Session: Corporate Use of LCA

Economic and environmental assessment of processes and investments using LCA and LCC
Malgorzata Góralczyk,^*   Mineral and Energy Economy Research Insitute of the Polish Academy of Sciences

The paper describes the system of environmental and economic assessment of processes based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) developed for the purpose of supporting the decision making regarding the choice of equipment used in the process of mining of the copper ore. The assessment system combines the environmental impact assessment performed using LCA with the economic analysis based upon LCC concept.

The development of such system is the response to the difficulties expressed by the decision makers who were facing the problem of meeting the environmental restrictions and economic goals at the same time. The system can be applied both for the strategic planning and for the day-to-day decision making. LCA by itself doesn't include financial matters, but in this area the natural supplement of LCA is the financial analysis done using LCC. That way the life cycle concept is applied to both environmental and economic matters.

Although the system of environmental and economic assessment was developed especially for the copper ore mining it was designed in that way that it can be easily adapted to different processes and also to the extended (i.e. including environmental impact) assessment of the investment projects. The example of application of the system developed to the investment project assessment will also be presented.

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