Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract Environmental Life Cycle Assessmen (LCA) of products has become an important tool for assessing the environmental impact of products and services from cradle‐to‐grave. One of LCA’s Leitmotivs is to get a full picture of the impacts of a product or service in order to find the best solutions for their improvement without shifting the impacts to other fields. LCA has become a core topic in the field of environmental management. In this article, the topic of LCA is introduced. The focus is on a discussion of LCA methodology. The four methodological phases (goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation) are explained. Steps distinguished within each phase are discussed with respect to methodological issues. These issues are illustrated with brief examples. Aspects of data, software, and procedures are separately discussed. Finally, LCA applications and the future of LCA are addressed.