Life Cycle Assessment

To reach the UN sustainable development goal, there is a need for comprehensive and robust tools to help decision-making identify the solutions that best support sustainable development. The decisions must have a system perspective, consider the life cycle, and all relevant impacts caused by the solution. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that has these characteristics and the ambition with this book is to offer a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the tool and its underlying methodological considerations and potential applications. The book consists of five parts. The first part introduces LCA. The second part is a text book aiming at university students from undergraduate to PhD level, and professionals from industry and within policy making. It follows ISO 14040/14044 structure, draws upon a variety of LCA methods published over the years, especially the ILCD, and offers prescriptions and recommendations for all the most important methodological choices that you meet when performing an LCA. The third part introduces applications of LCA and life cycle thinking by policy- and decision-makers in government and industry. The fourth part is a Cookbook guiding you through the concrete actions to undertake when performing an LCA. The fifth part contains some appendices. The book can be used as a text book, the chapter can be read as stand alone, and you can use the Cookbook as a manual on how to perform an LCA.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has a number of defining characteristics that enables it to address questions that no other assessment tools can address. This chapter begins by demonstrating how the use of LCA in the late 2000s led to a drastic shift in the dominant perception that biofuelsBiofuels were “green”, “sustainable” or “carbon neutral”, which led to a change in biofuel policiesPolicies. This is followed by a grouping of the LCA characteristics into four headlines and an explanation of these: (1) takes a life cycle perspectiveLife cycle perspective, (2) covers a broad range ofEnvironmental issue environmental issues, (3) is quantitative, (4) is based on science. From the insights of the LCA characteristics we then consider the strengths and limitations of LCA and end the chapter by listing 10 questions that LCALCA can answer and 3 that it cannot.

The idea of LCALCA was conceived in the 1960s when environmental degradationDegradation and in particular the limited access to resources started becoming a concern. This chapter gives a brief summary of the history of LCA since then with a focus on the fields of methodological development, applicationApplication, international harmonisation and standardisationStandardisation, and dissemination. LCA had its early roots in packaging studiesPackaging studies and focused mainly on energyEnergy use and a few emissions, spurring a largely un-coordinated method development in the US and Northern EuropeEurope. Studies were primarily done for companies, who used them internally and made little communication to stakeholders. After a silent period in the 1970s, the 1980s and 1990s saw an increase in methodological development and international collaboration and coordination in the scientific community and method development increasingly took place in universities. With the consolidation of the methodologicalMethodological challenges basis, application of LCA widened to encompass a rapidly increasing range of products and systems with studies commissioned or performed by both industry and governments, and results were increasingly communicated through academic papers and industry and government reports. To this day, methodological development has continued, and increasing attention has been given to international scientificScientific review consensus building on central parts of the LCA methodology, and standardisation of LCA and related approaches.

The chapter gives examples of applications of LCALCA by the central societal actors in government, industry and citizens, and discusses major motivations and challenges for the use of LCA to support science-based decision-making from their respective perspectives. We highlight applications of LCA in policyPolicy formulation, implementation and evaluation, present different purposes of LCA application in industry at both product and corporate levels, and discuss challenges for LCA applications in small- and medium-sized enterprises. Our synthesis demonstrates the importance of LCA as a tool to quantify environmental impacts of products and systems and support decisions around production and consumption and highlights factors that prevent its even more widespread application.

LCA is often presented as a sustainability assessment tool. This chapter analyses the relationship between LCALCA and sustainability. This is done by first outlining the history of the sustainabilitySustainability concept, which gained momentum with the Brundtland Commission’s report ‘Our Common FutureOur common futurereportReview report’ in 1987, and presenting the most common interpretationsInterpretation of the concept, which generally comprise four dimensions: (1) measures of welfare, (2) inter-generational equity, (3) intra-generational equity and (4) interspecies equity. The relevance of environmental protection for dimensions 2 and 4 is then demonstrated, and the strategy of LCA to achieving environmental protection, namely to guide the reduction of environmental impacts per delivery of a function, is explained. The attempt to broaden the scope of LCA, beyond environmental protection, by so-called life cycle sustainabilitySocial sustainabilityassessment (LCSA)Life cycle sustainability assessment is outlined. Finally, the limitationsLimitation of LCA in guiding a sustainable development are discussed.

