Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - European Environment Agency

1 Environmental Issues SeriesA guide to approaches, experiencesand information sourcesLife Cycle Assessmentno. 6 (LCA) AuthorsAllan Astrup JensenLeif HoffmanBirgitte T. M llerAnders Schmidtdk-TEKNIK Energy & Environment ,DenmarkKim ChristiansenSophus Berendsen A/SDenmarkJohn ElkingtonFranceska van DijkSustainAbility ,United KingdomAugust 1997 Cover and layout:Folkmann Design &PromotionNoteThe designationsemployed and thepresentation of materialin this publication do notimply the expression ofany opinion whatsoeveron the part of theEuropean Commission orthe EuropeanEnvironment Agencyconcerning the legalstatus of any country orterritory, and theboundaries shown onmaps do not implyofficial endorsement Assessment (LCA) a guide to approaches, experiences and information sourcesThere are great expectations for the European level, the Parliament has suggested that the Commission develop a frame-work for an integrated life - Cycle -oriented product policy. In the work for the next frameworkresearch programme, LCA also has a prominent role in promoting competitive and sustain-able design and production of new products and materials should be based on a life -cycleassessment concept.

2 LCA is also a necessary basis for eco-labelling requested by consumers,NGOs and international and national authorities. Business and industry sectors are aware ofthe requests from customers, and recognise the possibilities for LCA in saving natural re-sources and energy and in minimising pollution and waste. LCA is not only a tool to improvethe Environment , but also an instrument for industry implying cost-savings and addition, the interest in developing environmental management systems and tools as abasis for decision making is expressed in the work with Agenda 21 and ISO 14 European Environment Agency (EEA) has the mandate to provide the Community andthe Member States with objective, reliable and comparable information at the Europeanlevel . Among its goals, the EEA shall provide information for environmental policy develop-ment and implementation and ensure broad dissemination and accessibility. Importantprinciples in this context are pooling existing information and know-how and facilitatingdata main advantage of LCAs is in supporting decision making with scientific data andcompetence, and thereby in distinguishing between scientific facts (as far as possible) andsets of values.

3 In this context, its ambition is very close to the mandate of the balancing science and simplicity, LCA implies that there can be many limitations thatshould be addressed in LCA studies and development work, for example: the type of information provided, especially by life - Cycle impact Assessment , is merely anindicator; LCA should not be misunderstood as a comprehensive or a complete Assessment ; LCA is different and distinct in approach from other management tools; LCA uses subjective judgement extensively, and the lack of scientific or technical data issometimes is also a challenge to take the step from LCA as a communication tool to an operationaltool in environmental management. LCA-based environmental management should becomepart of good business management heading towards the eco-efficiency concept producingmore quality with less resources .LCA should be used together with other established techniques, such as environmentalimpact Assessment and environmental risk Assessment .

4 These approaches complement eachother, but are not interchangeable and cannot be substituted for each this publication the Agency hopes to guide the readers through this informationand provide links to external sources. The Internet version and the supplementary data-base have been developed as complementing products to give greater access to the production has involved many contributors other than the authors. The report hasbeen reviewed by the Scientific Committee of the EEA and the National Focal Points, forwhich EEA is grateful. The Society for Promotion of life Cycle Development (SPOLD) hascontributed to the project with advice and constructive criticism. A critical review of the draftpublication was made by Dr Dennis Postlethwaite, UK, past-Chairman of the SETAC-EuropeLCA Steering Committee and member of the UK Delegation to ISO/TC207/SC5 on LifeCycle EEA hopes that this publication together with the prepared meta-database containinginformation sources will prove valuable to its readers.

5 We have tried to target different partsof the publication to different users. It is our intention to continue our efforts to make thesetools Jim nez-Beltr nExecutive DirectorEuropean Environment AgencyABOUT THIS GUIDE TO BRIEF HISTORY OF Early Years .. Growth and Adolescence .. Maturity .. Views .. 14 Appendix : A Spectrum of Stakeholder Views .. ROLE FOR LCA INSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT?.. Cycle Thinking and Sustainability .. Ground-Rules for a Credible LCA .. Dialogue .. Verification .. Benchmarking .. From Management Systems to Strategy .. Impacts and Outcomes .. Standards .. Corporate Governance .. Will LCA become Mandatory? .. Setting LCA Boundaries .. The Triple Bottom Line .. Next Five Years .. OF of sophistication in LCA for different applications .. Conceptual LCA - life Cycle Thinking .. Simplified LCA .. sector applications .. Product development .. Marketing .. Strategic planning .. Conceptually related programmes.

