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SummaryNew technologies such as 3D printing, also known as rapid manufacturing or additive manufacturing, are promising technologies to support the aeronautics sector moving toward its ambitious environmental goals. An eco-efficiency method combining life cycle costs and life cycle environmental assessment is developed to support eco-design initiatives in the aeronautics industry that accounts for specific reduction targets. Eco-efficiency results are computed through a normalization procedure and a target-driven trade-off and displayed as an XY diagram. Applied to an aircraft doorstop manufacturing, results show that 3D printing has clear benefits both in terms of costs and environmental impacts compared to conventional machining. Nevertheless, 3D printing equipment costs are still high, and a sensitivity analysis shows that, for lower productivity levels, the optimal scenario relies on the chosen trade-off between environmental impacts and costs reduction. Keywords:additive manufacturing aeronautics eco-efficiency industrial ecology life cycle assessment (LCA) life cycle costing (LCC) Supporting information is linked to this article on the JIE website

In an effort to obtain the most accurate climate change impact assessment, greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting is evolving to include life-cycle thinking. This study (1) identifies similarities and key differences between GHG accounting and life-cycle assessment (LCA), (2) compares them on a consistent basis through a case study on a waste management business unit. First, GHG accounting is performed. According to the GHG Protocol, annual emissions are categorized into three scopes: direct GHG emissions (scope 1), indirect emissions related to electricity, heat and steam production (scope 2) and other indirect emissions (scope 3). The LCA is then structured into a comparable framework: each LCA process is disaggregated into these three scopes, the annual operating activities are assessed, and the environmental impacts are determined using the IMPACT2002+ method. By comparing these two approaches it is concluded that both LCA and GHG accounting provide similar climate change impact results as the same major GHG contributors are determined for scope 1 emissions. The emissions from scope 2 appear negligible whereas emissions from scope 3 cannot be neglected since they contribute to around 10% of the climate change impact of the waste management business unit. This statement is strengthened by the fact that scope 3 generates 75% of the resource use damage and 30% of the ecosystem quality damage categories. The study also shows that LCA can help in setting up the framework for a annual GHG accounting by determining the major climate change contributors.

This study evaluates the potential environmental benefits of using an electric over a conventional vehicle in the province of Québec, Canada; a province characterised with an electric grid mix mostly based on hydroelectricity. To do so, we applied an environmental life cycle assessment approach whose results suggest that use of the electric vehicle should be promoted in the province of Québec but only if the vehicle lifetime is optimised.