Title: Visualisation of LCA environmental impacts of electrical and electronic products using multidimensional scaling

Authors: Ester Gutierrez, Belarmino Adenso-Diaz, Sebastian Lozano, Yolanda Barba-Gutierrez

Addresses: Department of Industrial Management, ESI, Camino de los Descubrimientos, s/n, University of Seville, Sevilla 41092, Spain. ' Escuela Politecnica Superior de Ingenieria, Universidad de Oviedo, Gijon 33204, Spain. ' Department of Industrial Management, ESI, Camino de los Descubrimientos, s/n, University of Seville, Sevilla 41092, Spain. ' Escuela Politecnica Superior de Ingenieria, Universidad de Oviedo, Gijon 33204, Spain

Abstract: The growing amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment may cause serious damage to the environment and have adverse effects on human health. This paper illustrates the wide-ranging applicability of the concept of environmental performance applied to a variety of household appliances, using multidimensional scaling (MDS) to compare them and visualise their positioning. LCA environmental impact assessment is measured using Eco-indicator 99. The results indicate the existence of significant differences as regards the environmental performance of appliances. Moreover, the assessed environmental performance of products changes when their relative economic value is taken into account. The results are intended to show the potential use of MDS as a method to analyse environmental impact data, providing consumers and producers with a synthetic description of the environmental impacts of appliances as well as information on the relative positioning of products in terms of their environmental performance.

Keywords: electrical and electronic equipment; LCA; life cycle assessment; environmental impact; MDS; multidimensional scaling; cluster analysis; environmental performance; household appliances.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2009.031672

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2009 Vol.4 No.1/2/3, pp.166 - 185

Published online: 17 Feb 2010 *

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