Definition

In the ISO 14040: 2016, the definition of an LCA was given as:

“A technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts with a product by:

  • Compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs of a product system,

  • Evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with those inputs and outputs,

  • Interpreting the results of the inventory analysis and impact assessment phrases in relation to the objectives of the study.”

Introduction

The consumption of goods, including products or services, is inevitable in our society today. The provision of goods always has a direct impact on the environment, regardless of whether the goods are made available on an industrial scale, as manual work or in the form of a service. It is the task of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine which environmental burdens arise and how these are dealt with in detail. The LCA is the breakdown of all substeps from the beginning to the end of the life cycle (cradle to grave) of the considered good. Both individual process steps can be investigated in order to detect and optimize the emission of pollutants and waste, or it can be – and this is the most frequently used purpose – products or services compared with each other. A conventional example which is also used for educational purposes is the comparison of the environmental effects of coffee preparation in coffee machines or as filter coffee (Chayer and Kicak 2015).

The first thoughts on LCA’s, in the modern sense, originated in the USA, towards the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s. Harry E. Teasley Jr., then Head of Packaging at Coca-Cola, analyzed the amounts of energy and materials and their environmental impact from the obtaining of raw materials to the landfill. The results of his records, he brought to the Midwest Research Institute (MRI), under the direction of a study developed and published for Coca-Cola. Decisive for all further LCA studies was the concept of Hunt & Franklin (1996), who developed the methodology at the MRI. However, the results of the Coca-Cola study were never published but only used internally. Before using the term “LCA,” the term “resource and environmental profile analysis (REPA)” was used since the 1970s (Hunt and Franklin 1996). The first European studies also dealt with beverage packaging (Oberbacher et al. 1996; Boustead 1996).

The path to today’s standardized form of LCA studies began in the 1990s under the leadership of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). The working groups developed methods for carrying out an LCA study. That culminated in the 1993 SETAC workshop in Sesimbra, Portugal. As a result, SETAC published in the same year the “Guidance for Life Cycle Assessment: A Code of Practice” (Perriman 1993) and thus formed the predecessor of today’s ISO 14040 ff. Norm. Unlike the early years, LCA studies today are created by computer programs that can access a variety of databases (Joint Research Center European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment EPLCA 2017). Even if the databases are constantly being extended and improved, not all areas are covered, so creating a study requires in-depth knowledge of the individual process steps in order to record all the parameters.

Life Cycle Assessment Approach

When performing an LCA, the entire life cycle is considered through the various steps of refining the product until its disposal, beginning with the exploration (extraction of raw materials). The results then relate to the environmental aspects and their environmental effects [ISO 14040:2006, ISO 14001:2015]. The LCA is an iterative process, pending its final completion, both within the individual accounting phases and throughout the study (ISO 14040:2006). The basic set of rules for performing an LCA are provided in ISO 14040:2006, which describes the basic conditions, and ISO 14044:2006, which defines the requirements for the generation of the LCA.

ISO 14040:2006 Framework

The preparation of an LCA is divided into four areas that each study must contain, with the individual phases being interrelated (Fig. 1) and structured as follows:

  • Definition of the objective and the scope of the investigation

  • Inventory analysis

  • Impact assessment

  • Evaluation

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 1
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Stages of an LCA according to ISO 14040:2006

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Depending on the defined goal and frame, the results of an LCA study contribute to decision-making in different applications. LCA might be applied, for example, in the development of new products in policy recommendations (e.g., LCA for beverage packaging as a decision-making aid of the Packaging Ordinance (National Environmental Agency 2016)), or the evaluation of business units in a company. Statements about the sustainability of a good (product or service) cannot be made because the LCA does not consider economic and social impacts.

