RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Toward an Information Tool for Integrated Product Policy Requirements for Data and Computation Reinout Heijungs, Arjan de Koning, Sangwon Suh, and Gjalt Huppes Summary Integrated product policy, according to the European Union, requires reliable data on the impact of consumer products along their life cycles. We argue that this necessarily requires the development of an information tool for hybrid analysis, combining aspects of life-cycle assessment and input-output analysis. A number of requirements in the development of such a hybrid information tool are identified, mainly concern- ing data and computational structure. For the former, some important points of attention are discussed, whereas for the latter, operational formulas are developed. Keywords environmental policy life-cycle assessment (LCA) input-output analysis (IOA) hybrid analysis computational structure decision support Address correspondence to: Reinout Heijungs Institute of Environmental Sciences Leiden University Leiden, The Netherlands <heijungs@cml.leidenuniv.nl> <www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/ssp/> © 2006 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale University Volume 10, Number 3 www.mitpressjournals.org/jie Journal of Industrial Ecology 147