The Relevance of life cycle assessment to decision-making in companies and public authorities

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly used, but studies about the influence on decision making and the actual impact of LCA are so far lacking. The goal of this study is therefore to present a first assessment of the influence of LCAs within decision-making and the real-world impact of LCAs. For this purpose, a semi-quantitative questionnaire and several qualitative interviews were performed with decision makers from industry and governmental agencies. The results show that half of the surveyed organizations use LCA frequently in decision-making, while the other half only implement LCA in a few decision situations. In companies, LCA is applied for product development and optimization as well as strategic decisions. The level of integration of LCA in decision-making processes showed a positive correlation with the consideration of LCA results and the impact of LCA results on decision outcomes. In public authorities (analysis restricted to Swiss authorities), environmental aspects are always considered during the development of new regulations, but the LCA results are not the only aspects influencing the decision outcome. Other aspects are the costs and the environmental awareness of the decision-maker. Three quarters of all organizations use climate change as one environmental indicator, mostly (in 68% of the responding organizations) in combination with other environmental indicators. Four main reasons limit the influence of LCA within decision-making: lower priority of environmental aspects compared to other decision criteria, complex LCA methods, complex results, and a lack of data to perform a reliable LCA. Future research could be conducted with a specific focus on an industrial sector, a country, or a specific application area to allow in-depth insights of decision-making practices.