Evaluating sustainable product alternatives by combining life cycle assessment with full-cost accounting: A highway guardrail case study

Full-cost accounting techniques incorporate the environmental and societal burdens a product generates through its manufacture, use, and disposal into that product’s price. This research generates full-cost prices for functionally equivalent chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treated wood and galvanize...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioresources 2020-11, Vol.15 (4), p.9103-9127
Main Authors: Scouse, Adam A., Kelley, Steven S., Venditti, Richard A., McConnell, T. Eric
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accounting
Arsenates
Arsenic
Biomass
Chromated copper arsenate
Chromates
Collaboration
Copper arsenate
Copper chrome arsenate
Cost estimates
Damage
Decision making
Emission analysis
Emissions
Environmental degradation
Environmental economics
Externality
Galvanized steels
Galvanizing
Green products
Guide rails
Heavy metals
Highway construction
Life cycle analysis
Life cycle assessment
Life cycles
Linear programming
Manufacturing
Monte Carlo simulation
Nitrogen
Personal health
Pollutants
Secondary emission
Social impact
Steel
Sulfur
Wood products
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Summary:Full-cost accounting techniques incorporate the environmental and societal burdens a product generates through its manufacture, use, and disposal into that product’s price. This research generates full-cost prices for functionally equivalent chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treated wood and galvanized steel guardrail posts by combining previously conducted life cycle inventory analyses results with secondary emission valuation data. Based on the analysis, both CCA-treated posts and galvanized steel posts have environmental damage costs associated with emissions generated through the product’s manufacturing, use, and disposal stages. After developing full-cost prices for product alternatives, CCA-treated wood guardrail posts were found to be a more economical and environmentally responsible alternative to galvanized steel. In addition to generating full-cost prices, this research uses Monte Carlo simulation to provide estimates of variability around CCA-treated wood and galvanized steel damage costs.
ISSN:1930-2126
1930-2126
DOI:10.15376/biores.15.4.9103-9127