Life Cycle Impact Assessment Approach Research Articles

LCIA Parameters and the Role of BIM towards Sustainability: Regional and Temporal Trends

Building materials with a low environmental impact are critical to the sustainability of the built environment. The environmental impact of materials can be determined by a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), which constitutes multiple parameters such as the water used in a material’s life cycle. To use the LCIA approach for building material selection, its parameters need to be assigned different weights, which is the primary objective of this study. Building Information Modelling (BIM) can play an influential role when using LCIA during the building design process. With this consideration, we study the attention given to environmental sustainability in buildings and the responsiveness of BIM in this case. A multi-regional survey of 120 experts from academia and industry was conducted. The results show the relative importance of LCIA parameters and the focus of the building sector on environmental sustainability. The current and the future responsiveness of BIM towards environmental sustainability is also indicated. To promote the integration of LCIA in building design and performance assessment, the future role of BIM applications is explored. The results will contribute to research and practice in the sustainable built environment by helping select environment-friendly building materials.

Life cycle assessment of most widely adopted solar photovoltaic energy technologies by mid-point and end-point indicators of ReCiPe method.

The present article focuses on a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of the most widely adopted solar photovoltaic power generation technologies, viz., mono-crystalline silicon (mono-Si), multi-crystalline silicon (multi-Si), amorphous silicon (a-Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) energy technologies, based on ReCiPe life cycle impact assessment method. LCA is the most powerful environmental impact assessment tool from a product perspective and ReCiPe is one of the most advanced LCA methodologies with the broadest set of mid-point impact categories. More importantly, ReCiPe combines the strengths of both mid-point-based life cycle impact assessment approach of CML-IA, and end-point-based approach of Eco-indicator 99 methods. Accordingly, the LCA results of all four solar PV technologies have been evaluated and compared based on 18 mid-point impact indicators (viz., climate change, ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, human toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, ionising radiation, agricultural land occupation, urban land occupation, natural land transformation, water depletion, metal depletion and fossil depletion), 3 end-point/damage indicators (viz., human health, ecosystems and cost increases in resource extraction) and a unified single score. The overall study has been conducted based on hierarchist perspective and according to the relevant ISO standards. Final results show that the CdTe thin-film solar plant carries the least environmental life cycle impact within the four PV technologies, sequentially followed by multi-Si, a-Si and mono-Si technology.

Life cycle assessment analysis of an ultrasound-assisted system converting waste cooking oil into biodiesel

This study was aimed at environmentally analyzing an ultrasound-assisted system converting waste cooking oil (WCO) into biodiesel in order to make decisions on its operating conditions. Twenty-seven different experiments (scenarios) carried out at three levels of methanol content, methanolysis temperature, and reaction duration, were compared from environmental viewpoint using the Impact 2002 + life cycle impact assessment approach. The effects of different scenarios on four endpoint impact categories including human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resource consumption were quantitatively evaluated and comprehensively discussed. The effects of material and energy flows on the endpoint impact categories were also appraised through a sensitivity analysis. Overall, the experimental variables profoundly affected all the endpoint impact categories considered herein. Methanol content exhibited the highest influence on the studied impact categories, while methanolysis temperature showed the lowest impact on these environmental indices. Overall, methanol:oil molar ratio of 6:1, methanolysis temperature of 60 °C, and reaction duration of 10 min could be recommend as the most suitable operating conditions from both technical and environmental perspectives. The environmental impacts of biodiesel produced at the selected conditions were significantly lower than those of the conventional fossil-based diesel fuel. The sensitivity analysis showed that the electrical power utilized in the process was the most influential impact on the human health and climate change damage categories. The phosphoric acid utilized for neutralizing crude glycerol was the most effective input on the ecosystem quality damage category, while the methanol consumed in the process significantly affected the resource consumption damage category. The outcomes of this study revealed that LCA approach could offer relevant environmental impact indices supporting decision-making on the development of sustainable biodiesel production systems and on the identification of their optimal operating conditions.

