What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

As environmental awareness increases, industries and businesses are assessing how their activities affect
the environment. Society has become concerned about the issues of natural resource depletion and
environmental degradation. Many businesses have responded to this awareness by providing “greener”
products and using “greener” processes. Many companies have found it advantageous to explore ways
of moving beyond compliance using pollution prevention strategies and environmental management
systems to improve their environmental performance. One such tool is LCA. This concept considers the
entire life cycle of a product (Curran 1996).

Life cycle assessment is a “cradle-to-grave” approach for assessing industrial systems. “Cradle-to-grave”
begins with the gathering of raw materials from the earth to create the product and ends at the point when
all materials are returned to the earth.
What Are the Benefits of Conducting an LCA?
An LCA can help decision-makers select the product or process that results in the least impact to the
environment. This information can be used with other factors, such as cost and performance data to select
a product or process.

Limitations of Conducting an LCA Performing an LCA can be resource and time intensive.
Depending upon how thorough an LCA the user wishes to conduct, gathering the data can be problematic,
and the availability of data can greatly impact the accuracy of the final results. Therefore, it is
important to weigh the availability of data, the time necessary to conduct the study, and the financial
resources required against the projected benefits of the LCA.

Goal Definition and Scoping

Goal definition and scoping is the phase of the LCA process that defines the purpose and method of
including life cycle environmental impacts into the decision-making process. In this phase, the following
items must be determined: the type of information that is needed to add value to the decision-making
process, how accurate the results must be to add value, and how the results should be interpreted and
displayed in order to be meaningful and usable.

Getting Started The following six basic decisions should be made at the beginning of the LCA process
to make effective use of time and resources:
1. Define the Goal(s) of the Project
2. Determine What Type of Information Is Needed to Inform the Decision-Makers
3. Determine the Required Specificity
4. Determine How the Data Should Be Organized and the Results Displayed
5. Define the Scope of the Study
6. Determine the Ground Rules for Performing the Work
1 Define the Goal(s) of the Project
Support broad environmental assessments
Establish baseline information for a process
Rank the relative contribution of individual steps or processes
Identify data gaps
Support public policy
Support product certification
Provide information and direction to decision-makers
Guide product and process development

2 Determine What Type of Information Is Needed to Inform the Decision-Makers

What is the impact to particular interested parties and stakeholders? •
Which product or process causes the least environmental impact (quantifiably) overall or in each stage of
its life cycle? •
How will changes to the current product/process affect the environmental impacts across all life cycle
stages? •
Which technology or process causes the least amount of acid rain, smog formation, or damage to local
trees (or any other impact category of concern)? •
How can the process be changed to reduce a specific environmental impact of concern (e.g., global
warming)?

3 Determine the Required Specificity

At the outset of every study, the level of specificity must be decided. In some cases, this level will be
obvious from the application or intended use of the information. In other instances, there may be several
options to choose from, ranging from a completely generic study to one that is product-specific in every
detail. Most studies fall somewhere in between.

4 Determine How the Data Should Be Organized and the Results Displayed

LCA practitioners define how data should be organized in terms of a functional unit that appropriately
describes the function of the product or process being studied. Careful selection of the functional unit to
measure and display the LCA results will improve the accuracy of the study and the usefulness of the
results.
5 Define the Scope of the Study
As Chapter 1 explained, an LCA includes all four stages of a product or process life cycle: raw material
acquisition, manufacturing, use/reuse/maintenance, and recycle/waste management. These product stages
are explained in more detail below. To determine whether one or all of the stages should be included in
the scope of the LCA, the following must be assessed: the goal of the study, the required accuracy of the
results, and the available time and resources. Exhibit 2-1 provides an example of life cycle stages that
could be included in a project related to treatment technologies.

 Raw Materials Acquisition

 Manufacturing
 Use/Reuse/Maintenance
 Recycle/Waste Management

6 Determine the Ground Rules for Performing the Work

Documenting Assumptions
Quality Assurance Procedures -
Reporting Requirements

LSI
What is a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)?
A life cycle inventory is a process of quantifying energy and raw material requirements, atmospheric
emissions, waterborne emissions, solid wastes, and other releases for the entire life cycle of a product,
process, or activity.
Why Conduct an LCI?
In the life cycle inventory phase of an LCA, all relevant data is collected and organized. Without an LCI,
no basis exists to evaluate comparative environmental impacts or potential improvements. The level of
accuracy and detail of the data collected is reflected throughout the remainder of the LCA process.
Life cycle inventory analyses can be used in various ways. They can assist an organization in comparing
products or processes and considering environmental factors in material selection. In addition, inventory
analyses can be used in policy-making, by helping the government develop regulations regarding resource
use and environmental emissions.

What Do the Results of the LCI Mean? An inventory analysis produces a list containing the quantities
of pollutants released to the environment and the amount of energy and material consumed. The results
can be segregated by life cycle stage, media (air, water, and land), specific processes, or any combination
thereof.

Key Steps of a Life Cycle Inventory

1. Develop a flow diagram of the processes being evaluated.
2. Develop a data collection plan.
3. Collect data.
4. Evaluate and report results.
Step 2: Develop an LCI Data Collection Plan

As part of the goal definition and scoping phase (discussed in Chapter 2), the required accuracy of data
was determined. When selecting sources for data to complete the life cycle inventory, an LCI data
collection plan ensures that the quality and accuracy of data meet the expectations of the decision-makers.
Key elements of a data collection plan include the following:
• Defining data quality goals
• Identifying data sources and types
• Identifying data quality indicators
• Developing a data collection worksheet and checklist.

Step 3: Collect Data

Data collection efforts involve a combination of research, site-visits and direct contact with experts,
which generates large quantities of data. As an alternative, it may be more cost effective to buy a
commercially available LCA software package (see Appendix B). Prior to purchasing an LCA software
package the decision-makers or LCA practitioner should insure that it will provide the level of data
analysis required.

Step 4: Evaluate and Document the LCI Results

When writing a report to present the final results of the life-cycle inventory, it is important to thoroughly
describe the methodology used in the analysis. The report should explicitly define the systems analyzed
and the boundaries that were set. All assumptions made in performing the inventory should be clearly
explained. The basis for comparison among systems should be given, and any equivalent usage ratios that
were used should be explained.
Life-cycle inventory studies generate a great deal of information, often of a disparate nature. The analyst
needs to select a presentation format and content that are consistent with the purpose of the study and that
do not arbitrarily simplify the information solely for the sake of presenting it. In thinking about
presentation of the results, it is useful to identify the various perspectives embodied in life-cycle
inventory information. These dimensions include, but may not be limited to, the following:
• Overall product system
• Relative contribution of stages to the overall system
• Relative contribution of product components to the overall system
• Data categories within and across stages, e.g., resource use, energy consumption, and environmental
releases
• Data parameter groups within a category, e.g., air emissions, waterborne wastes, and solid waste types
• Data parameters within a group, e.g., sulfur oxides, carbon dioxide, chlorine, etc.
• Geographic regionalization if relevant to the study, e.g., national versus global
• Temporal changes.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment

What is a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)? The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phase of
an LCA is the evaluation of potential human health and environmental impacts of the environmental
resources and releases identified during the LCI. Impact assessment should address ecological and human
health effects & resource depletion. A life cycle impact assessment attempts to establish a linkage
between the product or process and its potential environmental impacts. For example, what are the
impacts of 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide or 5,000 tons of methane emissions released into the atmosphere?
Which is worse? What are their potential impacts on smog? On global warming?

Why Conduct an LCIA? Although much can be learned about a process by considering the life cycle
inventory data, an LCIA provides a more meaningful basis to make comparisons. For example, although
we know that 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 5,000 tons of methane released into the atmosphere are
both harmful, an LCIA can determine which could have a greater potential impact. Using science-based
characterization factors, an LCIA can calculate the impacts each environmental release has on problems
such as smog or global warming.

