As an emerging science, industrial ecology needs to identify and develop appropriate quantitative methods (Koenig and Cantlon 1998, 2000; Seager and Theis 2002). One of these primary tools has been Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is used for assessing the impacts of products, processes, services, or projects on the environment (Graedel and Allenby 2003). The expression life-cycle indicates a “ cradle-to-grave” approach, beginning with a product 's conception and continuing through to its ultimate recycling or disposal. Thus, a product 's or process' lifetime includes (1) a raw materials acquisition phase, (2) a manufacturing, processing and formulation (3) a distribution and transportation phase (4) a use/re-use/maintenance phase (5) a recycling phase (6) and waste management (end-of-life) phase. LCA traditionally consists of four stages, (1) goal and scope (2) inventory analysis, (3) impact assessment, and (4) improvement analysis. In particular, Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis describes those resources required and pollutants produced over the product 's lifetime (Fava et al. 1991). Major benefits of LCA include: a systematic method to evaluate the overall material and energy efficiency of a system; the ability to identify pollution shifts between operations or media as well as other trade-offs in materials, energy, and releases; and a means to benchmark and measure true system improvements and reductions in releases (Owens 1997).
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Levine, S.H., Gloria, T.P., Romanoff, E. (2009). Application of the Sequential Interindustry Model (SIM) to Life Cycle Assessment. In: Suh, S. (eds) Handbook of Input-Output Economics in Industrial Ecology. Eco-Efficiency in Industry and Science, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5737-3_12
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