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Key drivers in our global economy are mainly cost. The growing importance of environmental themes does not change this view. Today very often economic performance and environmental friendliness are considered to be non-compatible. The reasoning for this is mainly, that environmental protection is seen defensive and end-of-pipe oriented. If an organizations emphasis is only legal compliance, such arguments are especially true. Here filters, sewage plants and waste management are real cost drivers. In order to overcome this non-beneficial situation, new approaches are inevitable. Offensive approaches are required to meet both, economic and environmental targets. LCA has in the past only been used to assess a systems environmental performance. Therefore many data were collected and assessed, but only from an environmental standpoint. However, this time and cost intensive data collection has also significantly contributed to arguments against the use of LCA.