Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
Environmental awareness has grown considerably during recent years. Public authorities increasingly demand information regarding the environmental impact of industrial activities. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool used to evaluate the potential environmental impact of a product, process or activity throughout its entire life cycle “from cradle to crave”. From the environmental point of view, LCA evaluates all the resources and inputs needed for a product and all the outputs from the same product, which are emissions to air, water and soil. It covers the whole product system from raw material acquisition, transportation, material, product manufacture, product use & maintenance, and final disposal. LCA provides a new point of view towards a product system and it can totally change the market profile of the product.
The LCA method can be divided into three basic steps: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis. LCA may be utilised for several purposes:
- For marketing
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For identifying opportunities to improve the environmental aspects of a product
- For environmentally better product development.
- For product comparisons and product selections.
- For development of specifications, regulations or purchase routines.
- For selection of relevant indicators of environmental performance.