Development of a Product-related automated Life Cycle Assessment method

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a commonly used tool for evaluating the environmental impacts of products and processes throughout their entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life treatment. Typically, LCA is performed manually, which is time-consuming and prone to human error, limiting its efficiency and scalability. Furthermore, the environmental impact of products is usually assessed based on averages of the whole product group instead of performing a product-specific LCA. This paper addresses these challenges by presenting an automated LCA pipeline, that allows performing product individual LCAs under consideration of machine parameters, tooling, and processing windows. First, the underlying framework is presented, before the approach is applied to an exemplary scenario. The results indicate that there are significant differences between an average product group assessment and a product-related assessment of the carbon footprint. Hence, the automated LCA pipeline can potentially lead to more sustainable decision-making, reduced environmental footprints, and improved compliance with environmental regulations.