In search of key: Protecting human health and the ecosystem from water pollution in China

Systematic and scientific assessment of the key factors that lead to health and ecosystem burdens caused by combined water pollutants at a macro level remains lacking. This study aims thereby to determine the relationships among wastewater effluents, emissions, health and ecosystem impacts, national disease incidence, and economic burdens. A bottom–up inventory analysis hybrid life cycle impact assessment approach was used in this work together with SimaPro 8.4 software to quantify the health and ecological impacts of water pollution in China at a macro level from environmental and economic perspectives. Direct water pollutant emissions and their potential impacts on China in the last decade were quantified, and the spatial wastewater effluents, key inventories, health and ecological impacts, and economic burden of wastewater effluents in 2015 were evaluated. Arsenic (174 t/y), cadmium (31.9 t/y), and chromium (240.8 t/y) were the key pollutants emitted from wastewater effluents in China in 2015. wThe industrial sector was the major contributor of harmful pollutants, which considerably exceeded national statistical data. An overall health damage of 1.01 × 105 disability adjusted life years, an ecological impact of 1.70 × 103 annual species loss, and an economic loss of $1.46 × 1012/y in China in 2015 were observed. The most serious environmental and economic impacts were observed in Hunan Province because of its resource endowment characteristics. The number of estimated cancer cases was strongly correlated with the reported epidemiological cancer incidence of pancreas, brain, leukemia, and thyroid cancers in both men and women as well as colon, uterine corpus, and bladder cancers in women. Effective measures of reducing the overall environmental and economic impacts of wastewater effluents included improving the control system of heavy metals, such as chromium, cadmium, and arsenic, in ferrous metal, chemical, metal, non-ferrous metal, and leather sectors; optimizing the export structure; scientifically screening the key monitoring indicators; and building a corresponding database.

Flows, stocks, and emissions of DEHP products in Japan

The usage of products containing Bis (2‑ethylhexyl) Phthalate (DEHP) is widespread, mainly through the great variety of PVC products. However, DEHP has become a worldwide concern, due to the potential health and environmental risks it presents. In this study, material flow analysis and emission estimations for DEHP products in Japan, from 1948 to 2030, were performed. Moreover, an evaluation of the potentially damaging impacts on human health and the environment was completed through a lifecycle impact assessment approach. The analysis focused on three representative lifecycle phases - Production, Use and Treatment and Disposal. The peak flows of DEHP from Production to the Use phase were in 1996 with 285,300 tons for shipment and the stocks peaked in 2001 with 1,981,908 tons. Accordingly, in 2006 the peak of DEHP waste to the Treatment and disposal phase was 190,792 tons. The primary emissions were observed in the Use phase, due to the large stocks, with DEHP mostly being released to the pedosphere. The total emissions from the Use phase reached the maximum of 48,960 tons in 2000, whereas in the Production and Treatment and disposal phase it was 248 tons and 15 tons, respectively. Subsequently, concerning the evaluation of impacts, the damage to the human health was the most widespread impact, totaling 13,782 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), compared with the damage to the ecosystems, with 0.12 species·year. Furthermore, the risk-risk tradeoffs between the lifecycle phases were clarified throughout the years.

Environmental assessment of Smart City Solutions using a coupled urban metabolism—life cycle impact assessment approach

The purpose of the study is to quantify the environmental performance of Smart City Solutions at urban system level and thus evaluate their contribution to develop environmentally sustainable urban systems. Further, the study illustrates how this quantification is conducted. The case city chosen in our modeling is Copenhagen, where seven Smart City Solutions are introduced: Green Roofs, Smart Windows, Pneumatic Waste Collection, Sensorized Waste Collection, Smart Water Meters, Greywater Recycling, and Smart Energy Grid. The assessment is conducted using a fused urban metabolism (UM)-life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, referred to as UM-LCA. The UM-LCA uses metabolic flows across an urban system as inputs and outputs in an LCA. All life cycle stages of the metabolic flows can be accounted for by using this approach and burden shifting from one stage to another is made quantifiable and hence transparent. The impact assessment is conducted using the ReCiPe method. The results obtained for the midpoint indicator, global warming potential (GWP), show reduced environmental performance effect at 75% relative to a business as usual reference scenario by introducing Smart Windows. Furthermore, the GWP indicator shows an environmental improvement of 10% for a Smart Energy Grid solution. Introduction of Pneumatic Waste Collection or Greywater Recycling reveals a minor negative performance effect of 0.76 and 0.70%, respectively, for GWP. The performance changes in terms of GWP for the remaining solutions are so small that these are expected to be within the uncertainty of the calculations. To obtain endpoint indicators (damages), the entire palette of ReCiPe indicators is included. The results of the endpoint indicator assessment yield a tendency similar to the one observed for climate change. It is found that the implementation of Smart City Solutions generally has a negative influence on the environmental sustainability performance of an urban system. The limited positive influence from the Smart City Solutions is due to burden shifting from the direct impacts of the urban system to embedded impacts which are out of sight for most policy makers. The influence of the Solutions on Copenhagen is generally small, due to a focus on reducing in areas that are not a large environmental burden in Copenhagen. The results are not sufficient to discard the idea of using Smart City Solutions to reduce environmental impacts, but highlight the importance of choosing solutions with the right focus and optimizing the design to best fit the intensions.

