How could an LCA help answer the question “what is the carbon footprint of a purchase or email account?” Posted July 7, 2017 by Julie Sinistore Have you ever taken one of those personal carbon footprint calculator quizzes? They calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions based on how you commute, how much you fly, where you get your electricity from, what you buy and what you eat, but what about how you invest and how you store your data? Financial transactions and cloud storage services are just two of the many services that can have significant impact on the environment and are difficult to quantify. I often describe life cycle assessment (LCA) as a process to evaluate the total environmental impacts, like GHG emissions and water from the production, use, transportation and disposal of goods and services. While there is an abundance of LCAs on goods out there, LCA’s of services are rarely done. As a long-time LCA practitioner, I understand that LCAs of services pose a number of challenges and can seem like a daunting Read More
