Approaches to valuation in LCA impact assessment

One of the major problems with the future development of lifecycle assessment is the difficulty in converting lifecycle inventory results into environmental impacts, owing to problems associated with the interpretation and weighting of the data. The four main valuation approaches: distance-to-target, environmental control costs, environmental damage costs and scoring approaches are assessed and the individual methodologies evaluated. In conclusion it is considered that in a country which has clear, up-to-date, politically acceptable emission standards, a distance-to-target valuation system maybe acceptable. However, these circumstances are likely to be rare, and the choice of standards arbitrary and not scientifically based. Therefore a better choice is probably environmental damage costs, provided suitable economic damage figures are available.