FAQs - LCA
FAQ – LCA part
Start LCA Support to send the LQRF form:
Good morning,
attached please find the cecLQF form to capture the details of your card construction, so I can do the calculations for the LCA support service.
It contains worksheets for each layer of the construction (Layer 1 to Layer 10), where you enter the data for each layer in your card construction.
Please have a look and start collecting the data. Where you do not have information, leave it open. I will come back to you if I need more details, but often for the items that seem the most complicated for the card manufacturer, I have the relevant information already. What I cannot know is the size of your plastic sheets, the weight, and who your rPVC supplier is and what exact material you are obtaining from them, so focus on this in the first step.
How to start LCA Support?
I assume your staff can fill in the dimensions of the sheets for each layer, determine the weight of the sheet for each layer (they could use a scale to weigh it, or weigh 100 sheets and divide the resulting value by 100 if your scale cannot weigh small weights, though usually, the printing department has a scale that works in the 100 g range), the total electricity consumption of your site (see electricity bills), and the type and material of each layer of your card constructions (datasheets for the plastic sheets used might be a readily available source of information).
How to select Product type CB or IC or ICM?
Most vendors currently only certify the card body, excluding the IC (Integrated Circuit) and the ICM (IC Module). In this case please call the device "Dual Interface Card Body (including Antenna)". If you want to include the IC and the ICM, then you need to select Product Type "ICC (incl CB)" in the table on the CEC LCA Purchase Order page, where you define the "Product(s) to be included in the CEC LCA Support...". If you do not use an especially environmentally friendly ICM, then there is little point going for ICC certification, but then only go for CB (including antenna). If you use an especially environmentally friendly ICM, we would also need to evaluate that. Please let me know if you use a standard ICM, or if you believe the ICM you use has environmental advantages compared to what usually is used.
A product is a card construction. It is not order or artwork dependent.
Feedback for Baseline:
this is the way how we do it. We discussed the option of a CEC Baseline versus a vendor-specific Baseline and decided to use a generic CEC Baseline against which all card manufacturers are measured. Now, this is just the way it is; no deviation is possible.
The CEC baselines are initially based on data determined and provided by various companies from LCAs they had done by external consultants and some internal calculations. By now we have calculated these values for many vendors and products and have a much wider dataset, and in time will review the baselines.
The virgin PVC baseline in the spreadsheet is for a manufactured card.
Generic LCA introduction for CEC KPIs:
Typical material consumption per card is 7.5 g to 8.0 g, and the energy contribution of recycled PVC is in the range 250 kJ/card for the material (mostly extrusion) plus transport. For recycled materials we do not add the energy content of the material, for virgin materials we do.
Also note, that the method to calculate energy consumption is the EcoInvent method “cumulative energy demand” (or equivalent), so if for example you use 1000 kJ/kg electricity for film extrusion, the total amount of energy to make these 1000 kJ of electricity must be considered, not just the 1000 kJ consumed at the machine. For fossil fuel based electricity generation, this involves often a factor of 2 or higher.
We do consider RECs when calculating the renewable energy content.
Transport can vary a lot, especially if manufacturers do not sort their logistics and end up flying their material halfway around the planet. Anyhow, our model is cradle to gate, so how the material is transported to the card manufacturers is not ‘your problem’ (but theirs).
Carbon footprint from the energy consumption varies primarily by means of electricity generation, and thus differs from country to country, and by means of transport. We currently do not consider carbon offset certificates.
If you do not have access to LCA software like Simapro or GaBi Sphera, it might be easiest to use our LCA support service.
KPIs
[UTR: ] The required KPIs are the characteristics listed in the Claim Details worksheet in the cecAP. All information is contained in the cecDocPackage, you do not need access to the parts of the CEC website that are currently not accessible to you to pass through the CEC certification process.
The requested values that relate to mass you can usually measure yourself in the site, plus some additional calculations.
The Energy consumption related values are determined from data you and your suppliers should have or can easily determine using a LCA database system like EcoInvent following the “Cumulative Energy Demand” method, and the CO2 values using the same system using the “IPCC 2021” method.
We offer an LCA support service to calculate the data, if you do not have access to internal resources that can do these calculations. Please see the cecLOF form, and the related information in the CEC presentation, both included in the CEC document package you should have received.
