Assessing Environmental Impacts in a Life-Cycle Perspective

What are the environmental impacts of an arm-chair, a cellular phone, or a steak, if you account for all the activities needed to produce, maintain, consume, and eventually dispose of the product? Life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is the part of life-cycle assessment (LCA) in which the inventory of a product's material flows is translated into environmental impacts and resource consumption. The environmental impacts may range from local (e.g., land use) to global (e.g., climate change). As an environmental analysis tool, LCA is focused on the product system, which comprises all the processes of a product and its components-from the cradle to the grave (Figure 1)-and sets the frame for LCIA. This article describes current LCIA methodology and the newest developments.