Trees are an important component of the natural landscape due to their prevention of erosion and the provision of a specific weather-sheltered ecosystem in and under their foliage. Trees have also been found to play an important role in producing oxygen[citation needed] and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as moderating ground temperatures. They are also significant elements in landscaping and agriculture, both for their aesthetic appeal and their orchard crops (such as apples). Wood from trees is a common building material. Trees also play an intimate role in many of the world’s mythologies (see trees in mythology).

The goal of LCA is to compare the environmental performance of products and services, to be able to choose the least burdensome one. The term ‘life cycle’ refers to the notion that a fair, holistic assessment requires the assessment of raw material production, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal including all intervening transportation steps. This is the life cycle of the product. The concept also can be used to optimize the environmental performance of a single product (ecodesign) or to optimize the environmental performance of a company. The term ‘emergy’ is often used as an analysis tool to determine embodied energy.

The pollution caused by usage also is part of the analysis. For a hydro electric power plant, for example, construction pollution is considered, but so is the decay in biomass on land flooded to create the dam because it cannot absorb CO2 anymore. This biomass decay is called “CO2 equivalent”.

Common categories of assessed damages are global warming (greenhouse gases), acidification, smog, ozone layer depletion, eutrophication, ecotoxic and anthropotoxic pollutants, desertification, land use as well as depletion of minerals and fossil fuels.

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