Life - cycle assessment - wikipedia Life - cycle assessment `` Cradle - to - grave '' redirects here. For other uses, see Cradle to the grave ( disambiguation ). This article is about the environment impacts of products. For the ultimate cost of business decisions, see Life - cycle cost analysis. Life Cycle Assessment Overview Life - cycle assessment ( LCA, also known as life - cycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle - to - grave analysis ) is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product 's life from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling. Designers use this process to help critique their products. LCAs can help avoid a narrow outlook on environmental concerns by : Compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases ; Evaluating the potential impacts associated with identified inputs and releases ; Interpreting the results to help make a more informed decision. Contents 1 Goals and purpose 2 Four main phases 2.1 Goal and scope 2.2 Life cycle inventory 2.3 LCI Methods 2.4 Life cycle impact assessment 2.5 Interpretation 2.5. 1 Reference test 3 LCA uses 4 Data analysis 5 Variants 5.1 Cradle - to - grave 5.2 Cradle - to-gate 5.3 Cradle - to - cradle or closed loop production 5.4 Gate - to-gate 5.5 Well - to - wheel 5.6 Economic input -- output life cycle assessment 5.7 Ecologically based LCA 6 Exergy based LCA 7 Life cycle energy analysis 7.1 Energy production 7.2 Energy recovery 7.3 Criticism 8 Critiques 8.1 Streamline LCA 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links Goals and purpose The goal of LCA is to compare the full range of environmental effects assignable to products and services by quantifying all inputs and outputs of material flows and assessing how these material flows affect the environment. This information is used to improve processes, support policy and provide a sound basis for informed decisions. 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 product 's existence. There are two main types of LCA. Attributional LCAs seek to establish ( or attribute ) the burdens associated with the production and use of a product, or with a specific service or process, at a point in time ( typically the recent past ). Consequential LCAs seek to identify the environmental consequences of a decision or a proposed change in a system under study ( oriented to the future ), which means that market and economic implications of a decision may have to be taken into account. Social LCA is under development as a different approach to life cycle thinking intended to assess social implications or potential impacts. Social LCA should be considered as an approach that is complementary to environmental LCA. The procedures of life cycle assessment ( LCA ) are part of the ISO 14000 environmental management standards : in ISO 14040 : 2006 and 14044 : 2006. ( ISO 14044 replaced earlier versions of ISO 14041 to ISO 14043. ) GHG product life cycle assessments can also comply with specifications such as PAS 2050 and the GHG Protocol Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard. Four main phases Illustration of LCA phases According to the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards, a Life Cycle Assessment is carried out in four distinct phases as illustrated in the figure shown to the right. The phases are often interdependent in that the results of one phase will inform how other phases are completed. Goal and scope An LCA starts with an explicit statement of the goal and scope of the study, which sets out the context of the study and explains how and to whom the results are to be communicated. This is a key step and the ISO standards require that the goal and scope of an LCA be clearly defined and consistent with the intended application. The goal and scope document therefore includes technical details that guide subsequent work : the functional unit, which defines what precisely is being studied and quantifies the service delivered by the product system, providing a reference to which the inputs and outputs can be related. Further, the functional unit is an important basis that enables alternative goods, or services, to be compared and analyzed. So to explain this a functional system which is inputs, processes and outputs contains a functional unit, that fulfills a function, for example paint is covering a wall, making a functional unit of 1m2 covered for 10 years. The functional flow would be the items necessary for that function, so this would be a brush, tin of paint and the paint itself. the system boundaries ; which are delimitations of which processes that should be included in the analysis of a product system. any assumptions and limitations ; the allocation methods used to partition the environmental load of a process when several products or functions share the same process ; allocation is commonly dealt with in one of three ways : system expansion, substitution and partition. Doing this is not easy and different methods may give different results and the impact categories chosen for example human toxicity, smog, global warming, eutrophication. Life cycle inventory This is an example of a Life - cycle inventory ( LCI ) diagram Life Cycle Inventory ( LCI ) analysis involves creating an