The results allow only conclusion on the potential environmental impacts, precise predictions or exact environmental impacts assessments are not the scope of an LCA. The reasons according to ISO 14040:2006 are:

  • The result is related to a reference unit (functional unit fU)

  • Temporal and spatial change of environmental data

  • Modelling of environmental impacts always warrants uncertainties

  • Potential effects will only be apparent in the future

Product System

The life cycle chain of a product or service is designed in the form of a flow chart as an LCA product system (Fig. 2). Within the product system, individual process modules are considered that represent the smallest unit with their input and output flows. This subdivision creates a simple model in which the respective inputs and outputs are determined. Elementary flows that are delivered to the product system, are either material or energy flows that are converted into emissions through the steps of the process modules and released to the environment, soil, water, or air, respectively.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 2
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Product system for LCA according to ISO 14040:2006

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Goal and Scope Definition

The first step in performing an LCA is the definition of the goal and framework of the study. Since this is an iterative process during the procedure, the goal and frame may change as the process progresses. However, these must always be tailored to the concrete relationship to the study. Furthermore, the following contents according to ISO 14040:2006 and the resulting questions must be part of the LCA:

  • Intended purpose: What should be investigated in the study?

  • Reasons for implementation: What purpose is intended?

  • Targeted audience: To whom is the study directed?

  • Publication: Is a publication planned and is it intended for comparative statements?

These key issues determine how detailed the study has to be in the first phase. Since ISO 14040:2006 does not comment on the investigation depth, it is the task of the user to determine the accuracy in order to fulfill the respective task. The phase of the impact assessment has a special significance in the definition, since this can be designed very flexibly and adapted exactly to the needs of the user and his question. Furthermore, the framework contains the system boundaries and thus describes all process modules that are considered for the study. It also lists the functional unit, assumptions, data quality, and limitations.

Functional Unit

The central element of an LCA is the functional unit (fU), since all results relate to it. The user ensures that the in- and output flows relate to a reference quantity that can be chosen relatively freely. If an LCA examines, for example, open-cast mines for sand-lime bricks, it does not matter whether the company refers to 1 t of sand-lime brick or 1 million t of lime-sandstone, since the results differ in their powers of ten. If this is a comparative study, the fUs must be the same. It is therefore of great importance that the user is clearly committed at the beginning, that is during the definition of objectives and frameworks.

Furthermore, the reference flow must be precisely defined. According to ISO 14044:2006, the reference flow contains the processes within the product system which are required to produce the functional unit. For the production of lime sandstone, for example, the extraction of the rock (blasting), the transport within the opencast mine, as well as crushing, processing, and washing. Thus, those process modules are listed that are needed to produce the fU.

Life Cycle Inventory Analysis (LCI)

The Life Cycle Inventory is the second level when performing an LCA, in which all material and energy flows (in- and output flows) of the process modules are recorded and compiled (Table 1). The data of the process modules can be either determined by directly measuring, calculating, or estimating. If estimates are made in the LCI, these must be justified and documented, as well for values derived from literature references.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Table 1 LCIA limestone: an extract from the German Environmental Agency data base for limestone (Umweltbundesamt 2012)
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For a simple representation of the process modules involved in the product system, a flow chart should be created (Fig. 5). Furthermore, standardized data sheets (e.g., ISO 14044 Annex A) should be used to record all material and energy flow occurring in the process, which at the same time contribute to uniform documentation. The inputs collected (inputs, raw materials, supplies, energy, etc.) and outputs generated (products, emissions, waste, etc.) are then summarized for subsequent computation and validation. The calculation relates the LCIA values to the functional unit.

Often, however, not all material and energy flows of a process module can be detected, since the individual steps for data acquisition are too costly. For example, for transportation in an open cast mine, fuel is needed, which is made by the refining of crude oil. Since fuel is also needed in other LCA performances outside the respective study, it is too costly for any new study to investigate those data. For this reason, generic data (background data) are used in such cases. These are always specifically defined values of the material and energy flows, which are prepared in such a way that they can be used for the description of a process module (Klöpfler and Grahl 2014). The use of generic data is indispensable in an LCA study because, as already shown in the above example, the collection of data for each new LCI would be far beyond an affordable effort.