Addressing water needs of freshwater ecosystems in life cycle impact assessment of water consumption: state of the art and applicability of ecohydrological approaches to ecosystem quality characterization

In recent history, human development overbalanced towards economic growth has often been accompanied by the degradation and reduction of freshwater resources at the expense of freshwater dependent ecosystems. For their subsistence and correct functioning, understanding environmental water requirements (EWR) represents an area of great interest for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and it has been only marginally explored. The aim of this paper is to investigate how this concept has evolved in ecological and hydrological literature and how it can be better integrated in LCIA, to identify potential options for improvement of LCIA indicators in the short, mid and long term. To address the limitations of existing LCIA approaches in modelling EWR, four families of EWR methods have been reviewed, namely hydrological, hydraulic, habitat simulation and holistic methods. Based on existing scientific literature and their broad application, 24 methods have been selected and their suitability to be adopted in LCIA has been evaluated against nine criteria, with regard to data management issues, accuracy, scientific robustness, and potential for future development. A semi-quantitative performance score has been subsequently assigned for each criterion, showing the main strengths and weaknesses of selected methods. The underlying rationale of the chosen approaches is markedly different, likewise the input information needed and results applicability. Hydrological methods are well suited for the development of global models and they are the only ones currently considered in LCIA, although their applicability remains limited to water stress indicators. Habitat modelling is identified as an essential step for the development of mechanistic LCIA models and endpoint indicators. In this respect, hydraulic, habitat simulation and holistic methods are fit for the purpose. However, habitat simulation methods represent the best compromise between scientific robustness and applicability in LCIA. For this reason, a conceptual framework for the development of habitat-based characterization factors has been proposed. Among the evaluated habitat simulation methods, ESTIMHAB showed the best performance and was the method retained for the development of an LCIA model that will assess the consequences of water consumption on stream ecosystems. This study identifies the advantages of specific modelling approaches for the assessment of water requirements for ecosystems. Selected methods could support the development of LCIA models at different levels. In the short-term for improving environmental relevance of water stress indicators, and in the mid/long-term to build up midpoint habitat indicators relating water needs of ecosystems with new endpoint metrics.

Comparative environmental assessment of conventional, electric, hybrid, and fuel cell powertrains based on LCA

