HILCSA LCIA method is now available on Nexus

HILSA LCIA method is now available on Nexus!

HILCSA (Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle SustainabilityAssessment, https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=50083) is a life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method developed by the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, which uniquely allows integrated LCSAs of product systems modeled with the soca database. In a single assessment framework, this integrated LCSA entails 80 social, ecological and economic indicators aggregated into indices, across all three sustainability dimensions and addresses 14 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thereby the method provides a multi-criteria analysis of trade-offs, synergies, and hotspots across multiple sustainability dimensions helping to avoid burden shifting in production and consumption systems. HILCSA reveals common systemic risks and chances and offers science-based decision support for technology development, management and governance in policy, civil society, research and industry.

HILCSA has been applied in several case studies (available in open access):

Pries M, Zeug W, Thrän D (2026) Holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of community supported agriculture: A case study of school catering in Leipzig, Germany. Cleaner and Responsible Consumption 20:100372

Puricelli S, Zeug W, Cecere G, Dolci G, van den Oever A, Rigamonti L, Grosso M, Bezama A (2026) Navigating through Holistic and Integrated LCSA of passenger cars with different power supply: Methodological limitations and research needs. Journal of Environmental Management 398:128499

Zeug W, Yupanqui KRG, Bezama A, Thrän D (2023b) Holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of prospective biomass to liquid production in Germany Journal of Cleaner Production 418 doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138046

Zeug W, Bezama A, Thran D (2022) Application of holistic and integrated LCSA: Case study on laminated veneer lumber production in Central Germany Int J Life Cycle Ass 27:1352-1375 doi:10.1007/s11367-022-02098-x

How to obtain HILCSA

To know more and download the method, visit openLCA Nexus: https://nexus.openlca.org/database/HILCSA