inventory of flows from and to nature for a product system. Inventory flows include inputs of water, energy, and raw materials, and releases to air, land, and water. To develop the inventory, a flow model of the technical system is constructed using data on inputs and outputs. The flow model is typically illustrated with a flow chart that includes the activities that are going to be assessed in the relevant supply chain and gives a clear picture of the technical system boundaries. The input and output data needed for the construction of the model are collected for all activities within the system boundary, including from the supply chain ( referred to as inputs from the technosphere ). The data must be related to the functional unit defined in the goal and scope definition. Data can be presented in tables and some interpretations can be made already at this stage. The results of the inventory is an LCI which provides information about all inputs and outputs in the form of elementary flow to and from the environment from all the unit processes involved in the study. Inventory flows can number in the hundreds depending on the system boundary. For product LCAs at either the generic ( i.e., representative industry averages ) or brand - specific level, that data is typically collected through survey questionnaires. At an industry level, care has to be taken to ensure that questionnaires are completed by a representative sample of producers, leaning toward neither the best nor the worst, and fully representing any regional differences due to energy use, material sourcing or other factors. The questionnaires cover the full range of inputs and outputs, typically aiming to account for 99 % of the mass of a product, 99 % of the energy used in its production and any environmentally sensitive flows, even if they fall within the 1 % level of inputs. One area where data access is likely to be difficult is flows from the technosphere. The technosphere is more simply defined as the man - made world. Considered by geologists as secondary resources, these resources are in theory 100 % recyclable ; however, in a practical sense, the primary goal is salvage. For an LCI, these technosphere products ( supply chain products ) are those that have been produced by man and unfortunately those completing a questionnaire about a process which uses a man - made product as a means to an end will be unable to specify how much of a given input they use. Typically, they will not have access to data concerning inputs and outputs for previous production processes of the product. The entity undertaking the LCA must then turn to secondary sources if it does not already have that data from its own previous studies. National databases or data sets that come with LCA - practitioner tools, or that can be readily accessed, are the usual sources for that information. Care must then be taken to ensure that the secondary data source properly reflects regional or national conditions. LCI Methods Process LCA Economic Input Output LCA Hybrid Approach Life cycle impact assessment Inventory analysis is followed by impact assessment. This phase of LCA is aimed at evaluating the significance of potential environmental impacts based on the LCI flow results. Classical life cycle impact assessment ( LCIA ) consists of the following mandatory elements : selection of impact categories, category indicators, and characterization models ; the classification stage, where the inventory parameters are sorted and assigned to specific impact categories ; and impact measurement, where the categorized LCI flows are characterized, using one of many possible LCIA methodologies, into common equivalence units that are then summed to provide an overall impact category total. In many LCAs, characterization concludes the LCIA analysis ; this is also the last compulsory stage according to ISO 14044 : 2006. However, in addition to the above mandatory LCIA steps, other optional LCIA elements -- normalization, grouping, and weighting -- may be conducted depending on the goal and scope of the LCA study. In normalization, the results of the impact categories from the study are usually compared with the total impacts in the region of interest, the U.S. for example. Grouping consists of sorting and possibly ranking the impact categories. During weighting, the different environmental impacts are weighted relative to each other so that they can then be summed to get a single number for the total environmental impact. ISO 14044 : 2006 generally advises against weighting, stating that `` weighting, shall not be used in LCA studies intended to be used in comparative assertions intended to be disclosed to the public ''. This advice is often ignored, resulting in comparisons that can reflect a high degree of subjectivity as a result of weighting. Life cycle impacts can also be categorized under the several phases of the development, production, use, and disposal of a product. Broadly speaking, these impacts can be divided into `` First Impacts, '' use impacts, and end of life impacts. `` First Impacts '' include extraction of raw materials, manufacturing ( conversion of raw materials into a product ), transportation of the product to a market or site, construction / installation, and the beginning of the use or occupancy. Use impacts include physical impacts of operating the product or facility ( such as energy, water, etc. ), maintenance, renovation and repairs ( required to continue to use the product or facility ). End of life impacts include demolition and processing of waste or recyclable materials. Interpretation Life Cycle Interpretation is a systematic technique to identify, quantify, check, and evaluate information from the results of the life cycle inventory and / or the life cycle impact assessment. The results from the inventory analysis and impact assessment are summarized during the interpretation phase. The outcome of the interpretation phase is a set of conclusions and recommendations for the study. According to ISO 14040 : 2006, the interpretation should include : identification of significant issues based on the results of the LCI and LCIA phases of an LCA ; evaluation of the study considering completeness, sensitivity and consistency checks ; and conclusions, limitations and recommendations. A key purpose of performing life cycle interpretation is to determine the level of confidence in the final results and communicate them in a fair, complete, and accurate manner. Interpreting the results of an LCA is not as simple as `` 3 is better than 2, therefore Alternative A is the best choice '' ! Interpreting the results of an LCA starts with understanding the accuracy of the results, and ensuring they meet the goal of the study. This is accomplished by identifying the data elements that contribute significantly to each impact category, evaluating the sensitivity of these significant data elements, assessing the completeness and consistency of the study, and drawing conclusions and recommendations based on a clear understanding of how the LCA was conducted and the results were developed. Reference test More specifically, the best alternative is the one that the LCA shows to have the least cradle - to - grave environmental negative impact on land, sea, and air resources. LCA uses Based on a survey of LCA practitioners carried out in 2006 LCA is mostly used to support business strategy ( 18 % ) and R&D ( 18 % ), as input to product or process design ( 15 % ), in education ( 13 % ) and for labeling or product declarations ( 11 % ). LCA will be continuously integrated into the built environment as tools such as the European ENSLIC Building project guidelines for buildings or developed and implemented, which provide practitioners guidance on methods to implement LCI data into the planning and design process. Major corporations all over the world are either undertaking LCA in house or commissioning studies, while governments support the development of national databases to support LCA. Of particular note is the growing use of LCA for ISO Type III labels called Environmental Product Declarations, defined as `` quantified environmental data for a product with pre-set categories of parameters based on the ISO 14040 series of standards, but not excluding additional environmental information ''. These third - party certified LCA - based labels provide an increasingly important basis for assessing the relative environmental merits of competing products. Third - party certification plays a major role in today 's industry. Independent certification can show a company 's dedication to safer and environmental friendlier products to customers and NGOs. LCA also has major roles in environmental impact assessment, integrated waste management and pollution studies. A recent study evaluated the LCA of a laboratory scale plant for oxygen enriched air production coupled with its economic evaluation in an holistic eco-design standpoint. LCA has also been used to assess the environmental impacts of pavement maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation activities. Data analysis A life cycle analysis is only as valid as its data ; therefore, it is crucial that data used for the completion of a life cycle analysis are accurate and current. When comparing different life cycle analyses with one another, it is crucial that equivalent data are available for both products or processes in question. If one product has a much higher availability of data, it can not be justly compared to another product which has less detailed data. There are two basic types of LCA data -- unit process data and environmental input - output data ( EIO ), where the latter is based on national economic input - output data. Unit process data are derived from direct surveys of companies or plants producing the product of interest, carried out at a unit process level defined by the system boundaries for the study. Data validity is an ongoing concern for life cycle analyses. Due to globalization and the rapid pace of research and development, new materials and manufacturing methods are continually being introduced to the market. This makes it both very important and very difficult to use up - to - date information when performing an LCA. If an LCA 's conclusions are to be valid, the data must be recent ; however, the data - gathering process takes time. If a product and its related processes have not undergone significant revisions since the last LCA data was collected, data validity