LCA Life Cycle Analysis Assessment Jargon Buster

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LCA Life Cycle Analysis Assessment Jargon Buster
Definitions:

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)
Assesses the impacts of a product or operation on the environment throughout its life e.g. from production and manufacture, operational and maintenance, through to final disposal/demolition
(The London Plan ’05)

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)
LCA is a process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment over the entire period of its life thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and decreasing liabilities
It can be used to study the environmental impact of either a product or the function the product is designed to perform
LCA is commonly referred to as a “cradle-to-grave” analysis
LCA’s key elements are:
(1) identify and quantify the environmental loads involved; e.g. the energy and raw materials consumed, the emissions and wastes generated;
(2) evaluate the potential environmental impacts of these loads;
(3) assess the options available for reducing these environmental impacts.
(© DANTES ’06)

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)
A technique that allows the comparison of the environmental impacts of materials and products.
LCA analyses the movement of materials and energy from the point of extraction of raw materials, through the manufacture, use in a building, demolition and final disposal.
The analysis provides quantitative data to identify the potential environmental impacts of the material or product on the environment.
Ideally LCAs encompass the entire life cycle of a material, but it is common for assessments to be made of more limited periods eg ‘cradle-to-gate’.
(GreenSpec AEP ’09)

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)
LCA is the basis of EPD Environmental Product Declarations and environmental preference methods for materials
selection, for example BRE’s Green Book Live’s Environmental Profiles (Products), BRE’s Green Guide to Specification compares (Manufacturing Sectors: ‘Generic’)
LCA takes account of environmental impacts over the lifetime of a product, for example the impact arising from mineral extraction, manufacturing, transport and end-of-life disposal.
(Anderson, Shiers and Steele, The Green Guide to Specification: An Environmental Profiling System for Building Materials and Components (4^th edition), Blackwell Science, 2009.)
See: ISO 14025:2006
(Ska ’09 & NGS BRM ’10)

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)
What is an LCA?
A lifecycle assessment (LCA) is an assessment of the environmental impact of a product, process, or service from material growth (or production) to waste management i.e. over the entire lifecycle.
The effects upon the environment can be either advantageous or disadvantageous, and include effects upon human health as well.
These effects are known as the ‘ecological footprint’ of a product or service.
An LCA is all about collecting and assessing quantitative data on the input and output of material, energy, and waste, which are attached to the entire lifecycle of a product, so as to determine the environmental effects.
(CAPEM Agrodome ’11)

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)
Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.
(EESC ’11)