Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Many everyday products, such as cars, cans and washing machines, are made of steel. Once these products reach the end of their useful lives, the steel is recycled. Recycling reduces the consumption of raw materials and energy and is therefore good for the environment.
To understand the environmental performance of a product, its entire life cycle needs to be taken into consideration. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of a steel product looks at resources, energy and emissions, from the steel production stage to its end-of-life stage, including recycling. Steel can be recycled over and over again, indefinitely, without any loss of its inherent properties.
- Steel's role in reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions
- About the worldsteel Life Cycle Inventory
- LCI policy statement
- GHG emissions of high strength steels versus conventional steels
- LCI methodology report 2002
- LCI checklist
Request data from the worldsteel life cycle inventory (LCI)
worldsteel's LCI datasets are used for material selection and product design. They are available free of charge to everyone, from worldsteel members and customers to researchers, life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners and policymakers. To request data, fill in the LCI form.
Case studies
worldsteel has also produced a set of case studies that use a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to measure the potential greenhouse gas impacts from all stages of manufacture, product use and end-of-life. You can see the case studies on this page, in PDF format.
