A probabilistic framework for the evaluation of productsʹ environmental performance using life cycle approach and Principal Component Analysis

Life-cycle thinking is the scientific approach behind modern business decision support related to sustainable consumption and production. However, such techniques provide a large amount of multi-dimensional data that are difficult to comprehend and to interpret. Thus, the present work intends to provide a useful tool to aid the assessment of the environmental performance of products, which will be as unambiguous and reliable as possible. This tool will be based on the life cycle inventory results, on Principal Component Analysis and on probability distributions providing in that way an objective framework for evaluating productsʹ environmental performance. Furthermore, a graphical representation that may be used as a tag in each product providing its environmental efficiency has been developed and proposed. This tool is being presented through a real application of various beverage containers of the Greek market, to better highlight its use. As was revealed by this application, the tool can be used for categorizing the examined products according to the impact severity as well as the impact types associated with them. Finally, a consistency appraisal test has been accomplished, confirming the consistency of the proposed model.