Mastering Impact Categories in Life Cycle Assessment

ILCD Handbook and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

• The ILCD Handbook was developed by the European Commission.
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) serves the primary purpose of evaluating the environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product's life.
• The ILCD Handbook provides guidelines for conducting life cycle assessments, ensuring consistent and reliable results.
• LCA aims to minimize environmental impacts by identifying areas of improvement across the product lifecycle.
• The ILCD Handbook refers to "International Reference Life Cycle Data System," a framework for deriving and exchanging life cycle data.

Major Impacts and Influences

• Major impact categories evaluated in LCA include global warming potential, ozone depletion, and resource depletion, with specific ones like acidification and eutrophication also considered.
• The industry with the greatest influence on the impact category of global warming potential is the fossil fuel industry.
• The ILCD Handbook offers tools and methodologies to standardize life cycle assessments and enhance data quality across various sectors.