LCA and Sustainability

LCA is often presented as a sustainability assessment tool. This chapter analyses the relationship between LCA and sustainability. This is done by first outlining the history of the sustainability concept, which gained momentum with the Brundtland Commission’s report ‘Our Common Future report ’ in 1987, and presenting the most common interpretations of the concept, which generally comprise four dimensions: (1) measures of welfare, (2) inter-generational equity, (3) intra-generational equity and (4) interspecies equity. The relevance of environmental protection for dimensions 2 and 4 is then demonstrated, and the strategy of LCA to achieving environmental protection, namely to guide the reduction of environmental impacts per delivery of a function, is explained. The attempt to broaden the scope of LCA, beyond environmental protection, by so-called life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is outlined. Finally, the limitations of LCA in guiding a sustainable development are discussed.