Coordinating Life Cycle Inventories in North America and Beyond

 

Special session coordinator: Rita Schenck, IERE

Life cycle Inventory databases are being developed in Canada and in Mexico, and the US LCI inventory is currently undergoing upgrades. These three countries are very active trading partners, and it is common for products to have unit processes performed in two or more of the three countries. Thus it is essential that the databases be coordinated to facilitate data transfer.

This panel discussion will describe the status of efforts to develop life cycle inventories in Canada, Mexico and the USA, and begin the discussions of how to coordinate these three databases. With all the efforts underway, this is the ideal time to discuss how we can work together.

At the same time, LCA practice reflects the global economy, and LCI database efforts in North America need to work with the efforts being developed in other parts of the world. The session will include speakers from Brazil and China.

Topics to be covered include:

- formats currently being considered by each country
- strategies for filling data gaps
- special considerations related to data exchange (e.g. language)

Questions will be provided by the moderator and will also be taken from the audience.

Presenters:

Michael Deru, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (USA)
presentation

Pascal Lesage, CIRAIG (Canada)
presentation

NYDIA SUPPEN, CENTRO DE ANALISIS DE CICLO DE VIDA Y DISEÑO SUSTENTABLE (Mexico)
presentation

Wang Hongtao, Sichuan University (China)
Progress in Development of a Chinese LCA Platform
abstract / presentation

Tássia Viol Moretti, UTFPR
Cássia Maria Lie Ugaya, UTFPR
Harmonization of life-cycle inventory in Brazil
abstract / presentation

The International Reference Life Cycle Data System
Miguel Brandao, David W. Pennington, Rana Pant, Ugo Pretato, Marc Wolf, Kirana Chomkhamsri, Malgorzata Goralczy
abstract / presentation