Cadre d'application de l'analyse du cycle de vie pour l'evaluation environnementale des projets de reduction des gaz a effet de serre: Etude de cas d'un projet d'efficacite energetique dans le domaine des transports

Establishing itself as an environmental leader, Bell Canada has developed the TelePod(TM): an in-vehicle telematics gateway for commercial fleet operators which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 10% thanks to improved management of the vehicle fleet. This innovation offers an excellent potential to become a GHG reduction project for Bell. This project is also an opportunity for Bell Canada to become more familiar with the principles of GHG accounting.; To demonstrate that GHG reductions have occurred, an accounting protocol must be applied to the TelePod(TM) project. The ISO 14064-2 standard is generally considered as the international reference for GHG project accounting. However, this standard only provides limited guidance on the application of rules such as system boundary selection (GHG sources, sinks and reservoirs) which must be quantified in this project. In addition, the standard does not mention the need to study environmental impacts other than climate change, which can lead to eventual impact transfer from one category to another. To address these shortcomings, it is proposed in this research project to use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to guide and justify the decisions which must be taken during a GHG project.; The aim of this study is to quantify the GHG emissions and environmental impacts of the TelePod(TM) project during its entire life cycle and verify that the use of LCA is relevant for planning and conducting a GHG project by taking into account all direct and indirect environmental emissions and assess environmental impact transfer.; The quantification of a GHG project was first conducted according to an accounting protocol specific to the transport sector. The results of this quantification were then compared to those of a complete life cycle of the TelePod(TM) project according to two accounting procedures. The first, identified as "real", aimed to modelize the project according to Bell's context. The second, "conservative" applied more debatable assumptions (such as market leaks) and proposes parameters which modelize a less optimized TelePod(TM) project. LUCAS, the Canadian life cycle impact assessment method was used to make a complete environmental balance sheet of the TelePod(TM) project. The applied approach during this study was summarized in an application framework for GHG projects (LCA-GHGP framework).; The total accounting results for the project according to the transport-specific procedure is a reduction of 3203 equivalent tons of CO2 (tCO 2e) for its entire duration of three years. In theory, these reductions could be declared as GHG credits. According to the LCA-GHGP framework, the reduction is 4085 tCO2e for the "real" procedure and 3185 tCO2e for the "conservative" procedure. Therefore, for the "real" procedure, the results show that for each credited ton, 1,28 tCO2e are avoided. For the "conservative" procedure, only 0,99 tons are avoided for each credited ton.; The study of the results for the "conservative" procedure allows identifying the major sources of leakages: (1) market leaks due to the reduction in fuel demand for the fleet, (2) the life cycle of the electronic casing; and (3) the energy consumption for the computer equipment and telecommunications equipment. Solutions are proposed to manage the risk posed by these potential leaks.; The assessment of environmental impacts enabled to identify and quantify the impact transfers. For the "conservative" procedure, there is a risk that the project creates potential impacts in the aquatic eutrophication, aquatic ecotoxicity and mineral extraction impact categories. On the other hand, the "real" procedure foresees impact reductions in all categories except aquatic ecotoxicity for which uncertainty on the result won't allow for a conclusion. The application of this analysis framework allowed proposing improvements on the design and completion of a GHG project to reduce impact transfer.; Results show that LCA is a useful tool...