Life cycle assessment

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has produced a standardised ISO-certified method and management tool called the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and it is widely considered that this tool is the most appropriate to evaluate the environmental impact of industrial activities. A LCA quantifies and assesses the emissions, resources consumed and pressures on human health and the environment that can be attributed to different goods and services throughout their life cycle. It seeks to quantify all physical exchanges with the environment, sometimes termed the ‘cradle to grave’ method. The key aim is to avoid burden shifting – meaning to avoid that minimising impacts at one stage of the life cycle leads to larger increases elsewhere.