The provision of such data is usually done via databases, which are either provided independently or are already part of a software. The range of databases extends from special to general data sets. Examples include:

For further use and processing of data sets, different software applications are used. It is important to ensure that the database is also compatible with the software used since not each program can process the contents of every database. Mostly the programs are able to implement several different databases. Some samples of software applications are mentioned here:

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)

General Approach to LCIA

The LCIA forms the third stage of the LCA, where the results of the Life Cycle Inventory are linked to the impact categories in such a way that the objective and the scope of the investigation are achieved. At the same time, the first utterances for the last step of the LCA, the interpretation, are being performed in this phase. The selection of impact categories is done in such a way that they are reconciled with the objective of the study. Different LCI data are calculated differently within an impact category since not every substance has the same environmental impact. The impact categories then refer to the impact indicator and further to the end efficacy(s), all of which are linked together through the environmental mechanism, that is the system of physical, chemical, and biological processes for a given impact category (Fig. 3).

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 3
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Concept of category indicators according to ISO 14040:2006

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In order to obtain a value for an impact category that emerges from the results of the LCI, the individual substances must be multiplied by factors and then summed up. This assigns each impact category a characteristic value, that is, a common entity. The basis for the calculation comes from scientific publications, such as the “Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013” (IPCC 2013a). Table 2 shows an example of how the conversion of the LCI results into a uniform value takes place, whereas an overall result 3,365 kg CO2-Eq./fU was calculated.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Table 2 GWP values are an extract from the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC 2013b), LCI results, and characteristic value for an example of the CO2-Equ. calculation
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Methodologies for the Impact Assessment in the LCIA Stage

The results of the LCI thus directly related to the impact category, which is also referred to as the “midpoint category.” In order to determine the impact of a product, for example, on ecosystem quality or human health, sound knowledge of the causal relationships is required. The “endpoint category” or “damage category” is then made up of several impact categories, since these are an interaction of different effects. Figure 4 shows a sample for midpoint categories and damage as of the IMPACT 2002+ framework (Humbert et al. 2012).

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 4
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Scheme of the IMPACT 2002+ framework (Humbert et al. 2012)

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The development of today’s methods began in the 1990s, in the beginning, there were still pure midpoint categories and have been developed over time, such as the CML method of Leiden University, the Netherlands (Guinée 2012). According to ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006, only the impact category used needs to be determined and described, the type of the method to be used remains the task of the LCA user. However, the selection should always be made in line with the purpose and scope of the study. Table 3 gives an overview of commonly used methods.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Table 3 Commonly used LCA methods
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Life Cycle Interpretation

The final stage of the LCA is the evaluation of LCI and LCIA results, in which a summary is drawn and the main points highlighted. These then lead to conclusions, restrictions, and recommendations (ISO 14044:2006). The formulations should be chosen in such a way that they are easy to understand and comprehend for the targeted audience. It should, therefore, be reflected in the evaluation that an LCA is relative. The results reflect the potential environmental impact and are not predictive of actual events (ISO 14040:2006).

Differences Between Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

EIA is an environmental policy instrument of environmental protection with the aim of verifying environmentally relevant projects prior to their approval for possible environmental impacts. As a rule, it is limited to verifying the impact on environmental factors. Economic and social consequences are not part of EIA. EIA is an environmental assessment report on how a project can affect environmental factors, like people (including human health), animals, plants, biodiversity, soil, water, air, climate, landscape, and cultural heritage. The report is open to the public, the involved authorities, and other stakeholders, including neighboring countries (if applicable). Generally, EIA is regulated in the respective national environmental regulations. Further, at the scale of the European Union applies the EIA-Directive 2011/92/EU.

