Tacoma pledges to become a Life Cycle City

Leaders from the City of Tacoma and the Institute for Environmental Research, via its flagship program the American Center for Lifecycle Assessment, have announced that Tacoma is slated to become America's first Life Cycle City. City of Tacoma officials have committed via public resolution No. 38188 to integrate life-cycle accountability into its daily operations and purchasing, publish a life-cycle assessment inventory data for its local utilities, and contribute time, energy and resources to educating its employees and the public about life-cycle thinking and leadership.

Like many progressive industries, companies and organizations, the City of Tacoma has made a commitment to evaluating and acting on awareness that everything we do affects the world around us. The benefits of this commitment - for government, businesses and members of the community - are profound.

The concept of a Life Cycle City is derived from a practice known as life cycle assessment, a science that has been in practice for more than 40 years, but has re-emerged as an increasingly important business concept during the past decade.

Life cycle assessment is the practice of measuring the environmental performance of products and services from cradle to grave. A complete assessment involves capturing the materials, energy and wastes involved in each phase of the product's life cycle, measuring their environmental impacts and looking for opportunities to improve.

LCA is a valuable tool for both policy makers and industry in assessing impacts of the products we create and use. Three forces are driving this evolution:

• 
  

• First, government regulations are moving in the direction of "life-cycle accountability;" the notion that a manufacturer is responsible not only for direct production impacts, but also for impacts associated with product inputs, use, transport, and disposal.
  

• 
  

• Second, businesses are participating in voluntary initiatives which contain LCA and product stewardship components.

• 
  

• Third, environmental disclosure is increasingly being enforced globally, with France leading the charge by requiring Environmental Product Declarations (EPD's) on all consumer goods.
  

As Life Cycle Assessment becomes increasingly popular, the companies and organizations that are most heavily involved are realizing something important - in order to provide the best assessment, companies need the best data. Many companies use national data to determine how the creation of their product impacts the world. But using local data sources that reflect cleaner utilities and other benefits within their city present a more substantial evaluation, which is represented in their Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), also known as an Ecolabel. A Life Cycle City, among other commitments, dedicates itself to providing an inventory of valuable, localized data for use by its local business community.

In a Life Cycle City, government leaders, in partnership with the business community, are able to show by example they are dedicated to the highest possible standards for evaluating environmental impacts of their products, services and operations.

Companies participating in LCA and EPD development, in turn, are provided with a powerful tool they can use to market their products and prove they are truly green, with science backing their claim.

Four companies from Tacoma have been chosen to participate in a pilot program that will demonstrate the unique benefits of conducting a Life Cycle Assessment and obtaining an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for their product. Those companies will be introduced by Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland Jan 31, 2001 at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center during BE Green South Sound/Shift Happens, an all-day celebration and educational seminar focused on sustainability, local living economies and recent successes in the South Puget Sound.

• >

  Life-cycle assessment has emerged as a valuable tool for both policy makers and industry in assessing impacts of a product or process. Three forces are driving this evolution. First, government regulations are moving in the direction of "life-cycle accountability;" the notion that a manufacturer is responsible not only for direct production impacts, but also for impacts associated with product inputs, use, transport, and disposal. Second, businesses are participating in voluntary initiatives which contain LCA and product stewardship components. Third, environmental "preferability" has emerged as a criterion in both consumer markets and government procurement guidelines. Together these developments have placed LCA in a central role as a tool for identifying cradle-to-grave impacts both of products and the materials from which they are made.