The purpose of this study is to compare the environmental impact differences of four types of vehicles on a life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective: a conventional gasoline vehicle, a pure electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle, and a plug-in hybrid fuel cell-battery vehicle. The novelty of the approach is to consider the different powertrains—electric and hybrids—as a repowering of the conventional powertrain. This way, the attention can be focused only on the powertrain differences and inefficiencies, with the added value of avoiding further assumptions, which could cause the analysis to be somehow rough. Thus, we compared four powertrain scenarios maintaining the same vehicle chassis, and we compared the impacts from the powertrain production, vehicle use phase, and powertrain end of life only. Hence, special attention was paid to the inventory for powertrain construction and use phase. For the powertrain components, an accurate literature survey has been carried out for the life cycle inventory. For the use phase, several driving cycles, both standardized and real-world type, have been simulated in order to properly evaluate the effect on the fuel/electricity consumption. For the comparison, environmental indicators according to cumulative energy demand (CED) and ReCiPe Midpoint methods have been used. This way, an analysis of the environmental impact, based on a life cycle impact assessment approach, is provided, which allows thoroughly comparing the systems based on the different powertrains. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis on different energy mixes has been included, which represents also a way to take into account changes in electricity production. Results are presented according to life cycle impact assessment, which examines the mass and energy inventory input and output data for a product system to translate these data to better identify their possible environmental relevance and significance. In the case of the climate change (CC), fuel depletion (FD), and CED indicators, the lowest value corresponds to the plug-in hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle, followed by the plug-in hybrid fuel cell-battery vehicle, the pure electric, and finally the conventional gasoline vehicle. Substituting a conventional gasoline powertrain with the corresponding pure electric one offers the lowest reduction, but still of valuable amount. In our analysis, for the considered systems, the reduction of the value of CC is about 15%, the reduction of the value of CED is about 12%, and the reduction of FD value is about 28%. This analysis underlines the weakness of a tank-to-wheel comparison, according to which the pure electric powertrain, having a very high average efficiency, results in being the less consuming, followed by the hybrid gasoline-electric and fuel cell-battery vehicles, respectively, and then by the conventional vehicle. Instead, in terms of CED, the bad influence of the low average efficiency of the Italian electricity production is highlighted. The LCA approach also stresses out the importance of the battery inventory, which can make the environmental performance of the system based on the pure electric vehicle significantly worse than those based on the conventional vehicle. Of a great significance is the presence of a group of indicators—including human toxicity, eutrophication, and acidification—with lower values in the case of conventional gasoline vehicle than in the electric and hybrid ones, which further confirms that the potential of electrified vehicles strictly depends on an efficient production and recycling of the battery. The analysis underlines an alarming list of environmental impact indicators, usually neglected, which are worsened by the powertrains electrification. Operating on the production processes, used materials and recycling phase can possibly mitigate these worsening effects. Also, the type of electricity is shown to strongly affect the results. Thus, performing specific evaluations for different countries is crucial and a sensitivity analysis, involving drastically different energy mixes, can allow for taking into account possible changes in the future electricity production.

Integrating Advanced Engineering Solutions for Enhancing Product Development Sustainability

The research approach presented in the paper targets the integration of some advanced engineering principles, methods and instruments for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of Product Design activities. In order to reduce the product development resources consumption, to improve the product functionality, reliability and flexibility and to reduce the product lifecycle environmental impact, all of these being considered as instruments for improving Product Sustainability, some conceptual models for integrating advanced Product Design theories and principles such as Holistic Design and Axiomatic Design, together with the use of some advanced CAD/CAE tools are discussed in the paper. As case study, the paper submits to discussion the problem of enhancing the design activities for the development of a technical solution of a device adaptable on an electrical discharge machine-tool and being able to generate cycloid profiles based on a double-planetary mechanism driving. The research approach on integrating the principles of axiomatic design within activities of the design model structuring, the decomposition rules have been mainly targeted to be applied. The presented case study refers also to the performance of using advanced capabilities of Solid Edge as CAD solution which provides dynamic generation of the product model structure and to those of its embedded module entitled Engineering Reference, as valuable CAE instrument. Some adequate conclusions are finally presented and some directions of further research development are identified, such as integrating also an economic efficiency analysis and a Life Cycle Impact Assessment approach as Concurrent Engineering activities, to enhance the new product development sustainability.

A holistic decision-making framework for selecting domestic piping materials

A life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was carried out for three types of materials commonly used in domestic plumbing systems, copper, cross-linked polyethylene (PEX), and chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC), to examine the efficiencies and tradeoffs involved in the material selection process. The LCIA results revealed that for all midpoint and damage impact categories, PEX systems have less of an impact on the environment than either copper or CPVC. The results from the LCIA approach were combined with economic, ergonomic, convenience, safety, and other relevant factors to produce a holistic decision model that can be used to optimize the material selection process. The model was applied to develop a formal preference elicitation methodology that revealed that health considerations (35%) have the greatest impact on consumer choice, followed by environmental impact (19%), taste and odor (13%), cost (11%), and corrosion resistance (10%). These findings will help policy experts and water utilities understand how homeowners make decisions and the factors they consider important when selecting alternative plumbing materials.

