Yasuhiko Wada*, Hiroyuki Miura* and Kazuko Nakano*

*Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kansai University

+ Correspondence should be addressed to Yasuhiko Wada:
(3-3-35, Yamatecho, Suita, 564 Japan)

Abstract

As consciousness and interest in environment questions on a global scale rise, it is demanded to cut down environmental load that occurs in human activity as much as possible. In order to cut down overall environmental load, it is necessary that we make a given influence for the environment clear in the overall life cycle of products and structural materials, and compare the influence. Recently, LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) has been watched as a method that makes clear the influence to the environment of products and structural materials. LCA is expected to be a method standardize environment management by ISO (International Standardization Organization). LCA research has been done in Europe and North America since the second half of the 1970's. In Japan, recently, research results about LCA were announced. However, LCA isn't an established method. Actually, at this time, there are many points at issue regarding LCA. We summarized trends and characteristics of Japanese LCA research in this article. And we examined future directions to establish it, considering LCA an effective method to quantify influence on the environment.

Key words: life cycle assessment, environmental load, environmental impact, lifestyle, eco-lavel