Life Cycle Assessment

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of consumer products and industrial processes has become an important tool for assessing their potential cradle‐to‐grave environmental impacts. The key benefit of conducting an LCA is to get the full picture of the impacts of a product, process, or activity in order to find the best solutions for their improvement. LCA has become a core topic in the field of environmental management and is considered essential for achieving sustainability goals. In this article, an overview of LCA methodology is given along with brief descriptions of the four methodological phases: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation. Relevant examples are provided, and aspects of data, software, and procedures are discussed. Finally, LCA applications and future outlook are addressed.