OSRAM Study: LED Life-Cycle Assessment

This study involved a close look at their entire life-cycle – how much energy and raw materials the lamp consumes in terms of production, use and disposal and the environmental impact involved in the process. The result was clear: today’s LED lamps achieve the LCA values of compact fluorescent lights and are far superior to conventional incandescent lamps.

In order to evaluate lamps and how they actually deal with energy and resources, it is not enough just to consider energy consumption while they are in use. The aim of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors’ LCA is therefore to analyse the environmental impact of an LED lamp over its entire life and to compare it with a compact fluorescent lamp and an incandescent lamp, all of them are commercially available.
  
The relevant material and energy supplies were determined in detail for all the LED lamp’s components and production processes. Apart from a detailed analysis of each individual production stage, for LED chips and lamp housings, for example, these also include all necessary transports such as the transport of an LED lamp from its production site in China to its place of installation in Europe.