Transparency Catalog

LCA & material health results & interpretation Undercounter Lavatory LT569

Scope and summary

Cradle to gate
Cradle to gate with options
Cradle to grave

Functional unit

One lavatory in an average U.S. commercial environment that functions for 20 years. 20 years is modeled as the period of application based on the average economical lifespan for commercial applications. The technical lifespan is longer. The economical lifespan of commercial applications can be longer or lower due to esthetic replacements or more intense use. The implication is that the LCA model assumes that the application ends at year 20 and that the materials will be treated in an end-of-life scenario.

ULE Part B specifies the functional unit for all sanitary ceramic products as 1 t of product. The conversion factor from 1 t to 1 kg of product is 0.001. To make the impact results more understandable, a conversion factor of 0.00821 was applied to deliver impact results per one lavatory weighing 8.21 kg.

Reference service life: 20 years

Data reporting period: 2013

Default use phase scenario

20 years of service in an average U.S. commercial environment including regular cleaning with 10 mL of a 10% sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) solution resulting in 73 kg of SLS.

What’s causing the greatest impacts

All life cycle stages

The use stage and the production stage are both important and dominate the results for all impact categories. The impact of the use stage is due to the cleaning agents required for maintenance of the product. The production stage has the most significant contributions to ozone depletion and carcinogenics. The contributions covered under the construction stage are associated with the transportation by truck for delivery to the market. This stage has a contribution of up to 8% to the impact categories and is mostly critical to ecotoxicity and smog. The recovery stage includes recycling processes and 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 processes for dismantling the product and final waste treatment during the end of life stage are slightly irrelevant in the majority of the impact categories.

Production stage

The ceramic parts dominate the material contribution for most of the impact categories. The ceramic parts dominate all impact categories, with the exception of ecotoxicity, eutrophication, carcinogenics, and non-carcinogenics. Truck transport is relevant to all categories except ozone depletion. Stainless steel is a significant contributor to ecotoxicity, carcinogenics, non-carcinogenics, and respiratory effects. Lead is most relevant in the non-carcinogenic category. Corrugated board is also relevant to most impact categories, especially eutrophication. Turning steel is somewhat relevant to many of the impact categories, especially carcinogenics, non-carcinogenics, and respiratory effects. Paper used for this product has very little impact to each category.

Sensitivity analysis

There are no sensitivity results that lead to variations greater than 10% in the LCA results.

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

See how we make it greener

LCA results

Life cycle stage	Production	Construction	Use	End of Life	Recovery
Information modules: Included \| Excluded* * Installation and deconstruction/demolition are mostly manual. The lavatories should not need repair, maintenance or replacement during the modeled life time. ** Operational energy and water use are assigned to the faucet used in combination with the lavatory; therefore, no operational energy and water use are applied to the life cycle of the modeled product.	A1 Raw Materials	A4 Transporation/ Delivery	B1 Use	C1 Deconstruction/ Demolition*	D Reuse, recovery and/or recycling
	A2 Transportation	A5 Construction/ Installation*	B2 Maintenance	C2 Transportation
	A3 Manufacturing		B3 Repair	C3 Waste processing
			B4 Replacement	C4 Disposal
			B5 Refurbishment
			B6 Operational energy use**
			B7 Operational water use**

SM Single Score

Learn about SM Single Score results

Impacts per 20 years of service	1.84 mPts	0.32 mPts	9.43 mPts	0.01 mPts	-0.25 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 v2.1 results per one lavatory

