 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
BackPage Primer from Environmental Building News
June 1, 2008
Life-Cycle Assessment:
Tracing a Product's Impacts
If you wanted to know about all the environmental impacts of a product, common sense suggests that you would have to trace that product from the origins of its raw materials, through its manufacture and use, and finally to its fate at the end of its useful life. That’s the premise behind environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA)—a science that aims to quantify all the impacts of a product or service. LCA is often used by manufacturers to compare alternative ingredients and processes for making a product, and by policymakers for establishing preferences for one product over another. When the Coca-Cola Company evaluated whether to switch from glass to plastic soda bottles in the 1970s, its consultants pioneered the use of LCA. (LCA is not the same as life-cycle costing, which looks only at the financial cost of buying, using, and disposing of a product.)
...
To read the complete article, please login below.
This article is available to members of BuildingGreen Suite
Join now for access to the entire website.
Membership in BuildingGreen Suite gives you access to all of the product descriptions, articles, project case studies, and other content on BuildingGreen.com. Regular individual membership costs $199.00 per year, however many membership options are available.
More about the benefits of membership...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|