Life-cycle assessment and production policy: An application to corrugated paperboard manufacture

The aim of the study is to develop a framework of applying life cycle assessment to production policy. A case-study on corrugated paperboard manufacture is therefore implemented. The application framework comprises three components: the conventional life cycle assessment procedure, the analytical hierarchy process, and a multiobjective programming model. In the decision model for production policy adjustment the objectives of cost-effectiveness and environment-friendliness are incorporated. The environmental impacts are classified as categories of pollution and disturbance as well as space groups of global, regional and local scales. This makes applicable the analytical hierarchy process for evaluating the environmental impacts. In the application the objectives incorporated are found to be competitive. The manufacture has to trade the increase of production costs for the reduction of environmental impacts. We also observe that the marginal effects of impacts on cost increase as the spatial scales of impact increase.