Abiotic resources: new impact assessment approaches in view of resource efficiency and resource criticality—55th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment, Zurich, Switzerland, April 11, 2014

Natural abiotic resources (here referring primarily to metals, minerals and fossil resources) have become a growing political concern with increased focus on resource scarcity, natural availability and dependency on foreign supply. For a nearterm time horizon, both the USA and the EU have identified so-called critical raw materials including platinum group metals, rare earth elements, etc. (EC 2010; NRC 2008), and resource efficiency has become one key element of the sustainability policy of the EU and Switzerland (EC 2011a; Bundesrat 2012). Within the context of life cycle assessment (LCA), the development of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods has been very diverse without a unifying practice for how to assess the depletion of abiotic resources from the natural environment (Carvalho et al. 2014; EC 2011b; Klinglmair et al. 2013; Mancini et al. 2013). The overarching goal of the 55th Discussion Forum on LCA (DF-55) was to present and discuss recent developments of novel and updated LCIA approaches with respect to the relevance of resources as a separate safeguard subject (or area of protection, AoP) in environmental assessment, the rationale and interpretations of their respective environmental mechanisms related to abiotic resource depletion and the relation to other resource-related concerns such as scarcity and criticality. Setting the stage for the discussion forum, the first presentation of the day was given by Stefanie Hellweg (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) who gave an overview of the various issues related to the assessment of abiotic resource depletion. The extraction rates and the number of resources put into use are increasing and products are becoming more complex. The resulting heterogeneity of materials and products poses great challenges for recycling and recovery of the resources. In this context, three different methodologies for addressing different issues or questions related to the management of resources were outlined:

Integrated earth system dynamic modeling for life cycle impact assessment of ecosystem services

Despite the increasing awareness of our dependence on Ecosystem Services (ES), Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) does not explicitly and fully assess the damages caused by human activities on ES generation. Recent improvements in LCIA focus on specific cause–effect chains, mainly related to land use changes, leading to Characterization Factors (CFs) at the midpoint assessment level. However, despite the complexity and temporal dynamics of ES, current LCIA approaches consider the environmental mechanisms underneath ES to be independent from each other and devoid of dynamic character, leading to constant CFs whose representativeness is debatable. This paper takes a step forward and is aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of using an integrated earth system dynamic modeling perspective to retrieve time- and scenario-dependent CFs that consider the complex interlinkages between natural processes delivering ES. The GUMBO (Global Unified Metamodel of the Biosphere) model is used to quantify changes in ES production in physical terms – leading to midpoint CFs – and changes in human welfare indicators, which are considered here as endpoint CFs. The interpretation of the obtained results highlights the key methodological challenges to be solved to consider this approach as a robust alternative to the mainstream rationale currently adopted in LCIA. Further research should focus on increasing the granularity of environmental interventions in the modeling tools to match current standards in LCA and on adapting the conceptual approach to a spatially-explicit integrated model.

Health Risk Evaluation of Disinfection By-Products (DBPs) for Indoor Swimming Pool Users via Life Cycle Impact Assessment Approach

Due to continuous disinfection and constant organic load from swimmers, indoor swimming pools constitute environments with high levels of DBPs in water and air, some of which are linked to human health concerns. The purpose of this study is to customize current global-scale or continental scale life cycle human health impact assessment models to indoor swimming pool applications and subsequently use the model to compare different operation scenarios, which can provide relatively straight forward ideas for possible mitigation strategies. A comparison study is carried out between “baseline” scenario and four specific ‘what-if’ scenarios (using alternative disinfectant, reducing precursors, increasing ventilation, and changing characteristics of the air-water surface). We build the indoor-scale model based on USEtox, the consensus environmental model for characterisation of human and ecotoxicological impacts in Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA). The model estimates the potential health risks for adults and children for 20 years during which age-specific intake factors change over time. The primary results indicated the impact from inhalation dominates the overall human health impact, while the dermal adsorption during swimming also makes significant contribution. The chloroform and trichloramine are identified as major stressors for inhalation human impact, while chloroform for dermal absorption impact. Through the scenario comparison, improving the ventilation of indoor swimming pools is an effect way to reduce the human health impact for all subjects. Another promising method is to control the precursors through increasing freshwater exchange, especially for the heavily-used pools. This study implies the choice of mitigation strategies should depend on the function and operation time of the pool. Through incorporating the proposed life cycle human health impact assessment model to the cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment studies, a systematic and comprehensive environmental profile of indoor swimming usage can be available.