Even both approaches are environmental assessment methodologies, there are significant differences, which are summarized in Table 4.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Table 4 Characteristics of LCA and EIA
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While the LCA addresses the potential environmental impact of a product, EIA is concerned with the environmental impact of public or private projects (Table 4). The following effects are investigated for each individual case (2011/92/EU):

  • Human, fauna, and flora

  • Water, soil, air, land consumption, landscape, and climate

  • Infrastructural and cultural assets

  • Their interrelationships

Whether or not an EIA has to be carried out depends on the size of the project. Projects requiring an EIA are, for example, are nuclear power plants, airfields with a runway of 2100 m or more, open pits of more than 25 ha or thermal power plants of at least 300 MW (Annex I Directive 2011/92/EU). Other projects that are not listed in Annex I of the Directive but fall under Annex II are covered by the decision of the member states. In the screening phase, the decision is then made on a case by case basis or by thresholds or similar criteria.

The EIA is a key tool of European environmental policy to identify the environmental impact even before the start of a project (2011/92/EU) and to take measures to minimize the environmental impact or not to approve the project. One instrument in performing an EIA may be LCA.

Practical Application of Life Cycle Assessment: LCA of Aluminum Foil

The following LCA provides an example that illustrates how to perform an LCA according to ISO 14040:2006 in a practical context.

Goal and Scope Definition

The goal of this study is to determine specific environmental impacts, material consumption, and energy consumption in the production of a roll of aluminum foil. Primarily, it should be shown how much energy is necessary to produce only a small amount of aluminum and to sensitize consumers.

The database for the production of the primary aluminum ingot casting of The Aluminum Association (2013) was used as one part of the data base for the LCA. It considers the primary aluminum production process in North America. For the further rolling process served a study of the Helsinki University of Technologie (2017). Energy supply and its production were described by ProBas datasets (ProBas 2017). The process of recycling and water treatment is also based on ProBas data.

The scope is following the production of aluminum foil, i.e. from bauxite mining to the rolling process and packaging. Due to gaps in the data collection, the distribution and the utilization phase are not considered. There are also gaps in application and recycling. This concerns the collection and processing of waste. Therefore, only the processing of aluminum scrap was considered for this phase. It should be noted that the manufacturing process refers to the typical technical processes in North America in 2010 and the resulting consumption.

The system boundaries include:

  • Bauxite mining

  • Bauxite, aluminum, and manufactured semi-fabricated products transportation

  • Alumina production

  • Electrolysis process

  • Anode production

  • Aluminum ingot casting

  • Rolling operation

  • Energy generation and supply

  • Energy (heating, lighting) in the facilities

  • Recycling/utilization

Excluded:

  • Waste materials and their treatment

  • Waste products recycling

  • Cost of the facilities construction

  • Maintenance

  • Employees

  • Distribution

  • Use

The considered functional unit was an aluminum foil roll. The dimensions are: length 10 m, width 29.5 cm, and the thickness are 10 μm. With a density of 2.6989 g/cm3, it gives 79.6 g of aluminum. Any alloy constituents are neglected (Fig. 5).

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 5
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Qualitative material flow for aluminum foil (Dobler 2017)

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Life Cycle Inventory Analysis (LCIA)

Bauxite Mining

Bauxite ore is the main raw material for aluminum production. It is mined in the open pit mine after the removal of overburden. This material is stored on the side and then used again for backfilling. Depending on the hardness of the rock, the explosive can be used to loosen the bauxite. Then it is milled and washed to extricate impurities. After drying, it can be shipped or brought to the alumina factory.

For the material flow model is assumed the import of bauxite from Jamaica (53%), from Guinea (26%), and Brazil (20.2%). The following table shows the inputs and outputs of this process step (It is only a partly staging of the inputs and outputs. The complete tables are shown in the appendix). Water is mostly spent on washing and fuel is used for mining and transporting the bauxite. On the output side accumulate overburden, waste water, and dust.

Aluminum Production

Alumina production takes place in North America and involves grinding and decomposition with NaOH, the precipitation process, and the calcination of the alumina. In addition, the maintenance of the equipment and the treatment of exhaust air, waste water, and waste are considered.

