"Life cycle assessment or LCA (also known as life cycle analysis) is a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service."
Understand the process of assessing the environmental and social impact of a product or process over its entire life cycle.
Environmental Impact Assessment: Procedure designed to identify and evaluate the potential environmental effects of a proposed project.
Sustainability Principles: The principles that underpin the concept of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental sustainability).
Greenhouse Gas Accounting: The measurement and estimation of greenhouse gas emissions, commonly used in LCA.
Product Life Cycle Analysis: The systematic analysis of the environmental impacts of a product throughout its entire life cycle.
Eco-design: Design strategies that aim to reduce the environmental impact of products.
Material Flow Analysis: Analysis of the flow of resources through industrial systems.
Carbon Footprinting: Calculation of the amount of carbon emitted by a given activity or product.
Social Life Cycle Assessment: Assessment of the social and societal impacts of a product or system throughout its life cycle.
Environmental Performance Indicators: Quantifiable indicators that measure environmental performance.
Circular Economy: An economic model that keeps resources in use for as long as possible to reduce waste and environmental impact.
Sustainability Reporting: The process of measuring and disclosing an organization's environmental, social and governance performance.
Life Cycle Costing: A technique used to evaluate the cost of a product or service over its entire life cycle, including both direct and indirect costs.
Water Footprinting: Calculation of the amount of water used or impacted by a given activity or product.
Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Managing the social, environmental, and economic impacts of supply chain operations.
Green Marketing: Marketing strategies that promote the environmental benefits of a product or service.
Cradle-to-gate: A life cycle analysis that evaluates a product from extraction or production of raw materials to the point of sale.
Cradle-to-cradle: A life cycle analysis that evaluates a product's entire life cycle, from design to disposal, with the goal of reducing environmental impact and waste.
Cradle-to-grave: A life cycle analysis that evaluates a product's entire life cycle, including disposal, with the goal of reducing environmental impact and waste.
Gate-to-gate: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the environmental impacts of one stage of production or process, such as transportation or manufacturing.
Input-output: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the environmental impacts of an entire economy or system, by tracking the inputs and outputs of goods and services.
Attributional: A life cycle analysis that evaluates a product's environmental impacts based on the average impact of a particular process or product.
Consequential: A life cycle analysis that evaluates a product's environmental impacts based on the predicted effects of a particular process or product on the surrounding environment.
Social LCA: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the social impacts of a product, including its effect on work conditions, health and safety, and human rights.
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): A standardized, transparent and comparable way to measure the environmental impact of a product using a life cycle analysis.
Water footprint: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the amount of water used and polluted in the production and life cycle of a product.
Carbon footprint: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the production and life cycle of a product.
Energy analysis: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the amount and type of energy used in the production and life cycle of a product.
Material flow analysis: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the use of materials in the production and life cycle of a product.
End-of-life analysis: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the disposal and end-of-life impacts of a product, including landfill and recycling options.
Organizational LCA: A life cycle analysis that evaluates the environmental impacts of an organization's activities, products, and services.
"Environmental impacts are assessed from raw material extraction and processing (cradle), through the product's manufacture, distribution and use, to the recycling or final disposal of the materials composing it (grave)."
"An LCA study involves a thorough inventory of the energy and materials that are required across the industry value chain of the product, process or service."
"LCA calculates the corresponding emissions to the environment, thus assessing cumulative potential environmental impacts."
"The aim is to document and improve the overall environmental profile of the product."
"The widely recognized procedures for conducting LCAs are included in the 14000 series of environmental management standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), in particular, in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044."
"ISO 14040 provides the 'principles and framework' of the Standard."
"ISO 14044 provides an outline of the 'requirements and guidelines'."
"ISO 14040 was written for a managerial audience."
"ISO 14044 was written for practitioners."
"LCA studies the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a product's life cycle (i.e., cradle-to-grave) from raw materials acquisition through production, use and disposal."
"The general categories of environmental impacts needing consideration include resource use, human health, and ecological consequences."
"Criticisms have been leveled against the LCA approach, both in general and with regard to specific cases (e.g., in the consistency of the methodology, particularly with regard to system boundaries, and the susceptibility of particular LCAs to practitioner bias with regard to the decisions that they seek to inform)."
"Without a formal set of requirements and guidelines, an LCA can be completed based on a practitioner's views and believed methodologies."
"An LCA completed by 10 different parties could yield 10 different results."
"The ISO LCA Standard aims to normalize this."
"The guidelines are not overly restrictive."
"The general categories of environmental impacts needing consideration include resource use, human health, and ecological consequences."
"LCA calculates the corresponding emissions to the environment."
"The aim is to document and improve the overall environmental profile of the product."