Summary: Rapid growth in life cycle assessment (LCA) methodological developments has generated a large body of work that may appear to lack direction. In this article we developed and applied a structured approach, inspired by the meta‐analysis concept, to examine literature and identify research thrusts on how to further develop LCA. The procedure consists of four steps: (1) definition of the research question; (2) carrying out a literature review concerning more than 280 articles, selected from about 2,000 articles according to predefined criteria, which resulted in the identification of some 60 main methodological topics; (3) research gap analysis, in which the methodological topics identified in the previous step were compared with the research priorities identified through a users’ needs survey; and (4) interpretation of results, in which the results of both the previous steps were evaluated and organized into coherent research thrusts. Overall the analysis delivered two main research thrusts: one devoted to increase the practicability of LCA, the other to increase model fidelity. The former is aimed at making knowledge available in an easily usable way, while the latter focuses on better describing the complexity of the systems analyzed and those interrelations that are really meaningful. Specific research topics were identified for each thrust, which suggests that sophistication and practicability can and should coexist in the same method.

The framework for life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA) developed within the project CALCAS (Co-ordination Action for innovation in Life-Cycle Analysis for Sustainability) is introducing a truly integrated approach for sustainability studies. However, it needs to be further conceptually refined and to be made operational. In particular, one of the gaps still hindering the adoption of integrated analytic tools for sustainability studies is the lack of a clear link between the goal and scope definition and the modeling phase. This paper presents an approach to structure the goal and scope phase of LCSA so as to identify the relevant mechanisms to be further detailed and analyzed in the modeling phase. The approach is illustrated with an on-going study on a new technology for the production of high purity hydrogen from biomass, to be used in automotive fuel cells.