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Streamlining Life Cycle Assessment
Description:
After having completed work on investigating streamlining the life cycle inventory phase of LCA (see series of publications below), RTI's research efforts focused on the impact phase of LCA in the third and final year of this cooperative agreement. RTI developed a simplified life cycle impact assessment model, called LCIAExpert, which includes modeling for various impact categories: global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, human health, ecological health, resource depletion, and solid waste. RTI developed a flowchart for the design of a tool that combines spreadsheet models, supporting data and user input sheets through a Visual Basic user interface.
Status:
Several reports, journal articles and a CD-ROM with LCIAExpert were submitted to the EPA Principal Investigator. The information collected on impact assessment was used to further the efforts in the project supporting EPA's Environmental Preferable Products program (see project description on FRED).
Estimated Completion: Completed.
Pending Publications:
EPA, "Evaluation of Public Databases as Sources
of Data for Life Cycle Assessments," prepared by T. Boguski for
RTI, (draft report) January 2000.
Available Publications:
- Todd, J.A. and M.A. Curran (eds), "Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment: A Final report from the SETAC North America Streamlined LCA Workgroup," SETAC, June 1999.
- Hunt, R., T. Boguski, K. Weitz, and A. Sharma, "Case Studies Examining LCA Streamlining Techniques," International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, vol 3, no 1, 1998.
- "Streamlining Life Cycle Assessment: A Conference and Workshop," conference proceedings, September 24-25, 1997, Cincinnati, Ohio.
- M.A. Curran, "Streamlining Life Cycle Assessment," masters thesis prepared for the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, Lund, Sweden, January1997.
- EPA, "Streamlining Life Cycle Assessment: Concepts, Evaluation of Methods and Recommendations," prepared by RTI, draft report, December 1996.
- Curran, M.A., and S. Young, " Report from the EPA Conference on Streamlining LCA," International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, vol 1, no 1, 1996.
- Weitz, K., J.A. Todd, M.A. Curran, and M. Malkin, "Streamlining Life Cycle Assessment - Considerations and a report on the State of the Practice," International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, vol 1, no 1, 1996.
Principal Investigator:
Mary Ann Curran
curran.maryann@epa.gov