Life cycle assessment (LCA)

Life cycle assessment (LCA)

Life cycle assessment or LCA – refers to a process in industrial ecology by which the products, processes, and facilities used to manufacture specific products are each examined for their environmental impacts. A balance sheet prepared for each product that considers: the use of materials; consumption of the energy; the recycling, re-use, and or disposal of non-used materials and energy; and the recycling or re-use of products after their commercial life has passed (next life).

By taking a comprehensive, integrated look at all of these aspects of the manufacturing and use of products, life cycle assessment finds ways to increase efficiency, to re-use, reduce, and recycle materials, and to lessen the overall environmental.

Recommended Sustainable Design Series

• How to design sustainable
• A product lifecycle assessment approach to sustainable design
• Cradle to cradle an approach to sustainable design
• Biomimicry as nature builds it
• The Natural Step, a framework for sustainable design
• Design With Nature twelve principles on how to approach sustainable design
• Apply System thinking as an approach to sustainable design I
• Apply System thinking as an approach to sustainable design II