Guidelines for the Creation of a Program for Type III Environmental Declarations in the United States

Abstract

Abstract There currently exists a demand in the United States for information about the environmental impacts of consumer products, but there is no consistent system for providing this information. This project proposes guidelines for the creation of a Type III environmental declaration program which will provide objective information about the environmental impacts of products based on life cycle assessment (LCA)methods. To more easily convey complicated information to consumers, the use of an original data presentation format, the “radar area graph”, was selected based on the results of a consumer survey. Because printed labels do not allow convenient product comparisons, a model internet website was created to demonstrate the potential of interactive product data. One original recommendation is an interactive personal database that allows consumers to track the impacts of their activities, thus making data more interesting and useful to consumers. Because evaluating products using LCA can be time consuming, we created a method of efficiently and consistently calculating environmental impacts. It includes guidelines for defining system boundaries and functional units, and for characterizing environmental impacts. Ten environmental impact category indicators were selected, and original methods were developed for characterizing land use and water depletion using spatial data. A spreadsheet calculator was created for determining human and ecological toxicity indicators. Finally, original software was developed to demonstrate the proposal for a common database of process and material parameters. To guide an administrator during the creation of a new Type III program, recommendations are provided for organizational structure, product registration procedures, and budget management for continued operation and growth.