Consequential LCA

Under each of the below headings you will find examples – and a short theoretical explanation – of all possible situations, steps and choices encountered when performing a consequential LCA. Not all subheadings will be relevant for all LCAs.

• Why and when? For life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) it is common to distinguish between consequential and attributional modelling. The examples on this website are exclusively about consequential LCI modelling. But under this heading we explain what the difference to attributional modelling is and why and when consequential modelling is the right choice for your LCA.
• The functional unit This section of the website is about ensuring the comparability of alternatives through a correct definition of the functional unit.
• Determining or dependent co-products? For a specific activity, it is important to know which changes in demand for its co-products determine changes in its production volume, since a consequential model – per definition – only includes the changes that are consequences of the specific changes in demand implied by the studied decision.
• Marginal suppliers In consequential LCA modelling, long-term market trends and constraints play key roles for the identification of the long-term marginal suppliers of each product, that is, the suppliers that will change their production capacity in response to an accumulated change in demand for the product.
• By-products, recycling and waste This section of the web-site is about the further consequential modelling of by-products and wastes, i.e. those intermediate outputs that are not determining products.
• Multiple determining products This section of the web-site addresses the consequential modelling of situations where there is more than one determining product.

Without theory

Do you just want to see the examples? – Click here.