Life cycle assessment impact scores

Meijer A, Huijbregts M, Reijnders L (2005) Human health damages due to indoor sources of organic compounds and radioactivity in life cycle impact assessment of dwellings - part 2 damage scores (10 pp). Int J Life Cycle Assess 10(6) 383-392... 

The quantitative assessment of environmental impacts can be made using life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, which accounts for both inputs and emissions. LCA can be used to identify the major environmental impact categories and the sources of those impacts within a chemical processing plant. LCA can also be used to identify the major contributions to environmental impact within a product s life cycle. Impact scores derived from LCA can be used along with economic assessment scores and social indicators to provide indicators of overall sustainability of processes and products. Economic assessments are often limited through failure to account for all internal costs and especially the external costs associated with waste. 

This study used the PROSUITE endpoint impact assessment method in which all impacts are categorized into five main impacts, including impact on human health, impact on social being, impact on prosperity, impact on natural environment, and impact on exhaustible resources. These impacts are then combined with normalization and weighting to obtain a single sustainability score (see the section Methodologies for Assessing Life Cycle Sustainability). 

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