is not a problem. However, consumer electronics such as cell phones can be redesigned as often as every 9 to 12 months, creating a need for ongoing data collection. The life cycle considered usually consists of a number of stages including : materials extraction, processing and manufacturing, product use, and product disposal. If the most environmentally harmful of these stages can be determined, then impact on the environment can be efficiently reduced by focusing on making changes for that particular phase. For example, the most energy - intensive life phase of an airplane or car is during use due to fuel consumption. One of the most effective ways to increase fuel efficiency is to decrease vehicle weight, and thus, car and airplane manufacturers can decrease environmental impact in a significant way by replacing heavier materials with lighter ones such as aluminium or carbon fiber - reinforced elements. The reduction during the use phase should be more than enough to balance additional raw material or manufacturing cost. Data sources are typically large databases, it is not appropriate to compare two options if different data sources have been used to source the data. Data sources include : soca EuGeos ' 15804 - IA NEEDS ecoinvent PSILCA ESU World Food GaBi ELCD LC-Inventories.ch Social Hotspots ProBas bioenergiedat Agribalyse USDA Ökobaudat Agri - footprint Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive ( CEDA ) Calculations for impact can then be done by hand, but it is more usual to streamline the process by using software. This can range from a simple spreadsheet, where the user enters the data manually to a fully automated program, where the user is not aware of the source data. Variants Cradle - to - grave Cradle - to - grave is the full Life Cycle Assessment from resource extraction ( ' cradle ' ) to use phase and disposal phase ( ' grave ' ). For example, trees produce paper, which can be recycled into low - energy production cellulose ( fiberised paper ) insulation, then used as an energy - saving device in the ceiling of a home for 40 years, saving 2,000 times the fossil - fuel energy used in its production. After 40 years the cellulose fibers are replaced and the old fibers are disposed of, possibly incinerated. All inputs and outputs are considered for all the phases of the life cycle. Cradle - to-gate Cradle - to-gate is an assessment of a partial product life cycle from resource extraction ( cradle ) to the factory gate ( i.e., before it is transported to the consumer ). The use phase and disposal phase of the product are omitted in this case. Cradle - to-gate assessments are sometimes the basis for environmental product declarations ( EPD ) termed business - to - business EDPs. One of the significant uses of the cradle - to-gate approach compiles the life cycle inventory ( LCI ) using cradle - to-gate. This allows the LCA to collect all of the impacts leading up to resources being purchased by the facility. They can then add the steps involved in their transport to plant and manufacture process to more easily produce their own cradle - to-gate values for their products. Cradle - to - cradle or closed loop production See also : Cradle to Cradle Design Cradle - to - cradle is a specific kind of cradle - to - grave assessment, where the end - of - life disposal step for the product is a recycling process. It is a method used to minimize the environmental impact of products by employing sustainable production, operation, and disposal practices and aims to incorporate social responsibility into product development. From the recycling process originate new, identical products ( e.g., asphalt pavement from discarded asphalt pavement, glass bottles from collected glass bottles ), or different products ( e.g., glass wool insulation from collected glass bottles ). Allocation of burden for products in open loop production systems presents considerable challenges for LCA. Various methods, such as the avoided burden approach have been proposed to deal with the issues involved. Gate - to-gate Gate - to-gate is a partial LCA looking at only one value - added process in the entire production chain. Gate - to-gate modules may also later be linked in their appropriate production chain to form a complete cradle - to-gate evaluation. Well - to - wheel Well - to - wheel is the specific LCA used for transport fuels and vehicles. The analysis is often broken down into stages entitled `` well - to - station '', or `` well - to - tank '', and `` station - to - wheel '' or `` tank - to - wheel '', or `` plug - to - wheel ''. The first stage, which incorporates the feedstock or fuel production and processing and fuel delivery or energy transmission, and is called the `` upstream '' stage, while the stage that deals with vehicle operation itself is sometimes called the `` downstream '' stage. The well - to - wheel analysis is commonly used to assess total energy consumption, or the energy conversion efficiency and emissions impact of marine vessels, aircraft and motor vehicles, including their carbon footprint, and the fuels used in each of these transport modes. WtW analysis is useful for reflecting the different efficiencies and emissions of energy technologies and fuels at