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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Cays, An Environmental Life Cycle Approach to Design,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63802-3_5
Chapter 5
Life Cycle Assessment
Abstract Born as a military accounting tool and adopted by corporate America to
increase efficiency, life cycle assessment has matured into an indispensable method
for environmentalists to quantify ecological impacts.
Chapter 4 presented how in the 1950s the US Military employed a life cycle
approach to optimize resource allocation by applying scientific scrutiny to the budgeting process. In the 1960s, Coca-Cola was the first corporation to implement similar techniques to include the consideration of environmental impacts as part of their
strategic financial decision-making. Nearly 30 years later, the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) codified such techniques as life cycle assessment. The ISO published a concise definition of this complex and sprawling activity
in the first formal global LCA standard in 1997.
Environmental LCA, which takes a life cycle view of a product or activity from
gathering raw materials through end of life, is now a recognized formal scientific
discipline and currently the purview of scientists, economists, and accountants.
Specialized terms and methods, fundamental to the proper assessments carried out
by these technical disciplines, continue to challenge LCA’s broad acceptance by the
design community. Design professionals familiar with origins and fundamentals of
LCA, however, can more thoroughly engage with these processes to actively shape
a design’s ecological profile and provide additional value to their clients and the
public. A working knowledge of the basics benefit the non-specialist. This chapter
will focus on “goal and scope,” the first of the four primary LCA phases as an introduction to the three others that will be covered in later chapters.
5.1 Proto-LCA to Standardized Practice
Two decades passed between when MRI conducted the first REPA for the CocaCola Company and the development of the first standardized LCA guidelines by the
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) in 1993. Walter
Klöpffer presents a thorough account of the transformation during the intervening
years from the earliest “proto-LCA” or ecobalance studies in the early 1970s to
what are, today, widely accepted scientific LCA standards. During this time, fossil
fuels, waste disposal, and packaging dominated the studies. By the 1980s, a growing number of companies were misusing proto-LCA studies to support public
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Cays, An Environmental Life Cycle Approach to Design,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63802-3_5
Chapter 5
Life Cycle Assessment
Abstract Born as a military accounting tool and adopted by corporate America to
increase efficiency, life cycle assessment has matured into an indispensable method
for environmentalists to quantify ecological impacts.
Chapter 4 presented how in the 1950s the US Military employed a life cycle
approach to optimize resource allocation by applying scientific scrutiny to the budgeting process. In the 1960s, Coca-Cola was the first corporation to implement similar techniques to include the consideration of environmental impacts as part of their
strategic financial decision-making. Nearly 30 years later, the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) codified such techniques as life cycle assessment. The ISO published a concise definition of this complex and sprawling activity
in the first formal global LCA standard in 1997.
Environmental LCA, which takes a life cycle view of a product or activity from
gathering raw materials through end of life, is now a recognized formal scientific
discipline and currently the purview of scientists, economists, and accountants.
Specialized terms and methods, fundamental to the proper assessments carried out
by these technical disciplines, continue to challenge LCA’s broad acceptance by the
design community. Design professionals familiar with origins and fundamentals of
LCA, however, can more thoroughly engage with these processes to actively shape
a design’s ecological profile and provide additional value to their clients and the
public. A working knowledge of the basics benefit the non-specialist. This chapter
will focus on “goal and scope,” the first of the four primary LCA phases as an introduction to the three others that will be covered in later chapters.
5.1 Proto-LCA to Standardized Practice
Two decades passed between when MRI conducted the first REPA for the CocaCola Company and the development of the first standardized LCA guidelines by the
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) in 1993. Walter
Klöpffer presents a thorough account of the transformation during the intervening
years from the earliest “proto-LCA” or ecobalance studies in the early 1970s to
what are, today, widely accepted scientific LCA standards. During this time, fossil
fuels, waste disposal, and packaging dominated the studies. By the 1980s, a growing number of companies were misusing proto-LCA studies to support public