A number of different terms have been coined to describe the processes. One of the first terms used was Life Cycle Analysis, then Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Value Assessment (LCVA). Other terms such as Cradle to Grave Analysis, Eco-balancing, and Material Flow Analysis are also used.

Whichever name is used to describe it, LCVIA is a potentially powerful tool which can assist regulators to formulate environmental legislation, help manufacturers analyze their processes and improve their products, and perhaps enable consumers to make more informed choices.

An LCA involves making detailed measurements during the manufacture of the product, from the mining of raw materials used in its production and distribution, through to its use, possible re-use or recycling, and its eventual disposal.

LCAs enable a manufacturer to quantify how much energy and raw materials are used, and how much solid, liquid and gaseous waste is generated, at each stage of the product's life. Such a study would normally ignore second generation impacts, such as the energy required to fire the bricks used to build the kilns used to manufacture the raw material.

A Life Cycle Inventory will reveal, for example, how many kilos of pulp, how much electricity, and how many gallons of water are involved in producing a quantity of paper. Only by then assessing those statistics can a conclusion be reached about the product's or project's environmental impact overall. This includes the necessity to make qualitative judgments based on the assembled figures, in order to asses the likely significance of the various impacts.

Comparisons are rarely easy because of the different assumptions that are used and the different stakeholder viewpoints. Preserving the confidentiality of commercially sensitive raw data without reducing the credibility of LCAs is also a major problem. Another is the understandable reluctance of companies to publish information which may indicate that their own product is somehow inferior to that of a competitor. It is not surprising that many of the studies which are published, and not simply used internally, endorse the views of their sponsors.