Harmonizing “Smart” Life Cycle Assessment in Manufacturing Companies: Literature Review and Preliminary Morphological Analysis

One of the major challenges for manufacturing companies is finding opportunities to implement green and transparent operational processes to meet a set of macro-economic targets which are defined in strategic initiatives such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the European Green Deal, and the Paris Agreement. Although, in this context, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become established as a common method for assessing the environmental impact of products or processes, in practice problems often arise due to a large amount of data and information to be processed and the resources required. In this regard, recent Industry 4.0 technologies can be seen as a potential enabler of an automated “smart” life cycle assessment in manufacturing companies. Therefore, this paper systematically reviews the current literature on “smart” LCA implementations and presents a comprised overview of the generic properties of “smart” LCA implementations using a general morphological analysis. The research results of this paper can be used for the further development of a “smart” LCA for science and practical applications, as well.