Performing a Life Cycle Assessment for Self-service Devices: A Case Study of Self-checkout

Nowadays, self-checkouts are becoming increasingly popular in stores and markets. This is simply because they offer customers the convenience of shopping without having to wait in line and provide store owners with an opportunity to increase sales and improve the customer experience. Meanwhile, the sustainability options of the devices have gained more traction, such as reducing the CO2 emissions of the product and production. However, it is initially unknown how to investigate the sustainability of self-service devices due to insufficient research in this area. To address this issue, the different methodologies have been analyzed based on domain-oriented boundaries. The life cycle assessment (LCA) is chosen to assess the sustainability. Then, the inventory analysis is worked out to gather the relevant raw data. Subsequently, the model of the product’s life cycle is established in an LCA software tool. The assessment and interpretation is carried out. A case study of self-checkout is conducted in the industrial company and the results shows that recycled material zincor and using solar energy could lead to a reduction of CO2 emissions of up to 41.8%.