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Resource scarcity, hazardous waste, and climate change are the driving forces for developing energy efficient and low-toxic lighting sources. Currently, solid state lighting based on lightemitting diodes is expected to become the most dominant lighting technology of the future, mostly driven by its advantage with respect to energy efficiency. Parallel to the ongoing development of light-emitting diode-based lighting sources, a number of single case and comparative life cycle assessment studies of LED-lamps and components in varying study settings were carried out. However, these studies mostly rely to specific lamp designs, which limits general conclusions. This work includes a summary of the global market of lighting and LEDlamp technologies, followed by a comprehensive review and comparison of published life cycle assessment studies. In addition, we take also some aspects, which are relevant for the well-being of an end-user and which are usually not treated in life cycle assessment studies, like glare and health issues, into consideration. A critical interpretation of the assumptions and outcomes of these studies is given and questions that remain unsettled and therefore should be addressed in future studies are discussed.

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This work presents environmental aspects of LED lighting systems based on existing Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) studies in the context of different approaches: LEDs are a lamp group consisting of various materials, properties, and packaging designs. A variety of functional units are discussed followed by detailed lighting energy statistics of Austria representative for Central Europe. LCA studies should differentiate between private and commercial lighting due to different packaging and color temperature. During the last ten years a significant rebound effect can be observed in household lighting although energy-efficient lamp technologies were introduced to the market at the same time. The results of existing LCA studies of LEDs and other lamps are compiled and compared among each other and with the real market situation. It shows that for middle to long operation time all lamp types except for incandescent/halogen lamps the environmental impact is in a similar range and the variations largely depend on proper power data, the used LCA method, and the end-of-life management. The last part presents the deposition and environmental data of rare earths which are used in LEDs.