This report provides an overview of the LCA applied to assessing environmental impacts of consumption in EU as a basis to support several policies and the assessment of their impacts and benefits.
Purpose Characterizing environmental impacts at the global scale is crucial to define references against which compare the environmental profile of products and systems.Within this study, global emissions and resource uses have been collected and characterized for the following impact categories: climate change, ozone depletion, human toxicity (cancer and non-cancer), ecotoxicity, particulate matter, ionizing radiation, photochemical ozone formation, acidification, eutrophication (terrestrial, marine, and freshwater), land use, water use, and resource use.
The environmental impacts generated by household consumption are generally calculated through footprints, allocating the supply-chain impacts to the final consumers.
Trade is increasingly considered a significant contributor to environmental impacts. The assessment of the impacts of trade is usually performed via environmentally extended input–output analysis (EEIOA).
Purpose Energy consumption of buildings is one of the major drivers of environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) may support the assessment of burdens and benefits associated to eco-innovations aiming at reducing these environmental impacts.
This report presents the results of the Life Cycle Indicators (LCIND2) project, aimed at developing two sets of Life cycle Assessment-based indicators for assessing the environmental impact of EU consumption: the Consumption Footprint and the Consumer Footprint.
Purpose Land use can cause significant impacts on ecosystems and natural resources. To assess these impacts using life cycle assessment (LCA) and ensure adequate decision-making, comprehensive national inventories of land occupation and transformation flows are required. Here, we aim at developing globally differentiated inventories of land use flows that can be used for primary use in life cycle impact assessment or national land planning.
Sustainable and responsible production and consumption are at the heart of sustainable development, explicitly mentioned as one of the sustainable development goals (SDG12). Life cycle assessment, with its inherent holistic approach, is considered a reference method for the assessment of environmental impact of production and consumption.
The European Consumer Footprint is a set of life cycle assessment (LCA) indicators aimed to measure the environmental impact of an average EU citizen.
The reduction of chemical pollution is a priority in many regional, national and international policies, including in EU countries.
Food security and biodiversity conservation are closely interconnected challenges to be addressed in order to achieve a sustainable food system on a global scale.
Sustainable Consumption and Production is considered a leading principle towards reducing environmental impacts globally.
Pursuing a responsible and sustainable development, the United Nations urged to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts. Several European Union (EU) policies have been implemented towards such goal.
Food production and consumption have been identified among the human interventions generating huge pressures and impacts on the environment.
The study describes the results of a full LCA applied to 24 statistically-based dwelling archetypes, representative of the EU housing stock in 2010.
The European Commission (EC) has been developing an assessment framework to monitor the evolution of environmental impact associated to the European Union (EU) consumption.
The EU Consumer Footprint aims at assessing the environmental impacts of consumption. The methodology for assessing the impacts is based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of products (or services) purchased and used in one year by an EU citizen.
The EU Consumer Footprint aims at assessing the potential environmental impacts due to consumption. The calculation of the Consumer footprint is based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of representative products (or services) purchased and used in one year by an EU citizen
The EU Consumer Footprint aims at assessing the potential environmental impacts due to consumption.
The increasing global demand for resources has been met with a new wave of resource efficiency policies worldwide. Such policies are however vulnerable to rebound effects when increased resource efficiency leads to additional resource use via behavioural and systemic responses.
Food waste has gained prominence in the political debate thanks to the recent Circular Economy package. Up to now the waste hierarchy, introduced by the Waste Framework Directive, has been the rule followed to prioritize food waste prevention and management measures according to the environmental criteria.
Food consumption is amongst the main drivers of environmental impacts. On one hand, there is the need of fulfil a fundamental human need related to nutrition and on the other hand this is posing critical threats to the environment.
Purpose Life cycle thinking and assessment require a holistic approach to the evaluation of product supply chains.
Purpose Distance-to-target (DTT) methods are weighting methods aimed at assessing the distance of an existing situation from a desired state (the target). Weighting factors in DTT methods could be based on calculation which is performed on normalization factors (NFs) developed for life cycle assessment (LCA).
Assessing comprehensively the overall environmental impacts of a region remains a major challenge. Within life cycle assessment (LCA), this evaluation is performed calculating normalisation factors (NFs) at different scales.
Purpose. Assessing comprehensively the overall environmental impacts of a region remains a major challenge. Within life cycle assessment (LCA), this evaluation is performed calculating normalisation factors at different scales.
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| Originally Published | Last Updated | 22 May 2026 | 27 Aug 2026 |
| Knowledge service | Metadata | European Platform Life Cycle Assessment (EPLCA) |
