Life Cycle Assessment

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the comprehensive quantification of a broad range of long term global environmental impacts, encompassing all phases in the life of a product (from cradle to grave) and all parts of the product, including energy consumption and packaging. It’s an evolving and complex international method that is growing in importance.

The American Center for LCA lists certified LCA practitioners (you can study and take the exam) and an excellent range of LCA studies and resources.
http://www.lcacenter.org/index.html

http://www.life-cycle.org/
Life cycle.org offers plentiful information about LCA with links to many articles.

http://www.setac.org/
The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) researches environmental problems with highly technical research studies.

http://www.interfaceglobal.com/Sustainability/Sustainability-in-Action/Life-Cycle-Assessment.aspx
Interface clearly describes the basic information of LCA
.
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/lcaccess/index.html
The US EPA sites a range of LCA resources such.

http://www.doka.ch/lca.htm#Sites
Professor DOKA lists abundant, easy to access LCA resources.

www.athenasmi.org/
The ATHENATM Sustainable Materials Institute is not-for-profit organization that offer the ATHENA Environmental Impact Estimator, a life cycle assessment tool

http://www.nist.gov/el/economics/BEESSoftware.cfm
The BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) software brings to your fingertips a powerful technique for selecting cost-effective, environmentally-preferable building products.

www.life-cycle.org/LCA_soft.htm.
A useful compendium of LCA software can be found at

www.setac.org/lca.html
The Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) is the international organization for LCA specialists.

www.isogroup.iserv.net/14001.html
ISO 14040 series covers the International Standards Organization LCA standards.

www.pre.nl/simapro.html
Simapro is designer friendly and affordable LCA software offering North American process profile data.

www.fivewinds.com
Five Winds offers GaBi software and examples of integrating LCA in the product development process.

http://pollution.about.com/bl_beyondcompliance.htm
About Pollution’ links to business oriented LCA and environmental management sites.

www.eco-shop.org/Links/LCA/ecoshop_links_lca.htm
Ecoshop provides an overview of LCA & ecodesign.