Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique used to assess the environmental impacts of a product or process across its lifecycle. It involves analyzing a product or process from raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal or recycling. The LCA process consists of four phases - defining the goal and scope of the assessment, conducting a life cycle inventory analysis, assessing the potential environmental impacts, and interpreting the results. The goal is to identify opportunities to reduce environmental impacts at each lifecycle stage.

1. Life Cycle Assessment
Juanma Hernández-Sánchez
<juanmah@gmail.com>
November 28, 2011

2. Life Cycle Assessment
Raw material extraction Manufacturing
Production
Disposal Transportation
Recycling
Use / Consumption
by National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Engineering, via Wikimedia Commons

3. Environmental Impact
It is an alteration of the initial characteristics of the
environment caused by a project, work or activity
It is the set of consequences for human health,
welfare of the ora and fauna
and the future availability of natural resources
attributable to the input or output streams of a system
Fundació Fòrum Ambiental. Guía para la ecoe ciencia. 2000

4. Environmental Impact Assessment
It is an instrument that identi es, describes and assesses
the expected e ects that cause the realization
of a project on various environmental issues
Fundació Fòrum Ambiental. Guía para la ecoe ciencia. 2000

5. Life Cycle Assessment
Input Output
Raw materials
extraction
Raw
Emissions
materials
Production
Use
Energy Maintenance Waste
Recycling
Waste management

6. Life Cycle Assessment
Extraction of raw materials
+
Production
+
Distribution
+
Use / Maintenance
+
Waste management

7. Life Cycle Assessment
Extraction of raw materials
+
Production
+
Distribution
+
Use / Maintenance
+
Waste management

8. Life Cycle Assessment
Extraction of raw materials
+
Production
+
Distribution
+
Use / Maintenance
+
Waste management

9. Life Cycle Assessment
It is a technique that tries to
identify, measure and characterize
di erent potential environmental impacts
associated to each one of the stages
of the life cycle of a product

10. Life Cycle Assessment
It does not consider economic issues, neither social

11. Life Cycle Assessment
The goal is to understand the ows of matter and energy
involved in the product, material,
manufacturing process, packaging, etc.
And nd out what are the environmentally critical points,
and prevent or remove them
using other materials or systems

12. Phases of the LCA study
a) Phase of goal and scope de nition
b) Phase of inventory analysis
c) Phase of impact assessment
d) Phase of interpretation
ISO 14040:2006. Environmental management. Life cycle assessment. Principles and framework. 2006

13. Phase of goal and scope de nition
The basic concepts are de ned, such as:
I Product system to study
I The functions of the product system
I The functional unit
I The system limits
I Assumptions
I Limitations
I Data Requirements
ISO 14040:2006. Environmental management. Life cycle assessment. Principles and framework. 2006

14. Phase of the inventory analisys
Data collection and quanti cation of
needed input/output data
ISO 14040:2006. Environmental management. Life cycle assessment. Principles and framework. 2006

15. Phase of impact assessment
Understand and assess the
magnitude and importance
of potential environmental impacts
ISO 14040:2006. Environmental management. Life cycle assessment. Principles and framework. 2006

16. Phase of interpretation
The results of inventory and/or impact assessment
are summarized and discussed
as basis for the conclusions,
recommendations and decision making
according to the objective and scope de ned
ISO 14040:2006. Environmental management. Life cycle assessment. Principles and framework. 2006

17. Phases of the LCA study
goal and scope
definition
inventory interpretation
analysis
impact
assessment
ISO 14040:2006. Environmental management. Life cycle assessment. Principles and framework. 2006