Page 181 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Chapter 10
Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Ralph K. Rosenbaum, Michael Z. Hauschild, Anne-Marie Boulay,
Peter Fantke, Alexis Laurent, Montserrat Núñez and Marisa Vieira

Abstract This chapter is dedicated to the third phase of an LCA study, the Life Cycle
Impact Assessment (LCIA) where the life cycle inventory’s information on elementary
flows is translated into environmental impact scores. In contrast to the three other LCA
phases, LCIA is in practice largely automated by LCA software, but the underlying
principles, models and factors should still be well understood by practitioners to ensure
the insight that isneeded for a qualifiedinterpretationof the results. This chapter teaches
the fundamentals of LCIA and opens the black box of LCIA with its characterisation
models and factors to inform the reader about: (1) the main purpose and characteristics
of LCIA, (2) the mandatory and optional steps of LCIA according to the ISO standard,
and (3) the science and methods underlying the assessment for each environmental
impact category. For each impact category, the reader is taken through (a) the under-
lying environmental problem, (b) the underlying environmental mechanism and its
fundamental modelling principles, (c) the main anthropogenic sources causing the
problem and (d) the main methods available in LCIA. An annex to this book offers a
comprehensive qualitative comparison of the main elements and properties of the most
widely used and also the latest LCIA methods for each impact category, to further assist
the advanced practitioner to make an informed choice between LCIA methods.

R.K. Rosenbaum (&) M. Núñez
IRSTEA, UMR ITAP, ELSA Research Group and ELSA-PACT Industrial Chair
for Environmental and Social Sustainability Assessment,
361 rue Jean-François Breton, BP 5095, 34196 Montpellier, France
e-mail: ralph.rosenbaum@irstea.fr
M.Z. Hauschild P. Fantke A. Laurent
Division for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Department of Management
Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
A.-M. Boulay
LIRIDE, Sherbrooke University, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
M. Vieira
PRé Consultants bv, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
A.-M. Boulay
CIRAIG, Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 167
M.Z. Hauschild et al. (eds.), Life Cycle Assessment,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56475-3_10