life cycle impact assessment
Over the past 15 years our group has investigated numerous products services and infrastructure systems using lca as a fundamental component of analysis. These are generic standards applicable to all types of lca study i e. Selecting the relevant impact categories.
Life cycle assessment lca is the factual analysis of a product s entire life cycle in terms of sustainability.
Life cycle impact assessment. Based on a comparative assessment of the current beyond burger production system with the 2017 beef lca by thoma et al the beyond burger generates 90 less greenhouse gas emissions requires 46 less energy has 99 less impact on water scarcity and 93 less impact on land use than a pound of u s. Although its use is mainly associated with the estimation of the environmental impact of products some studies have also used a lca for cities. Life cycle assessment using the eio lca method and on line tool as well as other lca methods is a major research focus for the green design institute at carnegie mellon university. Life cycle impact assessment iso 14042.
These have been withdrawn and are now covered by revised versions of iso 14040 and 14044. Assigning the elementary flows to the impact categories. Life cycle sustainability assessment. Life cycle impact assessment lcia is the phase of an lca where the evaluation takes place of the potential environmental impacts stemming from the elementary flows environmental resources and releases obtained in the lci.
Every part of a product s life cycle extraction of materials from the environment the production of the product the use phase and what happens to the product after it is no longer used can have an impact on the. Life cycle interpretation is a systematic technique to identify quantify check and evaluate information from the results of the life cycle inventory and or the life cycle impact assessment. Lcia consists of the following steps. Life cycle assessment lca is a very popular analysis for reporting potential environmental loads and resources consumed in each step of a product or service supply chain.
Environmental product declarations are standardized certifications of a life cycle assessment used mostly to verify impact data from business to business. Life cycle sustainability assessment lcsa refers to the evaluation of all environmental social and economic negative impacts and benefits in decision making processes towards more sustainable products throughout their life cycle. Life cycle interpretation iso 14043. Not just construction or building related studies.
Cradle to cradle it is a variation of cradle to grave exchanging the waste stage with a recycling process that makes it reusable for another product essentially closing the loop.