Life Cycle Assessment

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-015697",
  "term": "Life Cycle Assessment",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definitions": [
    "1. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is a process for evaluating the environmental burdens associated with a product, process, or activity. LCAs identify and quantify energy and material users and releases to the environment. The assessment covers the entire life-cycle of the product, process, or activity, including extracting and processing the raw materials; manufacturing, transporting, and distributing the product; product use, reuse, and maintenance; recycling; and final disposal.\n\n2. A cradle-to-grave approach for assessing industrial systems that evaluates all stages of a product's life. It provides a comprehensive view of the environmental aspects of the product or process.\n\n3. Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle (Source: ISO/IEC Guide 2).\n\n4. The comprehensive examination of a product's environmental and economic aspects and potential impacts throughout its lifetime, including raw material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, use, and disposal. (Source Executive Order 13101 - Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition (11 pp, 98K) [http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/13101.pdf])\n\n5. Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. The comprehensive examination of a product or service’s environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout its lifetime, including raw material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, use, and disposal.\n\n6. A holistic way to consider multi-media environmental issues associated with a product or a process from resource acquisition through manufacture, transportation, distribution, and use, to waste management and disposal. Applied to chemical design and manufacturing, LCA allows the comparison of ecological performance of synthesis processes, and guides process developers in identifying opportunities for improvement.\n\n7. As a holistic approach to identifying the environmental consequences of a product, process, or activity through its entire life cycle and to identifying opportunities for achieving environmental improvements. EPA has specified the four major stages in the life cycle of a product, process, or activity as raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, consumer use/reuse/maintenance, and recycle/waste management. By itself, life-cycle assessment focuses on environmental impacts, not costs.\n\n8. A technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases [outputs]; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases [outputs]; interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision.\n\n9. LCA addresses the environmental impacts throughout a product's life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end-of-life treatment, recycling and final disposal (i.e. cradle-to-grave). Also known as life-cycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis.\n\n10. Accounting method that evaluates and reports the full life-cycle inputs and outputs (including GHG emissions) associated with the raw materials extraction, manufacturing or processing, transportation, use, and end-of-life management of a good or service.\n\n11. This technique assesses environmental effects associated with all stages of a product’s life, from raw material to disposal or recycling.\n\n12. It refers to the evaluation of all environmental, economic and social impacts towards more sustainable products throughout their entire life cycle from the extraction of raw materials, to production, use and disposal.\n\n13. Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle [Original source: ISO 14040:2006].",
    "1. Compilation and evaluation, according to a systematic set of procedures, of the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.\n\n2. An accounting method that evaluates and reports the full life-cycle inputs and outputs (including GHG emissions) associated with the raw materials extraction, manufacturing or processing, transportation, use, and end-of-life management of a good or service."
  ],
  "abbreviation": "LCA",
  "subject": [
    "Sustainability and green living",
    "Climate change"
  ],
  "references": [
    "Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Glossary",
    "Lifecycle Assessment Principles and Practices Glossary",
    "Greener Products Glossary",
    "Glossary of Sustainable Manufacturing Terms",
    "EPA Path Forward Documents Chemical Safety for Sustainability Research Action Plan v2",
    "EPA An Introduction to Environmental Accounting As a Business Management Tool: Key Concepts and Terms at http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe",
    "USDA National Agricultural Library Thesaurus",
    "DOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Bioenergy Glossary",
    "Waste Reduction Model (WARM) Definitions and Acronyms",
    "Adapted from Recommendations for Integrating Environmental Justice into the EPA's Research Enterprise June 30, 2014 A Report of Recommendations of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council A federal advisory committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-02/documents/nejac-research-recommendations-2014.pdf",
    "Federal LCA Commons Elementary Flow List for Life Cycle Assessment",
    "Environmental Management System Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/life-cycle-assessment/"
}