The Role of Life Cycle Assessment in
Environmental Policy

Committee list

•             Valerie Thomas (Chair) - School of Industrial Engineering and School of Public Policy

•             Kaye Husbands Fealing - School of Public Policy

•             Marylin Brown - School of Public Policy

•             Cale Reeves - School of Public Policy

•             Joe Bozeman - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Date and Time: April 22, 2022, at 10:30 am   

     Meeting URL: https://bluejeans.com/174144283/1656

Meeting ID

144283/1656

174 144 283

Participant Passcode

1656

Abstract
In this dissertation, I examine the use of life cycle assessment in environmental policy, its role,
potential benefits, challenges, and how we can improve it.
LCA provides policymakers quantitative evaluation of the environmental impacts of a product or
a service, potentially supporting effective and targeted decisions based on environmental
criteria. LCA provides a holistic view of the multiple impacts of a technology or a service over
the whole lifespan and allows the comparison of alternatives on an "apples to apples" basis. It
also provides unforeseen information. LCA can aid in institutionalizing a shift toward a more
holistic approach to managing environmental issues because it provides information on the
whole life cycle of a product or process and its different impacts on the environment.
First, I review studies that have examined and critiqued the use of LCA in public policy,
specifically in environmental policymaking. I also examine the literature and current regulations
and policies regarding how and why is LCA being used in the policy process, and what type of
LCA is being used. The review shows that the critiques of LCA in policy development are largely
political and cognitive criticisms rather than of the capabilities of the method itself. The
critiques of LCA in public policy are similar to those of other quantitative tools. I propose LCA as
a framework for overcoming some of the silos in the way that environmental impacts are
addressed. The preliminary findings of the review of how LCA is used in policy development
show that the US government has used LCA for different purposes such as administrative
practices, financial support, governmental procurement policy, informational measures, and
legislative and regulatory framework. We also find that LCA has been adopted by different
states such as California and Oregon. I expect to also find in this chapter the type of LCA that is
used in these different uses of LCA in policy in the US.
Then, I investigate the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) on a multi-impact technology to
highlight the array of information that an LCA can provide to decision-makers when applied
Aline Banboukian Thesis Proposal
fully. In this chapter, we compare the environmental impacts of different agricultural methods
and highlight hotspots for improvement. The results provide information relevant to (a) US
energy and greenhouse gas policy including the US Nationally Determined Contributions to the
UNFCCC, (b) US EPA efforts to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution including under the
Clean Water Act, and (c) USDA and Farm Bill policies in support of local agriculture, among
others. The results show that different approaches, to agriculture, in this case, have different
impacts in different energy and environmental policy areas. Specifically, controlled environment
agriculture has benefits as a local agricultural opportunity (USDA, Farm Bill) and for reducing
nitrogen and phosphorus pollution (EPA, Clean Water Act) but has high energy consumption
and greenhouse gas emissions (US energy policy, UNFCCC). We also show that life cycle
assessment contains within it, at a still developing level, quantitative methods for comparing
different types of impacts. We illustrate how choices across policy impacts can be compared,
and illustrate how LCA can provide benchmarks or targets across different environmental impact
and environmental policy areas.
Finally, I examine how stakeholders are currently engaged in LCA as it is used in the public policy
development process. The contribution of this chapter is showing how are stakeholders
currently engaged in LCA for the policy development process. I study the use of LCA in the
policy process for the renewable fuel standards - RFS2. We analyze the opportunities for public
comments as part of the policy process. We create a database of these public comments and
compare the involvement of the stakeholders in this process to all the stakeholders impacted by
this policy. We expect to find who is engaged as a stakeholder, which type of stakeholders are
engaged, and how useful are the public comments in the policy process impacting the decisions.
Each chapter in this dissertation highlights specific issues and benefits related to the use of life
cycle assessment as a tool for technology evaluation in the policy development process. In
addition to that, these chapters contribute broadly to public policy research.