ILCD Handbook: Framework and requirements for LCIA models and ...

ILCD Handbook: Framework and requirements for LCIA models and indicators First edition
1 Introduction
The concept of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) and its associated quantitative tool Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) are increasingly – and globally - used in the development,
implementation, and monitoring of environmental and industrial policies within both public
and private sectors. Most importantly, Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment help to avoid
resolving one environmental problem while creating another, the so-called ―shifting of
burdens‖.
Life Cycle Assessment is a structured, internationally standardised method 1 for quantifying
the emissions, resources consumed and environmental and health impacts that are
associated with goods and services (―products‖). LCAs take into account the product‘s full life
cycle: from the extraction of resources, production, use and recycling to the disposal of the
remaining waste.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) consists of 4 phases (ISO 14044):
1. Goal and Scope definition.
2. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI).
3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA).
4. Interpretation.
In a Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), inventories of emissions and resources
consumed are assessed in terms of impacts. This is achieved using indicators for ‗Human
Health‘, ‗Natural Environment‘, and ‗Natural Resources‘. Since the early 1990s, numerous
LCIA methodologies 2 have been developed. The existence of several different
methodologies has sometimes created unnecessary confusion partly due to differing
results, depending on the methodology chosen.
Although the ISO guidelines on Life Cycle Assessment brought some standardization to a
general framework, they did not provide a technically-detailed standardisation. The UNEP-
SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, aided further developments towards consensus and a
recommended best practice, and this work has since been complemented by the activities of
many other organisations, such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US
EPA) and the European Commission. This brought LCIA closer to rigorous standardisation
and resulted in landmark recommendations on the best approaches and underlying
principles to follow (see Udo de Haes et al. 2002). The key results of these developments
include:
a consensus on the need to merge the so-called models for calculating midpoint
indicators, such as CO2 equivalents, and associated endpoint indicators, such as
ecosystem impacts for climate change, in one consistent, integrated framework to
combine the advantages of both midpoints and endpoints (Bare et al., 1999, Bare et al.,
2000);
a generic set of criteria for assessing different methods, and the application of these
criteria on the most widely used impact assessment methods (Udo de Haes et al., 2002,
Margni et al., 2008); and
1 See ISO 14040, 14044
2 Throughout this document an ―LCIA methodology‖ refers to a collection of individual characterisation
―models‖ or characterisation ―methods‖ that together address the different impact categories, which
are covered by the methodology. ―Method‖ is thus the individual characterisation model while
―methodology‖ is the collection of methods.
1 Introduction 1