6 Policy making .. Environmental labelling .. Green procurement .. Other governmental applications .. applications .. 46 Appendix : Environmental labelling .. introduction .. Definitions .. and scope definition .. Goal .. Scope .. Functional unit .. System boundaries .. Data quality .. Critical review process .. analysis .. Data collection .. Refining system boundaries .. Calculation procedures .. Validation of data .. Relating data .. Allocation and recycling .. Assessment .. Category definition .. Classification .. Characterisation .. Valuation/Weighting .. Identification of significant environmental issues .. Evaluation .. Conclusions and recommendations .. (chapter 3 and 4) .. 72 Appendix : Terminology .. 78 Appendix : Impact categories .. INFORMATION and Journals with LCA Content .. Newsletters .. Journals .. , Reports, Conference Proceedings, etc.. Methodology issues .. Databases (paper).

7 Standards .. Applications of LCA .. Software .. addresses .. 102 Appendix : Database on LCA applications .. 105 Appendix : Screen prints from the database .. 106 Appendix : Print examples on organisations .. 108 Appendix : Total list of organisationsin the database version .. 119 About this guide to LCAWhat is LCA? life Cycle Assessment (LCA) involves theevaluation of some aspects - often the en-vironmental aspects - of a product systemthrough all stages of its life Cycle . Sometimesalso called life Cycle analysis , life cycleapproach , cradle to grave analysis or Ecobalance , it represents a rapidly emerg-ing family of tools and techniques designedto help in environmental management and,longer term, in sustainable publication, developed for the Euro-pean Environment Agency (EEA), aims tohelp business and other readers to find theirway through the LCA maze to the right toolsfor the application they have in mind. Theearly chapters are written in such a way as tobe easily accessible to environmental manag-ers in companies and other similar profes-sionals, whereas the methodology sectionsmay require some LCA background of did LCA come from?

8 Like all good ideas, LCA probably started ina number of different places, in a variety ofdifferent ways. We provide a brief history ofLCA in chapter or tool?Some people find LCA useful as a concep-tual framework, others as a set of practicaltools: both views are correct, depending onthe context. Even scientists and engineerscan find life Cycle thinking , a tremendousspur to their creativity and ability to see thewider dimensions of a problem. An explana-tion of the different levels or styles of LCAcan be found in chapter growing needSustainable development is now on the na-tional and international agendas. It requiresmany things, but above all it requires rapidimprovements in eco-efficiency, or in theefficiency with which we use energy and awide range of materials taken from nature,and how we minimise waste. This builds onthe long-running international interest in so-called cleaner technology . Even moredemanding, however, sustainable develop-ment calls for eco-efficient improvementsthroughout the life Cycle of a given productor system.

9 This challenge is further des-cribed in chapter is a product s life Cycle ?Simply stated, the life Cycle of a productembraces all of the activities that go intomaking, transporting, using and disposing ofthat product. The typical life Cycle consists ofa series of stages running from extraction ofraw materials, through design and formula-tion, processing, manufacturing, packaging,distribution, use, re-use, recycling and,ultimately, waste disposal. Further informa-tion on this aspect of the debate can befound in chapter producer s responsibilityOnce, a manufacturer simply handed aproduct over to a distributor or customer,and that was the end of the story. No days it is widely recognised that anyproducer works with chains of suppliers upstream , and chains of customers down-stream . The producer s responsibility nolonger ends - if it ever did - at the factorygate. Increasingly, industry accepts thatproduct stewardship is the way , too, are beginning to impose take back requirements, to make produ-cers take their wastes back and reprocess atleast a proportion.

10 These responsibilities aredescribed in more detail in chapter Cycle managementAmong the newer concepts in LCA is Lifecycle management (LCM), which is anintegrated approach to minimising environ-mental burdens throughout the life Cycle ofa product, system or service. In some forms,LCM can provide a simplified set of LCAprocedures suitable for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). LCM is furtherexplained in chapter LCA toolA typical LCA-study consists of the followingstages:1. Goal and scope A detailed life Cycle inventory (LCI)analysis, with compilation of data bothabout energy and resource use and onemissions to the Environment , throughout the life An Assessment of the potential impactsassociated with the identified forms ofresource use and environmental The interpretation of the results fromthe previous phases of the study inrelation to the objectives of the account of the relevant LCA methodo-logical framework based on the ISO 14040standard can be found in Chapter and resourcesMany different forms of resources, renew-able or non-renewable, mineral, water, land,plant or animal may need to be included inan LCA study.