Life cycle assessment of a camera system : A case study at Veoneer

Abstract: With the growing number of cameras installed in automobiles for a safe driving experience, their environmental impact is relatively unknown and inevitably, the need to calculate its life cycle impact arises. Therefore, this study aims to conduct an attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) to determine the environmental impact of a mono camera system namely the Forward-Looking Camera -2 (FLC2) used in automobiles. The main working tools in this research include GaBi for life cycle modeling, scenario and sensitivity analysis and Microsoft Excel for life cycle inventory data. In this study, a cradle-to-grave LCA for a mono camera system (FLC2) is conducted. The ReCiPe 2016 v1.1 method is used for the environmental impact assessment and climate change is chosenas the major impact category. It is found that the cradle-to-gate stage which mainly consists of manufacturing, assembly, and transportation contributes the most, varying between 72% and 97% of the overall impact in most categories. The use stage exhibits the second biggest impact in all categories due to the electricity consumption during the camera’s operation. End-of-life analysis is insignificant in this study having an impact less than 1%. The scenario analysis and sensitivity analysis shows that the environmental impact varies based on the chosen location. This is caused due to the change in electricity grid composition which is identified to be the major driver. The key parameters that affects the results of this study is the operational hours of the camera system which is considered as the functional unit (FU: the function of FLC2 being driven in automobile over its lifetime of 150,000 miles). A key room for improvement is identified to be the location of manufacturing and recycled content in the cradle-to-gate phase. It is also identified that increased share of renewables in the grid reduces the environmental impact. The presented study may also be analysed in the context of the EU Taxonomy and EU Sustainable Product Initiative regarding environmental sustainability. This study can be used as a future reference for further studies involving the complete lifecycle assessment of automotive camera systems. Additional work may include different functional units, range of assessment methods, and detailed look into the end-of-life phase with a more detailed disposal plan.