The main input is again bauxite. Apart from that, sodium hydroxide and lime are necessary. In addition to some air emissions such as SO2 and mercury, this process also causes large quantities of red mud.

Anodes Production

The anode produced in this process stage is used in the fused-salt electrolysis as fuel because they are consumed during the process. The main component is carbon, which is fixed to a steel suspension. Petroleum coke is calcined during production, then ground and mixed with coal tar pitch. From this mixture are formed and cooled blocks.

Electrolysis

This processing unit begins with the processing of aluminum and ends with the separation of molten aluminum. The balance includes alumina processing, auxiliary materials production, monitoring, maintenance and treatment of exhaust air, waste water, and waste.

Casting

The molten aluminum from the electrolysis is processed and poured in this process step. In the beginning, it is transferred to holding furnaces, where it is adjusted with alloying elements depending on the request. It is fluxed with various gases to remove impurities in aluminum. For example, nitrogen or chlorine is blown into it in order to resuspend particles and to reduce the gas content in the melt. Subsequently, the aluminum is poured into different forms. For the further rolling process, it is casted in the form of 20 t heavy blocks.

This processing unit includes pretreatment of metal, internal recycling of process scrap, metal treatment, casting, packaging, maintenance and treatment of exhaust air, waste water, and waste.

Rolling

In this process unit (is cast aluminum rolled in the form of 20 t heavy blocks), the blocks are then rolled until they are converted to a 10 μm thick foil. (The final product is a 10 μm thick foil.) In the beginning, the surface of the block is milled in order to smooth it. Then it is heated to approximately 500 °C and hot-rolled until it reaches a thickness of 2–5 mm. Subsequently, the cold rolling process begins until the desired thickness is reached. This processing unit includes pretreatment of metal, internal recycling of process scrap, the rolling process, packaging, transportation, maintenance and treatment of exhaust air, waste water, and waste.

Recycling

Due to a lack of data, the use and collection, as well as preparation for the production of secondary aluminum, are not considered. Only the production of recycled aluminum is considered again. As a database serves a process described in the ProBas database ProBas (2004). It is assumed that the collected waste will be melted again, together with process scrap and capital scrap. Since ProBas does not provide process procedures and specific material flows, only information about energy and resource consumption can be generally made. It should also be mentioned that another electricity mix is used for recycling.

Energy Supply

Electricity is a huge stream of energy, especially for the electrolysis process. In order to minimize environmental impact, it is recommended to choose renewable energies as a basis. Generation of electricity always results in large losses in conversion and distribution, making emissions even more immense compared to other forms of energy. Two scenarios are considered in order to demonstrate what influence has the choice of energy sources. The baseline scenario comes from a typical US electricity mix. This is composed as follows:

•

Coal

50.67%

•

Atom

20.40%

•

Gas

18.71%

•

Water

5.61%

•

Waste

1.87%

•

Heavy fuel oil

1.56%

•

Wind

0.70%

•

Geothermal power

0.40%

An alternative scenario is used by a Norwegian electricity mix. Norway supplies itself almost exclusively with hydropower, which has a positive effect on resource conservation and emissions. This is composed as follows:

•

Water

93.40%

•

Gas

5.50%

•

Waste

1.10%

It is assumed that the same electricity mix is used for the entire production process. All material and energy flows are considered, including the upstream chain (Fig. 6).

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 6
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LCI as a material flowchart for aluminum foil (Dobler 2017)

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Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)

Cumulative Energy Demand (CED)

The cumulative energy demand is a measure of the total expenditure of energy resources, the primary energy necessary for the provision of a product or also energy source. In this case, are considered all upstream chains, i.e., all energy quantities spent, for example, for the production of auxiliary materials or for the provision of energy.

