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Heijungs, R. (1994). A generic method for the identification of options for cleaner products Ecological Economics, 10(1):69--81.

  • Journal
    Ecological Economics
View publication

Life cycle assessment, a method for the assessment of the environmental impacts of products, is briefly explained. A mathematical method to perform the calculations and to identify dominant aspects in the environmental load of a product is developed. The results are used to derive expressions for a marginal analysis which can be used for improvement analysis. In this way, a designer or process engineer can determine which processes or materials to consider first when (re)designing a product. The method developed can also be used to estimate the reliability of the determination of the environmental load of the products analyzed in terms of the reliability of the data of the processes involved.