STUDY GOALS AND SCOPE The purpose of this study is to document the life-cycle environmental impact characteristics associated with the use of soy-based inks by evaluating a typical ("generic") soy-based ink currently used in significant quantities for sheetfed printing. This typical soy-based ink printing system will serve as a benchmark for future comparison with alternative ink for- mulations and other combinations of printing system materials. The life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) will include identification of specific processes in the streamlined life-cycle (core operations associated with material acquisition, manufacture, use, and disposal) of soy-based ink for sheetfed offset lithographic printing that make the greatest contribution to the overall environmental profile for the baseline soy ink printing system selected. The intent is to identify processes that can be modified to make reductions in environmental impact, thereby enhancing soy-based ink printing as an environmentally preferable choice. It should be noted that an LCIA is a hazard indicator system largely based on resource use and emission loading, and should not be construed to represent actual environmental impacts. The scope of this project is to select a typical sheetfed printing system using soy-based ink as a baseline and conduct a streamlined life-cycle inventory (LCI) and LCIA to benchmark the life-cycle environmental characteristics of this system. This was achieved by conducting an inventory and impact assessment of the environmental burdens associated with major phases in the life cycle. However, the LCI and LCIA were streamlined by focusing on the printing system life-cycle modules that are potentially different when making comparisons between the baseline soy-based ink and other types of sheetfed ink. Since this was a streamlined LCI, materials, processes, and even life-cycle stages that are the same between different printing inks, or were less than one percent by mass of the printing system inputs, were excluded from the analysis. Six primary consumables (printing plates, ink blend, cleaning solvents, substrate, fountain solution, and wipers) were included within the boundaries of the system. Documenting the life-cycle environmental benefits of soy-based ink were achieved by completing the following three tasks: identification of the typical sheetfed printing system using soy-based ink, conduct an LCI, which involved quantification of environmental loadings (material use and emissions) throughout the life cycle of the baseline ink printing system, and conduct an LCIA, which involved identification and quantification of the potential environmental hazards and resource consumption rates associated with the environmental loadings identified in the LCI, plus an interpretation of the results.

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