After welcoming the attendees to the workshop, Mary Ann Curran stated the objective of the overall effort: To initiate discussion and identify issue points regarding methodology for collecting, modeling, calculating and estimating life cycle inventory data in order to develop more uniform international practice. The intent of this initial meeting of the group was to establish if general agreement exists for the need to develop “rules” for collecting LCI inventory (“data collection” includes, at a minimum, measuring, estimating, modeling, and calculating data). See the background document for more information.

Four opening presentations were provided to set the stage for the workshop discussions:

Overview of the purpose and goals of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative (Guido Sonnemann) (Presentation in low-res html / high-res html / pdf / ppt )

Plans for the Upcoming Data Quality Workshop, in Karlsruhe, Germany, October 2003 (Christian Bauer) (Presentation in low-res html / high-res html / pdf / ppt )

Overview of Decision Points in LCI (Mary Ann Curran)

• Co-product allocation
• Recycling allocation
• Exclusion of small amounts
• Exclusion of spills and losses
• Age-appropriateness of data
• Surrogate and estimated data
• Inventory for impact assessment (both, non-specific (e.g., VOC's) and too specific)
• Matching the goal to the method
• Collecting primary data (primary = first source; secondary = published)
• Report format
• Iterative procedure of data collection
• Choosing boundaries
• Capital equipment and infrastructure exclusions
• Time and location meta data

Methodological choices applied in ecoinvent organized by the decision points (Gerald Rebitzer) (Presentation in low-res html / high-res html / pdf / ppt )
Note: ecoinvent was presented for illustrative purposes; it is not intended to show preference for the methods used in creating the database.

Following the presentations, an open discussion forum was held to discuss the need for LCI guidance and potential steps for moving forward. The intent was not to try to address the individual decision points or how they may be handled. Instead, discussion was kept at a higher level to determine overall direction of the effort. The following summarizes the key points discussed.

Question: Do we need LCI Guidance? Consensus was “yes.” Guidance is necessary to establish global consistency in LCI data sets to improve reliability, usability, and transferability.

Question: Has guidance already been developed? Not formally, however, each organization has developed their own set of guidelines. For example, the ecoinvent project established the eleven decision points highlighted in the opening presentation. The US LCI data base project has established guidelines for peer review process and report format. The first step could be the development of a matrix that shows the different approaches versus characteristics.

Need: Coordinate these activities with the restructuring of ISO1404X that is beginning now.

Need: Survey LCI data users as well as providers (minimum ten); ask providers about their current guidelines (with respect to the decision points) to better understand common practice from the global community and solicit participation in a development of global LCI guidance to gain acceptance. Recommended to develop a survey form and distribute throughout the network and to conduct regional focus groups to solicit survey participation. Strong consensus not to exclude industry representation from the LCI data provider community.

Related Effort/Potential for Collaboration: UNEP/SETAC LC Initiative’s Task Force 1 scope is currently planned to provide an overview of existing LCI databases. Potential for combining the proposed survey efforts with the UNEP/SETAC LC Initiative were discussed positively, however, no formal agreement or decision was reached at the conclusion of the workshop.

Need: When conducting a survey of LCI providers/databases it is necessary to understand the difference between “collectors” and “recyclers” of LCI data. Most LCI practitioners use LCI data collected by others, while others actually collect the primary data. Secondly, it is important to understand the goal of each LCI database to understand why certain LCI methodological decisions were applied. (The point was made that the goal of an individual study differs from the goal of a database.) And, why they may be difficult to conform to future proposed guidance.

Ecoinvent - LCI Methodology Questions:

Were cut-off rules for recycling established? Economic value was set to zero. Waste/by-product has no burden.

How did you use ISO allocation preferred steps? First, system expansion was determined not to be applicable. The remaining steps were followed.

How do you determine which missing data is believed to be of importance? The LCI practitioner assesses the importance. This is also verified by the reviewer.

Is there a master nomenclature/master set of reference flows? Yes, see the ecoinvent website.

 

Workshop Conclusion:

There is a need for global LCI guidance. Global participation must be sought to balance community needs and acceptability. Coordination with UNEP/SETAC Task Force 1 efforts should be sought to reduce the survey burdens placed on LCI data providers/database owners. Also, ISO1404X should be revisited as a starting point for developing the guidance. Efforts to discuss and develop action plans to proceed forward will be continued at the Data Quality Workshop in Karlsruhe, Germany; October 20-21, 2003.