LCA of the timber sector in Ghana: preliminary life cycle impact assessment (LCIA)

Most life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) approaches in life cycle assessment (LCA) are developed for western countries. Their LCIA approaches and characterization methodologies for different impact categories may not be necessarily relevant to African environmental conditions and particularly not for the timber sector in Ghana. This study reviews the relevance of existing impact categories and LCIA approaches, and uses the most relevant for the timber sector of Ghana. The study reviewed 23 life cycle inventories (LCIs) and LCAs on forestry, timber, and wood products for relevant impact categories and LCIA approaches for their relevance to the specific conditions in Ghana. This study uses an earlier LCI study of the timber industry as a starting point for an additional LCIA. We next performed a correlation and regression analysis to learn whether wood wastes may function as a reasonable single indicator for land use as proxy for biodiversity loss and the other impact categories. The literature review shows that no LCI or LCA studies were developed for Africa or the tropics. The LCIA approaches in the reviewed LCAs are indeed shown to take their basis in the environmental problems in western countries and characterization methodologies relating to how these problems manifest themselves in the western world. Characterization methodologies for different impact categories in CML-2000 and other LCIA approaches may not be necessarily relevant to African tropical environmental conditions and particularly not for the timber sector in Ghana. This situation hampers the reliability of our LCIA and points to a serious research gap in LCIA development in general. We applied the scientifically well-recognized CML 2000 to the earlier LCI results and characterized the preliminary selected impact categories of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidant formation, and human toxicity. The correlation analysis indicated that wood waste is indeed strongly correlated with land use as proxy for biodiversity loss and also positively correlated with the other five potential impact results. It can be concluded that wood waste production is a major driving force for biodiversity loss and a sufficiently good single indicator for all other environmental performance indicators in the timber sector of Ghana. This study and the previous LCI paper are pioneering a field not yet explored, since the correct environmental performance indicators are not yet developed or adapted to tropical conditions. The development of LCIA approaches in the tropics may be the start of a never-ending journey in LCA research in Africa, particularly Ghana.

Critical Analysis of the Mathematical Relationships and Comprehensiveness of Life Cycle Impact Assessment Approaches

The impact assessment phase of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has received much criticism due to lack of consistency. While the ISO standards for LCA did make great strides in advancing the consensus in this area, ISO is not prescriptive, but has left much room for innovation and therefore inconsistency. To address this lack of consistency, there is currently an effort underway to provide a conceptual framework for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) and a recommended practice to include a list of impact categories, category indicators, and underlying methodologies. This is an enormous undertaking, especially in light of the current fundamental lack of consensus of the basic elements to be included in a LCIA (e.g., impact categories, impacts, and areas of protection). ISO 14042 requires selection of impact categories that "reflect a comprehensive set of environmental issues" related to the system being studied, especially for "comparative assertions" that involve public marketing claims. To be comprehensive, it is necessary to have a listing of impacts that "could" be included within the LCIA before entering into discussions of impacts that "should" be included. In addition to providing a critical analysis of existing and emerging impact assessment approaches, this paper will formulate a structured representation that allows more informed selection of approaches. The definitions and relationships between midpoint, endpoint, damage, and areas of protection will be presented in greater detail, along with the equations that are common to many of the approaches. Finally, a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of displaying results at various stages in the environmental models will be presented in great detail.

A new life cycle impact assessment approach for buildings

This study examines factors resulting in an environment burden (local EB) in the region where a building is located, and suggests a method for assessing it. The environmental burden (attached EB) caused by the expansion of infrastructures, such as, roads and parking lots for supporting buildings is also considered. An integrated life cycle impact assessment approach is proposed for buildings based on social cost account, called a region-type life cycle impact assessment (R-LCIA) here, which can give not only the total environment burden on a global scale but also the environment burden in a region scale and the attached EB. Furthermore, as an example of the R-LCIA, the environmental impact of a store building is assessed, and the effects of its location, structural type, and energy system are discussed.

In reply to hertwich & pease, Int. J. LCA 3 (4) 180 — 181, “ISO 14042 restricts use and development of impact assessment”

Life Cycle Impact Assessment describes indicators and does not predict actual impacts. The value of an LCA is its comprehensive review of all stages of a product’s life cycle and its synoptic view of all relevant environmental issues. The current version of the 14042 draft describes the uniqueness of Life Cycle Impact Assessment approach which is distinct from other assessment techniques. The wording was designed to help users of the standard understand how and why LCIA is distinct from other assessment methods.