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Terms & Acronyms

The Search Results is an alphabetical list based on the search criteria. The user may click on a vocabulary link to go directly to the vocabulary containing the term. The user has the option to export the results to a variety of file formats.

Term	Acronym	Vocabulary	Vocabulary Type	Definitions
Attributional Life Cycle Assessment	Attributional LCA	Lifecycle Assessment Principles and Practices Glossary	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: An LCA that accounts for flows/impacts of pollutants, resources, and exchanges among processes within a chosen temporal window.
Consequential Life Cycle Assessment	Consequential LCA	Lifecycle Assessment Principles and Practices Glossary	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: An LCA that attempts to account for flows/impacts that are caused beyond the immediate system in response to a change to the system.
Life Cycle Assessment	LCA	Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) Glossary	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: A life cycle assessment (LCA) is a process for evaluating the environmental burdens associated with a product, process, or activity. LCAs identify and quantify energy and material users and releases to the environment. The assessment covers the entire life-cycle of the product, process, or activity, including extracting and processing the raw materials; manufacturing, transporting, and distributing the product; product use, reuse, and maintenance; recycling; and final disposal.
Life Cycle Assessment		Lifecycle Assessment Principles and Practices Glossary	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: A cradle-to-grave approach for assessing industrial systems that evaluates all stages of a product's life. It provides a comprehensive view of the environmental aspects of the product or process.
Life Cycle Assessment	LCA	Greener Products Glossary	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition 1: Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle (Source: ISO/IEC Guide 2). Definition 2: The comprehensive examination of a product's environmental and economic aspects and potential impacts throughout its lifetime, including raw material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, use, and disposal. (Source Executive Order 13101 - Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Federal Acquisition (11 pp, 98K) [http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/13101.pdf])
Life-cycle assessment	LCA	Environmental Management System Glossary	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: Compilation and evaluation, according to a systematic set of procedures, of the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle.
Life cycle assessment		Federal LCA Commons Elementary Flow List for Life Cycle Assessment	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle [Original source: ISO 14040:2006].
Life-Cycle Assessment	LCA	Waste Reduction Model (WARM) Definitions and Acronyms	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: An accounting method that evaluates and reports the full life-cycle inputs and outputs (including GHG emissions) associated with the raw materials extraction, manufacturing or processing, transportation, use, and end-of-life management of a good or service.
Life Cycle Assessment		Glossary of Sustainable Manufacturing Terms	Glossary and Key Word List	Definition: Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. The comprehensive examination of a product or service’s environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout its lifetime, including raw material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, use, and disposal.
Life Cycle Assessment System	LCACCESS		Abbreviation and Acronym List
Attributional Life Cycle Assessment		EPA EV-Research-Research Resources-Model & Simulation Tools	Taxonomy	Definition: A life cycle modeling method that describes flows of material, energy and emissions within a discrete product or system. [USDA National Agricultural Library Thesaurus]
Life Cycle Assessment	LCA	EPA EV-Social & Economic Factors-Economic Factors	Taxonomy	Definition 1: A holistic way to consider multi‐media environmental issues associated with a product or a process from resource acquisition through manufacture, transportation, distribution, and use, to waste management and disposal. Applied to chemical design and manufacturing, LCA allows the comparison of ecological performance of synthesis processes, and guides process developers in identifying opportunities for improvement.[EPA Path Forward Documents Chemical Safety for Sustainability Research Action Plan v2] Definition 2: As a holistic approach to identifying the environmental consequences of a product, process, or activity through its entire life cycle and to identifying opportunities for achieving environmental improvements. EPA has specified the four major stages in the life cycle of a product, process, or activity as raw materials acquisition, manufacturing, consumer use/reuse/maintenance, and recycle/waste management. By itself, life-cycle assessment focuses on environmental impacts, not costs. [EPA An Introduction to Environmental Accounting As a Business Management Tool: Key Concepts and Terms at http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe] Definition 3: A technique to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases [outputs]; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases [outputs]; interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision. [USDA National Agricultural Library Thesaurus] Definition 4: LCA addresses the environmental impacts throughout a product's life cycle from raw material acquisition through production, use, end-of-life treatment, recycling and final disposal (i.e. cradle-to-grave). Also known as life-cycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis.[DOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Bioenergy Glossary] Definition 5: Accounting method that evaluates and reports the full life-cycle inputs and outputs (including GHG emissions) associated with the raw materials extraction, manufacturing or processing, transportation, use, and end-of-life management of a good or service. [Waste Reduction Model (WARM) Definitions and Acronyms]

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