Page 100 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

96 5. Development and applicability of life cycle impact assessment methodologies

Assessment outline—a practical guide was published, marking the formal start of research into
LCA methodology.
There are four correlative states making up the LCA, which are: (1) goal and scope defi-
nition; (2) inventory analysis; (3) impact assessment; and (4) interpretation, as shown in
Fig. 5.1 (ISO, 2006a). The purposes of LCA can be: (1) comparison of alternative products, pro-
cesses, or services; (2) comparison of alternative life cycles for a certain product or service; or
(3) identification of parts of the life cycle where the greatest improvements can be made (Roy
et al., 2009). In 1997, the International Standardization Organization (ISO) enacted Environ-
mental management—life cycle assessment—principles and framework (ISO, 2006a) on the basis
of SETAC and incorporated LCA into this standard series, putting forward the basic princi-
ples and frameworks of LCA by the international standard form (ISO, 2006a; Czyrnek-Del^ etre
et al., 2017).
The LCA is an assessment tool used to evaluate life cycle impact and resource utilization of
a product, a process, or an activity (Khang et al., 2017). It has been used in many domains since
its birth, such as energy, chemistry, food, agriculture, building materials, and so on (Lundie
and Peters, 2005; Thomassen et al., 2008; Reno ´ et al., 2011; Nemecek et al., 2011; Restianti and
Gheewala, 2012; Valderrama et al., 2012; Garrett and Ronde, 2013). Software came into being
to improve the efficiency of an LCA, because of its strong systematic nature, wide-ranging
aspects, and a great deal of work. At present, the most popular pieces of LCA software world-
wide are SimaPro and Gabi. SimaPro was invented by PR e Consultants in Netherlands and
Gabi was invented by PE International in Germany (PR e-Consultants, 2014; Pe-International,
2014; Van Genderen et al., 2016). Different forms of LCA software integrate a large number of
universal databases and environmental impact assessment models. The complicated process
of modeling LCA and environmental impact analysis has been simplified, which can make
LCA practitioners concentrate on researching core data and improve their work efficiency.
Sustainability science is a solution-oriented discipline, whose core scientific question is
how to evaluate and improve sustainability reasonably (Robert et al., 2005; Mihelcic et al.,
2003). Life cycle thought can support sustainability assessment. As there are many environ-
mental policies in Europe, sustainable consumption and production implementation plans
and European resource efficiency plans are supported by life cycle thought (Sala et al.,
2013). Andersson et al. (1998) tested the feasibility of incorporating the sustainable principle
into each stage of an LCA, which was the first attempt to apply LCA to sustainability

FIG. 5.1 Stages of an LCA (Czyrnek-
Life cycle assessment framework
Del^ etre et al., 2017).
Goal and
scope Direct application:
definition -Product development
Interpretation -Public policy making
and improvement
Inventory -Strategic planning
analysis -Marketing

Impact -Other
assessment