life cycle assessment LCA Articles

Saving through GaBi Envision Software & scalable Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Tools thinkstep worked with Hewlett-Packard (HP) to develop an innovative platform approach for completing complex life cycle assessments for printing and imaging systems. thinkstep created a parameterized and fully configurable template for printer and imaging equipment using GaBi Envision software. This ...

Aug. 18, 2016

By Sphera

Land use and resource depletion are two main considerations in life cycle assessment (LCA). Unfortunately, the relationship between land use and resource depletion is always ignored and only a few studies tried to connect them. The objective of this paper is to establish an exergy–based model for quantifying land resource in China, which includes both the occupation phase and the renaturalisation ...

Dec. 29, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

The environmental sustainability of tourism has been increasingly appearing in Local Agenda 21 and in the development policies of many countries. Although several studies have focused on sustainable tourism, only a few of them are based on life cycle assessment (LCA), the main methodology to assess environmental issues from a life cycle perspective. In order to gain a better understanding of the ...

Dec. 28, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique and of existing methods and databases. LCA is a technique to assess the potential environmental impact associated with a product or a service throughout its life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use and disposal. The International ISO Standards provide principles, framework and ...

Jul. 13, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

The application of life cycle assessment (LCA) is usually aimed at products where most parameters relating to architecture, processes and materials are defined and known. However, application of conventional LCA for products or services that are incomplete in their specification is quite difficult or even impossible, if too many significant parameters are unknown. In our previous work targeting ...

Feb. 1, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

The Italian National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment (ENEA) carried out a project focused on identifying the main difficulties and problems of the introduction of the life cycle concept in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and also on overcoming these difficulties. A new tool, VerdEE, was developed to evaluate the environmental profile of a product based on a ...

Aug. 31, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

The basic targets of the modern cement and concrete production industry are the reduction of energy costs and minimisation of environmental effects. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a useful tool for the evaluation of the environmental performance of a production system. The objective of this work is to provide a very clear analysis and quantification of all the parameters of the process that make ...

Nov. 30, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

Photovoltaic (PV) system has been quoted for wide range of green house gas (GHG) emissions through life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. There are a variety of solar cell materials available, which vary in conversion efficiency and emission of CO 2 . This paper is based on the LCA analysis of PV system which starts from the production of these solar cells and goes through the stages known as ...

Oct. 23, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

This paper presents the thermodynamic analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) of the heating strategies in historical buildings. We evaluated two main systems used in historical buildings to provide heat: a central heating system, which is based on a method of heating the whole air volume within the building, and a localised heating system, which is based on a method of supplying the desired ...

Feb. 27, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

This paper gives an overview of existing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies of drinking water installations in Europe. The characteristics and results of the two most widely known and used studies, the VENOB study and the CREM study, are described in detail. Readers get a thorough understanding of the key issues and parameters of life cycle studies in this field. As the study results diverge ...

Oct. 17, 2006

By Inderscience Publishers

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used for products that require natural resources as important inputs. Relating environmental impacts to the whole production chain makes the method often interpreted as holistic and useful for environmental policy and strategic decision-making. The authors of this paper argue that there are limitations of using LCA for such purposes in food production. ...

Aug. 31, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

With the advent of digital imaging technology, the options available in consumer imaging have increased. However, the relative environmental impacts of these different options are not clear cut. Assessment of the impacts of these options can help to provide feedback to decision makers and give insight that will help reduce environmental impact through product system design. In this paper, we ...

Mar. 22, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

Like ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony? Life cycle assessment (LCA) is recognized as a trustworthy, scientific while understandable approach to address the environmental sustainability of human activities. It is applied for multiple uses in internal and external information supply and for decision support. The Whitepaper provides the context for framing the ...

Nov. 7, 2017

By Sphera

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool has been developed to evaluate environmental impacts of building projects, from construction until demolition. The operation phase is essential, particularly energy processes: therefore LCA is linked to thermal simulation. Several alternatives can be studied. The results, in the form of environmental indicators (e.g., energy and water consumption, contribution ...

Jul. 13, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

In closed-loop manufacturing, the reuse option is adopted to reduce the environmental load by exhausting the lifetimes of products and parts. There are two reasons why the reuse is effective. They are different frequencies of usage of products by users and different lifetimes of parts composing the product. It is, therefore, necessary to make use of these differences properly for effective ...

Feb. 1, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

Sustainability recognises the interdependence of ecological, social and economic systems and nowhere is the concept of sustainability more critical than in developing nations, whose economies rely heavily on natural resources. Software for life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming increasingly effective in evaluating the potential environmental and resource impacts of design and supply chain ...

Mar. 22, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

A modal shift to cycling has the potential to reduce carbon emissions in the transport sector. However, the carbon footprint of constructing new cycling routes, particularly greenways, has not been previously considered and has the potential to negate carbon savings of the modal shift of many commuters. This paper, using a case study of a greenway in Ireland, describes a methodology for ...

Sep. 16, 2013

By Inderscience Publishers

An Executive Overview of Applications, Market Drivers and Business Benefits Rising demands from customers and regulators for improved environmental performance and increased transparency are driving a surge in interest Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a tool for improvement and innovation while avoiding burden shifting and unintended consequences. Read this executive overview ...

Jul. 19, 2018

By Sphera

Climate change threatens ecosystems and health and may cause severe economic impacts. All sectors of society need to act. New solutions based on information and communication technology (ICT) have been proposed to enable action. One possible conversion is from paper invoices to electronic invoices. The aim of this article is to increase current knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of ...

Oct. 13, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

Governments and corporations are increasingly pressured to incorporate economic, environmental, and social performances in their policies and decision-making processes. Although Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has traditionally focused on the environmental impacts of the life cycle phases of products, the current trend is to apply Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) to also efficiently manage processes and ...

Jun. 5, 2005

By Inderscience Publishers