Overview
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ABSTRACT
The life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comparative tool for environmental assessment of any human activity. The realization of an LCA takes place in four stages: goals definition, inventory of input and output, assessment of potential impacts on the environment and interpretation. The objective of this article is to present this tool in an exhaustive and synthetic way. This article first presents the LCA history. It then describes the main methodological steps. The last parts focus on its applications and limitations.
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Patrick Rousseaux: Professor at the University of Poitiers, - Doctorate in waste management and treatment from INSA Lyon, - Institut Pprime, CNRS UPR 3346, IRIAF, Niort, France
INTRODUCTION
There are various environmental assessment methods (impact assessment
One of the latest environmental assessment methods to be proposed is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Today, this method is covered by two standards: ISO 14040:2006, specifying the principles and framework for carrying out LCAs, revised by an amendment in 2020, and ISO 14044:2006, specifying the requirements and guidelines for carrying out LCAs, revised by two amendments in 2018 and 2020.
LCA makes it possible to assess the potential environmental impacts of an anthroposystem (a product, process or service) over its entire life cycle. Two specific features distinguish LCA from other environmental assessment methods: the notion of "life cycle" and the quantification of environmental impacts.
According to ISO, the life cycle is the set of "consecutive and linked phases of an anthroposystem, from the acquisition of raw materials or the generation of natural resources to final disposal". This concept allows us to take into account all the...
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KEYWORDS
substainable dévelopment | life cycle | environmental assessment | decision aid
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Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Bibliography
Websites
United Nations, Report of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment
Standards and norms
- Environmental management – Lifecycle analysis – Principles and framework - 14040 - 2006
- Environmental management – Lifecycle analysis – Requirements and guidelines - ISO 14044 - 2006
- (documentation booklet) Environmental management – Lifecycle analysis – Definition, ethics and methodology - NF X30-300 - 1996
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