Sponsor:
Cities of Munich and Nuernberg
Realisation:
Öko-Institut e.V., Dr. Dietlinde Quack (project management), Martin Möller
Hydrotox GmbH, Stefan Gartiser
Project duration:
2003 – 2004
Summary:
The direct and indirect environmental impacts of the municipal winter road maintenance from two German cities have been assessed by applying the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) according to ISO 14040. The LCA considers all environmental impacts of products or services (here municipal winter road maintenance) during all life stages. Next to the direct impacts due to emissions of the vehicle fleet for winter road maintenance also emission due to upstream processes such as the production and transport of spreading agents, as well as downstream processes such as impacts on street cleaning, sewers, soil, ground water, and plants have been analysed. The overall results show, that the general conditions of both cities differ in such extent, that a comparison is not meaningful or could even lead to miss conclusions. LCA is an appropriate method for elaborating specific recommendations for the optimization of winter road maintenance with respect of its environmental impacts.
Further information:
The summary of both studies can be downloaded from the website of Öko-Institut e.V., Freiburg.
Contact Person:
Dr. Stefan Gartiser (gartiser(at)hydrotox.de, Tel: #49-(0)761-45512-24)