Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods are essential tools in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), transforming raw emissions and resource data into understandable impact scores. These methods categorize and quantify the environmental impacts of various processes, allowing organizations to evaluate and mitigate the environmental footprint of their products and services. Understanding the different LCIA methods is crucial for making informed decisions about environmental sustainability. This article covers the following questions:
What are LCIA methods?
What are common LCIA methods and what do they represent?
Feel like you're missing information? This article builds upon the following articles, check them out if you want to learn more:
On the LCIA phase: Explained: Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phase
On impact categories: Explained: Environmental impact categories
What are LCIA methods?
During an LCA raw emission, waste, and material production data is collected. These data need to be translated into numerical results that can be interpreted and understood, which is where LCIA methods come in. LCIA methods play a crucial role in LCA by generating the impact scores that translate the extensive and varied environmental emissions into a concise and understandable list of scores.
LCIA methods categorize and quantify the environmental impacts of various materials and processes (i.e., elementary flows). LCIA methods utilize the following concepts (described in more detail here) to achieve this:
Impact categories: An impact category represents a specific environmental issue that the LCA aims to assess, such as global warming potential or ozone depletion. Each category aggregates the effects of different emissions that contribute to the same environmental problem.
Impact factors (aka characterization factors): Factors that quantify the relative impact of different substances within the same category. These factors are used to convert the amount of emissions into impact scores for each category.
Caution - Limitations of LCIA: It's important to note that LCIA methods do not provide guidelines on how to conduct LCAs from start to finish. They only offer the calculation methods needed to derive impact scores. The comprehensive guidelines for conducting LCAs come from other sources like standards and Product Category Rules (PCRs).
What are common LCIA methods and what do they represent?
LCIA methods prioritize different impact categories based on the focus of the study. Standards may mandate certain methods or require reporting on particular impact categories. Below, are brief descriptions of some of the most commonly used LCIA methods.
EN15804+A2 (EU construction sector)
Purpose and target group: Construction companies who want to create Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). It ensures that the EPDs in the construction sector are transparent and comparable, making it fairer.
Region: Europe
Source or author: Initiated by the EU in 2012
Overarching standard: EN15804 + A2 “Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products”.
Latest changes: In June 2019, EN15804 was revised and accepted by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). The revised version of EN15804 makes the EPDs more aligned with the European Commission’s ‘Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)’. Read more about this here.
Other: In the Netherlands, the EN15804 is the foundation for the NMD Bepalingsmethode.
EF v3.1
Purpose and target group: Designed to standardize and harmonize environmental impact assessments across European non-construction sectors, enabling comparability of LCA results to support businesses, policymakers, and consumers in making informed, sustainable decisions.
Region: Europe, but applicable to global contexts
Source or author: The Environmental Footprint initiative was initiated by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in 2013 (Pilot phase: 2013-2019; Transition phase 2019-ongoing).
Overarching standard: Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
Latest changes: EF v3.1 builds on previous versions by integrating the latest scientific research and updating characterization factors across a range of impact categories, such as climate change, acidification, ecotoxicity, photochemical ozone formation, and human toxicity.
NMD Bepalingsmethode (Dutch construction sector)
Purpose and target group: A uniform measurement method for calculating the environmental performance of construction works unambiguously, verifiably, and reproducibly. This creates a level playing field for all parties involved. The environmental performance of various building designs can be compared, to reduce the ultimate environmental impact of a building
Region: The Netherlands
Source or author: Developed by the Dutch National Environmental Database Foundation in 2011.
Overarching standard: NMD Bepalingsmethode is based on EN 15804 with scenarios specific to the Dutch construction sector.
Latest changes: NMD v3.5 includes new datasets, rectifications, and changes to generic data. Here is the latest version of this LCIA method, plus the newest amendment to said version.
ReCiPe 2016
Purpose or target group: ReCiPe 2016 offers both midpoint and endpoint indicators. This dual-level approach allows users to choose between a detailed analysis (midpoints) or a more simplified, overarching view of environmental impacts (endpoints). It targets LCA practitioners, researchers, policymakers, industry professionals, and consultants who need a versatile and reliable tool for environmental impact assessment.
Explanation: ReCiPe 2016 v1.1 midpoint method, Hierarchist version is the default ReCiPe midpoint method.
Region: Global
Source or author: Created by created by RIVM, Radboud University, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and PRé Consultants.
Overarching standard: ReCiPe. ReCiPe follows Recipe 2008.
Caution - ReCiPe 2016 and ReCiPe 2008: Due to significant methodological differences, ReCiPe 2008 and ReCipe 2016 results cannot be compared.
Latest changes: The method includes global normalization factors for the reference year 2010
Other: Please note that the factors in Global warming differ from the 100a time horizon in IPCC 2013 because climate-carbon feedback for non-CO2 GHGs is included.
Environmental Prices
Purpose and target group: Environmental Prices express environmental impacts in monetary units.
Explanation: This implementation is based on midpoint-level environmental prices, meaning that the values of environmental themes are used as a weighting set (as opposed to implementing the factors for individual substances)
Note - Dutch Environmental Prices: Dutch Environmental Prices are average prices for average emissions in the Netherlands in 2015 and European Environmental Prices are based on EU28 emissions in 2015. They should not be used in other contexts.
Region: The Netherlands
Source or author: A method developed by CE Delft
Overarching standard: The characterization step is based on ReCiPe's (2008) Midpoint hierarchies perspective, except for Climate change (based on IPCC 2013) as prescribed by the developers.
Latest changes: Environmental Prices Handbook EU28 version
Other: The environmental prices are not available for the following impact categories: Natural land transformation, Water, Metal, and Fossil depletion.
And many more...
You can freely select any other LCIA methods in Mobius and Helix. Find them in your workspace settings (Mobius) or via the calculation method in the settings environment (Helix). Please read about compatibility with the databases here.
The ones above and others include:
AWARE
BEES+
CML-IA
Cumulative Energy Demand
Ecological Scarcity 2006
Ecosystem Damage Potential
Environmental Footprint method v3.0
ILCD Midpoint +
IPCC 2013 GWP 100a
ReCiPe 2006 and 2008 Midpoint and Endpoint
TRACI 2.1
USETox 2
Next steps
LCIA methods provide a structured approach to assessing the environmental impacts of products and processes. By converting complex environmental data into comprehensible impact scores, these methods enable businesses and policymakers to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions. Understanding and utilizing these methods effectively can lead to significant advancements in sustainability and reduced environmental impacts across various sectors.
