Life Cycle Assessment: Comparative Analysis of an Electric Wiring Harness Using Different Impact Methods

Green processes have received growing interest by industries, governments, and researchers during the last years, in which the concept of sustainability has become the key point. There are different software tools and methods to perform Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and results may be different according to which method the user chooses. This paper aims to present how different results can be achieved due to the use of different methods for the same product system. The present study focuses on analyzing three LCA methods on the same software Open LCA. The results were discussed and compared in terms of modelling principles, hotspots, and impacts for each method. In many cases, modelling principles were identical among the software tools or nearby so, but results reveal differences for the implementation of the impact assessment. Some of these differences were so large that they could influence the LCA decisions and conclusions.