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USING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR INTEGRATED PRODUCT POLICY
Citation:
Curran*, M A. USING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR INTEGRATED PRODUCT POLICY. 7th European Roundtable on Cleaner Production, Lund, Sweden, 5/2-4/2001.
Description:
The European Union's new Integrated Product Policy directs governments and companies to consider the entire product life cycle, from cradle to grave, in their environmental decision-making process. A life-cycle based approach is intended to lead toward true environmental improvement and sustainability rather than merely transferring problems from one place to another. however, the implementation of the life cycle approach in current practice follows two tracks: attribute-driven (i.e., assigning environmental goals at the outset) versus input/output driven (i.e., modeling environmental consequences from use and release data). This paper describes these two aproaches and suggests that an attribute driven approach is inadequate because it assumes that all potential dangers can be identified before the system is completely modeled. The need for better accessibility to inventory data and efforts to improve life cycle impact modeling are also addressed.