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Cited by 2,753Environmental Impact and SustainabilityAgriculture Sustainability and Environmental ImpactChemistry and Chemical Engineering

Life cycle assessment

Rebitzer, G., Ekvall, T., Frischknecht, R., Hunkeler, D., Norris, G., Rydberg, T., Schmidt, W.-P., Suh, S. +2 more·2004·Environment International
DOI 10.1016/j.envint.2003.11.005
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Abstract

Sustainable development requires methods and tools to measure and compare the environmental impacts of human activities for the provision of goods and services (both of which are summarized under the term "products"). Environmental impacts include those from emissions into the environment and through the consumption of resources, as well as other interventions (e.g., land use) associated with providing products that occur when extracting resources, producing materials, manufacturing the products, during consumption/use, and at the products' end-of-life (collection/sorting, reuse, recycling, waste disposal). These emissions and consumptions contribute to a wide range of impacts, such as climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, tropospheric ozone (smog) creation, eutrophication, acidification, toxicological stress on human health and ecosystems, the depletion of resources, water use, land use, and noise-among others. A clear need, therefore, exists to be proactive and to provide complimentary insights, apart from current regulatory practices, to help reduce such impacts. Practitioners and researchers from many domains come together in life cycle assessment (LCA) to calculate indicators of the aforementioned potential environmental impacts that are linked to products-supporting the identification of opportunities for pollution prevention and reductions in resource consumption while taking the entire product life cycle into consideration. This paper, part 1 in a series of two, introduces the LCA framework and procedure, outlines how to define and model a product's life cycle, and provides an overview of available methods and tools for tabulating and compiling associated emissions and resource consumption data in a life cycle inventory (LCI). It also discusses the application of LCA in industry and policy making. The second paper, by Pennington et al. (Environ. Int. 2003, in press), highlights the key features, summarises available approaches, and outlines the key challenges of assessing the aforementioned inventory data in terms of contributions to environmental impacts (life cycle impact assessment, LCIA).

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  • Life cycle assessment may be used to quantify environmental emissions throughout the life cycle of various processes.

    “This type of assessment may be used to quantify environmental emissions throughout the life cycle of various processes, which will be detailed in the following sections [141].”

    From Anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste for biogas production and sustainable bioenergy recovery: a review (2024) · cites this paper as [141]

  • Selection of the functional unit is crucial, often quantified as biogas yield per metric ton of agricultural waste or per unit of energy generated.

    “The selection of the functional unit is crucial, often quantified as the biogas yield per metric ton of agricultural waste or per unit of energy generated [141].”

    From Anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste for biogas production and sustainable bioenergy recovery: a review (2024) · cites this paper as [141]

  • Life cycle assessment tool has a general framework, and implementation includes stages: goal and scope definition, system boundaries, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and results interpretation.

    “Life cycle assessment tool has a general framework, and the implementation of such studies includes several stages, i.e., (i) definition of the goal and scope of the study, (ii) defining the system boundaries, (ii) collection and adaptation of life cycle inventory, (iv) conducting the life cycle impact assessment, and (v) results interpretation [141].”

    From Anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste for biogas production and sustainable bioenergy recovery: a review (2024) · cites this paper as [141]

  • Several databases have been constructed in recent decades to facilitate life cycle inventory and minimize the repetition of data collection.

    “Nevertheless, several databases have been constructed in recent decades to facilitate life cycle inventory and minimize the repetition of data collection [141].”

    From Anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste for biogas production and sustainable bioenergy recovery: a review (2024) · cites this paper as [141]

  • The challenge in using recommender systems for climate-friendly options lies in hunting down usable data on every relevant material and production process from metal ore extraction through production, shipping, and eventual use and disposal of a product.

    “The challenge here lies in hunting down usable data on every relevant material and production process from metal ore extraction through production, shipping, and eventual use and disposal of a product [336,674].”

    From Tackling climate change with machine learning (2023) · cites this paper as [674]

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Authors
Rebitzer, G., Ekvall, T., Frischknecht, R., Hunkeler, D., Norris, G., Rydberg, T., Schmidt, W.-P., Suh, S., Weidema, B. P., & Pennington, D. W.
Affiliations
  • École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
  • Chalmers University of Technology (SE)
  • ESU-Services (Switzerland) (CH)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • European Commission (BE)
  • Ford (Germany) (DE)
  • Leiden University (NL)
  • 2.-0 LCA Consultants (Denmark) (DK)
Corresponding author
Rebitzer, G.
ORCID
Venue
Environment International
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2004-07
Volume
30
Issue
5
Pages
701-720
ISSN
0160-4120 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.envint.2003.11.005
OpenAlex
W1535028519
Cited by
2,753
References
90
Citations by year
2026: 106 · 2025: 135 · 2024: 131 · 2023: 123 · 2022: 122 · 2021: 162 · 2020: 157 · 2019: 159 · 2018: 133 · 2017: 123 · 2016: 137 · 2015: 193 · 2014: 201 · 2013: 190 · 2012: 141
FWCI
6.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Environment International (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Keywords
life cycle assessment, life cycle inventory, environmental impact, product life cycle, emission data, resource consumption, pollution prevention, sustainable development, environmental impact assessment
MeSH terms
Conservation of Natural Resources, Environment, Environmental Pollution, Industry, Manufactured Materials, Models, Theoretical, Policy Making, Ecosystem

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