Life Cycle Engineering – Taxonomy and State-of-the-Art

Engineering activities have to be systematically directed towards sustainability. For this, life cycle engineering (LCE) is a promising approach due to its long-term perspective and consideration of ecological and economic targets. This paper aims at presenting an overview of the state-of-the-art of LCE. In order to create a basis therefore, a LCE taxonomy is build. This taxonomy allows for a structured analysis of identified existing literature concerning intended contribution as well as considered target perspectives, tasks, methods, alternatives, and life cycle phases. Furthermore, selected vistas of the future development of LCE are outlined.