Project Spotlight: A GHG product lifecycle assessment of EcoTank’s windshield washer refill stations

You're driving in your car when a light on your dashboard comes on: "Low Washer Fluid". Pulling into the next service station, you purchase a standard 3.78L jug of washer fluid and proceed to fill up. You place the empty jug in the waste and continue with your journey...

Now, imagine how many times this scenario repeats on our roads every day. Imagine how many single-use plastic items this represents and the volume of plastic waste and all of the embodied carbon this contains!

What if there was a better way? One that could reduce GHG emissions and plastic waste. No need to imagine that, because EcoTank Canada has brought to the Canadian market an innovation originally developed in Slovakia: an automated, bulk windshield washer fluid refill station. Instead of buying, refilling from and then disposing of the usual washer fluid jugs, motorists can fill from an EcoTank in the same way they fill up with gas or diesel. This removes plastic waste from the economy and environment.

However, EcoTank Canada wanted to understand the impact of an EcoTank unit on greenhouse gas emissions and therefore engaged Firefly to complete a cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas life cycle assessment (GHG LCA) of the EcoTank compared to the traditional plastic jug distribution route. Firefly completed this assessment in line with the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard to ensure a fair accounting of the life cycle impacts of an EcoTank and the business-as-usual practice, with additional guidance from ISO146064-2 to ensure a fair comparison of the two scenarios.

Attributable processes from all five major life-cycle stages – material acquisition and pre-processing, production, distribution and storage, use and end-of-life – were identified and mapped, with relevant sources of GHG emissions then quantified. Key GHG emissions included embodied carbon, manufacturing, transportation, energy consumption during use and disposal.

Three case studies were developed, based on actual EcoTanks in use in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, to illustrate the sensitivities of the GHG LCA to different conditions, such as transportation distances to washer fluid depots, and the varying GHG emissions intensity of consumed electricity. Results were presented on a ‘per jug’, ‘per EcoTank’ and ‘per 100,000 L of washer fluid’ basis. A customisable calculator was developed that allowed EcoTank to assess other configurations also.

Firefly’s analysis showed that not only is each EcoTank reducing plastic waste, but it is also estimated to reduce between 15 and 78% of lifecycle GHG emissions associated with the use of washer fluid. Truly, therefore, EcoTank is a better and greener way to keep your windshield clean!