Page 18 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Preface

For a growing number of companies, global diversity is a business imperative.
Manufacturing operations have increasingly become technically and geographically
diverse in the sourcing of resources, manufacturing and assembly operations,
usage, and final disposal. This expansion, along with a growing awareness of
sustainability and the responsibilities to the environmental, economic, and social
dimensions that go with it, has prompted environmental managers and decision
makers everywhere to look holistically, from cradle to grave, at products and
services. The need for a tool that helps users obtain data and information to
accurately and consistently measure the resource consumption and environmental
aspects of their activities has never been more acute. Most importantly, people
now realize that decisions should not lead to improving one part of the industrial
system at the expense of another. In other words, the identification and avoidance
of unintended consequences are essential in the decision making process. Out
of this need came Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). What started as an approach
to compare the environmental goodness (greenness) of products has developed
into a standardized method for providing a sound scientific basis for product
stewardship in industry and government. When used within an environmental
sustainability framework, LCA ultimately helps to advance the sustainability of
products and processes as well as promote society's economic and social activities.
When I set out to create the "latest and greatest" book on Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA), I had three very specific goals in mind. First, I wanted it to be comprehensive,
covering every possible facet of methodology and application. This was quite a
challenge, given the ever-growing scope that LCA has reached over the years. As
can be seen in the table of contents, the subject is addressed from a wide range
of perspectives and in many applications. Note, however, that this book is not a
"how to" manual with step-by-step instructions for conducting an LCA. Instead,
I designed this book to explain what LCA is, and, just as importantly, what it is
not. The immense popularity of the "life cycle" concept led to its use in a variety
of assessment approaches, even in those approaches that are focused on a single
environmental aspect. For example, LCA is often used in writing about carbon
accounting. In these times of heightened concern over climate change, indi-
viduals and organizations alike are eager to measure the release and impact of
greenhouse gases. But the results only address climate change and not the other
equally important impacts. The exact meaning of the methodology is frequently
misunderstood, resulting in carbon footprint and LCA being used synonymously,
and incorrectly so. By narrowing an assessment to a single issue of concern, the
results will not reflect the important benefit that LCA offers of identifying potential

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