A Policymakers’ guide to Life Cycle Assessment – Policy Brief

This policy brief focuses on the application of generic Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies to inform problem and policy framing. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines a life cycle as “consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources to final disposal” (ISO 2006) (Figure 1). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is then defined as the “compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle” (ISO 2006). English, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish language versions available.