This book provides insight into the Life Cycle Management (LCM) concept and the progress in its implementation. LCM is a management concept applied in industrial and service sectors to improve products and services, while enhancing the overall sustainability performance of business and its value chains. In this regard, LCM is an opportunity to differentiate through sustainability performance on the market place, working with all departments of a company such as research and development, procurement and marketing, and to enhance the collaboration with stakeholders along a company’s value chain. LCM is used beyond short-term business success and aims at long-term achievements by minimizing environmental and socio-economic burden, while maximizing economic and social value.

Environmental life cycle assessment is often thought of as cradle to grave and therefore as the most complete accounting of the environmental costs and benefits of a product or service. However, as anyone who has done an environmental life cycle assessment knows, existing tools have many problems: data is difficult to assemble and life cycle studies take months of effort. A truly comprehensive analysis is prohibitive, so analysts are often forced to simply ignore many facets of life cycle impacts. But the focus on one aspect of a product or service can result in misleading indications if that aspect is benign while other aspects pollute or are otherwise unsustainable. This book summarizes the EIO-LCA method, explains its use in relation to other life cycle assessment models, and provides sample applications and extensions of the model into novel areas. A final chapter explains the free, easy-to-use software tool available on a companion website. (www.eiolca.net) The software tool provides a wealth of data, summarizing the current U.S. economy in 500 sectors with information on energy and materials use, pollution and greenhouse gas discharges, and other attributes like associated occupational deaths and injuries. The joint project of twelve faculty members and over 20 students working together over the past ten years at the Green Design Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the EIO-LCA has been applied to a wide range of products and services. It will prove useful for research, industry, and in economics, engineering, or interdisciplinary classes in green design.

Environmental policy aims at the transition to sustainable production and consumption. This is taking place in different ways and at different levels. In cases where businesses are continuously active to improve the environmental performance of their products and activities, the availability of knowledge on environmental impacts is indispensable. The integrated assessment of all environmental impacts from cradle to grave is the basis for many decisions relating to achieving improved products and services. The assessment tool most widely used for this is the environmental Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA. Before you is the new Handbook of LCA replacing the previous edition of 1992. New developments in LCA methodology from all over the world have been discussed and, where possible, included in this new Handbook. Integration of all developments into a new, consistent method has been the main aim for the new Handbook. The thinking on environment and sustainability is, however, quickly evolving so that it is already clear now that this new LCA Handbook does not embrace the very latest developments. Therefore, further revisions will have to take place in the future. A major advantage of this Handbook is that it now also advises which procedures should be followed to achieve adequate, relevant and accepted results. Furthermore, the distinction between detailed and simplified LCA makes this Handbook more broadly applicable, while guidance is provided as to which additional information can be relevant for specialised applications.

1.1 Life Cycle Assessment (LeA): a fascinating and sophisticated tool The greening of the economy is not a new task, but it is a challenge for which a lot of tasks still have to be done. It is known that the main source of environ mental deterioration by industry is not any more the chimneys and other process related emissions, but the products and services produced. Products are regarded as carriers of polIution: they are not only a potential source of polIution and waste during their use; they are also a cause of resource depletion, energy consumption, and emissions du ring their life starting with the extraction of the raw materials and ending with their disposal (i.e. connecting production and consumption stages). The challenge of these decades is now the greening of products and services. The new focus on products (cp. OosterhuislRubik/ScholI 1996) was introduced as a policy approach of shared responsibility in which different actors are in volved along the life-cycle of a product, each having specific responsibilities.

Life Cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool for environmental decision-support in relation to products from the cradle to the grave. Until now, more emphasis has been put on the inclusion quantitative models and databases and on the design of guidebooks for applying LCA than on the integrative aspect of combining these models and data. This is a remarkable thing, since LCA in practice deals with thousands of quantitative data items that have to be combined in the correct manner. For this, one needs mathematical rules and algorithmic principles for carrying out an LCA. This book presents the first coherent treatment of the mathematical and algorithmic aspects of LCA. These computational aspects are presented in matrix form, so that a concise and elegant formulation is achieved. This form, moreover, provides a platform for further extension of analysis using perturbation theory, structural theory and economic input-output analysis.

Life cycle assessment enables the identification of a broad range of potential environmental impacts occurring across the entire life of a product, from its design through to its eventual disposal or reuse. The need for life cycle assessment to inform environmental design within the built environment is critical, due to the complex range of materials and processes required to construct and manage our buildings and infrastructure systems. After outlining the framework for life cycle assessment, this book uses a range of case studies to demonstrate the innovative input-output-based hybrid approach for compiling a life cycle inventory. This approach enables a comprehensive analysis of a broad range of resource requirements and environmental outputs so that the potential environmental impacts of a building or infrastructure system can be ascertained. These case studies cover a range of elements that are part of the built environment, including a residential building, a commercial office building and a wind turbine, as well as individual building components such as a residential-scale photovoltaic system. Comprehensively introducing and demonstrating the uses and benefits of life cycle assessment for built environment projects, this book will show you how to assess the environmental performance of your clients’ projects, to compare design options across their entire life and to identify opportunities for improving environmental performance.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment is a pivotal guide to identifying environmental problems and reducing related impacts for companies and organizations in need of life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA, a unique sustainability tool, provides a framework that addresses a growing demand for practical technological solutions. Detailing each phase of the LCA methodology, this textbook covers the historical development of LCA, presents the general principles and characteristics of LCA, and outlines the corresponding standards for good practice determined by the International Organization for Standardization. It also explains how to identify the critical aspects of an LCA, provides detailed examples of LCA analysis and applications, and includes illustrated problems and solutions with concrete examples from water management, electronics, packaging, automotive, and other industries. In addition, readers will learn how to: Use consistent criteria to realize and evaluate an LCA independently of individual interests Understand the LCA methodology and become familiar with existing databases and methods based on the latest results of international research Analyze and critique a completed LCA Apply LCA methodology to simple case studies Geared toward graduate and undergraduate students studying environmental science and industrial ecology, as well as practicing environmental engineers, and sustainability professionals who want to teach themselves LCA good practices, Environmental Life Cycle Assessment demonstrates how to conduct environmental assessments for products throughout their life cycles. It presents existing methods and recent developments in the growing field of LCA and systematically covers goal and system definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an established methodology used to quantify the environmental impacts of products, processes and services. Circular economy (CE) thinking is conceptual way of considering the impacts of consuming resources. By taking a closed loop approach, CE provides a framework for influencing behaviours and practices to minimise this impact. Development of the circular economy is a crucial component in the progression towards future sustainability. This book provides a robust systematic approach to the circular economy concept, using the established methodology of LCA. Including chapters on circular economic thinking, the use of LCA as a metric and linking LCA to the wider circular economy, this book utilises case studies to illustrate the approaches to LCA. With contributions from researchers worldwide, Life Cycle Assessment provides a practical, global guide for those who wish to use LCA as a research tool or to inform policy, process, and product improvement.