Life Cycle Assessment: A Tool to Study Sustainability In the Green Industry

The sustainability of products and practices, especially as related to environmental impact, is being widely discussed and interesting claims are being made.  However, without accepted standards, misuses and confusion have resulted.  One tool being used to apply standards to the discussion about sustainability is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).  LCA is a systematic process of accounting for the diverse environmental impacts of interrelated input components and processes of a product or practice during its complete life cycle, cradle to grave. The international standards for LCA require certain procedures be followed in the collection of data, the analysis of the data and the interpretation and validation of the results. The most common use of LCA is to analyze the life cycle of products and services in terms of a carbon footprint.  However, a product’s water footprint, or some other environmental impact measure, could be the objective of a LCA for a production system and its components.  The carbon footprint of a field-grown maple tree production system will be used to demonstrate a LCA.