Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
What is it?
A Life Cycle Assessment is a tool for assessing a product's environmental impact throughout its life cycle. The effect is usually understood as resource extraction and greenhouse gas emissions. The life cycle covers all materials necessary to produce, transport, process, use, and dispose of the product.
Which problem does it solve?
A LCA creates transparency about the impact of a specific product.
This transparency helps to make environmentally aware decisions.
Who should be involved?
Correct and complete data is essential for a life cycle assessment. Therefore, input from across the value chain is necessary, in particular:
Suppliers / Procurement
Distribution / Logistics
Product Design
Operations / Production
Use Phase / Customer Research
End-of-life / Waste management
How does it work?
Life cycle assessment is done in four steps:
Goal and scope definition: Decide what the LCA is used for and which product/process scope should be applied.
Inventory Analysis: Create a database of all incoming and outgoing substances, energy flows and their weight and volume.
Impact Assessment: All substances' actual or potential impact on the environment and human health is assessed.
Interpretation: Review the analysis results, understand the sensitivity of product adaptations and draw conclusions.
What to be cautious about?
In the beginning, not all primary data points can likely be gathered. In these cases, secondary data (industry averages, data from research) can be used, or realistic assumptions must be made.
Where to find out more about it?
LCA method described in ISO 14040:2006(en) Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:14040:ed-2:v1:en
Open Database of LCA analysis https://nexus.openlca.org/
BONSAI - Big Open Network for Sustainability Assessment Information with an open database of product footprints https://bonsai.uno/
Intro into LCA by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Science Applications International Corporation. LCAccess - LCA 101. 2001 https://p2infohouse.org/ref/37/36385.pdf
Who contributed to its creation & development?
The creative process is mostly a collective cultural process of creation, inspiration, copy & remix. Therefore, the following entries shall be understood as markers of significant milestones of this concept, not as an exclusive and exhaustive list of all people involved.
In 1969, The Coca-Cola Company was interested in the environmental impact of various bottles and laid the foundation of what later became LCA.
The US Environmental Protection Agency, the European Commission and later ISO created recommendations and standards.
See Hunt, Robert G. et al. “LCA — How it came about.” The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 1 (1996): 4-7.