Those shown are far from exhaustive. LCAs might be conducted by an industry sector to enable it to identify areas where improvements can be made, in environmental terms. Alternatively the LCA may be inten-ded to provide environmental data for the public or for government. In recent years, a number of major companies have cited LCAs in their marketing and advertising, to support claims that their products are 'environmentally friendly' or even 'environmentally superior' to those of their rivals. Many of these claims have been successfully challenged by environmental groups.
All products have some impact on the environment.
Since some products use more resources, cause more pollution or generate more waste than others, the aim is to identify those which are most harmful. Even for those products whose environmental burdens are relatively low, the LCA should help to identify those stages in production processes and in use which cause or have the potential to cause pollution, and those which have a heavy material or energy demand. Breaking down the manufacturing process into such fine detail can also be an aid to identifying the use of scarce resources, showing where a more sustainable product could be substituted. In most situations it is impossible to prove conclusively using LCAs that any one product or any one process is better in general terms than any other, since many parameters cannot be simplified to the degree necessary to reach such a conclusion. It seems likely that, in the case of manufactured goods, the most important time for LCA information to be taken into consideration is at the design stage of new products.