Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle analysis technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life, which is from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, and use (V.Muralikrishna & Manickam, 2017).
An LCA study consists of four stages (V.Muralikrishna & Manickam, 2017):
Goal and scope aim to define how big a part of product life cycle will be taken in assessment and to what end will assessment be serving. The criteria serving to system comparison and specific times are described in this step.
Inventory analysis gives a description of material and energy flows within the product system and especially its interaction with environment, consumed raw materials, and emissions to the environment. All-important processes and subsidiary energy and material flows are described later.
Details from inventory analysis serve for Impact assessment. The indicator results of all impact categories are detailed in this step; the importance of every impact category is assessed by normalization and eventually also by weighting.
Interpretation of a life cycle involves critical review, determination of data sensitivity, and result presentation.
