Options for broadening and deepening the LCA approaches

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has matured over the past decades and become part of the broader field of sustainability assessment. To strengthen LCA as a tool and eventually increase its usefulness for sustainability decision-making, it is argued that there is a need to expand the ISO LCA framework by integration and connection with other concepts and methods. This paper explores the potential options for deepening and broadening the LCA methodologies beyond the current ISO framework for improved sustainability analysis. By investigating several environmental, economic and social assessment methods, the paper suggests some options for incorporating (parts of) other methods or combining with other methods for broadening and deepening the LCA.

[1]  Gerald Rebitzer,et al.  Methodology and application of Life Cycle costing , 2003 .

[2]  Lennart Olsson,et al.  Categorising tools for sustainability assessment , 2007 .

[3]  D W Pennington,et al.  Life cycle assessment: Part 1: Framework, goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, and applications , 2004 .

[4]  Robert U. Ayres,et al.  A Handbook of Industrial Ecology , 2002 .

[5]  R Fairman,et al.  Environmental Risk Assessment: Approaches, Experiences and Information Sources , 1998 .

[6]  Adisa Azapagic,et al.  An integrated sustainability decision-support framework Part I: Problem structuring , 2005 .

[7]  Helmut Rechberger,et al.  Practical handbook of material flow analysis , 2003 .

[8]  Adisa Azapagic,et al.  SYSTEMS APPROACH TO CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY A General Management Framework , 2003 .

[9]  Göran Finnveden,et al.  Environmental systems analysis tools – an overview , 2005 .

[10]  E. Wilson,et al.  Strategic Environmental Assessment , 1992 .

[11]  Walter Klöpffer,et al.  Analytical tools for environmental design and management in a systems perspective , 2012 .

[12]  Gjalt Huppes,et al.  Three Strategies to Overcome the Limitations of Life‐Cycle Assessment , 2004 .

[13]  R. Carlson,et al.  Relationships between Life Cycle Assessment and Risk Assessment Potentials and Obstacles , 2005 .

[14]  Matthew Asa Cashmore,et al.  The role of science in environmental impact assessment: process and procedure versus purpose in the development of theory , 2004 .

[15]  Carl J. Walters,et al.  Intergenerational discounting: a new intuitive approach , 2005 .

[16]  Carol Pettit,et al.  A life cycle methodology for mapping the flows of pollutants in the urban environment , 2007 .

[17]  S. Mourato,et al.  Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment: Recent Developments , 2006 .

[18]  Gjalt Huppes,et al.  Quantified eco-efficiency : an introduction with applications , 2007 .

[19]  Göran Finnveden,et al.  Exergies of natural resources in life-cycle assessment and other applications , 1997 .

[20]  Tomas Carlsson,et al.  Strategic environmental assessment methodologies--applications within the energy sector , 2003 .

[21]  G. Rebitzera,et al.  Life cycle assessment Part 1 : Framework , goal and scope definition , inventory analysis , and applications , 2004 .

[22]  Louise Camilla Dreyer,et al.  Feasibility Study: Integration of social aspects into LCA , 2006 .

[23]  Adisa Azapagic,et al.  An integrated sustainability decision-support framework Part II: Problem analysis , 2005 .

[24]  Henrikke Baumann,et al.  An evaluative framework for conceptual and analytical approaches used in environmental management , 1999 .

[25]  Arnold Tukker,et al.  Life cycle assessment as a tool in environmental impact assessment , 2000 .

[26]  Anna Björklund,et al.  Testing a SEA methodology for the energy sector: a waste incineration tax proposal , 2005 .

[27]  E. Hertwich Life cycle approaches to sustainable consumption: a critical review. , 2005, Environmental science & technology.

[28]  Ester van der Voet,et al.  Substance flow analysis methodology , 2002 .

[29]  Adisa Azapagic,et al.  Indicators of Sustainable Development for Industry: A General Framework , 2000 .

[30]  John Barrett,et al.  Sustainable Consumption and Production - Development of an Evidence Base: Resource Flows , 2006 .

[31]  Reinout Heijungs,et al.  From thermodynamic efficiency to eco-efficiency , 2007 .

[32]  Gjalt Huppes,et al.  Methods for Life Cycle Inventory of a product , 2005 .

[33]  Michael Srocka,et al.  How to obtain a precise and representative estimate for parameters in LCA , 2008 .

[34]  O. Rentz,et al.  Multi‐criteria Analysis for Technique Assessment:Case Study from Industrial Coating , 2005 .

[35]  L. Phillips,et al.  Multi-criteria analysis: a manual , 2009 .

[36]  S. Cowell,et al.  Use of Risk Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment in Decision Making: A Common Policy Research Agenda , 2002, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.