In order to offer the reader an overview of the LCA methodology in the preparation of the more detailed description of its different phases, a brief introduction is given to the methodological framework according to the ISO 14040ISO 14040 standard and the main elements of each of its phases. Emphasis is on the iterative nature of the LCALCAprocessProcess-LCA with its manyFeedback feedback loops between the different phases. It is explained how the integrated use of sensitivitySensitivity analysis helps identify key assumptionsKey assumption and key data and thus ensure effectivenessEffectiveness by directing the focus of the LCA practitioner to those parts of the study where additional work contributes most to strengthen the results and conclusionsConclusion of the study.

The goal definitionGoal definitionis the first phase of an LCALCA and determines the purpose of a study in detail. This chapter teaches how to perform the six aspects of a goal definition: (1) Intended applicationsIntended application of the results, (2) LimitationsLimitation due to methodological choices, (3) Decision contextDecision context and reasons for carrying out the study, (4) Target audienceTarget audience, (5) Comparative studiesComparative studies to be disclosed to the public and (6) CommissionerCommissioner of the study and other influential actors. The instructions address both the conduct and reporting of a goal definition and are largely based on the ILCD guidance document (EC-JRC in European Commission—Joint Research Centre—Institute for Environment and Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook—General Guide for Life Cycle Assessment—Detailed Guidance. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 2010).

The scope definition is the second phase of an LCA. It determines what product systems are to be assessed and how this assessment should take place. This chapter teaches how to perform a scope definition. First, important terminology and key concepts of LCA are introduced. Then, the nine items making up a scope definition are elaborately explained: (1) Deliverables. (2) Object of assessment, (3) LCILCI modelling framework and handling of multifunctional processes, (4) System boundaries and completeness requirements, (5) RepresentativenessRepresentativeness of LCI data, (6) Preparing the basis for the impact assessment, (7) Special requirements for system comparisons, (8) Critical review needsCritical review and (9) Planning reporting of results. The instructions relate both to the performance and reporting of a scope definition and are largely based on ILCD.

The inventory analysisInventory analysis is the third and often most time-consuming part of an LCA. The analysis is guided by the goal and scope definition, and its core activity is the collection and compilation of data on elementary flows from all processes in the studiedProduct system product system(s) drawing on a combination of different sources. The output is a compiled inventory of elementary flows that is used as basis of the subsequent life cycle impact assessmentLife cycle impact assessment phase. This chapter teaches how to carry out this task through six steps: (1) identifying processes for the LCI model of the product system; (2) planning and collecting data; (3) constructing and quality checking unit processes; (4) constructing LCILCI model and calculating LCI results; (5) preparing the basis for uncertainty management and sensitivity analysis; and (6) reporting.

This chapter is dedicated to the third phase of an LCA study, the Life CycleLife cycle impact assessment Impact Assessment (LCIA)LCIA history where the life cycle inventory’s information on elementary flowsElementary flow is translated into environmental impact scores. In contrast to the three other LCALCA phases, LCIA is in practice largely automated by LCA software, but the underlying principles, models and factors should still be well understood by practitioners to ensure the insight that is needed for a qualified interpretationInterpretation of the results. This chapter teaches the fundamentals of LCIA and opens the black box of LCIAILCD LCIA with its characterisation modelsCharacterisation model and factors to inform the reader about: (1) the main purpose and characteristics of LCIA, (2) the mandatory and optional steps of LCIA according to the ISO standard, and (3)ISO standard the science and methods underlying the assessment for each environmental impact categoryImpact category. For each impact category, the reader is taken through (a) the underlying environmental problem, (b) the underlying environmental mechanismEnvironmental mechanism and its fundamental modelling principles, (c) the main anthropogenic sources causing the problem and (d) the main methods available in LCIA. An annex to this book offers a comprehensive qualitative comparison of the main elements and properties of the most widely used and also the latest LCIA methods for each impact category, to further assist the advanced practitioner to make an informed choice between LCIA methods.

