The Australian Flexible Pavement Association (AfPA), working with its members though its National Sustainability Committee, has developed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Calculator for the asphalt industry across Australia. The LCA Calculator provides the bridging link between Environment Product Declarations (EPD’s) generated through the AfPA Product Category Rules (PCR) appendix and the Sustainability Framework for Asphalt (SF4A). The value of the data collected at an asphalt plant level through the Sustainability Framework is maximised in that this data can then be used in the LCA Calculator to enable direct reporting on Green House Gas (GHG) CO2 equivalent and Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) EnviroPoints.
Apart from the ability for users of the AfPA LCA Calculator to optimise their mix designs and plant operations against the metrics of plant level carbon footprint, it will also allow for direct assessment and verification of carbon neutral asphalt products. Users of the tool (i.e., local government staff, asphalt producers etc.) can use the tool to assess the difference in GHG emissions between different mix types, benefits of incorporating different percentages of Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) or the use of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) technology for instance, to reduce the impact of asphalt production on the environment.
The underlying principle of the AfPA LCA Calculator is the use of common datasets and uniformity of approach with the IS Council’s Materials Calculator. The goal is to ensure maximum interoperability in the future for other sustainability assessment tools in Australia.
Regular updates and improvements to the tool are envisaged to maintain its relevance and value to AfPA members. AfPA have released this calculator to registered users, so that we can ensure the latest version is being used.