Topic 4 Five basic variants of LCA analysis

LCA allows environmental analysis at various stages of the product life cycle. Complete LCA requires the gathering of plenty of data and is a time-consuming process. Partial LCA can focus on selected lifecycle stages, e.g. packaging, and allows gaining visibility on some relevant parts of products’ environmental impacts. Accordingly, one can distinguish five basic variants of LCA analysis:

• Cradle-to-Grave analysis covers the entire linear life cycle of the product system; this concept assumes that a product is made, used and then disposed of.
• Cradle-to-Cradle analysis covers the entire circular life cycle of the product system; it is a variation of cradle-to-grave, changing the waste stage with a recycling process that makes it reusable for another product, essentially “closing the loop” (closed-loop – in the options for reuse, recycling, recovery and re-manufacturing)
• Gate-to-Gate analysis covering selected stages of the product system life cycle
• Cradle-to-Gate analysis focusing on selected stages of the product system life cycle with the addition of upstream environmental impacts [only until it leaves the factory “gates”]
• Gate-to-Grave modelling focusing on selected stages of the product system life cycle with the addition of downstream environmental impacts

The inclusion of life cycle stages should be defined by the system boundary considered for a particular study.