Page 23 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

4 LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT HANDBOOK

Management headed by Pieter Winsemius. After the first stage of environ-
mental policy, with command-and-control instruments directed at main
sources, there was a shift to a systems view, and to a more general formula-
tion of environmental policy goals in the Dutch Environmental Policy Plans,
see also Winsemius (1990, original 1986). This shift from a source-oriented to
an effect-oriented approach created a domain for environmental LCA from
an environmental policy point of view, as contrasted to a business long-term
cost view or a consumer interest point of view. Winsemius coined the envi-
ronmental themes approach now dominant in LCA, looking for integration
over the environmental compartments policies regarding water, air and soil.
His overall policy strategy was based on now familiar themes: Acidification;
eutrophication; diffusion of (toxic) substances; disposal of waste; and dis-
turbance (including noise, odour, and local-only air pollution). Somewhat
later, further national policy themes were added: climate change; dehydra-
tion; and squandering.
The theme-oriented policy formed the basis for a broadened view on envi-
ronmental policy, now covering complementary entries like volume policy,
product policy and substance policy. In their implementation it was no lon-
ger only chimneys and sewers but also people and organisations: the target
groups of environmental policy, several groups of producers and consumers.
The responsibility for consequences of actions shifted to these target groups,
which had to internalise the goals of environmental policy as specified using
the themes approach. If, how, and why this internalization happened is a sub-
ject of much debate; see de Roo (2003) for a first analysis. For doing so, the new
metrics of the themes were most appropriate, indicating the environmental
performance of business and consumers in a unified collective framework, that
of (generalized) public environmental policy. Private organizations may have
ideas on what themes should constitute the impact assessment. It is the col-
lective point of view that creates the relevance of LCA outcomes. The themes
approach remained specifically Dutch for a short while only. It inspired envi-
ronmental policy of the EU; see the historic survey by Liefferink (1997). It was
incorporated in LCA in an operational manner beginning in the Nineties, as the
Life Cycle Impact Assessment method now dominant in LCA, of course with
additions and adaptations. In the US the themes approach was not dominant
in environmental policy, with more emphasis there on CBA. That probably
was the reason that the introduction of the themes approach in environmental
LCA followed later there.
It is an open question now if and how Life Cycle Impact Assessment can be
linked to environmental themes as goals of public policy. These goals might
be - but need not be - the goals of a specific country or of the EU. Public policy
goals set as targets, for example as emission reduction targets for a substance,
lack the integrative power of the themes approach. Goals set as general wel-
fare maximation lack the link to specific domains of action. Themes can make
the link. Also because product systems and LCA increasingly become global,
passing the policy goals of specific countries, the foundations for the themes in
LCA impact assessment should be clarified.