Uncertainty is always there and LCA is no exception to that. The presence of uncertainties of different types and from numerous sources in LCA results is a fact, but managing them allows to quantify and improve the precision of a study and the robustness of its conclusions. LCA practice sometimes suffers from an imbalanced perception of uncertainties, justifying modelling choices and omissions. Identifying prevalent misconceptions around uncertainties in LCA is a central goal of this chapter, aiming to establish a positive approach focusing on the advantages of uncertainty management. The main objectives of this chapter are to learn how to deal with uncertainty in the context of LCA, how to quantify it, interpret and use it, and how to communicate it. The subject is approached more holistically than just focusing on relevant statistical methods or purely mathematical aspects. This chapter is neither a precise statistical method description, nor a philosophical essay about the concepts of uncertainty, knowledge and truth, although you will find a little bit of both. This chapter contains (1) an introduction of the essential terminology and concepts of relevance for LCA; (2) a discussion of main sources of uncertainty and how to quantify them; (3) a presentation of approaches to calculate uncertainty for the final results (propagation); (4) a discussion of how to use uncertainty information and how to take it into account in the interpretation of the results; and finally (5) a discussion of how to manage, communicate and present uncertainty information together with the LCA results.

The interpretation is the final phase of an LCA where the results of the other phases are considered together and analysed in the light of the uncertainties of the applied data and the assumptions that have been made and documented throughout the study. This chapter teaches how to perform an interpretation. The process of interpretation starts with identification of potentially significant issues in the previous stages of goal and scope definition, inventory analysis and impact assessment, and examples of potential significant issues are given for each phase. The significance is then determined by checking completeness, sensitivity and consistency for each of these identified issues. The outcome is used to inform previous phases on the needs for strengthening the data basis of the study, and where this is not possible to reconsider the goal and scope definition of the study. Finally, guidance is given on how to draw conclusions based on the previous steps of the interpretation, qualify the conclusions in terms of their robustness, and develop recommendations based on the results of the study.

Manipulation and mistakes in LCA studies are as old as the tool itself, and so is its critical review. Besides preventing misuse and unsupported claims, critical review may also help identifying mistakes and more justifiable assumptions as well as generally improve the quality of a study. It thus supports the robustness of an LCA and increases trust in its results and conclusions. The focus of this chapter is on understanding what a critical review is, how the international standards define it, what its main elements are, and what reviewer qualifications are required. It is not the objective of this chapter to learn how to conduct a critical review, neither from a reviewer nor from a practitioner perspective. The foundation of this chapter and the basis for any critical review of LCA studies are the International Standards ISO 14040:2006, ISO 14044:2006 and ISO TS 14071:2014.

Input–output analysis can be used as a tool for complementing the traditionally process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) with macroeconomic data from the background systems. Properly used, it can result in faster and more accurate LCA. It also provides opportunities for streamlining the LCA inventory collection and focusing resources. This chapter reviews the main uses of input–output analysis (IO) to ensure consistent system boundaries, to evaluate the completeness of an LCA study and to form a basis for in-depth inventory collection. The use of IO as a data source for social and economic sustainability metrics is also discussed, as are the limitations of the approach. All aspects are demonstrated through examples and references both to recent scientific literature and publicly available datasets are provided. The aim of the chapter is to present the basic tools for applying IO in practical LCA studies.

The chapter gives an introduction to life cycle costing (LCC) and how it can be used to support decision-making. It can form the economic pillar in a full life cycle sustainability assessment, but often system delimitations differ depending on the goal and scope of the study. To provide a profound understanding this chapter describes several approaches and terms, fundamental principles and different types of costs. A brief introduction is given to conventional LCC and societal LCC but the main focus is on environmental Life Cycle Costing (eLCC) as the LCC approach that is compatible with environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in terms of system delimitation. Differences are explained and addressed, and an overview is given of the main cost categories to consider from different user perspectives. As inventory data is often sensitive in financial analyses, a list of relevant databases is provided as well as guidance on how to collect data to overcome this hurdle. In an illustrative case study on window frames, the eLCC theory is applied and demonstrated with each step along the eLCC procedure described in detail. A final section about advanced LCC introduces how to monetarise externalities and how to do discounting.

