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Life-cycle assessment (LCA or life cycle analysis) is a technique used to assess potential environmental impacts of a product at different stages of its life. This technique takes a "cradle-to-grave" or a "cradle-to-cradle" approach and looks at environmental impacts that occur throughout the lifetime of a product from raw material extraction, manufacturing and processing, distribution, use ...
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is sometimes referred to synonymously as life cycle analysis in the scholarly and agency report literatures. [7] [1] [8] Also, due to the general nature of an LCA study of examining the life cycle impacts from raw material extraction (cradle) through disposal (grave), it is sometimes referred to as "cradle-to-grave analysis".
A life cycle analysis is often conducted when assessing the sustainability of a product or prototype. [38] The decision to choose materials is heavily weighted on its longevity, renewability, and efficiency. These factors ensure that researchers are conscious of community values that align with positive environmental, social, and economic ...
Life-cycle assessment is a "composite measure of sustainability." [19] It analyses the environmental performance of products and services through all phases of their life cycle: extracting and processing raw materials; manufacturing, transportation and distribution; use, re-use, maintenance; recycling, and final disposal.
ESA studies aims at describing the environmental repercussions of defined human activities. These activities are mostly effective through use of different technologies altering material and energy flows, or (in)directly changing ecosystems (e.g. through changed land-use, agricultural practices, logging etc.), leading to undesired environmental impacts in a, more or less, specifically defined ...
Design for the environment (DfE) is a design approach to reduce the overall human health and environmental impact of a product, process or service, where impacts are considered across its life cycle. Different software tools have been developed to assist designers in finding optimized products or processes/services.
Life cycle thinking can be applied to the five stages of the waste management hierarchy. For example, life-cycle analysis has shown that it is often better for the environment to replace an old washing machine, despite the waste generated, than to continue to use an older machine which is less energy-efficient. This is because a washing machine ...
Life cycle engineering is defined in the CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering as: "the engineering activities which include the application of technological and scientific principles to manufacturing products with the goal of protecting the environment, conserving resources, encouraging economic progress, keeping in mind social concerns, and the need for sustainability, while optimizing ...