Search Results

A comprehensive total cost life cycle assessment should include estimates of liability costs to provide the best picture of the financial viability of investments, such as product or process changes and pollution prevention projects. Potential liability costs are by nature difficult to estimate and include a prediction (or probability estimate) of risk. Occupational safety liabilities resulting from injuries to workers have been evaluated for specific automotive industrial processes by worker occupations using an incidence and severity-of-incidence type approach. Potential safety risks to workers at varying levels of risk from low to high were determined, and the estimated economic costs resulting from those risks have been developed. These occupational safety liability cost estimates can be used for total cost accounting in life cycle management.

The developing field of life cycle assessment is influenced by a multitude of environmental, economic, societal and cultural factors. The pace of change in the field masks the emerging consensus on the methodologies and common factors that influence life cycle assessment and give birth to life cycle management. This paper is designed to extract the trends from the developing field and present the concepts and structure of the state-of-the-art life cycle management techniques as they apply to business decision-makers.