Life-cycle assessment

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a way of looking at the effects of a product on the environment. It looks at every part of the product's life, from the raw materials that were used to make it, to the energy used in production and use, to the waste generated when it gets thrown away. It's like drawing a picture of how much energy and resources a product uses over its whole life. By thinking about the environmental impact of a product, we can work out ways to make it better and use fewer resources.