both the upstream and downstream stages, giving a more complete picture of real emissions. The well - to - wheel variant has a significant input on a model developed by the Argonne National Laboratory. The Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation ( GREET ) model was developed to evaluate the impacts of new fuels and vehicle technologies. The model evaluates the impacts of fuel use using a well - to - wheel evaluation while a traditional cradle - to - grave approach is used to determine the impacts from the vehicle itself. The model reports energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and six additional pollutants : volatile organic compounds ( VOCs ), carbon monoxide ( CO ), nitrogen oxide ( NOx ), particulate matter with size smaller than 10 micrometre ( PM10 ), particulate matter with size smaller than 2.5 micrometre ( PM2. 5 ), and sulfur oxides ( SOx ). Quantitative values of greenhouse gas emissions calculated with the WTW or with the LCA method can differ, since the LCA is considering more emission sources. In example, while assessing the GHG emissions of a Battery Electric Vehicle in comparison with a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle, the WTW ( accounting only the GHG for manufacturing the fuels ) finds out that an electric vehicle can save the 50 - 60 % of GHG, while an hybrid LCA - WTW method, considering also the GHG due to the manufacturing and the end of life of the battery gives GHG emission savings 10 - 13 % lower, compared to the WTW. Economic input -- output life cycle assessment Economic input -- output LCA ( EIOLCA ) involves use of aggregate sector - level data on how much environmental impact can be attributed to each sector of the economy and how much each sector purchases from other sectors. Such analysis can account for long chains ( for example, building an automobile requires energy, but producing energy requires vehicles, and building those vehicles requires energy, etc. ), which somewhat alleviates the scoping problem of process LCA ; however, EIOLCA relies on sector - level averages that may or may not be representative of the specific subset of the sector relevant to a particular product and therefore is not suitable for evaluating the environmental impacts of products. Additionally the translation of economic quantities into environmental impacts is not validated. Ecologically based LCA While a conventional LCA uses many of the same approaches and strategies as an Eco-LCA, the latter considers a much broader range of ecological impacts. It was designed to provide a guide to wise management of human activities by understanding the direct and indirect impacts on ecological resources and surrounding ecosystems. Developed by Ohio State University Center for resilience, Eco-LCA is a methodology that quantitatively takes into account regulating and supporting services during the life cycle of economic goods and products. In this approach services are categorized in four main groups : supporting, regulating, provisioning and cultural services. Exergy based LCA Exergy of a system is the maximum useful work possible during a process that brings the system into equilibrium with a heat reservoir. Wall clearly states the relation between exergy analysis and resource accounting. This intuition confirmed by DeWulf and Sciubba lead to Exergo - economic accounting and to methods specifically dedicated to LCA such as Exergetic material input per unit of service ( EMIPS ). The concept of material input per unit of service ( MIPS ) is quantified in terms of the second law of thermodynamics, allowing the calculation of both resource input and service output in exergy terms. This exergetic material input per unit of service ( EMIPS ) has been elaborated for transport technology. The service not only takes into account the total mass to be transported and the total distance, but also the mass per single transport and the delivery time. Life cycle energy analysis Life cycle energy analysis ( LCEA ) is an approach in which all energy inputs to a product are accounted for, not only direct energy inputs during manufacture, but also all energy inputs needed to produce components, materials and services needed for the manufacturing process. An earlier term for the approach was energy analysis. With LCEA, the total life cycle energy input is established. Energy production Further information : energy production It is recognized that much energy is lost in the production of energy commodities themselves, such as nuclear energy, photovoltaic electricity or high - quality petroleum products. Net energy content is the energy content of the product minus energy input used during extraction and conversion, directly or indirectly. A controversial early result of LCEA claimed that manufacturing solar cells requires more energy than can be recovered in using the solar cell. The result was refuted. Another new concept that flows from life cycle assessments is Energy Cannibalism. Energy Cannibalism refers to an effect where rapid growth of an entire energy - intensive industry creates a need for energy that uses ( or cannibalizes ) the energy of existing power plants. Thus during rapid growth the industry as a whole produces no energy because