LCA & material health results & interpretation Drake® II CST454CUFG & CST454CEFG
Scope and summary
- Cradle to gate
- Cradle to gate with options
- Cradle to grave
Functional unit
One toilet in a U.S. household that functions for 10 years. The period of 10 years is modeled as the period of application based on the average economical lifespan for residential applications. The technical lifespan is longer. The economical lifespan of commercial applications can be longer or lower due to aesthetic replacements or more intense use. The implication is that the LCA model assumes that the application ends at year 10 and that the materials will be treated in an end-of-life scenario.
Reference service life: 10 years
Default use phase scenario
Drake II 1G CST454CUFG: 10 years of service in a U.S. household with an average of 1.0 gallon/use and 5.1 flushes/day and 2.6 people resulting in approximately 48,399 gallons
Drake II 1.28gpf CST454CEFG: 10 years of service in a U.S. household with an average of 1.28 gallon/use and 5.1 flushes/day and 2.6 people resulting in approximately 61,951 gallons
What’s causing the greatest impacts
All life cycle stages
The use stage and the production stage are equally important and dominate the results for all impact categories. The impact of the use stage is mostly due to the embedded energy arising from acquisition, treatment and distribution of the water used during the operation of the product (40-60%). The production stage itself is relevant as it shows major contributions throughout. It has the most significant contributions to fossil fuel depletion (mostly defined by crude oil, hard coal, and natural gas extraction activities as well as polypropylene production and processing), non-carcinogenics (mostly defined by zinc production and processing as well as the natural gas used at the kiln and the disposal of hard coal ash) and ecotoxicity (mainly caused by electricity production and the disposal of slags and hard coal ash). The contributions covered under the construction/installation stage are mostly associated with the product delivery to the market and the disposal of packaging materials, mainly corrugated cardboard. The recovery stage includes recycling benefits by preventing the need to produce primary materials. Recycling is a relevant factor for some of the impact categories, offsetting a portion of the impacts caused by production. Additionally, the delivery of the product to the construction/installation site as well as the processes for dismantling the product and final waste treatment during the end of life stage are slightly relevant in the majority of the impact categories.
Production stage
The ceramic parts dominate the material contribution except for non-carcinogenics and eutrophication. Zinc and stainless steel parts together with corrugated board and turning brass process have major contributions to the non-carcinogenics and eutrophication impact categories. In addition, the injection molding process has a significant contribution to the ozone depletion impact category. The remaining parts and processes contribute between 2% and 11% of the overall impacts in the rest of the categories.
Sensitivity analysis
Deviations are throughout, mainly due to the variation in the use stage. Drake CST454CUFG consumes approximately 22% less water than Drake CST454CEFG during the use stage. Other variations in the recovery stage are due to the variation in the materials content of these two products.
Multi-product weighted average
Results represent the weighted average using production volumes for the products covered. Variations of specific products for differences of 10-20% against the average are indicated in purple ; differences greater than 20% are indicated in red. A difference greater than 10% is considered significant.
TOTO PeoplePlanetWater™ programs improving environmental performance
- Dual-Max®, E-Max®, Tornado Flush™, 1G®, and EcoPower® reduce water consumption in the use phase
- Energy efficiency programs optimize the firing process
- 50% electricity from renewable energy
- 100% of post-industrial ceramic waste is recycled
LCA results
Life cycle stage | Production | Construction | Use | End of Life | Recovery |
Information modules: Stages D2 and D3 are being excluded. Operational energy use is irrelevant to the life cycle of the modeled product. Reuse and energy recovery are not modeled for toilets and/or urinals. |
A1 Raw Materials | A4 Transporation/ Delivery | B1 Use | C1 Deconstruction/ Demolition | D1 Recycling |
A2 Transportation | A5 Construction/ Installation | B2 Maintenance | C2 Transportation | D2 Recovery | |
A3 Manufacturing | B3 Repair | C3 Waste processing | D3 Reuse | ||
B4 Replacement | C4 Disposal | ||||
B5 Refurbishment | |||||
B6 Operational energy use | |||||
B7 Operational water use | |||||
SM Single Score
Learn about SM Single Score resultsImpacts per 10 years of service | 9.77 mPts | 0.70 mPts | 15.89 mPts | 0.16 mPts | -0.51 mPts |
Materials or processes contributing >20% to total impacts in each life cycle stage | Ceramic parts production as well as well zinc and brass parts together with zinc turning process. | Transportation of the product to installation site or consumer and disposal of packaging. | Volume of water use during the operation of the product and the embedded energy use (such as electricity) in the water used. | Transport to waste processing, waste processing and disposal of material flows transported to a landfill. | Plastic and metal components' recycling processes. |
TRACI
- A variation of 10 to 20%
- |
- A variation greater than 20%
Life cycle stage | Production | Construction | Use | End of Life | Recovery |
Ecological damage
Human health damage
Resources depletion
Impact category | Unit | |||||
Fossil fuel depletion | MJ surplus Mega Joule surplus Fossil fuel depletion is the surplus energy to extract minerals and fossil fuels. |
2.21E+02 | 1.21E+01 | 1.39E+02 | 2.30E+00 | -6.81E+00 |
References
LCA Background Report
TOTO Sanitary Ceramic Products LCA Background Report (public version), TOTO 2014
SM Transparency Report Framework
Part A: Part A: LCA Calculation Rules and Background Report Requirements (Draft V2) (based on ISO14040-44, ISO14025 and EN15804)
Part B: Product Group Definition – Residential Toilets
"Transparency Reports™ / environmental product declarations enable purchasers and users to compare the potential environmental performance of products on a life cycle basis. They are designed to present information transparently to make the limitations of comparability more understandable. TRs/EPDs of products that conform to the same PCR and include the same life cycle stages, but are made by different manufacturers, may not sufficiently align to support direct comparisons. They therefore, cannot be used as comparative assertions unless the conditions defined in ISO 14025 Section 6.7.2. ‘Requirements for Comparability’ are satisfied." EPDs from different programs (using different PCR) may not be comparable. TRs/EPDs cannot be compared if they do not have the same functional unit, reference service life, and building service life.