Life Cycle Assessment Handbook: A Guide for Environmentally Sustainable Products
- 12h 22m
- Mary Ann Curran (ed)
- John Wiley & Sons (US)
- 2012
As the last several decades have seen a dramatic rise in the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in decision making, the interest in the life cycle concept as an environmental management and sustainability tool continues to grow. The LCA Handbook offers a look at the role that life cycle information, in the hands of companies, governments, and consumers, may have in improving the environmental performance of products and technologies. It concisely and clearly presents the various aspects of LCA in order to help the reader better understand the subject.
The content of the book was designed with a certain flow in mind. After a high-level overview to describe current views and state-of-the-practice of LCA, it presents chapters that address specific LCA methodological issues including creating life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and capturing eco-systems services. These are followed by example applications of LCA in the agri-food industry; sustainable supply chain management; solid waste management; mining and mineral extraction; forest products; buildings; product innovation; and sustainable chemistry and engineering.
The international success of the sustainability paradigm needs the participation of many stakeholders, including citizens, corporations, academia, and NGOs. The handbook links LCA and responsible decision making and how the life cycle concept is a critical element in environmental sustainability. It covers issues such as building capacity in developing countries and emerging economies so that they are more capable of harnessing the potential in LCA for sustainable development. Governments play a very important role with the leverage they have through procurement, regulation, international treaties, tax incentives, public outreach, and other policy tools. This compilation points to the clear trend for incorporating life cycle information into the design and development processes for products and policies, just as quality and safety concerns are now addressed throughout product design and development.
In this outstanding new handbook:
- A team of international experts leads you step by step through the entire LCA process
- You will learn how to improve the environmental profile of your company's products and processes with life cycle, cradle-to-grave thinking
- Real-world examples and case studies illustrate how you can use LCA to make sound decisions that lead to more environmentally sustainable choices
- You will hear the experts discuss how holistic thinking can lead to better policymaking, product and process innovation, supplier selection, eco-labeling, and more
About the Editor
MARY ANN CURRAN, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert in the field of life cycle assessment and management. She began working on LCA methodology in 1990 at the U.S. EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio. An author of numerous papers and book chapters on LCA, she has been instrumental in advancing LCA awareness worldwide and has presented her LCA-related research at technical meetings around the world. She serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals on LCA and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
In this Book
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Environmental Life Cycle Assessment: Background and Perspective
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An Overview of the Life Cycle Assessment Method – Past, Present, and Future
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Life Cycle Inventory Modeling in Practice
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Life Cycle Impact Assessment
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Sourcing Life Cycle Inventory Data
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Software for Life Cycle Assessment
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Modeling the Agri-Food Industry with Life Cycle Assessment
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Exergy Analysis and its Connection to Life Cycle Assessment
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Accounting for Ecosystem Goods and Services in Life Cycle Assessment and Process Design
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A Case Study of the Practice of Sustainable Supply Chain Management
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Life Cycle Assessment and End of Life Materials Management
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Application of LCA in Mining and Minerals Processing – Current Programs and Noticeable Gaps
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Sustainable Preservative-Treated Forest Products, Their Life Cycle Environmental Impacts, and End of Life Management Opportunities: A Case Study
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Buildings, Systems Thinking, and Life Cycle Assessment
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Life Cycle Assessment in Product Innovation
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Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool in Food Waste Reduction and Packaging Optimization – Packaging Innovation and Optimization in a Life Cycle Perspective
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Integration of LCA and Life-Cycle Thinking within the Themes of Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
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How to Approach the Assessment?
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Integration of MCDA Tools in Valuation of Comparative Life Cycle Assessment
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Social Life Cycle Assessment: A Technique Providing a New Wealth of Information to Inform Sustainability-Related Decision Making
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Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis
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Environmental Product Claims and Life Cycle Assessment
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Building Capacity for Life Cycle Assessment in Developing Countries
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Environmental Accountability: A New Paradigm for World Trade is Emerging
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Life Cycle Knowledge Informs Greener Products
