System boundary

Pamela Haverkamp

Chapter 173 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 651-653 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The system boundary of an LCA study defines which processes are included in the assessed system. The system boundaries of an LCA must be drawn during the “goal and scope definition” phase of the assessment. Defining the system boundaries of an LCA study is both a critical and a complex process since the results of an LCA are highly dependent on the system boundaries. The objective of the study dictates how the system boundaries are defined. If the goal is to identify the environmental hotspots of one product, all possible processes connected to the assessed product system in the system boundaries may be included. If the goal is to compare the environmental performance of two products, processes that are exactly the same in both systems may be excluded.

Keywords: System boundary; Life cycle assessment; Life cycle stages; Unit process; Foreground system; Background system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035309887
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035309894.00178 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22215_173

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().