What Do the Results of an LCIA Mean?

The results of an LCIA show the relative differences in potential environmental impacts for each option.
For example, an LCIA could determine which product/process causes more global warming potential.
Key Steps of a Life Cycle Impact Assessment
The following steps comprise a life cycle impact assessment.
1. Selection and Definition of Impact Categories - identifying relevant environmental impact categories
(e.g., global warming, acidification, terrestrial toxicity).
2. Classification - assigning LCI results to the impact categories (e.g., classifying carbon dioxide
emissions to global warming).
3. Characterization - modeling LCI impacts within impact categories using science-based conversion
factors (e.g., modeling the potential impact of carbon dioxide and methane on global warming).
4. Normalization - expressing potential impacts in ways that can be compared (e.g. comparing the global
warming impact of carbon dioxide and methane for the two options).
5. Grouping - sorting or ranking the indicators (e.g. sorting the indicators by location: local, regional, and
global).
6. Weighting - emphasizing the most important potential impacts.
7. Evaluating and Reporting LCIA Results - gaining a better understanding of the reliability of the LCIA
results.

Chapter 5 Life Cycle Interpretation

What is Life Cycle Interpretation? Life cycle interpretation is a systematic technique to identify,
quantify, check, and evaluate information from the results of the LCI and the LCIA, and communicate
them effectively. Life cycle interpretation is the last phase of the LCA process. ISO has defined the
following two objectives of life cycle interpretation:
1. Analyze results, reach conclusions, explain limitations, and provide recommendations based on the
findings of the preceding phases of the LCA, and to report the results of the life cycle interpretation in a
transparent manner.
2. Provide a readily understandable, complete, and consistent presentation of the results of an LCA study,
in accordance with the goal and scope of the study. (ISO 1998b)

Key Steps to Interpreting the Results of the LCA

1. Identification of the Significant Issues Based on the LCI and LCIA.
2. Evaluation which Considers Completeness, Sensitivity, and Consistency Checks.
3. Conclusions, Recommendations, and reporting.

1. Identification of the Significant Issues Based on the LCI and LCIA.

Significant issues can include:
• Inventory parameters like energy use, emissions, waste, etc.
• Impact category indicators like resource use, emissions, waste, etc.
• Essential contributions for life cycle stages to LCI or LCIA results such as individual unit processes or
groups of processes (e.g., transportation, energy production).

2: Evaluate the Completeness, Sensitivity, and Consistency of the Data

The evaluation step of the interpretation phase establishes the confidence in and reliability of the results
of the LCA. This is accomplished by completing the following tasks to ensure that products/processes are
fairly compared:
1. Completeness Check - examining the completeness of the study.
2. Sensitivity Check - assessing the sensitivity of the significant data elements that influence the results
most greatly.
3. Consistency Check - evaluating the consistency used to set system boundaries, collect data, make
assumptions, and allocate data to impact categories for each alternative.

3 Reporting the Results

Now that the LCA has been completed, the materials must be assembled into a comprehensive report
documenting the study in a clear and organized manner. This will help communicate the results of the
assessment fairly, completely, and accurately to others interested in the results. The report presents the
results, data, methods, assumptions, and limitations in sufficient detail to allow the reader to comprehend
the complexities and trade-offs inherent in the LCA study.
If the results will be reported to someone who was not involved in the LCA study, i.e., third-party
stakeholders, this report will serve as a reference

Conclusion
Adding life cycle assessment to the decision-making process provides an understanding of the human
health and environmental impacts that traditionally is not considered when selecting a product or
process. This valuable information provides a way to account for the full impacts of decisions, especially
those that occur outside of the site that are directly influenced by the selection of a product or process.
Remember, LCA is a tool to better inform decision-makers and should be included with other decision
criteria, such as cost and performance, to make a well-balanced decision.