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Erschienen in:
2014 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel
1. Introducing Life Cycle Assessment and its Presentation in ‘LCA Compendium’
verfasst von : Walter Klöpffer
Erschienen in: Background and Future Prospects in Life Cycle Assessment
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
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Abstract
This chapter spans the time from the early days of Life Cycle Assessment—LCA (the time of the so-called ‘proto-LCAs’ between about 1970 and 1990), until recent trends of simplified/streamlined LCAs, the footprint specifications (carbon footprint, water footprint) and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment—LCSA.
Important benchmarks along this span are the harmonisation of LCA by SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) and the standardisation of LCA by ISO (International Standardisation Organisation).
The basic discussions within SETAC occurred between 1990 and 1993.
The first attempt to develop a suitable LCA-structure was achieved during the SETAC workshop ‘A Technical Framework for Life Cycle Assessments’ in August 1990, held in Smugglers Notch, Vermont, USA. The LCA-structure, the famous ‘SETAC triangle’, consisted of three components: Inventory—Impact Analysis—Improvement Analysis.
SETAC revised the framework during the Sesimbra workshop in 1993. It was the merit of SETAC to initiate a standardisation process which culminated in the ‘Guidelines for Life-Cycle Assessment: A Code of Practice’. The LCA-structure, again a triangle, now included four components: Goal Definition and Scoping—Inventory Analysis—Impact Assessment—Improvement Assessment.
This structure was only slightly modified by the ISO standardisation process: The fourth phase ‘Improvement Assessment’ (formerly ‘Improvement Analysis’) was replaced by ‘Interpretation’.
After the harmonisation of LCA by SETAC, the International Standardisation Process was soon initiated (Autumn 1993 in Paris), but it took seven years for the first series of LCA standards to be published (ISO 14040, ISO 14041, ISO 14042, ISO 14043).
The successful first series of ISO LCA standards superseded the SETAC ‘Code of Practice’, the Nordic guidelines and several national standards and became the uncontested model of an environmental life cycle standard. The series 14040 ff was revised once and condensed into two standards 14040 and 14044 (2006).
The four-phase structure was not altered
This chapter discusses the four phases of the LCA-structure by SETAC and ISO which are the subject of four volumes—Goal and Scope Definition in LCA; Life Cycle Inventory Analysis; Life Cycle Impact Assessment; Interpretation, Critical Review and Reporting. The remaining volumes follow a structure outside the ISO-framework: Applications of LCA, Special Types of LCA, Life Cycle Management, and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment.