Life Cycle Assessment of sustainable Home Gateways and Product Category Rules definition for environmental labeling

Inhalt:
The2011 LCA study of a Telecom Italia Home Gateway was performed by means of primary data collection and information from literature for all the stages of the life cycle of the product (cradle to grave approach). This approach allowed to calculate the whole environmental burden of “one modem unit” life cycle by means of a data collection performed in collaboration with Telecom Italia and ADB Broadband. The analysis took into account the manufacturing operations and all the supply chains considered significant for the study. The analysis was developed according to the ISO Standards 14040, ISO 14044 and the International EPD(r)System General Programme Instructions (GPI, 2013) and it was performed by means of SimaPro, customized software for Life Cycle Assessment calculations. A Product Category Rules (PCR) document was developed taking into account the GPI in order to enable the publication of a certified EPD providing details on the product’s environmental performance in a life cycle perspective.