Figure 7 shows the CED for both scenarios. All process units are colored differently and listed individually according to their type of energy.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 7
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Cumulative energy demand for aluminum foil (Dobler 2017)

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It is easy to see that the production with the US power mix shows a significantly higher consumption. The electrolysis constitutes a large part of the entire CED. The difference is present especially in this process step since only electricity is used as energy. Particularly, the CED is significantly higher in relation to the final energy actually used if this is generated with the help of fossil fuels. This is mostly due to the supply and the conversion losses during production. Hydropower, which is almost solely used in the Norwegian electricity mix, does not require the provision of energy sources.

Global Warming Potential (GWP)

The CO2 equivalents represent the aggregation of all greenhouse gases according to their greenhouse gas potential (Fig. 8). For example, CO2 has a factor of one as the base value, while NO2 is significantly more harmful to the climate and the equivalent factor 265 is applied.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 8
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Global warming potential for aluminum foil (Dobler 2017)

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Acidification

Acidifying gases enhance the acidification of terrestrial and aquatic systems. The acidification potential is determined by conversion to SO2 equivalents. These emissions are aggregated and evident for each process step in the below Fig. 9. A big difference is again observable between the two scenarios. The reduction of almost 70% comes with the application of Norwegian electricity mix.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 9
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Acidification potential for aluminum foil (Dobler 2017)

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Tropospheric Ozone Precursor Potential (TOPP)

Summer smog or photo-smog is the result of an increase in ozone generation under the influence of light near the ground. Some substances from the volatile organic carbon compounds group are responsible for the creation of low-lying ozone in the presence of sunlight or other starter substances (e.g., NOx). Tropospheric ozone precursor potential equivalents are the quantitative expression of the ozone generation potential and are expressed by various air pollutants (ProBas 2017). The greater the amount of tropospheric ozone precursor equivalents, the greater is the risk of summer smog (Fig. 10).

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews, Fig. 10
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Tropospheric ozone precursor potential for aluminum foil (Dobler 2017)

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The difference is probably the biggest in this comparison. When using Norwegian electricity, the ozone creation potential is seven times lower than the other scenario.

Interpretation

It has been clearly shown that the production of aluminum is an energy-intensive process and therefore the choice of energy supply has a huge influence on the environmental impacts. In particular, if one remembers that with the use of fossil fuels, the cost of the supply is very high and thus the consumption increases even further. Therefore, it is important not to consider the final energy, but the CED. To this are added the environmentally harmful emissions during combustion. It would be advisable to perform the process of fused-salt electrolysis in a country such as Norway because even if the consumption and emissions for transport are included, they do not exceed the consumption during production in America.

Another point that was not considered in the Ecobalance is the problem of red mud, which occurs in alumina production in a large amount. To date, this is stored in large basins and is not utilized. Especially in less developed countries, red mud is simply led into rivers. That has devastating consequences for ecosystems, because it consists of corrosive caustic soda and heavy metals. Additionally, shifting of the pH value heavy metals can be washed out and get into the groundwater. Therefore, complete utilization would be appropriate. In terms of urban mining, this sludge could be used as a source of resources as it contains not only aluminum and iron but also another set of metals. There is still further potential for improvement in the sense of the circular economy. A large part of the aluminum ends up in waste incineration. Although it is possible to extract aluminum from the slags, the energy requirement for this is relatively high.

Basically, it can be said that aluminum is a versatile metal and is indispensable in our modern society. It has very good features and is available to us to a large extent. Nevertheless, efforts should be made to further increase the recycling rate to avoid the energy-intensive process of primary aluminum production. Also, the health aspects through the use of aluminum should not be neglected. With regard to aluminum foil, particles can be detached by acid or other processes and enter the organism. For this reason, the use of sandwich paper or similar alternatives would be recommended.

The LCA of aluminum production was used to illustrate the methodology and to highlight how improvement potentials are concluded from the assessment of the value chain of a product.

