6.+Cradle+to+Grave

Authors: Clark Beach, Zac Jones, Laura Medina, Cristina Rodriguez = = =6.1 Goal/Objective=

The goal of this chapter is obtain an over view of the processes involved in creating a product or infrastructure. There are many steps and different fields involved in production, and having an understanding of everything that is involved can help to make better decisions throughout the building of infrastructure.

= 6.2 Introduction =

The development of a product of any kind requires a process. Not only a design process, but a production process as well. This production stream is referred to commonly as the cradle-to-grave. The entire path a product goes through is part of a cradle-to-grave process. From the gathering and refinement of the materials, the creation, the dispersal, the use, and waste stream, all elements are tied together. The process materials go through to get to a final product, and then turned into waste, is a full cycle. As it is described by the US Environmental Protection Agency, “from the extraction of natural resources to the final disposal” (US EPA).

= 6.3 Embodied Energy =

With in the process of creating a product comes embodied energy. This term refers to anything that goes into a product. For example, look at a wood chair. This chair started as a tree that got milled and manipulated into pieces of wood, but before that the tree was a seed, fed by the soil and the sun to become something bigger. When the craftsman gets the idea of making this specific chair, there may have been inspiration to the design, or a need for the chair to be created. In either case the reason for the chair adds to the embodied energy. When the tree is cut down all of the effort that went into cutting it down is included in the embodied energy. The transportation, crafting, marketing (if needed), sales, and use are all in this embodied energy. In the engineering word embodied energy can be measured scientifically; the emissions of carbon within the extraction, manufacturing and transportation can be added up and a value assigned to record the harm or benefit of a certain product.



= 6.4 Refinement of Materials =

Depending on the need, there are many ways to obtain any specific material. In the infrastructure side of things savings can be made with material source choices. The closer the source is, the cheaper (typically) the materials are. This is not the only benefit from gathering sources locally. The footprint made from locally made resources is much smaller than shipping them in. There are cases when local resources aren’t the most cost effective option. On large scale operations the more materials you need can become a problem if there isn’t a feasible method within the local area. Building materials need to be shipped into a place where the geography doesn’t support large scale infrastructure creation. Costa Rica is an example of an area that needs to have materials shipped in before building can start. The resources available in Costa Rica are abundant and very diverse, but nothing as far as typical modern building materials.

= 6.5 Manufacturing =

The manufacturing process can be very complex, and each project goes through a completely different operation. A product can start as a raw material needing to be molded into a finished product, or a group of materials combined to become something complete. There are many different ways of completing these processes. The product can be an assembly line, crafted, or put together on site. In the case of infrastructure there is a combination of all three. The biggest part of the manufacturing of any part of infrastructure is the implementation of the product into the environment. If something doesn’t fit, or work out, there isn’t any other option other than fixing the infrastructure.



= 6.6 Transportation =

Getting a product to it’s destination is a long and expensive process. Once a product is complete the job isn’t done. The user needs to have access to the product, and that can be more than just shipping one thing, or moving one thing. The topic of transportation can be a wide variety of methods to get a product to its destination. See Chapter 19 for more information on this topic.

= 6.7 Product Use =

The use of any product will cause wear and tear, and eventual waste of the product. In a piece of infrastructure this wearing out can be a bigger deal than a personal product. The scale and amount of people generally served by a large piece of infrastructure can be detrimental if wear is not planned for. In areas with higher populations, or the infrastructure is used more, the planning for the wear, either by building stronger and lasting longer, or having a plan to deal with a shorter lifespan.

= 6.8 Waste =

The waste of a product can be a hard process to complete. There is more than just throwing away the product. When something is more complex than just a personal item, waste affects the environment, communities, and more times than just final use. Waste stream, in infrastructure, is involved in almost all aspects in the life cycle ( Chapter 9 ). Waste water, and material waste are both things to be looked at and in many cases can be implemented into a recycling program. Many pieces of infrastructure in Costa Rica have a system in place to recycle water for use around the property or in the immediate area. This is usually provided by turning black water into grey water for watering plants or using the water in other projects. At the resort Rancho Margot, almost all of the waste produced on site is returned to the property in forms of grey water, compost, soap production and others. These type of opportunities could be utilized in many other types of infrastructure. and could benefit them greatly.

6.8.1 Unforeseen Waste
In any production there are unforeseen externalities involved in the cradle-to-grave. The biggest waste production in the process of building infrastructure is pollution. It is said that a light truck produces over 16 thousand pounds of carbon dioxide in a year, or in 14,000 miles of driving (EPA facts). This same article claims that CO2 isn’t regulated as an emission, even though it is the largest emission in any production of infrastructure. This doesn’t include the personal use of cars with in the infrastructure, or getting to it. The externalities of any infrastructure need to be looked at to have a grasp on what damage, or effect waste has on a system. Carbon, while a massive contributor to the waste as a whole to the system, isn’t the only waste during production. There are other emissions as well solid and liquid waste. Material is never used completely, and this leads to problems where the materials can’t be recycled, or is less cost effective to be recycled or reused.

= 6.9 Waste Stream Case Study =

There are places that capitalize in different ways. In Costa Rica there was two resorts visited by this class that utilized waste in a big way. Waste water, or black water, is a big resource available to anything that creates waste. Rancho Margot, and El Ocotal are the two resorts that have used waste water for their own good and it has benefited greatly. As outlined in Chapter 22, waste water can be an abundant and valuable source of energy, or water for other uses. In the resorts studied by the class, we found that they gain more from using resources onsite more than having it shipped offsite. Unlike we have in The States, a centralize system is not used for these resorts. The decision in many cases comes down to cost alone, but in a place like Rancho Margot, it wouldn’t be even possible to use a centralized system, therefore they are forced to come up with another way of dealing with waste.





= 6.10 Conclusion =

Cradle-to-Grave is a crucial aspect of any building or creating process. Every part of the process needs to be examined to ensure the best result. There are ways to improve the current infrastructure creating and destruction methods. Wasted energy, time, and resources can be consolidated by streamlining refinement of materials, manufacturing, transportation, product use, and waste processes. The elements together are key to a successful product. Unfortunately, many times the process as a whole is over looked, or certain elements are given more attention.

= 6.11 References =

[1] " Defining Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)" US Environmental Protection Agency. 17 October 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.gdrc.org/uem/lca/lca-define.html. [Accessed 3 June 2012].

[2] Hammond, Geoffrey P. (2004). "Engineering sustainability: thermodynamics, energy systems, and the environment". International Journal of Energy Research 28 (7): 613–639.

[3] Clean Air Task Force. "Cradle to Grave: The Environmental Impacts from Coal." (2001)

[4] "Emission Facts: Average Annual Emissions and Fuel Consumption for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. [Online]. 19 June 2012. Available: http://www.epa.gov/oms/consumer/f00013.htm. [Accessed 10 June 2012]

[5] Cambridge Systematics (1998). Multimodal corridor and capacity analysis manual. Transportation Research Board.