Software Enables Product Lifecycle Analysis

Industrial Design Consultancy (IDC), has announced the launch of the LCA Calculator, a software package for lifecycle analysis by product developers. The LCA Calculator is designed to offer a quick and intuitive way for designers and engineers to understand, analyse and compare environmental impacts of products and particular design decisions. It analyses the effects that a product or service has on the environment over the entire period of its life - from the extraction and processing of raw materials from which it is made through to the manufacturing, packaging and marketing processes, and the use, reuse and maintenance of the product, on to its eventual recycling or disposal as waste at the end of its useful life.

Traditional lifecycle-assessment programmes involve large amounts of research, require specialist knowledge and take a considerable amount of time looking into all aspects of the product. In practice, therefore, these only tend to be carried out once all aspects of the products are defined, by which time it is generally too late to make changes.

In contrast, IDC's LCA Calculator takes only a few minutes to obtain the same information, which means designs can be adjusted to answer 'what if' questions until they achieve the optimum design. The LCA Calculator is available in three versions: Pro, Business and Corporate Bespoke. The Pro version is suited to individual usage, while the Business and Corporate version allows design teams to share and analyse data, as well as manage access and permissions for usage.

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