Journal Article10.1021/ES101316V
Life Cycle Assessment: Past, Present, and Future†
Jeroen B. Guinée,Reinout Heijungs,Gjalt Huppes,Alessandra Zamagni,Paolo Masoni,Roberto Buonamici,Tomas Ekvall,Tomas Rydberg +7 more
TL;DR: LCA is evolving into LCSA, which is a transdisciplinary integration framework of models rather than a model in itself, which works with a plethora of disciplinary models and guides selecting the proper ones, given a specific sustainability question.
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Abstract: Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) has developed fast over the last three decades. Whereas LCA developed from merely energy analysis to a comprehensive environmental burden analysis in the 1970s, full-fledged life cycle impact assessment and life cycle costing models were introduced in the 1980s and 1990s, and social-LCA and particularly consequential LCA gained ground in the first decade of the 21st century. Many of the more recent developments were initiated to broaden traditional environmental LCA to a more comprehensive Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA). Recently, a framework for LCSA was suggested linking life cycle sustainability questions to knowledge needed for addressing them, identifying available knowledge and related models, knowledge gaps, and defining research programs to fill these gaps. LCA is evolving into LCSA, which is a transdisciplinary integration framework of models rather than a model in itself. LCSA works with a plethora of disciplinary models and guides selecting t...
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References
Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment.
Göran Finnveden,Michael Zwicky Hauschild,Tomas Ekvall,Jeroen B. Guinée,Reinout Heijungs,Stefanie Hellweg,Annette Koehler,David Pennington,Sangwon Suh +8 more
TL;DR: A review of recent developments of LCA methods, focusing on some areas where there has been an intense methodological development during the last years, and some of the emerging issues.
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•Book
Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment: Operational Guide to the ISO Standards
Jeroen B. Guinée
- 31 May 2002
TL;DR: The Guide to LCA is a guide to the management of LCA projects: procedures and guiding principles for the present Guide, which aims to clarify goal and scope definition, impact assessment, and interpretation.
2.9K
USEtox—the UNEP-SETAC toxicity model: recommended characterisation factors for human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity in life cycle impact assessment
Ralph K. Rosenbaum,Till M. Bachmann,Lois Swirsky Gold,Mark A. J. Huijbregts,Olivier Jolliet,Ronnie Juraske,Ronnie Juraske,Annette Koehler,Henrik Fred Larsen,Matthew MacLeod,Manuele Margni,Thomas E. McKone,Jérôme Payet,Marta Schuhmacher,Dik van de Meent,Michael Zwicky Hauschild +15 more
TL;DR: Usetox as discussed by the authors is a scientific consensus model that contains only the most influential model elements and is used to calculate CFs for several thousand substances and forms the basis of the recommendations from UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative regarding characterisation of toxic impacts in life cycle assessment.