AS ISO 14044:2019 PDF
The objective of this Standard is to specify requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) including – (a) definition of the goal and scope of the LCA; (b) life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase; (c) life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase; (d) life cycle interpretation phase; (e) reporting and critical review of the LCA; (f) limitations of the LCA; (g) relationship between the LCA phases; and (h) conditions for use of value choices and optional elements.
The increased awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and the possible impacts associated with products1), both manufactured and consumed, has increased interest in the development of methods to better understand and address these impacts. One of the techniques being developed for this purpose is life cycle assessment (LCA).
LCA can assist in
— identifying opportunities to improve the environmental performance of products at various points in their life cycle,
— informing decision-makers in industry, government or non-government organizations (e.g. for the purpose of strategic planning, priority setting, product or process design or redesign),
— the selection of relevant indicators of environmental performance, including measurement techniques, and
— marketing (e.g. implementing an ecolabelling scheme, making an environmental claim, or producing an environmental product declaration).