An expansion of the LCA framework has been going on through the development of ‘social life cycle assessment’—S-LCA. The methodology, still in its infancy, has the goal of assessing social impacts related to a product’s life cycle. This chapter introduces S-LCA framework area and the related challenges. It outlines the main conceptual differences between LCA and S-LCA and discusses the barriers in terms of methodological development and potential application. Three case studies are presented applying S-LCA in different contexts and using varying methods. In the light of the outlined differences, perspectives for the future developmentS-LCA future development of S-LCA are discussed.

While Part II of this book presents the theoretical foundation and methodology of LCA, Part III is dedicated to a comprehensive discussion of how this methodology has been adapted and applied in practice. The chapters of Part III provide an easily readable and accessible introduction to different fields of LCA application with their specific decision situations, user competences and stakeholder needs, and associated methodological challenges and adaptations.

The chapter explains what Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) is about, why it is about taking a life cycle approach and shows that SCP-related policies have been developed at the intergovernmental level and in different regions of the world. A key element at the international level is the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on SCP adopted in 2012 and the global agreements on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015. Life cycle thinking has become mature, moving from its academic origins and limited uses, primarily in-house in large companies, to more powerful approaches that can support the provision of more sustainable goods and services through efficient use in product development, external communications, in support of customer choice, and in public debates. Now governments can use LCA for SCP policies. For this purpose LCA databases are needed. LCA is in particular relevant for policies focusing on design for sustainability, sustainable consumer information, sustainable procurement and waste management, minimization and prevention as well as sector-specific policies like sustainable energy and food supply. Examples of life cycle thinking and the use of LCA in policies are provided for numerous countries around the world but with a certain focus on the European Union. It can be expected that the use of LCA in policies for the sustainability assessment of products will further increase, also slowly covering more means of implementation such as incentives and legislative obligations.

The chapter describes how a globalised economy exacerbates the need of a mainstreaming of LCA, in particular the emergence of long, complex and geographically highly dispersed global value chains (GVCs). In documenting the three phases of the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, a conventional roadmap for global mainstreaming of LCA is drawn. However, the questioning by some South governments of the rationale and a North methodological bias of LCA draws attention to the significance of national and local contexts in developing countries. The chapter argues a more elaborate concept for building capacity for LCA in developing countries and suggests how to strategize national LCA agendas.

The most applied and widespread approaches for environmental assessments at the organisation level have only recently extended their view beyond the factory gates. Even if they now consider the full value chain, they still mostly concentrate on a single environmental aspect like greenhouse gases (GHGs). While LCA was originally developed for products, its benefits and potential can be extended to the assessment of organisations. Organisational LCA is built on the principles, requirements and guidelines of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, but requires some adaptations in the scope and inventory phases, when the unit of analysis and the system boundaries are defined. Also, the approach for data collection needs to be fixed. Organisational LCA is a compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of the activities associated with the organisation adopting a life cycle perspective. It includes not only the facilities of the organisation itself, but also the activities upstream and downstream the value chain. This methodology is capable of serving multiple goals at the same time, like identifying environmental hotspots throughout the value chain, tracking environmental performance over time, supporting strategic decisions, and informing corporate sustainability reporting. Several initiatives are on the way for the LCA of organisations: the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative published the ‘Guidance on organizational LCA’, using ISO/TS 14072ISO 14072 as a backbone; moreover, the European Commission launched a guide for the organisation environmental footprint.

LCA is often applied for decision-making that concerns actions reaching near or far into the future. However, traditional life cycle assessment methodology must be adjusted for the prospective and change-oriented purposes, but no standardised way of doing this has emerged yet. In this chapter some challenges are described and some learnings are derived. Many of the future-orientedFuture-oriented LCAs published so far perform relatively short-term prediction of simple comparisons. But for more long-term time horizonsTime horizonforesightForesight methods can be of help. ScenariosScenarios established by qualified experts about future technological and economic developments are indispensable in future technology assessments. The uncertaintiesUncertainties in future-oriented LCAs are to a large extent qualitative and it is important to emphasise that LCA of future technologies will provide a set of answers and not ‘the’ answer.

