2.2 - Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

This chapter provides a general description of what life cycle assessment (LCA) is and how it can be used. LCA is an assessment of the environmental impact of a product's life cycle. For every activity in the life cycle, resource use, waste, and emissions are described quantitatively. The resources, waste, and emissions for all of the activities in the life cycle are summarized into an environmental profile for the product, called a life cycle inventory (LCI). The resources, waste, and emissions in the LCI are then classified into groups depending on which environmental aspect they affect and are characterized according to how much they affect that aspect, for example, global warming, acidification, or non-renewable resources. Finally, the different environmental aspects can be summarized through weighting. There are many benefits for businesses from adopting an LCA approach, for example: an LCA can be helpful in a choice between alternative actions by providing information about the environmental impacts of the different alternatives. In this chapter, the use of LCA in relation to other environmental tools is discussed. The other tools considered are environmental management systems (EMS), environmental labeling, environmental risk assessment (ERA), cost–benefit analysis (CBA), and eco-efficiency analysis (EEA).