II. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND RISKS EVALUATION OF OFFSHORE DRILLING
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II.2.1 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology
LCA is the most successful and recognized tool in the field of global and multi-criteria
assessment of environmental impacts, thanks to its timeliness and its dissemination. This method
is therefore widely applied in the context of environmental sustainability and the results of which
can be used as a decision-making support for industrial or public policies. The LCA is a tool to
quantify the impacts of a product or service, from the extraction of the raw materials that make it
up to its end-of-life disposal, through the distribution and use sections. At each stage of the life
cycle, the flows of energy and incoming and outgoing materials are inventoried. Then an
assessment of the environmental impacts based on these data is carried out using pre-established
coefficients to calculate the contribution of each stream to the various environmental impacts
studied and the results are expressed as series of environmental scores. The use of LCA therefore
makes it possible to identify the main sources of environmental impacts linked to the various
alternatives considered by presenting an overall and detailed vision of the impacts generated by
the products as well as their movements, according to various simulations.
According to the International Standards Organisation (ISO 14040-14044, 2006): “Life Cycle
Assessment is a standard analytical tool which in its complete version, addresses the
environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts (i.e. use of resources and
environmental consequences of releases related to the functional unit of a product system)
throughout a product’s life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end-of
life treatment, recycling and final disposal”. Thus, according to ISO the LCA is articulated in
four standardized and interdependent steps (Fig. 17).
Figure 17: The four conceptual LCA steps (ISO 14040-14044, 2006)
2- Inventory analysis
3- Impact assessment
4-Interpretation
1- Definition of objectives
and scope
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47
II.2.1 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology
LCA is the most successful and recognized tool in the field of global and multi-criteria
assessment of environmental impacts, thanks to its timeliness and its dissemination. This method
is therefore widely applied in the context of environmental sustainability and the results of which
can be used as a decision-making support for industrial or public policies. The LCA is a tool to
quantify the impacts of a product or service, from the extraction of the raw materials that make it
up to its end-of-life disposal, through the distribution and use sections. At each stage of the life
cycle, the flows of energy and incoming and outgoing materials are inventoried. Then an
assessment of the environmental impacts based on these data is carried out using pre-established
coefficients to calculate the contribution of each stream to the various environmental impacts
studied and the results are expressed as series of environmental scores. The use of LCA therefore
makes it possible to identify the main sources of environmental impacts linked to the various
alternatives considered by presenting an overall and detailed vision of the impacts generated by
the products as well as their movements, according to various simulations.
According to the International Standards Organisation (ISO 14040-14044, 2006): “Life Cycle
Assessment is a standard analytical tool which in its complete version, addresses the
environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts (i.e. use of resources and
environmental consequences of releases related to the functional unit of a product system)
throughout a product’s life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end-of
life treatment, recycling and final disposal”. Thus, according to ISO the LCA is articulated in
four standardized and interdependent steps (Fig. 17).
Figure 17: The four conceptual LCA steps (ISO 14040-14044, 2006)
2- Inventory analysis
3- Impact assessment
4-Interpretation
1- Definition of objectives
and scope