Guide on Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique used to assess the environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product's life. This includes raw material extraction, materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling.

Importance: LCA helps to identify potential environmental impacts of the product, enabling more sustainable product design and manufacturing decisions to be made. It highlights the areas of the product's life that carry the highest environmental burden and helps in reducing it.

How it works: The LCA process involves four key stages:
1. Goal and Scope Definition
2. Inventory Analysis
3. Impact Assessment
4. Interpretation
In these stages, data about the inputs and outputs and the relative potential impacts are identified, collected and evaluated. These steps build upon each other to provide a detailed understanding of the environmental impacts.

Exam Tips: When answering questions about LCA in an exam, remember the four key stages and the importance and functionality of each. Understand the role LCA plays in environmental management and it's role in the PMBOK Guide Seventh Edition. Reflect on real-life examples where LCA can be implemented effectively.
1. Determine the stage of the product life cycle being asked about in the question.
2. Remember that LCA covers the entire product life cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal.
3. Understand the value of reducing environmental impact during the product's life cycle.
4. Familiarize yourself with examples of LCA being used effectively in project management.

Remember, every question related to LCA will have an answer embedded within its four stages.