Essentials of Life Cycle Assessment

This lecture covers the fundamentals of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a process to evaluate environmental burdens associated with products or activities. It includes topics such as sustainability, system boundaries, impact categories, and methodologies for LCA. The instructor discusses the importance of LCA in identifying environmental impacts, avoiding burden shifting, and making products/processes comparable. Examples of LCA applications in the pharmaceutical industry are also presented, emphasizing the significance of considering the entire life cycle of a product to reduce environmental impact. Various impact categories such as Global Warming Potential, Ozone Depletion Potential, and Acidification Potential are explained, along with their calculation methods and implications.