Research Publications

The Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS) was contracted to update the raw material production data used to calculate the environmental burdens from vehicle production within the GREET model.  In addition, CSS also characterized some common material transformation processes used to manufacture vehicle components. 

Among the reasons for undertaking this project at this time were:

• The opportunity to update data for existing materials in the GREET model with more recent and/or higher quality data.
• The opportunity to acquire data for materials not currently found in GREET, but expected to have growing importance in the composition of vehicles in the future.
• As automobile manufacturers continue to improve use phase efficiency, the material production and manufacturing stages become more significant in determining total life cycle burdens of personal transportation.  Thus representing vehicle manufacturing will become increasingly important.
• GREET data is used as a resource for other life cycle research, and thus the results of this project are expected to benefit future research.