Case Studies

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The Life Cycle Management Project
Other

This five-year project seeks to build capability among New Zealand manufacturing companies for product-oriented environmental management. LCM Champions in six case study companies are implementing Life Cycle Management, and are being upskilled and mentored through an LCM Training Programme.

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Emissions Embodied in New Zealand's International Trade
Other

This study uses multi-regional input-output analysis combined with selected bottom-up analyses to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions embodied in New Zealand’s imports and exports. The analysis includes data for 113 countries and regions representing the entire world economy, with increased detail for New Zealand and Australia.

Life cycle liabilities of transport infrastructure (TILL)
Transport

This project uses Life Cycle Assessment methodology to estimate the benchmark energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for passenger and freight transport using rail and roads in New Zealand.  In addition stormwater contaminant loading due to runoff from road and rail infrastructure will also be quantified.

Carbon Footprints of Wind Farm
Energy

Life-cycle energy and global warming potentials of specific New Zealand wind farms have been assessed for Contact Energy and Trust Power. These assessments included production, transport, maintenance and disposal impacts over the wind farms’ lives. These studies assisted in Environment Court hearings, and with communication of environmental impacts of the wind farms.

NZ Fuel and Electricity Energy & Life Cycle Emission Factors
Energy

This paper describes the results and methodology used for determining the primary energy, carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emission factors for New Zealand electricity and fuels.  The analysis is based on using life cycle analysis (LCA) methodology so consequently includes all upstream as well as in-use emissions.  The results have also been compared to the MED published in-use emiss

Exemplar House
Built Environment

The Exemplar house is a basic two storey design of a house, with a building system typical for New Zealand comprising of three bedrooms and a garage. This model was used as the basis for a study on energy and climate change impacts of a standard house over its life cycle.

Environmental Impacts of Multi-Storey Buildings Using Different Construction Materials
Built Environment

The study investigated the energy use and climate change impacts related to a six-storey building made of different construction materials (steel, concrete and timber). Scion’s role in this project was to assess the embodied energy and embodied global warming potential (GWP) of the different scenarios.

Waitakere NOW Home
Built Environment

This project used Life Cycle Assessment to assess the environmental performance of the Waitakere NOW Home over its 100-year lifespan. The system boundaries included construction, maintenance, operation and end of life.

Life Cycle Assessment of the Australian/New Zealand plasterboard industry
Built Environment

This report documents the environmental impacts of plasterboard in Australia and New Zealand over its whole life cycle and can be used as a benchmarking study. Data was provided by the Gypsum Board Manufacturers of Australasia (GBMA) member companies. The functional unit is “1 tonne of plaster used in the production of plasterboards”.

Commercial Furniture LCA: a case study of the Formway LIFE chair
Design

The purpose of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the life cycle environmental impacts associated with the Formway LIFE chair. The environmental impacts of raw materials and in particular aluminium were found to be most significant. The modelling approach used for recycled materials and recycling was very important. The study was published in the Int.