![openlca building study openlca building study](https://www.mdpi.com/sustainability/sustainability-13-09625/article_deploy/html/images/sustainability-13-09625-g001-550.jpg)
You classify the environmental impacts, evaluate them by what is most important to your company, and translate them into environmental themes such as global warming or human health. In the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), you draw the conclusions that allow you to make better business decisions. Read how the inventory analysis helped Lucite understand the environmental impacts of plastic products >.Together, this gives you the complete picture.
![openlca building study openlca building study](https://www.openlca.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/trucks-300x207.png)
Environmental outputs – which your product’s life cycle puts out into the environment – include the emission of pollutants and the waste streams. An example of an environmental input – something you take out of the environment to put into the product’s life cycle – is the use of raw materials and energy. In the inventory analysis, you look at all the environmental inputs and outputs associated with a product or service. Inventory analysis of extractions and emissions
#Openlca building study how to#
In this sense, every LCA you do not only gives you valuable advice to make changes in your business, it also tells you how to best plan your next LCA to learn even more. Or the results of the assessment or your interpretation may nudge you to revise your goal and scope. For instance, the first round of analysis may tell you that you need more data. LCA is an iterative methodology, where you refine things as you go along.
#Openlca building study iso#
The standards are provided by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) in ISO 1404, and describe the four main phases of an LCA: LCA is a standardized methodology, which gives it its reliability and transparency. The interesting thing about a life cycle model is that you can use it to perform a variety of assessments whatever matches best matches your business needs right now. There are also many LCA-related assessments, such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), studies compliant with a product- or sector-specific standards, single-issues analyses like the carbon or water footprint, social LCA and long-term monitoring studies. A report for internal use has fewer requirements than a report that will be used for marketing or other external communication. Rule of thumb is that the more detail you want, the more complete your LCA needs to be. And product designers can explore how their design choices affect the sustainability of the products. A purchasing department of a company can learn which suppliers have the most sustainable products and methods. Consumers can learn how sustainable a product is. Your LCA results can help you improve your product development, marketing, strategic planning and even policymaking.
![openlca building study openlca building study](https://i1.rgstatic.net/publication/271852132_Life-cycle_Assessment_for_the_Production_of_Bioethanol_in_Colombia_by_Using_Openlca/links/54da6def0cf2ba88a68d3243/largepreview.png)
With LCA, you can evaluate the environmental impacts of your product or service from the very first to the very last or from cradle to grave. Every part of a product’s life cycle – extraction of materials from the environment, the production of the product, the use phase and what happens to the product after it is no longer used – can have an impact on the environment in many ways. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the factual analysis of a product’s entire life cycle in terms of sustainability.