This chapter gives an overview of Life Cycle Management (LCM)—a discipline that deals with the managerial tasks related to practicing sustainable developmentSustainable development in an organisationOrganisation. Just as Life Cycle Assessment, LCM advocates the life cycle perspectiveLife cycle perspective, and it applies this perspective in decision-makingDecision-making processes. The chapter shows that LCA can play a key role in LCM since LCALCA provides quantitative performance measurements. It also explains, which stakeholdersStakeholders need to be considered, how LCA and LCM relate, how LCA can be used to develop Key Performance Indicators, and addresses how LCM can be integrated into an organisation.

Ecodesign is a proactive product development approach that integrates environmental considerations into the early stages of the product development process so to improve the environmental performance of products. In this chapter, the ecodesign concept will be discussed, in terms of its implementation into manufacturing companies. Existing methods and tools for ecodesign implementationEcodesign implementation will be described, focusing on a multifaceted approach to environmental improvement through product development. Additionally, the use of LCA in an ecodesign implementation context will be further described in terms of the challenges and opportunities, together with the discussion of a selection of simplified LCA tools. Finally, a seven-step approach for ecodesign implementation which has been applied by several companies will be described.

Based on the terminology and structure developed by the International Organization for Standardization, a description is given on the types of ecolabels that build on life cycle assessments. Focus is on type I labelsLabel that point out products and services with an overall environmental preferability within a specific product category. Type I labels include official labels set up by government and international institutions. Examples are given on operation of labelling schemes, development and focus area for criteria that must be met to obtain a label, effects on environment and legislation of labelling, the use of ecolabels in marketing, and the way ecolabels help build a market for “greener products”. Type III labels—or Environmental Product Declarations—are also briefly described with indicative examples from the building sector, a declaration for office furniture, and an introduction is given to the European Commission’s programme for product—and organisational environmental footprintsOrganisational environmental footprint.

Cradle to Cradle (C2C)Cradle to cradle(C2C) offers a positive vision of a future, where products are radically redesigned to be beneficial to humans and the environment. The idea is not to reduce negative impacts (as in LCA), but to increase positive impactsPositive impacts. This chapter presents the C2C concept and its relationship with the circular economyCircular economy, the C2C certification and examples of C2C certified or inspired products and systems. This is followed by a comparison of C2C with eco-efficiencyEco-efficiency and LCALCA. Because of their important differences, we conclude that care should be taken when combing C2C and LCA, e.g. using LCA to evaluate products inspired by C2C. We then provide an in-depth analysis of the conflicts between C2C and LCA and offer solutions. Finally, we reflect upon how LCA practitionersLCA practitioner can learn from C2C in terms of providing a vision of a sustainable future, creating a sense of urgency for change and communicating results in an inspiring way.

Energy systemsEnergy systems are essential in the support of modern societies’ activities, and can span a wide spectrum of electricity and heatHeat generation systems and cooling systems. Along with their central role and large diversity, these systems have been demonstrated to cause serious impacts on human healthHuman health, ecosystemsEcosystem and natural resources. Over the past two decades, energyEnergy systems have thus been the focus of more than 1000 LCALCA studies, with the aim to identify and reduce these impacts. This chapter addresses LCA applicationsApplication to energy systems for generation of electricity and heatHeat. The chapter gives insight into the LCA practice related to such systems, offering a critical reviewCritical review of (i) central methodological aspects, including the definition of the goals and scopes of the studies, their coverage of the system life cycle and the environmental impacts, and (ii) key findings of the studies, particularly aimed at identifying environmental hotspotsEnvironmental hotspots and impact patterns across different energy sources. Based on this literature reviewReview recommendations and guidelines are issued to LCA practitionersLCA practitioner on key methodological aspects that are important for a proper conduct of LCA studies of energy systems and thus ensuring the reliability of the LCA results provided to decision- and policy-makers.

