Everyone pays attention to the environmental impact (consumption of natural resources from and emissions of substances to the environment) of a product when it is in use, such as the CO2 emission from driving a car, but the impacts during the manufacturing of the product, the impact during the disposal of the product after it has served its purpose, and the effect of recycling are often overlooked. As a result, it is possible that a product selected with the intention of being good for the environment turns out to be the opposite when viewed over the lifetime of the product.
In order to correctly assess the environmental impact of a product, it is important to consider not only a certain section of the product’s life cycle, but also the entire life cycle of the product (i.e. the product’s life cycle), including manufacturing, use, disposal and recyclability at the end of the product’s life. This way of thinking is called ‘Life Cycle Thinking’.
Source: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
An evaluation method called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is generally used to calculate the environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle.
In addition, data on the amount of resources used and the amount of environmentally hazardous substances such as CO2 emitted during the life cycle of a product is called Life Cycle Inventory (LCI).
Everyone pays attention to the environmental impact (consumption of natural resources from and emissions of substances to the environment) of a product when it is in use, such as the CO2 emission from driving a car, but the impacts during the manufacturing of the product, the impact during the disposal of the product after it has served its purpose, and the effect of recycling are often overlooked. As a result, it is possible that a product selected with the intention of being good for the environment turns out to be the opposite when viewed over the lifetime of the product.
In order to correctly assess the environmental impact of a product, it is important to consider not only a certain section of the product’s life cycle, but also the entire life cycle of the product (i.e. the product’s life cycle), including manufacturing, use, disposal and recyclability at the end of the product’s life. This way of thinking is called ‘Life Cycle Thinking’.
Source: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
An evaluation method called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is generally used to calculate the environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle.
In addition, data on the amount of resources used and the amount of environmentally hazardous substances such as CO2 emitted during the life cycle of a product is called Life Cycle Inventory (LCI).