Carbon Footprint Assessment with LCA Methodology
7
assessment becomes more useful when talking about the environmental impacts and
carbon footprints and thus a robust assessment tool or approach is a mandate for a
profound assessment result. Now the question that comes in our mind is how this
assessment works? and how to identify its efficacy?
The detailed explanation that how the assessment works will be explained in
the proceeding sections but for now, let us imagine a road trip as an example of
assessment. There are a start and an end. When we said a road trip that means it is
going to serve as the system, and start and end become the surroundings and limits for
the system. Now next is the selection of parameters that must be selected on a most
important basis. The reason behind this is to cover all the aspects most importantly
the eminent ones that may have a significant impact on the system. When you have
decided the parameter then starts the analysis that will take place while taking the road
trip. As the trip ended you will have faced some occurrences that you have observed
during the trip. At last, there comes the interpretation and recommendations, which
are based on the analysis you have made during the trip which helps in identifying
the problems, recommendations, and the other remarkable parameters that you may
or may not miss. Now you have completed a part of the assessment that must be
repeated in loops for a robust assessment. If you have successfully imagined the
process then I guess, you may understand that we are doing such assessments on our
regular basis. The more the system and the associated parameters will be complex,
the more complicated is going to be the assessment. This is where the complex tools
are applicable that helps in providing a detailed assessment which will be discussed
at the end of this chapter.
An example of this type of assessment is the Personal Carbon Footprint. The
method identifies the emissions released by an individual and that ultimately
contributes to the total emission. The per capita emission values consist of the
commodities apparently used by him in a specific period. Meanwhile, an efficient
assessment will be one that will be comprised of all the possible aspects making the
system profound.
There is an approach that has been successfully delivering assessment for a variety
of applications and gaining importance worldwide and that is Life Cycle Assessment
also known as LCA. As it is evident from the name LCA, it portrays the life cycle of a
system. It is considerably famous for its role in decision supporting and environmental
management, thus assessing the system from cradle to grave. The applications of LCA
are limitless that we are going to find out as we will proceed further.
6 What Is LCA?
LCA is an environment management tool that assesses a process, product, and their
probable outcomes from the cradle to grave stages [23–29]. In other words, LCA
illustrates the sustainability and feasibility of the process and its objective under
consideration. The process was assessed by recording and analyzing various parameters that result in a reasonable preparation of the inventory [30]. LCA can also be
7
assessment becomes more useful when talking about the environmental impacts and
carbon footprints and thus a robust assessment tool or approach is a mandate for a
profound assessment result. Now the question that comes in our mind is how this
assessment works? and how to identify its efficacy?
The detailed explanation that how the assessment works will be explained in
the proceeding sections but for now, let us imagine a road trip as an example of
assessment. There are a start and an end. When we said a road trip that means it is
going to serve as the system, and start and end become the surroundings and limits for
the system. Now next is the selection of parameters that must be selected on a most
important basis. The reason behind this is to cover all the aspects most importantly
the eminent ones that may have a significant impact on the system. When you have
decided the parameter then starts the analysis that will take place while taking the road
trip. As the trip ended you will have faced some occurrences that you have observed
during the trip. At last, there comes the interpretation and recommendations, which
are based on the analysis you have made during the trip which helps in identifying
the problems, recommendations, and the other remarkable parameters that you may
or may not miss. Now you have completed a part of the assessment that must be
repeated in loops for a robust assessment. If you have successfully imagined the
process then I guess, you may understand that we are doing such assessments on our
regular basis. The more the system and the associated parameters will be complex,
the more complicated is going to be the assessment. This is where the complex tools
are applicable that helps in providing a detailed assessment which will be discussed
at the end of this chapter.
An example of this type of assessment is the Personal Carbon Footprint. The
method identifies the emissions released by an individual and that ultimately
contributes to the total emission. The per capita emission values consist of the
commodities apparently used by him in a specific period. Meanwhile, an efficient
assessment will be one that will be comprised of all the possible aspects making the
system profound.
There is an approach that has been successfully delivering assessment for a variety
of applications and gaining importance worldwide and that is Life Cycle Assessment
also known as LCA. As it is evident from the name LCA, it portrays the life cycle of a
system. It is considerably famous for its role in decision supporting and environmental
management, thus assessing the system from cradle to grave. The applications of LCA
are limitless that we are going to find out as we will proceed further.
6 What Is LCA?
LCA is an environment management tool that assesses a process, product, and their
probable outcomes from the cradle to grave stages [23–29]. In other words, LCA
illustrates the sustainability and feasibility of the process and its objective under
consideration. The process was assessed by recording and analyzing various parameters that result in a reasonable preparation of the inventory [30]. LCA can also be