Integrating sustainability in asset management decision making: A case study on streamlined life cycle assessment in asset procurement

DSO’s are increasingly expected and motivated to improve the environmental impact of their assets. A key improvement opportunity can be found in the procurement process, as most characteristics that determine an asset’s environmental impact are committed at this stage. Many DSO’s look to LCA as the international industry standard for assessing and quantifying environmental impact. Full LCA however, is too complex and tedious to be pragmatically used in procurement processes, as these require simplicity and accessibility to provide equal opportunity for all participants. By only including only the most dominant input & output parameters of a “master” LCA, the process of performing an LCA on a specific asset can be greatly simplified. This simplified model is demonstrated and evaluated through a case study on the procurement of medium voltage switchgear. The streamlined LCA approach presented in this article maintains most of the relevance of full LCA, while greatly reducing the complexity and resources required for its use.