The commodity life cycle costing indicator. An economic measure of natural resource use in the life cycle

Abstract

This study defines a methodology for the development of an economic indicator of natural resource use to be applied in the framework of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to integrate the assessment of the environmental performances of products or processes during their life‐cycle. The indicator developed‐called Commodity Life Cycle Costing (or C‐LCC)‐is based on market prices, therefore incorporating information from both the demand and supply sides. Monte Carlo analysis is used to take price volatility into account. Alternative versions of the indicator, based on open‐source data or calculated considering European Union’s critical raw materials only, are also developed. The study also provides a comparison between the C‐LCC indicator and ReCiPe’s Mineral and Fossil Resource Depletion indicators and applies the proposed methodology to several types of batteries for stationary energy storage.