Life cycle assessment

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It has been suggested that Life cycle analysis, Life cycle energy analysis and NMVOC be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

A life cycle analysis and assessment (also known as life cycle analysis, life cycle inventory, Ecobalance, cradle to grave analysis, well-to-wheel analysis, material flow analysis and dust to dust energy cost) is the assessment of the environmental impact of a given product or service throughout its lifespan.

The goal of LCA is to compare the environmental performance of products and services to be able to choose the least burdening one. The term 'life cycle' refers to the notion that for a fair, holistic assessment the raw material production, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal including all intervening transportation steps need to be assessed. This is then the 'life cycle' of the product. The concept can also be used to optimize the environmental performance of a single product (ecodesign) or to optimize the environmental performance of a company. The term 'emergy' is often used as an analysis tool to determine embodied energy.

When thinking about LCA the so called pollution through usage in the broad sense is also taken into account. For example when performing the LCA of a hydro electrical power plant, not only construction pollution is considered, but also the decay in biomass is accounted for. This means that flooded land on which biomass was growing cannot absorb CO2 anymore. This biomass decay is therefore referred to as CO2E. (equivalent)

Common categories of assessed damages are global warming (greenhouse gases), acidification, summer smog, ozone layer depletion, eutrophication, ecotoxic and anthropotoxic pollutants, desertification.