Eco-efficiency in a circular economy from a products life cycle gap perspective

Life cycle gap analysis (LCGA) is a particular technique to interpret life cycle assessment (LCA) results from a circular economy (CE) perspective in order to identify potentials for further improvement of products sustainability (Dieterle, Schäfer and Viere 2018). The presentation conceptualizes an extension of the methodology by integrating economic cost assessments in terms of eco-efficiency. The visualization of the results in an eco-efficiency portfolio allows to identify barriers and drivers of business models for circular and sustainable products. It therefore supports innovation and technology managers, product designers and engineers by analyzing the consequences of their ideas and decisions with regard to both, the vision of CE and the actual consequences for current life cycle systems.