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PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT: INVENTORY GUIDELINES AND PRINCIPLES
Citation:
U.S. EPA. PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT: INVENTORY GUIDELINES AND PRINCIPLES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-92/245, 1992.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be used as an objective technical tool to evaluate the environmental consequences of a product, process, or activity holistically, across its entire life cycle. omplete LCA can be viewed as consisting of three complementary components (1) the identification and quantification of energy and resource use and waste emissions (inventory analysis); (2) the assessment of the consequences those wastes have on the environment (impact analysis); and (3) the evaluation and implementation of opportunities to effect environmental improvements (improvement analysis). he EPA is describing the process, the underlying data, and the inherent assumptions involved in conducting the inventory component of an LCA in order to facilitate understanding by potential users. his inventory consists of an objective aggregation of the resource usage and environmental releases associated with a product, process, or activity. he report includes a discussion of current research related to LCA's, the basics of the life-cycle assessment methodology, the technical framework for conducting a life-cycle inventory, and descriptions of the life-cycle stages.