Cradle To Grave

A decade ago, before I lost sight of the entrance for the rabbit hole I now find myself wandering through, I lived in an International co-op when a Danish student came to stay with us for a year. Besides "power hour" and other impressive displays of drinking prowess, he brought a graduate study project with him that involved "Cradle to Grave" life cycle assessment.

It sounded like a neat concept, but was a bit stilted for me to fully engage with at the time, geared toward business and/or governmental operations. It always sat in the back of my head as something I wanted to tackle more at a consumer level. I've found sporadic support among random friends I've made, but more often than not it seems diametrically opposed to the 'right' of consumer indulgence that seems to make the modern economy go round.

Might this be a Permies 'click' thing, something most people just get when they are drawn into the world of permaculture? I see a lot around here about concern for types of materials used and what becomes of them as they age and decay, but also some about sourcing from big box stores or wherever. Do many Permies have much interest in deep sourcing of stuff we more or less 'need' to buy, organizing some sort of database on stuff like this, or pointers to others already doing it?