Aggregating and evaluating the results of different Environmental Impact Assessment methods

The role of life cycle analysis (LCA) in identifying and measuring the environmental impact of extended supply chains, i.e., chains involving both forward and reverse activities, is very important. Particularly, in the case of alternative supply chain management policies or scenarios, life cycle analysis may significantly help to quantify the environmental result of these alternatives for the purpose of comparison and decision making. It is debatable, however, whether such comparison is always possible. Indeed, life cycle analysis has often raised discussion and disagreements, especially regarding the stage of Impact Assessment (valuation), and, until now, there is no generally accepted framework of analysis. In this paper, different models are used in order to extend the usability of the Environmental Design of Industrial Products method of Impact Assessment. Furthermore, research results that are produced by applying different methods of Impact Assessment are examined in the cases of the recovery and disposal chains of lead-acid batteries. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.