A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) systematically analyzes the potential environmental impacts of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle, including production, distribution, use, and end-of-life phases. An LCA quantifies all relevant inputs such as materials and energy from the environment, as well as emissions to air, water, and soil. It follows guidelines from the International Organization for Standardization. The LCA process involves defining goals, taking an inventory of inputs and outputs, assessing impacts, and identifying improvement opportunities.

1. Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA)

2. What is LCA?
• A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is defined as the systematic analysis
of the potential environmental impacts of products or services during
their entire life cycle.
• During a Life Cycle Assessment (Life Cycle Analysis), you evaluate
the potential environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle
of a product (production, distribution, use and end-of-life phases) or
service. This also includes the upstream (e.g., suppliers) and
downstream (e.g., waste management) processes associated with
the production (e.g., production of raw, auxiliary and operating
materials), use phase, and disposal (e.g., waste incineration).
• Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) covers all relevant inputs from
the environment (e.g., ores and crude oil, water, land use) as well as
emissions into air, water and soil (e.g., carbon dioxide and nitrogen
oxides).
• The International Organization for Standardization provides
guidelines and requirements for conducting a Life Cycle Assessment
according to ISO 14040 and 14044.

3. • Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) involve cradle-to-grave
analyses of production systems and provide
comprehensive evaluations of all upstream and
downstream energy inputs and multimedia
environmental emissions.
• Life-cycle assessment has emerged as a valuable
decision-support tool for both policy makers and
industry in assessing the cradle-to-grave impacts of a
product or process.

4. Steps in LCA
• Goal definition and scoping: identifying the LCA's purpose
and the expected products of the study, and determining the
boundaries (what is and is not included in the study) and
assumptions based upon the goal definition;
• Life-cycle inventory: quantifying the energy and raw material
inputs and environmental releases associated with each stage
of production;
• Impact analysis: assessing the impacts on human health
and the environment associated with energy and raw material
inputs and environmental releases quantified by the inventory;
• Improvement analysis: evaluating opportunities to reduce
energy, material inputs, or environmental impacts at each
stage of the product life-cycle.