EME 504
Foundations in Sustainability Systems

4.4 Life-Cycle Cost Analysis

While Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCC) is non-fiduciary, it does attach monetary values to processes and material and energy flows involved in the product system.

The LCC of a product system is the sum of different costs. These costs may be discounted to account for costs/benefits incurred at different points in time.

In general,

LCC = Cp + Cop + Csm + Ceol

where,

Cp = purchase cost

Cop = operating cost

Csm = service & maintenance cost

Ceol = end-of-life management cost

Discussion Forum 4

Apply LCC Analysis to the goods or services provided in your Case Study. Estimate the different costs, taking into consideration all the different costs that should enter into each of the categories listed above. In order to estimate these costs, use your previous assignments, including your first forum discussion, in which you spent some time estimating the hidden costs of gas, electricity, and food. Here, we want to be a lot more quantitative. Also, remember the lessons from choosing the systems-surroundings. You will want to be as comprehensive as possible in finding all the different costs, without reaching too far and hindering the validity of your analysis. It is a fine line, as you probably know.