Life-Cycle Assessment Including Fires (Fire-LCA)

Abstract

Traditional life-cycle assessments (LCAs) of consumer products such as computers, furniture, etc. do not consider the environmental impact of fires involving such products. In so doing, LCA practitioners ignore any benefit from increased resistance to fire through the use of additives as a potential counter-weight to environmental costs of including said chemical. Conventional LCA models include additives and more complex production processes in consumer products only as a cost, i.e. the environmental benefit of the additive is not taken into account. Recently a Fire-LCA model was developed that also includes fires and their impact on the environment. This chapter describes how to perform a Fire-LCA.