Life Cycle Analysis - LCA
A life cycle assessment ('LCA', also known as life cycle analysis, ecobalance, cradle-to-grave-analysis) is the investigation and valuation of the environmental impacts of a given product or service caused or necessitated by its existence.
The goal of LCA is to compare the full range of environmental damages assignable to products and services, to be able to choose the least burdensome one. The term 'life cycle' refers to the notion that a fair, holistic assessment requires the assessment of raw material production, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal including all intervening transportation steps necessary or caused by the products existence. The sum of all those steps - or phases - is the life cycle of the product. The concept also can be used to optimize the environmental performance of a single product (ecodesign) or to optimize the environmental performance of a company. Common categories of assessed damages are global warming (greenhouse gases), acidification, smog, ozone layer depletion, eutrophication, eco-toxicological and human-toxicological pollutants, desertification, land use as well as depletion of minerals and fossil fuels.
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