Private transportation is increasingly responsible for a significant share of GHG emissions. In this context, electric vehicles (EVs)Vehicle are considered to be a key technology to reduce the environmental impact caused by the mobilityMobility sector. While EVs do offer an opportunity to decrease the production of greenhouse gases radically by avoiding the generation of tailpipe emissions, different technological challenges must be overcome. On the one side, the production of the battery systemBattery system is of significant importance as it is reckoned to be responsible for around 40–50% of the total CO₂CO2-eq. emissions of the vehicle’s manufacturing stage. Moreover, the additional requirements for metalsMetals like copper and aluminium for the battery systemBattery system as well as rare earth metals for the production of electric motors might lead to shifting the problem to other life cycle stages or areas of impact. On the other side, the source of the energy used to power an EV has an ultimate influence on the environmental impact caused during the vehicle’s use stage. The life cycle assessment methodology is normally used to measure the environmental impact of electric vehicles and to identify potential problem shifting. In this chapter, we present an overview of the applicationApplication of the methodology within the electric mobilityMobility sector.

How we design human settlements has a profound influence on society’s environmental pressures. This chapter explores the current state of LCA applied to two scales of human settlements; individual buildingsBuildings and the built environmentBuilt environment, where the built environment is understood as a collection of autonomous buildings along with the infrastructure and human activity between those buildingsBuildings. The applicationApplication of LCA to buildings has seen growing interest in recent years, partly as a result of the increased application of environmental certificationEnvironmental certification to buildings. General findings are that the use stage of the building tends to dominate environmental impacts, though as buildings become increasingly energy efficient, life cycle impacts shift towards other stages. LCALCA of built environments has been a useful supplement to mass-based urban environmental assessments, highlighting the importance of embodied environmental impacts in imported goods and showing interesting trade-offs between dense urban living and the greater purchasing power of wealthy urbanites. LCAs of human settlements also face difficult challenges; the long use stage (often decades) introduces high uncertainty regarding the end-of-lifeEnd-of-life stage; evolving electrical mixes throughout the use stage; gaps in consumption data at the city level. This chapter endeavours to elucidate the strengths, research needs and methodological shortcomings of LCA as applied to buildings and the built environment, showing that they can act as complimentary tools to help society’s shift towards a sustainable future.

This chapter deals with the applicationApplication of Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate the environmental sustainabilitySustainability of agricultureAgriculture and food processing. The life cycle of a food product is split into six stages: production and transportationTransportation of inputs to the farm, cultivation, processing, distributionDistribution, consumption and waste managementWaste management. A large number of LCA studies focus on the two first stages in cradle-to-farm gate studies, as they are the stages where most impacts typically occur, due to animal husbandry and manure handling, production and use of fertilisers and the consumption of fuel to operate farm machinery. In the processing step, the raw agricultural product leaving the farm gate is converted to a foodFood item that can be consumed by the user. Distribution includes transportation of the food product before and after processing. In the consumption stage, environmental impacts arise due to storage, preparation and waste of the food. In the waste management stage, food waste can be handled using a number of technologies, such as landfilling, incinerationIncineration, composting or digestion. A number of case studies are looked at here where the life cycles of typical food products (meatMeat, cheese, bread, tomatoes, etc.), and an entire dietDiet are discussed. Other case studies deal with what LCA can conclude on the differences between conventional and organic farming, and the perceived advantages of local food items. Finally, methodological issues in agricultural LCA are discussed: the choice of functional unit, setting the boundary between technosphere and ecosphere, modelling flows of nutrientsNutrients and pesticidesPesticides, and the generally limited number of impact categories included in LCA studies.

BiofuelsBiofuels and biomaterialsBiomaterials can today substitute many commodities produced from fossil resources, and the bio-based production is increasing worldwide. As fossilFossil resources are limited, and the use of such resources is a major contributor to global warmingGlobal warming and other environmental impacts, the potential of bio-productsBio-products as substitutes for fossil-based products is receiving much attention. According to many LCA studies, bio-products are environmentally superior to fossil products in some life cycle impact categories, while the picture is often opposite in others. Bio-productsBio-products is a highly diverse group of products and the environmental profile of bio-products relative to their fossil counterparts is case specific and to a high degree depending on the feedstock used. This illustrates the importance of conducting case specific LCAsLCA for determining the environmental profile of bio-products relative to fossil ones, and emphasises the importance of including all relevant impact categories, in order to avoid problem shifting.

