LCA Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a scientific methodology used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of a product, service, or technology throughout its entire life cycle. ISO 14040 outlines the 4 phases of LCA as:
1. Goal and Scope definition
2. Inventory Analysis
3. Impact Assessment
4. Interpretation of results.
What is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)? LCA measures the environmental impact of a product through every phase of its life – from production to waste (or recycling, etc.). But LCA isn’t simple – there are countless factors involved:
- Which raw materials were involved in the production process, and where do they come from? What about soil, seeds, and fertilizer?
- How do my goods get produced? What about heating, water, and ventilation?
- How did the goods get transported? Via truck, rail, or airplane? A clear framework for measuring environmental impact With all these factors – it gets confusing quickly. This is why the Life Cycle Assessment provides a framework for measuring the environmental impact of, for example, a product. The goal of an LCA is to not only create data but also to facilitate decisions. That’s why it is always designed with a specific goal in mind. For example, to make a product more sustainable. In this guide, we go through the concept of a Life Cycle Assessment step-by-step.