Material Selection by Taking the Whole System into Consideration—Automobile LCA from Steel Industry’s Viewpoint—

The “Establishment of a Sustainable Society Based on Material Recycle” can be regarded as an issue urging a fundamental change in the values and social systems of the modern society and a challenge demanding a reform of the industrial structure from the conventional systems of individual optimization. This paper reports our views on LCA (Life Cycles Assessment) issues and on material selection, taking LCA of automobiles as an example, and challenges of Japanese steel industry on them.The LCA study on automobiles makes us aware of the significance of not only data itself but also the development of Life Cycle Aspect which tries to evaluate Life Cycle Cost and Function, etc.