Life Cycle Costing

The Life Cycle Costing Working currently develops a "Code of Practice for Life Cycle Costing"

Gerald Rebitzer, David Hunkeler and Kerstin Lichtenfort introduced the Working Group in a presentation at the ECOBALANCE Conference in Tsukuba in October 2004

Towards a Code of Practice for Life Cycle Costing – Results from the SETAC Working Group on LCC

Gerald Rebitzer, Alcan – Product Stewardship, Alcan Technology & Management, CH-3965 Chippis, Switzerland, Gerald.Rebitzer@alcan.com David Hunkeler,AQUA+TECH Specialties S.A., Rue de St. Eloi, CH-1350 Orbe, Switzerland, David.Hunkeler@AQUAplusTECH.ch Kerstin Lichtenvort, Technical University Berlin, Institute for Environmental Engineering, D-10623 Berlin, Germany Kerstin.Lichtenvort@TU-Berlin.de

Keywords: Economic Pillar of Sustainability, Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Life Cycle Management (LCM), SETAC LCC WG

ABSTRACT

Sustainability comprises environmental, economic, and social issues. In order to find acceptable and beneficial solutions for current, and future, challenges, the incorporation of the life cycle perspective is essential for all three aspects. While the environmental element of life cycle based sustainability, LCA, is fairly well established, the other two elements are still in early phases of development. To further develop and explore the ‘economic cousin’ of LCA, life cycle costing (LCC), a SETAC Europe Working Group (WG) was created in 2002. The goal of this international cooperation is to develop a code of practice for LCC, possibly as a basis for future standardization similar to the ISO 14040 series for LCA. An overview of the current state of LCC developments and the results of the WG to date is given, with an emphasis of LCC within life cycle management.

The next meeting will be held January 12 2005 in Bologna, just after the Setac-LCA-Case-Study meeting.