Environmental Assessment
Environmental Assessment aims at gathering, quantifying and evaluating the entire environmental impacts of materials, products, processes etc. Methods to calculate the ecological impact of products are Life Cycle Assessment and Eco Indicators.
Life Cycle Assessment
As a matter of principle all inputs like equipment, raw materials, products, packaging and transportation services have to be cosidered in order to estimate the environmental impact of a product or service. The four stages of Life Cycle Assessment are:
1. Planning and Screening
It is generally recognised that the first stage is extremly important. The result of the LCA is heavily dependent on the decisions taken in this phase.The screening LCA is a useful step to check the goal definition phase.
2. Data collection and data treatment
Subsequently environmental impacts are definded and quantified.
3. Evaluation
With this third step the environmental impact data are evaluated. The effects on the environmental have to be attributed to following impact categories: global warming potential, ozone depletion, human and environmental toxicity, space consumption, etc.
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