LCA include many impact categories related to emissions but quite few related to use of resources. There are methods that group resources into biotic and abiotic, renewable and non-renewable, fossil and also by exergetic content. Which methods do you use and which are you missing/lacking? What parameters are important in such methods... distinguish energy resources from material resources...stocks and turnover...?
Resource depletion is indeed one of the impact categories that can be quantified by LCA tools like GaBi, SemaPro, SustainableMinds, Open LCA, etc. I use GaBi software in all my research related to LCA and I also use TRACI 2.1 methodology for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Other researchers use CML 2001 methodology for LCIA. Based on my experience with LCA, I think TRACI 2.1 and CML 2001 are the most commonly used for resource depletion.
PS: Some LCA software like SustainableMinds use a single score called Okala as a figure of merit for comparing the sustainability among two or more technologies.
Professor Yehia Khalil, Yale University, USA
Fellow of the University of Oxford, UK
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