3/21/2023 0 Comments Animatrice lciIn the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phase, LCI results are associated to environmental impact categories and indicators. Data are validated and put in relationship to the process units and functional unit. for a consumer good manufactures, the production of purchased electricity and materials). for a consumer good manufactures, the manufacturing and packaging of a product) and background processes (e.g. Data collected concern foreground processes (e.g. Inputs and outputs concern energy, raw material and other physical inputs, products and co-products and waste, emissions to air/water/soil, and other environmental aspects. The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) phase involves the data collection and the calculation procedure for the quantification of inputs and outputs of the studied system. Main methodological choices are made in this step, in particular the exact definition of the functional unit, the identification of the system boundaries, the identification of the allocation procedures, the studied impact categories and the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) models used, and the identification of data quality requirements. ![]() In the goal and scope phase, the aims of the study are defined, namely the intended application, the reasons for carrying out the study and the intended audience. LCA is based on 4 main phases (as in figure): 1) goal and scope 2) inventory analysis, 3) impact assessment, 4) interpretation.įigure: Life Cycle Assessment steps: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment and interpretation ( Sala et al., 2016) Since 2013, to enhance the comparability of LCA applied to products and organisations, the European Commission has launched the Environmental Footprint methods. In the EU context, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has released the International reference Life Cycle Data system handbook. LCC is another life cycle approach (i.e, cradle to grave) but it looks at the direct monetary costs involved with a product or service and not environmental impact.LCA is defined by the ISO 14040 as the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.Īlong the lines of this standard and with the main aim to support LCA practitioners in operationalizing LCA, other codes of practice have been developed. LCI and LCA should not be confused with life cycle costing. When comparing two LCA studies, these factors are critical to understanding if the comparison is apples-to-apples. Other variables in LCIA include the system boundary (how far upstream, downstream and sidestream does the analysis go), the functional unit (what is the volume/mass/purpose of the object being assessed), and specific LCIA methods such as allocation (how are impacts assigned to the product and by-products, on what basis). There are various methods globally for categorizing and characterizing the life cycle impact of the flows to and from the environment, which can somewhat complicate the comparability of different LCA studies. For example, manufacturing a product may consume a known volume of natural gas (this data is part of the inventory) in the LCIA phase, the global warming impact from combustion of that fuel is calculated. In LCIA, the inventory is analyzed for environmental impact. LCIA is life cycle impact assessment, the “what does it mean” step. This kind of analysis can be extremely complex and may involve dozens of individual unit processes in a supply chain (e.g., the extraction of raw resources, various primary and secondary production processes, transportation, etc.) as well as hundreds of tracked substances. It consists of detailed tracking of all the flows in and out of the product system, including raw resources or materials, energy by type, water, and emissions to air, water and land by specific substance. LCI is the straight-forward accounting of everything involved in the “system” of interest. LCI is the life cycle inventory, which is the data collection portion of LCA. The process is naturally iterative as the quality and completeness of information and its plausibility is constantly being tested. ![]() The complete process of LCA includes goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a multi-step procedure for calculating the lifetime environmental impact of a product or service. LCA, LCI, LCIA, LCC: What’s the Difference?
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