Life cycle stage	Production	Construction	Use	End of Life	Recovery

Ecological damage

Impact category	Unit
Acidification	kg SO₂ eq Kilograms of Sulfur Dioxide equivalent Acidification processes increase the acidity of water and soil systems and causes damage to lakes, streams, rivers and various plants and animals as well as building materials, paints and other human-built structures.	5.75E-02	2.12E-02	1.42E+00	9.68E-04	-6.80E-03
Ecotoxicity	CTU_e Comparative Toxic Units of Ecotoxicity Ecotoxicity causes negative impacts to ecological receptors, and indirectly, to human receptors through the impacts to the ecosystem.	1.66E+01	8.66E+00	1.03E+02	2.23E-01	-1.42E+00
Eutrophication	kg N eqKilograms of Nitrogen equivalent Eutrophication is the enrichment of an aquatic ecosystem with nutrients (nitrates and phosphates) that accelerate biological productivity (growth of algae and weeds) and an undesirable accumulation of algal biomass which impacts industry, agriculture, drinking, fishing and recreation and causes death of fish and shellfish, toxicity to humans, marine mammals and livestock, and reduces biodiversity.	7.60E-03	1.91E-03	1.14E-01	9.52E-05	-1.48E-03
Global warming (Embodied carbon)	kg CO₂ eqKilograms of Carbon Dioxide equivalent Global warming is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth’s surface and in the troposphere, which can contribute to change in global climate patterns and is caused by the increase of the sources of greenhouse gases and decrease of the sinks due to deforestation and land use. GW leads to problems in human health, agriculture, forest, water source and damage to species and biodiversity as well as coastal areas.	1.71E+01	3.90E+00	1.03E+02	1.40E-01	-6.99E-01
Ozone depletion	kg CFC-11 eq Kilograms of Trichlorofluoromethane equivalent Ozone depletion is the reduction of ozone in the stratosphere caused by the release of ozone depleting chemicals. Ozone depletion can increases ultraviolet B radiation to the earth which can adversely affect human health (skin cancer and cataracts and immune-system suppression) and other system (marine life, agricultural crops, and other vegetation) and causes damage to human-built materials.	2.19E-06	2.41E-09	6.79E-06	2.27E-08	-6.33E-08

Human health damage

Impact category	Unit
Carcinogenics	CTU_h Comparative Toxic Units of Human cancerous toxicity Carcinogens have the potential to form cancers in humans.	5.28E-07	4.68E-08	1.78E-06	2.78E-09	-1.05E-07
Non-carcinogenics	CTU_h Comparative Toxic Units of Human non-cancerous toxicity Non-Carcinogens have the potential to causes non-cancerous adverse impacts to human health.	2.16E-06	4.49E-07	1.20E-05	2.27E-08	-2.02E-07
Respiratory effects	kg PM_2.5 eqKilograms of Particulate Matter equivalent which are smaller than or equal to 2.5 micrometers in diameter Particulate matter concentrations have a strong influence on chronic and acute respiratory symptoms and mortality rates.	5.70E-03	3.85E-04	1.20E-01	8.42E-05	-1.03E-03
Smog	kg O₃ eqKilograms of Ozone equivalent Smog formation (photochemical oxidant formation) is the formation of ozone molecules in the troposphere by complex chemical reactions which are influenced by ambient concentrations of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the mix of organic compounds (OCs), temperature, sunlight and convective flows. Ozone concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere above the natural trace amounts lead to detrimental impacts on human health and ecosystems.	9.87E-01	5.81E-01	6.13E+00	2.59E-02	-8.65E-02

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.	3.41E+01	6.14E+00	2.04E+02	3.24E-01	-8.15E-01

References

LCA Background Report
TOTO Sanitary Ceramic Products – Commercial Wall Hung Lavatory and Commercial Undercounter Lavatory LCA Background Report, TOTO 2015; SimaPro 8. WAP Sustainability verified the LCA to ISO 14040-44 and the ULE PCR for Building-Related Products Services for NSF International.

ULE PCR for Building-Related Products and Services
Adapted for UL Environment from the range of Environ-mental Product Declarations of Institute Construction and Environment e.V. (IBU); PCR review conducted by the Independent Expert Committee (SVR)
Part A: Calculation Rules for the Life Cycle Assessment and Requirements on the Project Report, v1.3, June 2014
Part B: Requirements on the EPD for Sanitary Ceramics, v5, July 2014

UL/USGBC Guidance: Enhanced EPD: Requirements for PCR
This SM Transparency Report conforms to the requirements of the USGBC Enhanced EPD Requirements for PCRs.

SM Transparency Reports enable purchasers and users to compare the environmental performance of products on a life cycle basis. They are designed to present information transparently to make the limitations of comparability more understandable. SM Transparency Reports of products that comply with the same Product Group Definition (PGD) or 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.

EN ISO 14025:2011-10: Environmental labels and declarations — Type III environmental declarations — Principles and procedures.