LBNL's Eric Masanet and UC-Berkeley's Arpad Horvath made a presentation on "Lifecycle Assessment for Mitigating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Retail Products" at the California Air Resources Board's Chair's Air Pollution Seminar. For a copy of the presentation or to view the webcast, go here.

It has been estimated that up to 80% of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) "footprint" of the average U.S. consumer is attributable to the purchase, use, and disposal of retail products. While California has a strong track record of policies aimed at reducing the operational energy use of retail products (e.g., appliance efficiency standards), little attention has been paid to reducing GHG emissions across the entire retail product life cycle (i.e., production, transportation, use, and disposal). We are planning research to assess opportunities for reducing California's GHG emissions through the application of life-cycle GHG emissions labels and standards to retail products consumed by Californians.

For comprehensive assessment of the "carbon footprint" of retail products, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) model for California needs to be developed. Dr. Horvath will summarize the current state of knowledge in LCA, and discuss the best ways to model the life-cycle GHG emissions of products and services consumed by Californians, including supply chains within the state, interstate commerce, as well as international imports. Dr. Masanet will present the results of an explorative case study on life-cycle GHG emissions standards for personal computers in California to illustrate our planned research approach. The talk will conclude with a discussion of key research challenges.