Getting started with life cycle assessment
LCA as a redesign and change management tool

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a quantified environmental assessment methodology. Based on an inventory of all data relating to the life cycle of a product (good, service, or process), LCA makes it possible to calculate an environmental balance sheet based on a number of impact categories, such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, and the depletion of fossil and mineral resources. From an application perspective, LCA relies on dedicated software. The term LCA therefore applies both to the methodology itself and to the associated software tools.

From a practical standpoint, an LCA comprises four distinct phases:

• definition of the objectives and scope of the study;

• life cycle inventory (LCI);

• life cycle impact assessment (LCIA);

• interpretation of results.

These four phases are structured according...