Life Cycle Analysis – How to assess the potential environmental aspect of a product?

 

The Life Cycle Assessment approach has been used since 1970. First of all, in the context of Oil-Shock, it was used by the industry to link the production and transportation of products to the energy cost. Then the focus grown up to the environmental impacts of activities since 1990. The approach is now standardized by ISO 14 040 and ISO 14 044.

 

The Life cycle assessment is a technical study based on the analysis of the potential environmental impacts of a product, it is defined by three main pillars:

  • Gathering the maximum of inputs and output information related to the product,
  • Considere all of the environmental impacts associated to these characteristics,
  • Explain and interpret the LCA results and the environmental impacts.

The goal of this study is to provide a deep analysis of the environmental impact of those materials.

 

The Life cycle assessment is composed by the following steps:

  • The production part; the raw material supplying, the manufacturing of product and the transportation.
  • The construction part; the distribution of the product, its transportation and its installation
  • The utilization; the maintenance of the product, the repairs and its operation
  • The end of life; the demolition of the product, and its transportation recycling.

 

In order to decide the materials to employ in the project while considerate their environmental impacts, the Life-Cycle-Assessment study should be performed in different design stage in order to ease the decision making.


TERAO will use the ISO 14040 Standard methodology to carry out a LCA. If you need this kind of analysis to better understand the environmental impact of your materials, feel free to contact us at nieong@teraochina.cn for further information. We would be pleased to explain more about the LCA regarding your project.

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