Towards implementation of a life cycle perspective for aggregate production

Purpose and goal

The purpose is to develop a common on-line tool for calculation of environmental effect from aggregate production. The tool will be used for preparing and evaluation of tenders (purchasing) as well as for working in real plant to actually decrease the environmental impact. The effect will be that the impact will become visible for all in real-time or on beforehand by simulation, and thus the impact can gradually be reduced. The goals for this initial projects have all been fulfilled, see results bellow.

Expected results and effects

The result is that we as partners are ready to start working in a coalition project. A contract proposal exists. The overall user cases from different users´ perspectives have been developed. From this an overall system architecture has also been developed. The prerequisites for being able to obtain data for an EPD are now available. Recycled material must also be included in the future. The long term expected effects are unchanged; the tool will help to reduce the environmental impact of rock material production by supplying information on how it goes and at the same time making forecasts.

Planned approach and implementation

The work was divided into three work packages. One which worked with the constellation, one with the EPD requirements and one with the user cases and the system architecture. Two workshops with all partners have been held and further interviews with a reference group with experts have been carried out. Sweden´s representative in the European branch organization (UEPG) was part of the project, which was a great advantage for obtaining work that is going on there. The division and work have worked well.