Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology for evaluating the environmental impact of a product or service across its entire life cycle. First applied in the United States in the energy sector during the 1960s, LCA quantifies environmental information including carbon footprint.
LCA analyzes resource consumption and environmental impact at each stage of the production process — from raw material extraction, processing, and assembly through transportation, use, and disposal — and measures the effect of decarbonization efforts. It can reveal a wide range of environmental impacts including carbon footprint, ozone layer effects, acid rain, and eutrophication. This information plays an important role in building a circular economy, finding practical application in areas such as eco-friendly product design, green marketing strategy, evaluation of environmental target achievement, and identification of improvements to reduce environmental burden.
[Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ⓒESG.ONL]
As interest in sustainability continues to grow, LCA is being applied with increasing frequency. However, the methodology also has its limitations — including the difficulty of data collection, the time and cost involved, and the need to account for variability arising from regional or temporal differences.
by Editor O