Life Cycle Assessment

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Table of contents

• What is life cycle assessment? …………….………………3

• The four components of LCA …………………….……….4

• What is life cycle assessment goals? ………….……4-5

• What are the limitations of Life

cycle assessment? ………………………………………………………..6

• Life cycle assessment uses………..……………………………6-7

• What is the process of building

material LCA? …………………………………………………………….…..7

• How does LCA affect LEED certificate?...............8

• References ……………………………………………………………….……….9

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What is life cycle assessment (LCA)? (1)
Life cycle assessment or LCA (also known as life cycle analysis) is a
methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the
stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. For
instance, in the case of a manufactured product, environmental impacts are
assessed from raw material extraction and processing (cradle), through the
product's manufacture, distribution and use, to the recycling or final disposal
of the materials composing it (grave).

Figure (1): Life cycle assessment stages

LCA studies all the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a
product's life cycle from raw material extraction through materials
processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and
disposal or recycling.

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The four components of LCA (3)

1. Goal definition and scoping: identifying the LCA's purpose and the
expected products of the study, and determining the boundaries (what
is and is not included in the study) and assumptions based upon the
goal definition.
2. Life-cycle inventory: quantifying the energy and raw material inputs and
environmental releases associated with each stage of production.
3. Impact analysis: assessing the impacts on human health and the
environment associated with energy and raw material inputs and
environmental releases quantified by the inventory.
4. Improvement analysis: evaluating opportunities to reduce energy,
material inputs, or environmental impacts at each stage of the product
life-cycle.

What are life cycle assessment goals? (4)

• The general categories of environmental impacts needing consideration

include resource use, human health, and ecological consequences.

• Therefore, the goal of LCA is to document and improve the overall

environmental profile of the product, to compare the full range of
environmental effects assignable to products and services by
quantifying all inputs and outputs of material flows and assessing how
these material flows affect the environment.

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• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) also aims to quantify the environmental
impacts that arise from material inputs and outputs, such as energy use
or air emissions, over a product’s entire life cycle to assist consumers in
making decisions that will benefit the environment. LCA is typically a
"cradle-to-grave" approach, which begins with the gathering of raw
materials from the earth to create the product and ends at the point
when all materials are returned to the earth.

Figure (2): Inputs and outputs over a product’s life cycle

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What are the limitations of Life cycle assessment? (1)
• The limitations of LCA to focus solely on the ecological aspects of
sustainability, and not the economical or social aspects. This limitation
was made deliberately to avoid method overload, but recognizes these
factors should not be ignored when making product decisions.

• LCAs can also be costly and time-consuming, thus limiting their use as
analysis techniques in both the public and private sectors.

• Streamlined techniques for conducting LCAs are needed to lower the

cost and time involved with LCA and to encourage a broader audience
to begin using LCA.

Life cycle assessment uses (2)

• Life-cycle assessment has emerged as a valuable decision-support tool

for both policy makers and industry in assessing the cradle-to-grave
impacts of a product or process.

• Major corporations all over the world are either undertaking LCA in
house or commissioning studies, while governments support the
development of national databases to support LCA.

• Third-party certification plays a major role in today's industry, and third-

party certified LCA-based labels provide an increasingly important basis
for assessing the relative environmental merits of competing products.

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 • In particular, such independent certification is described as indicating a
company's dedication to providing clients with safe and
environmentally friendly products.

• LCA also has major roles in environmental impact assessment,

integrated waste management and pollution studies.

What is the process of building material LCA? (1)

The process includes the study of the transport of materials their packaging
and the disposal of said packaging as well as the embodied energy required
to construct. This is compared against international standards using LCA
databases, tools, and models, to attempt to fully understand the smallest
implications that production and construction has on the environment the
focus being for understanding of the effects to become a more important
part of sustainable design.

. Figure(3): Life cycle assessment process

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How does LCA affect LEED certificate? (5)(6)
Achieving building life-cycle impact reduction credits (MR) in LEED v4 and
v4.1 (13 points in LEED v4.1)
Conducting a whole-building life-cycle assessment to reduce impact helps you
earn credits in LEED Building Design and Construction (BD+C), v4. The latest
version, LEED v4.1, encourages wider adoption of LCA by offering a credit for
completing a whole building LCA, even if no improvements are
demonstrated.
LEED v4.1 BD+C MR Building Life-cycle Impact Reduction An LCA of the
project’s structure and enclosure must be completed with up to four credits
available depending on the impact reduction achieved – see the summary
table below.

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References

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_assessment#cite_note-7

(2) https://sftool.gov/plan/400/life-cycle-assessment

(3) https://www.gdrc.org/uem/lca/lca-define.html

(4) https://sftool.gov/learn/about/400/life-cycle-assessment

(5) https://www.usgbc.org/leed/v41

(6) https://www.oneclicklca.com/whole-building-life-cycle-assessment-for-leed-v4-
credits/