Assessment of Chemical Products and Processes: Green Metrics and Life Cycle Assessment - A Comparison

Green chemistry aims to use renewable materials, reduce waste, and avoid toxic substances and is defined by 12 principles of green chemistry. Green metrics (GM) are measurable figures that assess adherence to the 12 principles of green chemistry. GM are designed to be user-friendly and can be applied without detailed process knowledge. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is another approach used to estimate the environmental impacts of products or processes throughout their life cycle. This paper compares LCA and GM, exploring their suitability for assessing the greenness of chemical products and processes. This includes the discussion of strengths and weaknesses, limitations, application areas, benefits of combining both approaches, and how to handle conflicting results. Green metrics and life cycle assessment are two tools to assess the impact of chemical processes and products on the environment. Both methods describe the eco-friendliness. Nevertheless, the results cannot be converted easily into each other, and they may even be contradictory. The reasons are briefly summarized and some recommendations for the use of both methods are given. image