Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Package Deliveries: Sustainable Decision-Making for the Academic Institutions

Due to globalization, digitalization, and competition, the number and frequency of customer requests have grown quickly over the past few years in the fast-growing commercial trade. With this steady growth, express deliveries have become one of the most important things to study and research in order to lower costs and meet more customer orders. This study uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze the environmental footprints of current delivery packaging materials, mainly comprising corrugated cardboard boxes and polystyrene (PS) foam that arrives at the University of Regina Central Receiving and also suggests viable alternatives to reduce the life cycle environmental impact. The study’s objective is to identify the stages that contribute the most to environmental emissions and suggest viable alternatives to reduce the life cycle environmental impact. We sourced packaging material data from GaBi Education Database 2020 and obtained other product-specific data from published LCAs for consistency. The current study on packaging materials analysis in the base scenario revealed that the cradle-to-grave PS packaging material has the highest environmental impact. These results have significant implications for decision-makers in identifying sustainable packaging materials for long-term use and for stakeholders in comprehending environmental impacts.