IMPROVING ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANACE WITH LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT

Abstract

In Central and Eastern Europe the factories, businesses have much lower environmental performance than the ones in the Western region. The topic of environmental protection in the Central and Eastern European countries have come to the front since the political changes in the 90’s. In this region the factories nowadays should be not only suited for the economical requirements, but for the regulation of environmental protection. To prevent or lower the environmental burdens we need such an objective method that is suitable for identifying and estimating the potential environmental pollutants and their influences on the environment. Such method is the Life-Cycle Assessment, which uses a material flow-analysis, but includes the environmental effects of different emissions and resource depletion too. The main advantage of the analysis is that it is capable of not only analysing damages, but giving advice to prevent further damages. For example using some cleaner production method in a life-cycle assessment for a chemical factory, the factory could lower its environmental loads significantly. Such method could be i.e. the waste reduction algorithm, or a cleaner production advisory system.