Coordination Action for innovation in Life-Cycle Analysis for Sustainability (CALCAS) Koordiniertes Projekt

ife Cycle Assessment (LCA) according to ISO has been the driving power for LCA diffusion, but it has limitations regarding empirical mechanisms, spatial/temporal aspects and economic/social parameters. To increase the efficacy of sustainability decision making, LCA is to take into account broader externalities, broader interrelations and different application/user needs. A future development should be oriented to:

• “deepening”, to improve reliability and usability by more adequately incorporating empirical mechanisms,
• “broadening”, to improve the significance, by expanding the scope of sustainability impacts and better linking to neighbouring models,
• “leaping forward” by a revision/enrichment of foundations, through the crossing with other disciplines for sustainability evaluation.

CALCAS analyses along two the science framework and user needs. The results are crossed to draw up midterm and long term research lines and road maps, including measures for practical implementation.