This chapter focuses on the applicationApplication of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental performance of chemicals as well as of products and processes where chemicalsChemicals play a key role. The life cycle stages of chemical products, such as pharmaceuticals drugs or plant protection products, are discussed and differentiated into extraction of abioticResources, abiotic, biotic, renewable, nonrenewable and biotic raw materials, chemical synthesis and processing, material processing, product manufacturing, professional or consumer product use, and finally end-of-lifeEnd-of-life. LCA is discussed in relation to other chemicals managementChemicals management frameworks and concepts including risk assessmentRisk assessment, greenGreen growth and sustainable chemistrySustainable chemistry, and chemical alternatives assessment. A large number of LCA studies focus on contrasting different feedstocks or chemical synthesisChemical synthesis processes, thereby often conducting a cradle to (factory) gate assessment. While typically a large share of potential environmental impacts occurs during the early product life cycle stages, potential impactsPotential impact related to chemicals that are found as ingredients or residues directly in products can be dominated by the product use stage. Finally, methodological challengesMethodological challenges in LCA studies in relation to chemicals are discussed including the choice of functional unitFunctional unit, defining the system boundariesSystem boundaries, quantifying emissions for many thousands of marketed chemicals, characterising emissions in terms of toxicityToxicity and other impacts, and finally interpreting LCA results. The chapter is relevant for LCA students and practitioners who wish to gain basic understanding of LCA studies of products or processes with chemicals as a key aspect.

ApplicationApplication of nanomaterialsNanomaterials in products has led to an increase in number of nanoproductsNanoproducts introduced to the consumer market. However, along with new and improved products, there is a concern about the potential life cycle environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment is able to include a wide range of environmental impacts but, due to data limitations, it is commonly applied with focus on the cradle-to-gate part of the nanoproducts life cycle, neglecting use and disposal of the products. These studies conclude that nanomaterials are more energyEnergy demanding and have an inferior environmental profile than conventionally used materials, but functional unitsFunctional unit of these comparisons need to consider the use stage benefits attained through nanomaterials. A particular assessment challenge is the lack of understanding of the toxicological mechanisms related to potential release, fate and effects of nanomaterials when penetrating into living organisms. This is especially relevant for the freshwaterFreshwater compartment, as it is a common recipient.

Water supplies around the globe are growing complex and include more intense treatment methods than just decades ago. Now, desalinationDesalination of seawater and wastewater reuseReuse of water for both non-potable and potable waterPotable water supply have become common practice in many places. LCA has been used to assess the potentials and reveal hotspots among the possible technologies and scenariosScenarios for water supplies of the future. LCA studies have been used to support decisions in the planningPlanning of urban water systemsUrban water systems and some important findings include documentation of reduced environmental impact from desalination of brackish water over sea water, the significant impacts from changed drinking waterDrinking water quality and reduced environmental burden from wastewater reuse instead of desalination. Some of the main challenges in conducting LCAs of water supply systemsWater supply system are their complexity and diversity, requiring very large data collectionData collection efforts, with multiple sources of information, many of them not public and requiring cooperation. Important for product and system LCAsBuilding system LCA with substantial water use, it is emphasized that standard life cycle inventory databases do not reflect the significant variance in environmental impacts of water supply across locations and technologies.

The main purpose of wastewater treatment is to protect humans against waterborne diseases and to safeguard aquatic bio-resourcesResource like fish. The dominating environmental concerns within this domain are indeed still potential aquatic eutrophicationEutrophication/oxygen depletion due to nutrient/organic matter emissions and potential health impacts due to spreading of pathogensPathogen. Anyway, the use of treatment for micro-pollutantsMicro-pollutants is increasing and a paradigm shift is ongoing—wastewater is more and more considered as a resource of, e.g. energyEnergy, nutrientsNutrients and even polymers, in the innovations going on. The focus of LCA studies addressing wastewater treatment have from the very first published cases, been on energy and resource consumption. In recent time, the use of characterisation has increased and besides global warmingGlobal warming potential, especially eutrophication is in focus. Even the toxicityToxicity-related impact categories are nowadays included more often. ApplicationApplication of LCA for comparing avoided against induced impactsAvoided against induced impacts, and hereby identifying trade-offs when introducing new technology, is increasingly used. A typical functional unitFunctional unit is the treatment of one cubic metre of wastewater which should be well defined regarding composition. Depending on the goal and scope of the study, all life cycle stages have the potential of being significant, though disposal of infrastructure seems to be the least important for the impact profile in many cases. No inventory data and none of the conventional impactOzone categories (except stratospheric ozoneGround level ozone depletion if emission of N₂ON2O is excluded) should be ruled out; but eutrophication and ecotoxicityEcotoxicity are in many cases among the dominating ones.

