Overview

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology for quantitatively evaluating the environmental impacts of products and services throughout their entire life cycle, from raw material extraction through manufacturing, use, and disposal or recycling. Based on the ISO 14040 series, it consists of four steps: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation. It comprehensively evaluates diverse environmental impact categories including climate change, resource consumption, and ecosystem effects, and is utilized for eco-friendly product development and sustainability management.

environmental management environmental impact assessment ISO 14040 sustainability carbon footprint LCIA inventory analysis

code	slug	name	description	phase	category	type
01	goal-and-scope-definition	Goal and Scope Definition	The step of clearly defining the assessment purpose and scope of the LCA.	phase-1
02	life-cycle-inventory	Life Cycle Inventory Analysis (LCI)	The step of collecting and quantifying environmental load data throughout the life cycle.	phase-2
03	life-cycle-impact-assessment	Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)	The step of classifying and evaluating collected data into environmental impact categories.	phase-3
04	interpretation	Interpretation	The step of analyzing evaluation results and deriving conclusions and improvement measures.	phase-4
05	climate-change	Climate Change	An indicator evaluating the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change.		midpoint
06	acidification	Acidification	An indicator evaluating the impact of acidic substance emissions on ecosystems.		midpoint
07	eutrophication	Eutrophication	An indicator evaluating water eutrophication caused by excess nutrients.		midpoint
08	resource-depletion	Resource Depletion	An indicator evaluating the impact on depletion of fossil fuels and mineral resources.		midpoint
09	human-toxicity	Human Toxicity	An indicator evaluating the impact of hazardous substance emissions on human health.		midpoint
10	ecotoxicity	Ecotoxicity	An indicator evaluating the impact of hazardous substance emissions on ecosystems.		midpoint
11	ozone-depletion	Ozone Depletion	An indicator evaluating the impact of ozone-depleting substances on the stratospheric ozone layer.		midpoint
12	water-use	Water Use	An indicator evaluating water resource consumption and impact on water scarcity.		midpoint
13	land-use	Land Use	An indicator evaluating land use change and its impact on ecosystems.		midpoint
14	particulate-matter	Particulate Matter	An indicator evaluating the impact of atmospheric particulates on human health.		midpoint
15	photochemical-ozone	Photochemical Ozone Formation	An indicator evaluating photochemical smog formation and its impact on human health and ecosystems.		midpoint
16	ionizing-radiation	Ionizing Radiation	An indicator evaluating the impact of ionizing radiation from radioactive substances.		midpoint
17	simapro	SimaPro	LCA software widely used in academic research and consulting.			software
18	openlca	OpenLCA	Free, open-source LCA software.			software
19	gabi	GaBi	Comprehensive LCA software and database for large enterprises.			software
20	ecoinvent	Ecoinvent	The world's largest LCI database providing high-quality process data.			database
21	idea	IDEA	An LCI database focused on Japanese industrial data.			database
22	recipe-method	ReCiPe Assessment Method	An LCIA method providing both midpoint and endpoint indicators.			method
23	ef-method	Environmental Footprint (EF)	The official environmental footprint assessment method defined by the EU.			method

An international methodology for quantitatively assessing the environmental impact of products and services.