ABSTRACT
Since the Industrial Revolution, mankind has established a social system based on mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal. However, the increasing global population and rising living standards have led to a vast increase in resource and energy consumption. As a result, global environmental problems have become major issues for mankind, so much so that, if the growth in resource and energy utilization continues unabated, it is feared that these resources will become exhausted and that global pollution and global warming will become serious problems. To make sustainable development possible going forward, mankind needs as far as possible to reduce inputs from nature and outputs to nature in all activities. This requires that we measure input and output in all our activities, assess their impacts on the global environment, and take action to reduce them. It was against this background that life cycle assessment (LCA) came into being.
