Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Quo vadis?

LCA - Quo vadis? discusses overarching topics, new developments and major problems of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and compares LCA with site-specific environmental management. The text profits from two years of interdisciplinary, coordinated research activities of the Priority Programme Environment of the Swiss National Science Foundation. How should system boundaries of a product life cycle be drawn? * How can environmental interventions be allocated to products? * How are background inventory data collected and used? * How can imprecision in the LCA method be ascertained and checked? * How can relevant environmental interventions be distinguished from irrelevant ones? * What requirements should a software tool for LCA meet? A concept of site-specific LCA is proposed in response to criticism of the current approach of LCA. Furthermore, managerial eco-controlling - the emerging method of site-specific environmental management - is discussed. The book concludes with an outlook of possible paths in the future development of LCA.