The development of life cycle assessment methods and applications

摘要: Momentum is gaining towards understanding the environmental impacts of human activities–where they occur and to what degree. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has much to offer in this regard, provided there is sufficient methodological rigour, standardisation and data to enable genuinely comparative studies and reliable results to be generated. Despite an internationally agreed scientific approach enshrined in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards (14040 series), there remain various routes to consider the material and energy flows across processes in a supply chain–and therefore various possible outcomes of this consideration. As LCA practice has developed through a combination of empirical and theoretical advances, so this development has influenced both contemporary LCA studies and the range of approaches used today.Interest in the application of LCA has grown steadily since the early 1990s. From relatively few organisations interested primarily in resource extraction (eg BHP Billiton and Pioneer), LCA activity widened rapidly to encompass activities as diverse as building material manufacturing, furniture production, food and beverage packaging supply chains, and water utility companies. Government departments are using LCA increasingly and exploring means by which it can provide input to policy development for a range of purposes from procurement to carbon trading. Concurrently, researchers have been developing methods and datasets in an effort to refine and improve LCA quality.