Life-Cycle Assessment

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) aims at comparing the environmental performance of products. It is an environmental accounting method that tries to quantify the inputs and outputs throughout the life cycle of a product, assess the effects of environmental loa dings, and reduce the associated environmental burden. LCA is also the foundation for the eco-impact analysis in DfE software.

The methodology behind software tools that support LCA is to calculate the outputs during a product's life cycle and translate them into environmental effects o r damage. That's why these tools need detailed information on manufacturing processes, materials, and energy use held in a large database that describes generic manufacturing processes and their emissions (see the figure "Architecture of DfE Software" ).

Because the evaluation depends so much on the quality of the database, critics say LCA usually reveals that whatever design you chose is best. Proponents, however, argue that LCA brings a desperately needed quantitative, rational element to environmental decision-making. Despite these debates, industry and government are increasingly accepting LCA, especially in Europe.

---

Architecture of DfE Software

illustration_link (24 Kbytes)