Corporate Life Cycle Assessment with WWF-Philippines

The Philippine WWF-World Wild Fund for Nature is working with national and international corporations to assess the environmental impacts generated by their products or activities using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. With its expertise in LCA, SPM acts as a consultant to WWF for the undertaking of the Life Cycle Assessment studies and the development of local capacities.

Life Cycle Assessment, the cradle-to-grave approach

The LCA-Life Cycle Assessment, normalized by the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO 14 040), is an analysis of the environmental aspects that can be applied to any product or activity. It’s a “cradle-to-grave” approach where all inputs and outputs of materials and energies involved in the product’s life cycle are reported, analysed, quantified and translated into environmental indexes. The LCA enables detecting where, how and when environmental burdens are generated. Therefore, it helps to find pragmatic solutions to reduce the burdens. The LCA is used in product development and to support decision making in the private and public sectors. LCA is required by several ISO eco certifications and was recognized by the EU as “ the best available framework to assess the potential environmental impacts of a product”. LCA-based environmental management is also becoming part of business environmental management practice. The approach is being used by diverse types of businesses in product manufacturing (i.e. solar panels), land development (i.e. energy saving buildings), service providers (telecom company), food industry and energy suppliers.

The Philippines LCA project

The Sunpower Project

The solar panel manufacturer Sunpower is the biggest foreign investor in the Philippines and one of the major players in the US solar market. The majority of their manufacturing plants are located on Luzon Island, in a region south of Metro Manila. WWF-Philippines has engaged SPM to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment study of their operations. The main objective of this study is to quantify the energy pay back time of the Sunpower’s solar units and to compare their performances with other renewable and non renewable energies. The energy pay back time, a concept only applicable to renewable energies (wind, hydro, geothermal, solar, biomass), is the amount of years of utilisation required to balance the energy invested during the product’s manufacturing, maintenance and end-of life.

The Ayala Land Inc. Nuvali Project

ALI-Ayala Land Incorporation, one of the biggest land developers of the Philippines, is taking the opportunity to become the national leader in sustainable land development. WWF-Philippines supports ALI integrating environmental and social factors in the conversion of a 1600 hectares land south of Metro Manila into a residential and commercial area. Some of the key environmental measures are the use of renewable energies, the construction of energy efficient buildings and waste management. SPM is acting as a consultant to provide ALI with LCA studies of land development scenarios to help forecast the reduction of environmental impacts resulting from the integration of environmental measures.

SPM activities

LCA expertise
Corporate consultancy
NGO consultancy
Technical studies
LCA training, development of local capacities