LCA results & interpretation PROFLO® Calhoun 1500 Series Toilet
Scope and summary
- Cradle to gate
- Cradle to gate with options
- Cradle to grave
Functional unit
One residential toilet in an average residential environment used over the estimated service of the building. The expected service life (ESL) of a building is 75 years, and all use stage activity and impacts are accounted for in that full ESL period. The reference service life (RSL) of the toilet is 20 years. This two-piece toilet is comprised of a toilet bowl, toilet tank, and toilet seat, weighing a total of 45.5 kg.
Manufacturing data
Manufacturing data has been collected at the manufacturing facility in China for the data reporting period of 2023.
Maintenance
The cleaning of the toilet involves cleaning it twice a month, using 50mL of a 1% sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) solution per clean for 75 years, which is the building estimated service life. The use of 50 mL/clean over 24 cleans/year for 75 years gives a total of 90L of solution. Using a density of 1.01kg/L for a 1% SLS solution, 90.9kg of solution will be needed over the course of 75 years. Therefore, 0.9kg of SLS plus 90kg of water were included in the model.
Repair
The flush handle, rubber ring, and fill valve seals in the tank are assumed to be fully replaced once during each reference service life (RSL) period of 20 years. The old components are assumed to be 100% landfilled with a waste transportation distance of 100km.
What’s causing the greatest impacts
All life cycle stages
Environmental performance is driven primarily by the use stage. The energy consumed in municipal water systems for upstream water collection and supply, and downstream treatment, contributes to about 75% of the impacts for the 1.28gpf toilet and about 78% of impacts for the 1.6gpf toilet. The production stage also shows considerable impacts, driven by the consumption of electricity and natural gas during ceramics manufacturing. Replacement of the toilet at the end of its reference service life also contributes significantly to impacts.
Production and installation
The production and installation stages account for only less than 5% of global warming potential. Energy consumed during ceramics manufacturing (tank and bowl) accounts for most of the impacts from manufacturing. Ceramic wastewater contributes significantly to the carcinogenics, non-carcinogenics, and ecotoxicity impact categories.
Use
The use stage itself contributes to ~90% of the impacts. Within the use stage, operational water use dominates the results for all impact categories, followed by the 2.5 replacement toilets required to fulfill the estimated service life of the building.
End of life
The end-of-life stage accounts for a relatively low portion of the results for all impact categories, at less than 2% in all categories. This is driven by the transportation of toilets to landfill at the end of their useful life.
Replacement
After the end of the toilet's reference service life, it is assumed to be fully replaced. An additional 2.75 replacements are included over the building's ESL of 75 years. No auxiliary materials, electricity, or other hardware components are consumed during the replacement.
Operational water use
The amount of water used by the toilet depends on its flush rate. The 1.28gpf toilet is assumed to be used 13 times per day over 75 years, resulting in 455,520 gallons of water over its lifetime. An electricity factor of 0.000961 kWh per liter of water is used to represent energy for upstream municipal water collection, treatment, supply, and downstream management.
How we're making it greener
Ferguson has established an EHS system that complies with regulations and serves to educate its team, attaching importance to environmental protection, energy savings and waste reduction, health and safety, and continuous improvement. The have implemented:
- Routine inspection and monitoring of environmental protection facilities in the production process
- Environmental monitoring plans
- Waste monitoring
- Improvements to the level of accuracy across all operations
LCA results
| Life cycle stage | Production | Construction | USE | End of Life |
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Information modules: |
(X) A1 Raw materials | (X) A4 Transportation/ Delivery | (X) B1 Use | (X) C1 Deconstruction/ Demolition |
| (X) A2 Transportation | (X) A5 Construction/ Installation | (X) B2 Maintenance | (X) C2 Transportation | |
| (X) A3 Manufacturing | (X) B3 Repair | (X) C3 Waste processing | ||
| (X) B4 Replacement | (X) C4 Disposal | |||
| (X) B5 Refurbishment | ||||
| (X) B6 Operational energy use | ||||
| (X) B7 Operational water use | ||||
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SM Single Score [mPts/func unit]
Learn about SM Single Score results| Toilet with 1.28 gpf tank | 3.27 mPts | 0.7 mPts | 211.81 mPts | 0.24 mPts |
| Materials or processes contributing >20% to total impacts in each life cycle stage | Ceramic parts production for the toilet tank and bowl. | Transportation of the product to installation site or consumer and disposal of packaging. | Water consumed during toilet operation. | Transport to waste processing and final disposal of the toilet in a landfill. |
TRACI v2.1 results per functional unit - PROFLO® Calhoun 1500 Series Two-piece Toilet 1.28 gpf
| Life cycle stage | Production | Construction | USE | End of Life |
Ecological damage
Human health damage
Additional environmental information
| Impact category | Unit | ||||
| Carcinogenics | CTUh Comparative Toxic Units of Human cancerous toxicity Carcinogens have the potential to form cancers in humans. |
2.59E-07 | 3.40E-08 | 3.76E-05 | 2.15E-09 |
| Non-carcinogenics | CTUh Comparative Toxic Units of Human non-cancerous toxicity Non-Carcinogens have the potential to causes non-cancerous adverse impacts to human health. |
5.84E-06 | 5.15E-07 | 7.64E-04 | 2.38E-07 |
| Ecotoxicity | CTUe Comparative Toxic Units of Ecotoxicity Ecotoxicity causes negative impacts to ecological receptors and, indirectly, to human receptors through the impacts to the ecosystem. |
5.94E+01 | 7.72E+00 | 2.02E+03 | 9.97E-01 |
| Fossil fuel depletion | MJ surplus Mega Joule, lower heating value Fossil fuel depletion is the surplus energy to extract minerals and fossil fuels. |
8.27E+01 | 1.94E+01 | 1.58E+03 | 9.78E+00 |
References
LCA Background Report
LCA background report of Ferguson single handle lavatory faucets & residential two-piece toilets, 2024; SimaPro Analyst 9.5; ecoinvent v3; TRACI 2.1.
ISO 14025, “Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works -- Core rules for environmental product declarations of construction products and services”
ISO 21930:2017, "Sustainability in Building Construction — Environmental Declaration of Building Products" serves as the core PCR along with Sustainable Minds Part A.
SM Part A: LCA calculation rules and report requirements, version 2023
August, 2023. PCR review conducted by the Sustainable Minds TAB, [email protected].
SM Part B: Residential toilets, v3.0
March, 2024. PCR reviewed for conformance to ISO 14025, ISO 21930:2017, and ACLCA PCR Open Standard v1.0 by Jack Geibig, Chair (Ecoform); Hugues Imbeault-Tétreault, ing., M.Sc.A. (Groupe AGÉCO); Rebe Feraldi, LCACP, CLAR (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory).
Download PDF SM Transparency Report/EPD
SM Transparency Reports (TR) are ISO 14025 Type III environmental declarations (EPD) that 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. Environmental declarations 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 as defined in ISO 14025 Section 6.7.2. ‘Requirements for Comparability’ are satisfied. In order to support comparative assertions, this EPD meets all comparability requirements stated in ISO 14025:2006. However, differences in certain assumptions, data quality, and variability between LCA data sets may still exist. Any EPD comparison must be carried out at the building level per ISO 21930 guidelines, use the same sub-category PCR where applicable, include all relevant information modules, be limited to EPDs applying a functional unit, and be based on equivalent scenarios with respect to the context of construction works. Some LCA impact categories and inventory items are still under development and can have high levels of uncertainty. To promote uniform guidance on the data collection, calculation, and reporting of results, the ACLCA methodology (ACLCA 2019) was used.
SM Transparency Report (EPD) 