Life cycle iNdeX (LInX): a new indexing procedure for process and product design and decision-making

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an important technique in the successful implementation of a process or product development in the context of environmental sustainability. Attempts have been made to incorporate LCA in public and corporate processes and product related decision-making. The European Union's eco-labeling schemes and the United Kingdom's Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive have tried to integrate life cycle thinking with policy making. However, these efforts still have not made LCA an integral part of process and product selection and design. The absence of an easy to use tool for rapid reconnaissance is a basic limitation of the LCA application. A new life cycle indexing system - LInX - is proposed, which will facilitate the LCA application in process and product evaluation and decision-making. The LInX is comprised of four important sub-indices or attributes - environment, health and safety (EHS), cost, technical feasibility, and socio-political factors. Further, each attribute contains a number of basic parameters, e.g. EHS consists of 11 parameters. Quantification of each basic parameter is performed for the complete life cycle of a proposed process or product. An analytical hierarchy process is used to compute the weights for each basic parameter and sub-indices. A composite process is used to determine the final overall index. This paper explains the methodology for computation of the new indexing system and demonstrates it with an application. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.