Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): a useful tool, but to handle with care
Increasingly, the focus of politicians, policymakers and industries lies on sustainable development seeking a delicate balance between environmental, social and economical aspects. Life cycle analysis is frequently promoted as a tool to assess environmental impact. While LCA studies are a useful tool, this instrument needs to be handled with care, particularly when used for policy-making purposes. The European Aluminium Association has commissioned a study to analyse four specific LCA exercises in 4 European countries. Two of these four cases concern policy-making in the packaging sector: the well-known "UBA II" in Germany (case 1) and the packaging tax in Denmark (case 2). The 2 others deal with legislative action related to the building sector: the Dutch MRPI initiative (case 3) and the Swiss case on the environmental declaration of building products (case 4). CE Delft, as an independent research and consultancy agency specialised in developing structural and innovative solutions to environmental problems, carried out this in-depth analysis from which several recommendations have been drawn up. These recommendations will help politicians and policymakers to commission, interpret and use properly any LCA study. These recommendations are issued from the final CE Delft report.
- Download the recommendations summary (2 pages)
Recommendations:
Any commissioned LCA study has to be done according to the EN ISO 14040-series standards.
An independent critical review panel has to control the LCA study.
All involved stakeholders have to take part in the entire LCA process, e.g. from the very early stage to the executive summary.
A preliminary consensus on all key aspects, especially on value-driven choices, needs to be reached before the LCA study starts.
For comparative purposes, not only the functional unit of the product system has to be properly chosen but also a comparability assessment must be included in the study.
A proper method needs to be used to take into account the recycling abilities of the product system.
Weighting issue: the ISO standards do not allow weighting in comparative LCA's disclosed to the public. An LCA has to end with several indicators but not with one figure.
