Legitimacy of life cycle assessment for sustainable communities

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been developed within companies with high environmental impacts, and is widely used in industrial contexts. More recently, LCA has gained importance in sustainable communities. Thus, in this paper we aim to answer the question: how legitimate is the LCA method for sustainable communities, regarding their values, practices and goal? For this purpose, we conducted an experiment rooted in a sustainable community. We observed the work of a focus group composed of seven residents of a sustainable community, who conducted an LCA with the support of an LCA expert (the researcher conducting the study). Each focus group session was recorded and analyzed using a qualitative method (thematic coding). Focusing on moral and cognitive legitimacy, our study highlighted three main themes: the tracking of material flows within a community, the notion of complexity, and the dissemination of results. We identified certain tensions between LCA practices and the residents’ beliefs. Nonetheless, the output of LCA could still be valuable for residents, especially in terms of communicating their alternative way of life. It is also worth noting that the barriers to LCA adoption are similar in both industrial contexts and sustainable communities. We conclude on the need to better understand the role of LCA as a strategy for sustainable communities to upscale their way of life, while also acknowledging the persistent (and necessary) tensions in terms of values and organization.