Possibilities and Limits of Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainability Reviews

Nowadays, Life cycle assessments are increasingly used today as decision-making support for the assessment of economic processes and in the manufacture of products. In addition to the consumption of resources, above all the energy flows, longevity and also selected effects on the ecosystem (soil, water, air, biodiversity, ecotoxicity, waste) are to be shown. In this regard, the overall goal of life cycle assessments is to get more clarity on the individual production steps in order to be able to better asses the influence on the true costs, including environmental costs. Also, production constraints due to different production constraints and often different social working conditions need to be identified. In order to limit the complexity of life cycle assessments, priority should be given to scarce resources as a priority in the assessment (Bringezu and Schütz 2001a, b).

Instead of taxes on emissions from the air, soil, water, noise, etc., life cycle assessments seek to identify, in addition to an assessment, measures to prevent environmental pollution and measures to increase the efficiency of manufacturing products. The increase in the world population and the resulting increase in resource use (20% of the world’s population in industrialized countries currently consume almost 80% of resources) are also compelling ongoing improvements in resource efficiency (Bringezu and Bleischwitz 2009). But measures to prevent waste, more nonwaste technologies and improvements in recycling processes are important. Only when resource efficiency increases and the “ecological backpacks” of processes, products, buildings, and services decrease by a factor of 5–10, the economy will be sustainable (Bringezu and Bleischwitz 2009). In this regard, LCA results can be used for process optimization for sustainable production as required in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 that is “Sustainable Production and Consumption” (United Nations 2015). Even the LCA methodology does not consider social aspects, it is a valuable tool to contribute to the assessment of the sustainability of value chains of products. It is important to be noted, that LCA does not replace EIA, even it can contribute to an EIA.

In recent years, some efforts have been made to develop various methods and tools to assess the current situation in society and support sustainable development decision-making. One method suitable for this purpose is the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, which applies the life-cycle approach to all dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social) for more reliable and robust outcomes. For this purpose, the method of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) was developed (Zamagni et al. 2013; Guinée 2016). Here the life-cycle approach is applied to all dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social) in order to achieve more reliable and robust results. This methodology includes LCA, where the environmental impacts are assessed, Life Cycle Costing (LCC), where economic and environmental factors are taken into account, and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), to analyze the social consequences (Zamagni et al. 2013; Guinée 2016).

LCSA = LCA + LCC + SLCA

The LCSA, as well as the LCA or LCC, is often used to compare two or more products and shows the product that has less impact. The process was applied to the construction sector and the renewable energy sector to identify opportunities and limitations (Caruso et al. 2017). As such, LCSA forms an approach for the operationalization of sustainability.

Conclusions and Outlook

The term “sustainability” adopted by the UNEP in Rio de Janeiro (1992) is much needed in the political debate on global development and the environment. Instead, an attempt is made to quantify the sustainability of products (goods and services).

Life cycle assessments play an increasingly important role in the political debate about the ecological profiles of products and production processes. They offer the opportunity to analyze environmental impacts and the factors that determine them throughout their life cycle, thus providing the basis for decisions. This happens in companies, but also in politics and the public. Further, life cycle assessments provide opportunities for sustainability-oriented innovation management in product development.

Despite the fact that the topic has been up-to-date for 40 years, sustainable products are gaining widespread acceptance on the market only slowly. The reasons for this are companies’ reservations of the incompatibility between profitability and ecological goals, trade-offs in this regard, and the fear of lower profits. Lack of security, lack of know-how and doubts about the operationalizability concern companies as well. Having in view this situation, sustainability-oriented innovation management in product development must gain a larger awareness at the producers as well as the consumers. This situation needs to the need to provide more space to sustainable product development including LCA in teaching programs in higher education.

According to Schneider and Lüderitz (2018), LCA as an environmental assessment tool should have a permanent place in education programs on sustainability. Moreover, LCA could be applied in the sustainability assessment of university performances. According to Lo-Iacono-Ferreira et al. 2017, organizational life cycle assessment is a feasible assessment tool for higher education institutions with environmental management systems.

Cross-References