WULCA Life Cycle Assessment tool for Water (2009)
Primary Functions:
- Make cross-media environmental assessments that consider water consumption and pollution in comparison with other environmental impacts
- Implement mature science-based methods for assessing water-related impacts
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systems analysis tool that was designed specifically to measure the environmental sustainability of products and services through all components of the value chain. LCA accounts for the resources used and emissions over the life cycle (value chain) of particular products or services and quantifies related environmental impacts. LCA allows companies and other interested parties (including consumers) to make comparisons of their products and services with respect to environmental performance. LCA has primarily been used for three kinds of decisions:
- Engineering decisions for product/process improvement
- Policy decisions at the company or governmental level
- Environmental purchase and sales decisions