The chapter explores the applicationApplication of LCA to solid wasteSolid waste management systems through the review of published studies on the subject. The environmental implications of choices involved in the modelling setup of waste management systems are increasingly in the spotlight, due to public health concerns and new legislation addressing the impacts from managing our waste. The application of LCA to solid waste management systems, sometimes called “waste LCA”, is distinctive in that system boundariesSystem boundaries are rigorously defined to exclude all life cycle stages except from the end-of-life. Moreover, specific methodological challengesMethodological challenges arise when investigating waste systems, such as the allocationAllocation of impacts and the consideration of long-term emissions. The complexity of waste LCAs is mainly derived from the variability of the object under study (waste) which is made of different materials that may require different treatments. This chapter attempts to address these challenges by identifying common misconceptions and by providing methodological guidance for alleviating the associated uncertainty. Readers are also provided with the list of studies reviewed and key sources for reference to implement LCA on solid waste systems.

Today, there is increasing interest in applying LCA to support decision-makers in contaminated site management. In this chapter, we introduce remediation technologiesRemediation technologies and associated environmental impacts, present an overview of literature findings on LCA applied to remediation technologies and present methodological issues to consider when conducting LCAs within the area. Within the field of contaminated site remediationContaminated site remediation, a terminology distinguishing three types of environmental impacts: primary, secondary and tertiary, is often applied. Primary impactsPrimary impacts are the site-related impacts due to the contamination in the ground, secondary impactsSecondary impacts are the impacts related to clean-up of the site, and tertiary impactsTertiary impacts are the impacts associated with the future use of the site. The major methodological issues to consider when conducting LCA are: (i) defining a functional unitFunctional unit that considers time frame and efficiency of remediation, which are important for assessment or primary impacts; (ii) robust assessment of primary impacts using site-specific fate and exposure models; (iii) weighting of primary and secondary (or tertiary) impacts to evaluate trade-offs between life cycle impacts from remediation and reduced pressure locally; and (iv) comparison with a no action scenario to determine whether there is a net environmental benefit from remediation. Overall, LCA is an important tool for the assessment of the secondary environmental impacts of remediation, and occasionally it has also been used to assess primary and tertiary impacts. In order to obtain robust decisions for the management of contaminated sitesContaminated sites, the combination of LCA with other tools is necessary, including multi-criteria decision analysis tools, site-specific fate and exposureExposure models and consideration of stakeholders’ views.

The LCA cookbookCookbook presents the provisionsProvisions and actionsActions from the ILCDILCD Handbook that are central in the performance of an LCA. The selectionSelection is intended to cover all those activities that an LCA practitioner needs to undertake in a typical process-LCAProcess-LCA, and the presentation follows the normal progression of the LCA work according to the ISO framework. For explanation of the reasoning behind the actions, the reader is referred to the presentation of the methodological elements in Part 2 of the book.

To ensure consistent reporting of life cycle assessment (LCA), we provide a report template. The report includes elements of an LCA study as recommended but the ILCD Handbook. Illustrative case study reported according to this template is presented in Chap. 39.

This report serves as an example report on how to perform an LCA according to the guidance given in Chap. 37 and how to structure the report according to the reporting template in Chap. 38. The goals of the LCA were (i) to perform a benchmarking of a prototype wood/composite (W/C) window made out of glass fibre against three alternative window types currently offered in the market (made of wood (W), wood/aluminium (W/ALU), and PVC) and (ii) to identify environmental hotspots for each window system.

The chapter gives an overview and a systematic comparison of a selectionSelection of the most used Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods, focusing on methods that have been implemented and made available in LCA software. Currently available midpointMidpoint and endpointEndpoint characterisation methodologies are presented and their specific properties are qualitatively compared in detailed tables.