new energy is used to fuel the embodied energy of future power plants. Work has been undertaken in the UK to determine the life cycle energy ( alongside full LCA ) impacts of a number of renewable technologies. Energy recovery Further information : energy recovery If materials are incinerated during the disposal process, the energy released during burning can be harnessed and used for electricity production. This provides a low - impact energy source, especially when compared with coal and natural gas While incineration produces more greenhouse gas emissions than landfilling, the waste plants are well - fitted with filters to minimize this negative impact. A recent study comparing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from landfilling ( without energy recovery ) against incineration ( with energy recovery ) found incineration to be superior in all cases except for when landfill gas is recovered for electricity production. Criticism It has also been argued that energy efficiency is only one consideration in deciding which alternative process to employ, and that it should not be elevated to the only criterion for determining environmental acceptability. For example, simple energy analysis does not take into account the renewability of energy flows or the toxicity of waste products ;. Incorporating Dynamic LCAs of renewable energy technologies ( using sensitivity analyses to project future improvements in renewable systems and their share of the power grid ) may help mitigate this criticism. In recent years, the literature on life cycle assessment of energy technology has begun to reflect the interactions between the current electrical grid and future energy technology. Some papers have focused on energy life cycle, while others have focused on carbon dioxide ( CO ) and other greenhouse gases. The essential critique given by these sources is that when considering energy technology, the growing nature of the power grid must be taken into consideration. If this is not done, a given class of energy technology may emit more CO over its lifetime than it mitigates. A problem the energy analysis method can not resolve is that different energy forms ( heat, electricity, chemical energy etc. ) have different quality and value even in natural sciences, as a consequence of the two main laws of thermodynamics. A thermodynamic measure of the quality of energy is exergy. According to the first law of thermodynamics, all energy inputs should be accounted with equal weight, whereas by the second law diverse energy forms should be accounted by different values. The conflict is resolved in one of these ways : value difference between energy inputs is ignored, a value ratio is arbitrarily assigned ( e.g., a joule of electricity is 2.6 times more valuable than a joule of heat or fuel input ), the analysis is supplemented by economic ( monetary ) cost analysis, exergy instead of energy can be the metric used for the life cycle analysis. Critiques Life cycle assessment is a powerful tool for analyzing commensurable aspects of quantifiable systems. Not every factor, however, can be reduced to a number and inserted into a model. Rigid system boundaries make accounting for changes in the system difficult. This is sometimes referred to as the boundary critique to systems thinking. The accuracy and availability of data can also contribute to inaccuracy. For instance, data from generic processes may be based on averages, unrepresentative sampling, or outdated results. Additionally, social implications of products are generally lacking in LCAs. Comparative life - cycle analysis is often used to determine a better process or product to use. However, because of aspects like differing system boundaries, different statistical information, different product uses, etc., these studies can easily be swayed in favor of one product or process over another in one study and the opposite in another study based on varying parameters and different available data. There are guidelines to help reduce such conflicts in results but the method still provides a lot of room for the researcher to decide what is important, how the product is typically manufactured, and how it is typically used. An in - depth review of 13 LCA studies of wood and paper products found a lack of consistency in the methods and assumptions used to track carbon during the product lifecycle. A wide variety of methods and assumptions were used, leading to different and potentially contrary conclusions -- particularly with regard to carbon sequestration and methane generation in landfills and with carbon accounting during forest growth and product use. Streamline LCA This process includes three steps. First, a proper method should be selected to combine adequate accuracy with acceptable cost burden in order to guide decision making. Actually, in LCA process, besides streamline LCA, Eco-screening and complete LCA are usually considered as well. However, the former one only could provide limited details and the latter one with more detailed information is more expensive. Second, single measure of stress should be selected. Typical LCA output includes resource consumption, energy consumption, water consumption, emission of CO, toxic residues and so