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Triple bottom line, sustainability and sustainability assessment, an overview 57

the use of LCA in other decision context, including in policy making, is not
yet completely deployed.
The European Commission has released a Communication on Better
regulation (CEC, 2015a) in order to improve the policy making process.
The Communication is complemented with a Better Regulation toolbox
(CEC, 2015b) which lists models and methods to be used for assessing
impacts and benefits of policies, in the so-called policy impact assessment
step. Within the toolbox, life cycle assessment is listed among the models,
which may support the environmental assessment of impact and benefits
associated to different policy options (Sala et al., 2016).

4.1 Life cycle assessment
Life cycle assessment is a standardized methodology (ISO, 2006) for assessing
potential environmental impacts associated to a product, a process, or a sys-
tem, along its life cycle, namely, from the extraction of raw material to the
end of life. The main steps of LCA are reported in Fig. 3.3. The goal and
scope of the study define the system to be assessed. Based on the goal and
scope, the inventory of all resource and emissions—happening during the
different life cycle stage—is collected in the life cycle inventory. The inven-
tory is subsequently characterized by means of environmental model in the
life cycle impact assessment step. Finally, the interpretation of the results is a
critical step to ensure that all the elements of the study are properly captured.
By accounting for inputs and outputs (respectively, materials, energy,
and emissions) at each step of the product life cycle, LCA supports the iden-
tification of hotspot of impacts and allows the comparison of options. The
LCA is a multicriteria assessment methodology as it covers a wide variety of
pressures and impacts associated with human health, ecosystem health, and
resources. The LCA is one of the methodologies that makes the Life Cycle
Thinking (LCT) operational; in particular, LCA is widely recognized the
state of the art relating to the environmental dimension of sustainability
(Sala et al., 2013a,b; Finnveden and Moberg, 2005).
Life cycle assessment may play a relevant role all along the decision mak-
ing process. Indeed, the life cycle perspective and the systemic approach to
the evaluation of options is a crucial added value. However, when the scope
of the assessment changes from the product (micro) scale to the system
(meso-macro) scale, several improvements are required to benefit the most
from the LCA methodology. Suitable frameworks, methods, and tools for
system analysis are needed to properly develop sustainable policies on, for