Front cover: InLCA - The International Conference & Exhibition on LCA and LCM 2003 was held on September 23-25 in Seattle/WA, USA. This special issue, edited by Mary Ann Curran, the organizer of the conference, presents eight selected papers, and the announcement of four further papers, which belong to this series of articles and will be published in Int J LCA 2005. The variety of the topics and the affiliations of the authors connect the international LCA Community. Cover idea: Mary Ann Curran. Cover design: Edwin Grondinger (e.grondinger@abc-media.de).