on. One of these outputs is used as the main factor to measure in streamline LCA. Energy consumption and CO emission are often regarded as `` practical indicators ''. Last, stress selected in step 2 is used as standard to assess phase of life separately and identify the most damaging phase. For instance, for a family car, energy consumption could be used as the single stress factor to assess each phase of life. The result shows that the most energy intensive phase for a family car is the usage stage. Life Cycle Assessment of Engineered Material in Service plays a significant role in saving energy, conserving resources and saving billions by preventing premature failure of critical engineered component in a machine or equipment. LCA data of surface engineered materials are used to improve life cycle of the engineered component. Life cycle improvement of industrial machineries and equipments including, manufacturing, power generation, transportations, etc. leads to improvement in energy efficiency, sustainability and negating global temperature rise. Estimated reduction in anthropogenic carbon emission is minimum 10 % of the global emission. See also energy portal Sustainable development portal Agroecology Agroecosystem analysis Anthropogenic metabolism Biofuel Carbon footprint Circular Economy Cradle to Cradle Depreciation Design for Environment Dimension stone Stone : life - cycle assessment and best practices Ecodesign End - of - life ( product ) Environmental pricing reform Greenhouse gas GREET Model Industrial ecology ISO 15686 Industrial metabolism Life - cycle greenhouse - gas emissions of energy sources Water footprint Whole - life cost References Jump up ^ `` Defining Life Cycle Assessment ( LCA ). '' US Environmental Protection Agency. 17 October 2010. Web. 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Exergy as the confluence of energy, environment and sustainable development. Exergy, an International journal, 1 ( 1 ), 3 - 13. https://www.academia.edu/download/6421325/kcx1421.pdf Jump up ^ Wall, G., & Gong, M. ( 2001 ). On exergy and sustainable development -- Part 1 : Conditions and concepts. Exergy, An International Journal, 1 ( 3 ), 128 - 145. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Goeran_Wall/publication/222700889_On_exergy_and_sustainable_development__Part_I_Conditions_and_concepts/links/53fdc0470cf2364ccc08fafa.pdf Jump up ^ Wall, G. ( 1977 ). Exergy - a useful concept within resource accounting. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:318565/FULLTEXT01.pdf Jump up ^ Wall, G. ( 2010 ). On exergy and sustainable development in environmental engineering. 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Energy Policy. 38 ( 4 ) : 1969 -- 1978. doi : 10.1016 / j. enpol. 2009.11. 078. Jump up ^ Cornelissen, Reinerus Louwrentius ( 1997 ). `` Thermodynamics and sustainable development ; the use of exergy analysis and the reduction of irreversibility ''. Thesis, University of Twente, Netherlands. Jump up ^ Malin, Nadav, Life - cycle assessment for buildings : Seeking the Holy Grail. Building Green, 2010. Jump up ^ Linda Gaines and Frank Stodolsky Life - Cycle Analysis : Uses and Pitfalls. Argonne National Laboratory. Transportation Technology R&D Center Jump up ^ National Council for Air and Stream Improvement Special Report No : 04 - 03. Ncasi.org. Retrieved on 2011 - 12 - 14. Jump up ^ FPInnovations 2010 A Synthesis of Research on Wood Products and Greenhouse Gas Impacts 2nd Edition page 40 Archived 21 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine... ( PDF ). Retrieved on 2011 - 12 - 14. ^ Jump up to : R. Chattopadhyay : Green Tribology, Green Surface Engineering and Global Warming, 2014, ASM International, OH, USA ^ Jump up to : R. Chattopadhyay : Surface Wear, Analysis, Treatment, and Prevention, 2001, ASM International, OH, USA. Jump up ^ R. Chattopadhyay : Advanced Thermally Assisted Surface Engineering Processes, 2004, Springer, NY, USA. Jump up ^ R. Chattopadhyay and Mandira Chatterjee : Global Warming : Origin, Significance, and Management, 2012, Global Vision Publishing, New Delhi, India. Further reading This article needs attention from an expert on the subject. The specific problem is : This list needs to be de-spammed, and truncated to the three most important textbooks only. When placing this tag, consider associating this request with a WikiProject. ( September 2016 ) Crawford, R.H. ( 2011 ) Life Cycle Assessment in the Built Environment, London : Taylor and Francis. J. Guinée, ed :, Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment : Operational Guide to the ISO Standards, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002. Baumann, H. och Tillman, A-M. The hitchhiker 's guide to LCA : an orientation in life cycle assessment methodology and application. 2004. ISBN 91 - 44 - 02364 - 2 Curran, Mary A. `` Environmental Life - Cycle Assessment '', McGraw - Hill Professional Publishing, 1996, ISBN 978 - 0 - 07 - 015063 - 8 Ciambrone, D.F. ( 1997 ). Environmental Life Cycle Analysis. Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press. ISBN 1 - 56670 - 214 - 3. Horne, Ralph., et al. `` LCA : Principles, Practice and Prospects ''. CSIRO Publishing, Victoria, Australia, 2009., ISBN 0 - 643 - 09452 - 0 Vallero, Daniel A. and Brasier, Chris ( 2008 ), `` Sustainable Design : The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering '', John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, ISBN 0470130628. 