Criteria for the evaluation of life cycle assessment software packages with application to concrete

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is defined as "the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle" (ISO 14040 1997). With such a broad scope of and timeframe for potential impacts, a LCA perspective is useful for assessing the environmental performance of various cementing material types. Prior to conducting a comparative LCA study on different concrete materials it is necessary to examine a variety of software packages for this specific focus. The paper evaluates three LCA tools in the context of the LCA of four mix designs (conventional concrete and concrete with fly ash, slag, or limestone as cement replacement). Three key evaluation criteria required to assess the quality of analysis are: adequate flexibility, sophistication and complexity of analysis, and usefulness of outputs.