 Foreground/background processGabriella Buttitta and Davide Lo Presti Chapter 80 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 298-302 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Any Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) aims to evaluate a product system, which is made of interconnected unit processes. Within the selected system boundaries, the processes can specifically pertain to the selected product system or can be more generic and applicable across different other product systems. This distinction is fundamental, and it consists of differentiating them into foreground and background processes. The former, specific to the product system, are largely modeled using primary data, directly provided by the suppliers or the producers. The latter, more generic, are usually modeled using database and/or literature. This distinction can be helpful during the Life Cycle Inventory, guiding the data collection and the interpretation of results, helping to provide recommendations and possible improvements. It follows that the distinction of foreground and background processes is a key concept in carrying out an LCA to help the practitioners toward a more robust study. The product system is the object of the assessment in any Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and it is composed of interconnected unit processes. Keywords: Foreground Process; Background Process; System Boundaries; Product System; Interpretation of Results; Data Collection (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_80 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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