Bewertungsmethoden in Ökobilanzen – ein Überblick

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Abstract
Life Cycle Assessment, in short LCA, is a tool aiming at examining the environmental consequences of a product – or a service unit – over its whole life cycle “from cradle to grave”, In German language, the term “Ökobilanz” (“Ecobalance”) is used both for Product-LCA as well as for the environmental statement of a company. If used properly, LCA is a powerful but complex tool allowing for a better understanding, setting of priorities, choosing between product (or service) alternatives, and even integration into business management. An LCA consists – according to today's understanding – of four major steps: Goal definition and scoping, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and finally an improvement assessment. For many years, the third step was at the same time considered crucial but was methodically “postponed” by most practicioners. Recently, assessment methods used for valuing the different environmental interventions started to be developed. Invited by the Swiss Association for Environmentally Conscious Management, five developers of the most widely known and applied impact assessment methods, coming from Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, were asked to present their approaches to one and the same problem. The present article argues shortly why assessment (by which is meant characterization and quantitative or qualitative valuation of different environmental interventions) is necessary and gives an overview of the existing approaches. Described are three quantitative assessment methods: the method based on immission thresholds (also called “critical volumes approach”, first developed in the eighties in Switzerland), the “critical flow method” (Bern/CH 1990), the impact-oriented assessment method (Leiden/NL 1992) – and in addition the Environmental Accounting method EPS (Goteborg/S 1992). Furthermore, two qualitative assessment approaches are discussed: the ABC-ranking method (Germany 1992) and an approach called “action-oriented ecobalance” (Switzerland 1992) which both have a slightly different scope but are often cited as alternatives. Finally the approaches are put into perspective, for instance, according to the criteria of completeness, objectivity and practicabilily and a short outlook to future development is given.

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