1st ICAI 2020

International Conference on Automotive Industry 2020

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

The Role of Life Cycle Assessment as an Environmental Management Tool for Support Decision-Making in the Automotive Industry Dorota Burchart-Korol Silesian University of Technology Faculty of Transport and Aviation Engineering Krasińskiego 8, Katowice, 40-019 Poland e-mail: dorota.burchart-korol@polsl.pl Abstract The importance of life cycle approach and life cycle management for the Automotive Industry is discussed in the paper. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique, which allow to assess resource consumption and potential environmental impacts associated with a vehicles and fuels throughout their whole life cycle, from extraction via manufacturing and use to end-of- life. It is presented many impact and damage categories which are important in environmental assessment of vehicles, particularly greenhouse gases emissions and natural resources management. The article presents an overview of methods with life cycle approach for sustainable development, which can be used in automotive industry and with regard to analysis of environmental, economic and social dimensions. Keywords: automotive industry, greenhouse gases emissions, life cycle assessment, life cycle management JEL Classification: Q53, Q54, Q56 1.1 Application of Life Cycle Assessment Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is environmental management tool due to its various useful applications. For example, it can be used by industry for sustainable product development and strategic planning to support life cycle thinking and decision making. LCA covers the entire product life cycle from extraction of raw material and its acquisition, the production of energy and materials and manufacturing, the exploitation and processing after the operation and demolition. LCA is used as a means to comprehensively evaluate processes, material choices and their effects on life cycle greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and other impact and damage categories (Burchart- Korol et al., 2020). The LCA approach enables the calculation and comparison of energy used and environmental impacts for different products across the supply chain. It also provides the opportunity for companies and policymakers to consider the organization and influences on an entire system rather than a single link within the supply chain. This may result in company decision-making about environmental 1. Introduction

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