Life cycle assessment inventory

Life Cycle Assessment Inventory Guidelines and Principles U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1992, EPA/600/SR-92/245. 

Life cycle assessment is defined by ISO 14040 as compilation and evalu ation of inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. The ISO standards regulate the procedural aspects of LCA. They do not, however, provide all the information required for carrying out an LCA study. The main phases of LCA are goal and scope definition, inventory, impact assessment, and interpretation. The various applications of LCA are not regulated by the standard (Fig. 15.1). 

ISO, F.nvironmental Management—Life Cycle Assessment—Goal and Scope Definition and Inventory Analysis (ISO 14041). 

Jimenez-Gonzalez, C., Kim, S., Overcash, M.R. (2000) Methodology for Developing Gate-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory Information. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 5(3), 153-159. 

ISO 14041 1998 (1998) Environmental Management - Life Cycle Assessment - Goal and Scope Definition and Life Cycle Inventory Analysis. European Commitee for Standardisation, Brussels, Belgium. 

A life cycle assessment (LCA), also known as life cycle analysis, of a product or process begins with an inventory of the energy and environmental flows associated with a product from "cradle to grave" and provides information on the raw materials used from the environment, energy resources consumed, and air, water, and solid waste emissions generated. GHGs and other wastes, sinks, and emissions may then be assessed (Sheehan et ah, 1998). The net GHG emissions calculated from an LCA are usually reported per imit of product or as the carbon footprint. 

Nemecek T, Erzinger S. Modelling Representative Life Cycle Inventories for Swiss Arable Crops. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2005 10(l) 68-76. DOI 10.1065/lca2004.09.181.8... 

Rebitzer G, Ekvall T, Frischknecht R, Hunkeler D, Norris G, Rydberg T, Schmidt WP, Suh S, Weidema BP, Pennington DW. Life Cycle Assessment Part 1 Framework, Goal and Scope Definition, Inventory Analysis, and Applications. Environment International. 2004 30(5) 701-720. DOI 10.1016/j.envint.2003.11.005... 

Abstract Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to assess impacts of cradle-to-grave chains of products/services. In the Riskcycle framework, the focus is on additives. Additives are usually minor constituents of products, but depending on their specific properties they can be important in the total scope of impacts of such products. In the LCA literature, additives are hardly visible. Most case studies of products containing additives do not mention them. The reasons for this are unclear, but are at least partly due to the fact that information on additives is not included in standard LCA databases. This is true for both life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) databases. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude whether or not additives indeed are important contributors to environmental impacts over the life cycle. 

Hertwich EG, Mateles SF, Pease WS, McKone TE (2001) Human toxicity potentials for life cycle assessment and toxics release inventory risk screening. Environ Toxicol Chem 20 928-939... 

The EPS system was initially developed to be used within the product development process as a tool to help assess the environmental performance of products. The system is based on LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) methodology and uses inventory data (kg of substance A), characterization factors (impact/kg of substance X) and weighting factors (cost/impacts) to calculate the external costs or values of a product. By multiplying the characterization factor with the weighting factor, an impact index is obtained (cost/kg of substance X) which describe the cost/values related to the emission per use of a kg of a certain substance. 

ISO (1998) ISO 14041 Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Goal and scope definition and inventory analysis. International Organisation for Standardisation, Geneva... 

ISO International Standard 14041, 1999E. Environmental management—life cycle assessment—goal and scope, definition and inventory analysis. International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva. 

Owens, J.W. 1997. Life cycle assessment Constraints on moving from inventory to impact assessment. J. Ind. Ecol. 1 37 19. 

Peereboom, E., R. Kleijn, S. Lemkowitz, et al. 1998. Influence of inventory data sets on life-cycle assessment results A case study on PVC. J. Ind. Ecol. 2 109-130. 

Life-cycle assessment methodology has been used since the 1960s with early studies that focused solely on energy usage and solid waste issues. This focus continued in life-cycle assessments performed during the oil crisis in the 1970s.86>87 The unique aspect of all of these initial studies was the early development and use of life-cycle data inventories with less emphasis on environmental risk impacts of the associated processes studied. A method published by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in 1988, employing the Best Practicable Environmental... 

Jimenez-Gonzalez, C., Curzons, A.D., Constable, D.J.C., and Cunningham, VL., Cradle-to-gate life cycle inventory and assessment of pharmaceutical compounds, Int Life Cycle Assess., 9, 114-121, 2004. 

ISO ISO/TR 14049 Environmental Management—Life Cycle Assessment—Examples of Application of ISO 14041 to Goal and Scope Definition and Inventory Analysis ISO/TR 14049 International Organization for Standardization Geneva, March 15, 2000, 2000. 

Why is Life Cycle Assessment important 13) How can analytical techniques be used to follow the course of a reaction 14) What is the Toxics Release Inventory 15) What are green metrics Are mass and energy good enough indicators of environmental impact 16)... 

Rebitzer G, Ekvall T, Frischknecht R, etal. (2004) Life cycle assessment - Part 1 Framework, goal scope definition, inventory analysis, and applications. Environment International 30 701-720. 

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an additional assessment approach for making environmental decisions. LCA can be defined as an inventory of all the steps in the development, manufacture, use, and disposal of a product or a commodity with a determination of the environmental consequences (Todd and Curan 1999). The purpose of an LCA is to provide information to a decision maker so that choices can be made in the design of a manufacturing process to minimize environmental impacts or risks. 

Eigure 2 illustrates how the life-cycle inventory fits within a life-cycle assessment. The LCI, shown as the large box at the top center of Figure 2, provides essential data regarding resource use and emissions to air, water, and ground. The impact assessment examines aspects of product production and use that are not considered in the LCI impacts on ecosystem and human health, implications for long-term resource availability, and considerations relative to social equity and well being. 

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