The relationship between battery operation and their degradation and service life is complex and not well synthesized or communicated. There is a resulting lack of awareness about best practices that influence service life and degradation. Battery degradation causes premature replacement or product retirement, resulting in environmental burdens from producing and processing new battery materials, as well as early end-of-life burdens. It also imposes a significant cost on the user, as batteries can contribute to over 25% of the product cost for consumer electronics, over 35% for electric vehicles, and over 50% for power tools. We review and present mechanisms, methods, and guidelines focused on preserving battery health and limiting degradation. The review includes academic literature as well as reports and information published by industry. The goal is to provide practical guidance, metrics, and methods to improve environmental performance of battery systems used in electronics (i.e., cellphones and laptops), vehicles, and cordless power tools to ultimately better inform users as well as battery designers, suppliers, vehicle and device manufacturers, and material recovery and recycling organizations.