Chapter 4: Putting It All Together

While each of the three environmental assessment choices can be made independently to generate an impact assessment, there are several commonly used approaches. These techniques range from relatively quick, cheap, and low accuracy to much more expensive and time-consuming, but with more rigorous and robust results.

Most sustainability assessments, until relatively recently, were qualitative. Data-driven environmental impact measurements have traditionally been too slow or expensive to acquire. Even today, many organizations find that qualitative assessments are good enough for their purposes. Methods vary from “back of the envelope” to more rigorous, as represented by the following techniques.

 

 

 

	Engineering Intuition
	Product Scorecards
	Conceptual Live Cycle Thinking
	Qualitative LCA
	Life Cycle Based Design Assessment
	Life Cycle Assessment

 

 

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