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A life cycle inventory is a phase of a life cycle assessment that evaluates the environmental effects of a product or service. It involves collecting data on every stage of the manufacturing process, including packaging and transportation. Internationally agreed standards ensure consistency and credibility. Software, such as GaBi, is often used to collect and compare data. Optional factors can be introduced to increase accuracy.
A life cycle inventory is one of the four phases of a life cycle assessment. It is a system for evaluating and measuring the environmental effects of the production process of a product or service. The goal is to measure those effects that are specifically caused by the product or service and would not exist without it.
There are internationally agreed standards for life cycle assessments. These are established as part of a series of ISO standards numbered 14040 to 14049. The idea is to make sure that different organizations use the same method for assessment. This lends credibility to the results and makes it easier to compare different products and different companies.
There are four stages to the life cycle assessment process. The first is deciding what will be covered and what the goal of the assessment is. The second is the life cycle inventory. The third stage is to evaluate the results of the inventory in the form of objective figures. The final stage, which is more subjective, is to interpret these results and decide what corrective actions, if any, need to be taken.
The life cycle inventory is therefore the “meat” of the assessment and involves the collection of all relevant data. This usually covers every stage of the manufacturing process of a product, from extracting any raw materials to disposing of the product once the consumer has finished using it. In addition to product manufacturing, the data will also cover items such as the packaging and transportation of both components and the finished product.
There is a wide variety of environmental factors that can be measured for each stage of the production process. They are usually measured as an amount of a particular substance. These include input substances: the natural resources used to produce the product or services. They also include output substances, such as chemical by-products or waste material.
The sheer amount of data that must be collected in a lifecycle inventory means that most businesses will use dedicated software to accomplish the task. Such software often gives users the flexibility to tailor the inventory to their particular circumstances, but it also makes it easier to compare the results in a consistent format. The most popular software is a range of packages sold under the GaBi brand.
There are several optional factors that can be introduced to make lifecycle inventory more accurate. These may include consideration of environmental resource savings, for example when burning waste material can generate energy that would otherwise have required burning coal or gas. The assessment can also be extended to account for effects that occur outside the product’s life cycle, such as when waste material is sold to another company to be recycled into another use.
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