350 pages. Vigon, B.W. ( 1994 ). Life - Cycle Assessment : Inventory Guidelines and Principles. Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press. ISBN 1 - 56670 - 015 - 9. Vogtländer, J.G., `` A practical guide to LCA for students, designers, and business managers '', VSSD, 2010, ISBN 978 - 90 - 6562 - 253 - 2. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Life - cycle assessment. This article 's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia 's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. ( September 2016 ) Embodied Energy : Life Cycle Assessment. Your Home Technical Manual. A joint initiative of the Australian Government and the design and construction industries. at the Wayback Machine ( archived 24 October 2007 ) LCA research at the Center for Environmental Sciences, Leiden University LCA Example : Light Emitting Diode ( LED ) from GSA 's Sustainable Facilities Tool A short interactive presentation of Life Cycle Assessment ( 1 ) Industrial ecology Tools Agent - based model Cost -- benefit analysis DPSIR Ecolabel Ecological footprint Environmental impact assessment Environmental management system Economic Input - Output Life Cycle Assessment Full cost accounting Input - output model Integrated chain management ISO 14000 Life - cycle assessment Material flow analysis MET Matrix Stakeholder analysis Concepts Circular economy Cradle to cradle Dematerialization Eco-efficiency Eco-industrial development Eco-industrial park Ecological modernization Efficient energy use Exergy Extended producer responsibility Industrial metabolism Industrial symbiosis Pollution prevention Life - cycle assessment Polluter pays principle Precautionary principle Rebound effect Waste hierarchy Waste minimisation Related fields Cleaner production Design for environment Earth systems engineering and management Ecological economics Ecological modernization Environmental economics Green chemistry Sustainable development Urban ecology Urban metabolism Social and environmental accountability Ethics and principles Aarhus Convention Corporate accountability / behaviour / social responsibility Ethical banking Ethical code Extended producer responsibility Organizational ethics Organizational justice Principles for Responsible Investment Social responsibility Stakeholder theory Sullivan principles Transparency ( behavioral social ) UN Global Compact Social accounting Double bottom line Ethical positioning index Higg Index Impact assessment ( environmental equality social ) ISO 26000 ISO 45001 Genuine progress indicator Performance indicator SA8000 Social return on investment Whole - life cost Environmental accounting Carbon accounting Eco-Management and Audit Scheme Emission inventory Environmental full - cost accounting / impact assessment / management system / profit - and - loss account ISO 14000 ISO 14031 Life - cycle assessment Pollutant release and transfer register Sustainability accounting / measurement / metrics and indices / standards and certification / supply chain Toxics Release Inventory Triple bottom line Reporting Global Reporting Initiative GxP guidelines Sustainability reporting Auditing Community - based monitoring Environmental ( certification ) Fair trade ( certification ) ISO 19011 Related Bangladesh Accord Benefit corporation Child labour Community interest company Conflict of interest Disasters Disinvestment Eco-labeling Environmental pricing reform Environmental, social and corporate governance Ethical consumerism Euthenics Health impact assessment Market governance mechanism Product certification Public participation Social enterprise Socially responsible investing Stakeholder ( engagement ) Supply chain management Environment portal Commons Organizations GND : 4299127 - 4 NDL : 00953449 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Life-cycle_assessment&oldid=845944888 '' Categories : Design for X Environmental impact assessment Industrial ecology Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from April 2011 Articles with unsourced statements from February 2011 Articles with unsourced statements from June 2018 Articles needing unspecified expert attention Articles needing expert attention from September 2016 All articles needing expert attention Wikipedia external links cleanup from September 2016 Wikipedia spam cleanup from September 2016 Use dmy dates from October 2010 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Talk Variants Contents About Wikipedia Tools Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Español Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Íslenska Italiano Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Suomi Svenska தமிழ் 中文 14 more Edit links This page was last edited on 15 June 2018, at 06 : 16 ( UTC ). 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Question: what are the different types of software which can be used in lca study
Answer: can range from a simple spreadsheet, where the user enters the data manually to a fully automated program, where the user is not aware of the source data