Knowledge Organiser: Life Cycle Assessment
Key Terms
- LCA: Systematic evaluation of total environmental impact across all stages of a product's life
- Cradle to grave: From raw material extraction (birth) to final disposal (end of life)
- Cradle to cradle: Circular version — end of life becomes raw material for a new product
- Carbon footprint: Total greenhouse gas emissions across the entire lifecycle
Must-Know Facts
- 4 stages: Raw materials → Manufacturing → Use → End of life
- Smartphone: 85% of environmental impact is in raw material extraction
- LCA limitations: data quality, commercial bias, subjective comparisons, boundary problems
- LCA considers: energy, carbon footprint, water use, toxicity, land use, waste
- Companies may manipulate LCA results — this is called greenwashing
- Used for product comparison, sustainable design, and policy development
Key Equations
- No calculation equations — evaluative/analytical topic
- LCA 4 stages: Raw materials → Manufacturing → Use → End of life (disposal/recycling)
- Carbon footprint = total greenhouse gas emissions across all lifecycle stages
Common Mistakes
- Saying LCA is always objective: LCA can be manipulated — companies may select data that makes their product look better (greenwashing); results can be subjective depending on what is measured
- Forgetting all 4 stages of LCA: LCA must consider ALL stages — raw material extraction, manufacturing, use, AND end of life — missing any stage gives an incomplete picture
- Saying a product with a lower LCA score is always better: LCA results depend on which environmental factors are weighted — one product may have lower carbon footprint but higher water use
- Confusing LCA with recycling rates: LCA covers the entire lifecycle including recycling at the end — it is a broader assessment than just whether a material can be recycled
Memory Aid
- Raw material extraction — mining, drilling, harvesting
- Manufacturing — converting raw materials into the product
- Use phase — energy consumed during the product's life
- End of life — disposal, recycling, or incineration
- Data quality issues — incomplete supply chain data
- Impact comparison difficulty — how to compare CO₂ vs habitat loss?
- Subjective boundaries — what counts as "inside" the assessment?
- Commercial bias — companies may cherry-pick favourable data