 Consequential life cycle assessmentSara Toniolo and Carlo Ingrao Chapter 18 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 55-58 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Life cycle assessment (LCA) is recognized as a scientifically based tool for exploring the environmental burdens of a product system. Modeling in LCA can be classified into attributional and consequential, two different perspectives to set the system boundaries and to perform life cycle inventory (LCI). This entry regards consequential LCA, which captures the environmental impacts associated with a product system beyond physical relationships and includes the changes that can occur along a life cycle and even beyond. Applying the consequential perspective, the environmental impacts are assessed considering how environmentally relevant physical flows vary in response to possible decisions in demand and supply. An overview is provided, starting from the main differences compared to the attributional modeling approach, presenting its origin and the main current applications. The key features are summarized, and its applicability to examine multifunctionality and rebound effects is presented. Finally, the main aspects regarding the choice of data are described. Keywords: Consequential; LCA; Supply chain; Multifunctionality; System expansion; Change-oriented (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22215_18 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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