Title: life cycle assessment
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - life cycle assessment
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.13960
Status: current

Definition
Investigation and valuation of the environmental impacts of a given product or service caused or necessitated by its existence.

Notes
1) Also known as life cycle analysis, LCA, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis.
2) Assessing the life cycle of a polymer or a plastic must take into account all the factors that can be identified from the up-stage raw material to the waste management.

Related Terms
- plastic: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13915
- waste management: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13964

Source
- PAC, 2012, 84, 377. 'Terminology for biorelated polymers and applications (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 405 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-10-12-04)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13960/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13960/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13960/xml

Citation: Citation: 'life cycle assessment' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13960
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-04T20:16:20+00:00