Table of Content
Life cycle assessment evaluates the environmental impacts of a product, service, or process across its entire life span. This means tracking everything from raw material extraction through manufacturing, use, and disposal.
LCA quantifies resource consumption and emissions at each stage. You might find that most impacts occur during raw material extraction, or perhaps the use phase dominates. The methodology reveals where environmental burdens actually sit.
The ISO Framework
ISO 14040 and 14044 define how LCA works. These standards establish four phases:
Goal and scope definition sets boundaries and determines what you’re measuring. This phase defines the functional unit – the reference point for all calculations.
Life cycle inventory collects data on inputs and outputs. You track energy, materials, emissions, and waste across every process.
Life cycle impact assessment converts inventory data into environmental impacts. Carbon emissions become climate change potential, nitrogen releases become eutrophication potential.
Interpretation analyses results and identifies improvement opportunities.
What LCA Measures
LCA covers multiple environmental impacts simultaneously. Climate change matters, but so do water depletion, acidification, toxicity, and resource scarcity. Single-issue metrics like carbon footprints miss this complexity.
The method tracks physical flows through technical systems. If you manufacture steel, LCA accounts for iron ore mining, coal consumption, electricity use, transport emissions, and waste generation. Each process contributes to multiple impact categories.
Why LCA Exists
Product environmental claims need verification. Companies can highlight one positive attribute while ignoring larger problems elsewhere. LCA prevents this by forcing comprehensive assessment.
Regulatory frameworks increasingly require life cycle thinking. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism uses embedded emissions across supply chains. Construction standards reference EPDs built on LCA. These policies assume you understand your product’s full environmental profile.
Limitations
LCA requires substantial data. You need quantities, processes, and impact factors for hundreds or thousands of flows. Missing data forces assumptions that affect results.
System boundaries exclude some impacts. Economic and social factors fall outside scope. LCA tells you about resource depletion and emissions, not about worker conditions or community impacts.
Results depend on methodological choices. Two LCAs of the same product can reach different conclusions based on allocation methods, impact assessment choices, or boundary decisions.
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