IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/inecol/v8y2004i3p19-32.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Three Strategies to Overcome the Limitations of Life‐Cycle Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Helias A. Udo de Haes
  • Reinout Heijungs
  • Sangwon Suh
  • Gjalt Huppes

Abstract

Many research efforts aim at an extension of life‐cycle assessment (LCA) in order to increase its spatial or temporal detail or to enlarge its scope. This is an important contribution to industrial ecology as a scientific discipline, but from the application viewpoint other options are available to obtain more detailed information, or to obtain information over a broader range of impacts in a life‐cycle perspective. This article discusses three different strategies to reach these aims: (1) extension of LCA—one consistent model; (2) use of a toolbox—separate models used in combination; and (3) hybrid analysis—combination of models with data flows between them. Extension of LCA offers the most consistent solution. Developments in LCA are moving toward greater spatial detail and temporal resolution and the inclusion of social issues. Creating a supertool with too many data and resource requirements is, however, a risk. Moreover, a number of social issues are not easily modeled in relation to a functional unit. The development of a toolbox offers the most flexibility regarding spatial and temporal information and regarding the inclusion of other types of impacts. The rigid structure of LCA no longer sets limits; every aspect can be dealt with according to the logic of the relevant tool. The results lack consistency, however, preventing further formal integration. The third strategy, hybrid analysis, takes up an intermediate position between the other two. This strategy is more flexible than extension of LCA and more consistent than a toolbox. Hybrid analysis thus has the potential to combine the strong points of the other two strategies. It offers an interesting path for further discovery, broader than the already well‐known combination of process‐LCA and input‐output‐LCA. We present a number of examples of hybrid analysis to illustrate the potentials of this strategy. Developments in the field of a toolbox or of hybrid analysis may become fully consistent with LCA, and then in fact become part of the first solution, extension of LCA.

Suggested Citation

  • Helias A. Udo de Haes & Reinout Heijungs & Sangwon Suh & Gjalt Huppes, 2004. "Three Strategies to Overcome the Limitations of Life‐Cycle Assessment," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 8(3), pages 19-32, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:8:y:2004:i:3:p:19-32
    DOI: 10.1162/1088198042442351
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1162/1088198042442351
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1162/1088198042442351?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Claudia Parra Paitan & Peter H. Verburg, 2019. "Methods to Assess the Impacts and Indirect Land Use Change Caused by Telecoupled Agricultural Supply Chains: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-24, February.
    2. Doriana Dal Palù & Beatrice Lerma, 2023. "How Natural Are the “Natural” Materials? Proposal for a Quali-Quantitative Measurement Index of Naturalness in the Environmental Sustainability Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Savino, Matteo M. & Manzini, Riccardo & Della Selva, Vincenzo & Accorsi, Riccardo, 2017. "A new model for environmental and economic evaluation of renewable energy systems: The case of wind turbines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 739-752.
    4. Jukka Heinonen & Antti Säynäjoki & Seppo Junnila, 2011. "A Longitudinal Study on the Carbon Emissions of a New Residential Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(8), pages 1-20, August.
    5. Christine Roxanne Hung & Paul Kishimoto & Volker Krey & Anders Hammer Strømman & Guillaume Majeau‐Bettez, 2022. "ECOPT2: An adaptable life cycle assessment model for the environmentally constrained optimization of prospective technology transitions," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 26(5), pages 1616-1630, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:8:y:2004:i:3:p:19-32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1088-1980 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.