Glossary

LCA is one of the first steps needed for sustainable product certification to establish the baseline for quantified environmental improvements and is required by FTC Environmental Marketing Guides and Attorney General Green Guides for any broad environmental claim, i.e., environmentally friendly, green, environmentally preferable or sustainable. These requirements are based on truth in advertising law. Consumers believe these products are environmentally beneficial in all respects and thus the only accepted, standardized way of doing this is by conducting an ISO Compliant LCA. Accordingly, LCA or actual supplier environmental data are required for sustainable product certification on a product platform basis. LCA identifies 12 environmental benefit / impacts of products for all product stages: extraction, transportation, use, and final disposition or reuse. These 12 impacts are: Global Warming, Acidification, Ozone Depletion, Eutrophication, Photochemical Smog, Human Health, Ecological Toxicity, Fossil Fuel Depletion, Habitat Alteration, Criteria Air Pollutants, Water Intake, Solid and Hazardous Waste. Also required are Pollutant Flows (Flue Gas and Wastewater); Recovered Matter; Other Air Emissions; Other Water Effluents.
http://www.epa.gov/NRMRL/lcaccess/lca101.html