The next step would be one of the following two options:
- You, based on the information provided in the CEC document package, calculate the required KPIs, prepare a cecAP for your claim, and request the CEC Assessment of the claim using the cecAOF form, or
- If you have difficulties determining the required KPIs, we offer the CEC LCA Support Service. We then provide you another Excel table into which you enter specific information about your production (such as electricity consumption, annual production volume) and your product and materials (such as what materials you use for the sustainable card, sheet size, thicknesses, weight of a card, yield loss numbers), and we calculate the CEC KPIs for you. With those numbers provided you then proceed as described under 1. To order this CEC LCA Support Service, please use the cecLOF form included in the document package.
If you think this would be useful, I am happy to arrange a call with you to explain things further.
Pilot run only for certified product:
it is possible to have a product CEC certified that has not yet been produced in volume in the site. I presume that a qualification batch has been run in the site. We would indeed have to make reasonable assumptions regarding the yield and in this case data from a similar product would be acceptable.
2 supplier sources for the same product:
the most economic approach would be to work out the percentage of material taken from Spica and from Zhongka used in each site, and then do the calculations accordingly. For transport routes the solution is already built into the cecAP layer worksheets, as you have the option to enter different transport routes with different probabilities of occurrence. Once we have data from Zhongka (and other suppliers) I will add a solution for the material selection too.
Raw materials database:
We have data from many suppliers, and once we know what material you use, for example, “100% recycled PVC”, then we use reasonable estimates if your supplier cannot provide the data. We have done so in the past already.
Yield:
The difference in the cards is necessary because the respective waste must be calculated differently:
Scrap before lamination is usually scrap during printing, which affects neither the overlay nor the inlay quantity, but only the printed sheets.
Scrap after lamination affects all layers of the construction and an entire sheet.
Rejects in card format affect individual cards.
As the layers never exist independently and are not separated into cards, the difference is not relevant. Simply use one of the fields for rejects, but please always use the same one
LCA support’s feedback:
When you encounter items that you do not know, like details of the chemical composition, then leave them open. Primarily I need the dimensions and masses and main material and supplier. Do not spend weeks trying to get certain info from your supplier, at least not in the first attempt. If I need additional info and it is missing, I will come back to you.
Thank you for sending the draft LQF!
I assume that you are waiting for the info about the various plastic components from your supplier.I noticed that the sheet weight has only been entered for the overlays. Please ensure that the sheet weight is also available for the core layers and the inlay, as otherwise I cannot do the calculations.
I am reviewing the completed cecLQF. Please correct/complete the following:
- On worksheet “Electricity Allocation”, you for example entered for your CTP equipment a power rating of 50 VA. 50 VA is app. 50 W and thus maybe enough for a small laptop but not for a CTP equipment. Do you mean kVA? If so, please add 000 to each number
- Also on worksheet “Electricity Allocation”, you did not complete column K. Column K is needed to clarify which equipment is part of CB production and which is not. Please complete column K, clarifying which equipment is part of your CB production and which is not.
- Did you include your air conditioning systems, IT, lights in the “Electricity Allocation” worksheet?
- If you do not have these details, or do not have the time, then we can do the calculations assuming that all electricity was used to produce cards. The determined value is higher then, but it looks like you still will have a valid claim. Just let me know which way you want to progress.
On the Layer 1 worksheet, you have defined a thickness for the overlay of 0.6 mm. The thickness of the overlay is certainly much less, maybe 0.06 mm?
For the plastic layers I am missing a transport route from the supplier to their departure airport.
On the layer 3 there is no antenna wire entered. Is there an embedded antenna wire in the inlay?
Please clarify/correct/complete the above points in the cecLQF and then send it to me again.
I assume layer 3 is an inlay. Do you do wire embedding yourself? If not, you need to add the distances to and from the wire embedder. A typical volume of copper wire in a wire embedded inlay is 10mm3.
The Layer worksheets look fine to me. For Spica and Folienwerke Wolfen it is sufficient to enter the Spica or Folienwerke Wolfen CEC claim numbers. They should be able to provide them to you.
In the Electricity Allocation worksheet you list your card manufacturing equipment, but then in column K you select “No” for the machines I would think belong to CB production, and you enter nothing for embedding and perso equipment. Please select “Yes” for the machines that belong to CB production, and “No” for embedding and perso equipment. Also, please add air conditioning, lighting, etc. For lighting you can do summaries, eg 90 LED x 15VA, but please distinguish between office and production (provided they are all behind the same electricity meter).