Week 12 - Materials

This is the data gathering step and in particular gathering data about materials that cause environmental effects.  It is important to consider effects that are both directly and indirectly attributable to the life cycle of the product, for example, the production of the materials which drive solar panels (which include monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium selenide/sulfide) should also be considered as they may have an environmental impact which is indirect to the life cycle of the panel itself.

Total flows are examined including resources used (inputs) and all wastes produced (outputs).

Image reproduced from Konig et al. 2010.