Background on Environmental & Social Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) and Design

We would like to provide a video that introduces the concept of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and explains the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) method. The video delves into the EIO-LCA method, originally proposed by Wassily Leontief, explaining the fundamental equations and matrices used. We highlights how this method offers a comprehensive economy-wide assessment, including both direct and indirect environmental effects.

We outline the benefits and drawbacks of EIO-LCA and mentions that the next video will provide a detailed example of how to populate a demand vector in Matlab to analyze outputs and impacts.

For more information about standards of LCA and resources of LCA backgrounds, please refer to

ISO Standards for LCA:

ISO 14044:2006 Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Requirements and guidelines

ISO 14040:2006 Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework

More Background Videos and Excerices from VentureWell:

Measuring Sustainability – Life-Cycle Assessment

LCA Textbook:

H. Scott Matthews, Chris T. Hendrickson, and Deanna Matthews, Life Cycle Assessment: Quantitative Approaches for Decisions that Matter, 2014.