1 LCA (4) 1996     After one year’s publication of the journal with a total of four issues, the current state in the development of LCA methodology in presented: The cover picture shows the flow scheme of an LCA concerned with a technical product or process. Environmental assessment as additional tool of optimizing a product – apart from technical and economical specifications – includes the identification, quantification and evaluation of materials and energy usage as well as environmental releases through all stages of a product’s entire life cycle. The flow scheme is combined with the famous “SETAC triangle” which symbolizes the SETAC-LCA Guideline “A Code of Practice”, developed in 1993 (see Int. J. LCA 3/96, p. 121). “A Code of Practice” is the LCA “Bible” and the basis for the international work of the ISO performed in the standardization of LCA methods (ISO standards 14040 to 14043, in progress). The methodological framework and principles for the “classical” LCA-tool is now in place.

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