Life Cicle Assessment (LCA)
This process assesses the effects a product has on the environment throughout its life, thus allowing its efficiency to be improved and the amount of waste to be reduced. It can be used to study the environmental impact of a product and of the use for which it has been created.
A Life Cycle Assessment is commonly referred to as a “cradle to grave” analysis, its main elements being: 1) identifying and quantifying the environmental “weights” of the various stages (e.g. energy and raw materials used, emissions and waste generated); 2) assessing the potential impacts of these “weights”; and 3) calculating the options available for reducing these environmental impacts.
London Benchmarking Group (LBG)
Organisation founded in 1994 by 74 international companies, which has devised a model for measuring the contributions made by companies to the community and is recognised as a benchmark for the sector.