The “Life Cycle Assessment” (LCA), is a tool used to figure out how a product or service affects the environment over its whole life cycle, from getting the raw materials to getting rid of them.
Most of the time, there are four main parts to a life cycle assessment:
Goal and scope definition: This means deciding what the limits of the assessment are, such as what the product or service is meant to do, and what the limits of the system are (e.g., which stages of the life cycle will be included).
Life cycle inventory: To do this, a detailed list of the inputs and outputs of each stage of the product’s life cycle, such as energy use, material inputs, and emissions, needs to be made.
Impact assessment: This involves figuring out how the inputs and outputs listed in the life cycle inventory might affect the environment, such as through greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and the use up of resources.
This step involves putting together the results of the previous steps to draw conclusions and make suggestions for how to make the product or service less harmful to the environment.
LCAs can help businesses and policymakers find ways to make their products or services better and help them make decisions that are better for the environment.
Usage
It is used in project planning
