are recommended.