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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a protocol for quantifying the impacts of industrial systems from cradle-to-cradle.  Standardized by the International Standards Organization [1-3], LCA describes the technology life cycle to extend from the acquisition of raw materials (e.g., agriculture, mining, residuals management) through materials processing, technology manufacturing/ construction, technology use/maintenance/upgrade, and the technology retirement.  For all life cycle stages, the impacts of and options [4] for materials and energy use, recovery, and waste are revealed.

LCA includes 4 phases:

1. Goal and scope definition described the reasons for carrying out the study, the intended audience, geographic and temporal considerations, system functions and boundaries, impact assessment and interpretation methods

2. Inventory assessment quantifies life cycle energy use (e.g., total, fossil, and petroleum), emissions to  air, water, land emissions (e.g., emissions of carbon dioxide), and land and water use for technology use in each life cycle stage

3. Impact assessment estimates the contribution to impact given the life cycle inventory 

4. Interpretation investigates the contribution of each life cycle stage, technology use throughout the life cycle (e.g., transportation or energy generation contribution) and includes data quality, sensitivity and uncertainty analyses.

Although the protocol has been developed for the assessment of environmental impacts (e.g., resource depletion, contribution to global warming, acidification, smog, and toxic impacts as well as land and water use changes, etc.), LCA also provides the structure to assess economic impacts (e.g., materials management, monitoring, business disruption, training & personnel protection, brand equity, etc.) and social impacts (e.g., job creation, employee treatment/ satisfaction, community service, international resources, etc.) making it an important sustainability tool [5,6].  LCA is becoming a more prevalent research and course topic at Universities throughout the globe [7] and is being widely used in a wide variety of private and public sector decisions.

References

1. International Standards Association (2006) ISO 14040:2006 Environmental management -- Life cycle assessment -- Principles and framework

2. International Standards Association (2006) ISO 14044:2006 Environmental management -- Life cycle assessment -- Requirements and guidelines

3. Heijungs, R., S. Suh (2002) The Computational Structure of Life Cycle Assessment, Kluwar Academic Publishers: Dordrecht, The Netherlands                 

4. Cooper, J.S., C. Godwin, E.S. Hall, ” Modeling Process and Material Alternatives in Life Cycle Assessments,” International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 13 (2) 115-123  (2008)

5. Fava, J., J. Smith, "Integrating Financial and Environmental Information for Better Decision Making," Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2, 9-11 (1998)

6. Cooper, J.S., “Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainable Development Indicators,” Journal of Industrial Ecology, 7, 12-15 (2003)

7. Cooper, J.S., “Teaching Life Cycle Assessment to Interdisciplinary Graduate Students,” International Journal of Engineering Education, 23(6) 1090-1095 (2007)

For more information, contact Professor Joyce Smith Cooper at cooper@me.washington.edu .