ABSTRACT
Within five years of its founding, Ecobilan was the world leader in matters of applied life-cycle assessment and was a privileged observer of the development of environmental policy in the large industrial groups. Ecobilan also functioned as a proselytiser for the techniques of life-cycle assessment as applied to industrial strategy. LCA involves accounting for all consumption and emissions during the life-cycle of a product or of several alternative products fulfilling the same function, from the extraction of primary materials through the treatment of wastes. Today, life-cycle assessment is ISO-standardised, but its uses and forms constantly evolve.
