The environment refers to the surroundings in which an organisation operates, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans, and their interrelation. This comprehensive definition, established in ISO 14001, encompasses all elements that can be affected by or that influence an organisation's activities, products, and services.
In Life Cycle Assessment, the environment is often divided into three interconnected dimensions to facilitate systematic analysis. The social environment comprises humans and human systems, including health, wellbeing, and social structures. The biophysical environment encompasses nature in its entirety, including ecosystems, biodiversity, natural resources, and physical systems such as air, water, and soil. The economic environment relates to resources and economic systems that support production and consumption activities.
This tripartite division reflects the holistic scope of LCA as defined in ISO 14040, which explicitly acknowledges that environmental assessment includes social, biophysical, and economic impacts. Understanding these three dimensions is essential for comprehensive sustainability assessment, as activities and products interact with and impact all three environmental spheres throughout their life cycles.
The interrelation among environmental components is particularly important in LCA. For instance, emissions to air (biophysical environment) may affect human health (social environment) and reduce the productivity of natural resources (economic environment). This interconnectedness means that Life Cycle Impact Assessment must consider cascading effects across environmental boundaries.
The term derives from the French word "environ", meaning "around", emphasising that the environment comprises everything surrounding and interacting with a system or organisation. This etymological root reinforces the systems-thinking perspective fundamental to LCA methodology.
