ISO 14044

Environmental Management - Life

Cycle Assessment - Requirements
and Guidelines

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 ISO 14044

 ISO 14044:2006 is designed for the preparation of, conduct

of, and critical review of life cycle inventory analysis (LCIA).
It also provides guidance on the impact assessment phase of
LCA and on the interpretation of LCA results, as well as the
nature and quality of the data collected.

 ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 replace the previous

standards (ISO 14040:1997, ISO 14041:1999, ISO
14042:2000 and ISO 14043:2000).

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 ISO 14044 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle
assessment (LCA) including :

• the goal and scope definition of the LCA,

• the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase,
• the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase,
• the life cycle interpretation phase,
• reporting and critical review of the LCA,
• limitations of the LCA,
• relationship between the LCA phases, and
• conditions for use of value choices and optional elements.

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a structured, comprehensive and
internationally standardised method. It quantifies all relevant emissions and
resources consumed and the related environmental and health impacts and
resource depletion issues that are associated with any goods or services
(“products”).

LCA can assist in –

⎯ identifying opportunities to improve the environmental performance of
products at various points in their life cycle,
⎯ informing decision-makers in industry, government or non-government
organizations (e.g. for the purpose of strategic planning, priority
setting, product or process design or redesign),
⎯ the selection of relevant indicators of environmental performance, including
measurement techniques, and
⎯ marketing (e.g. implementing an ecolabelling scheme, making an
environmental claim, or producing an environmental product declaration).

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There are four phases in an Life Cycle Assessment Study:

• the goal and scope definition phase,

The scope, including system boundary and level of detail, of an LCA depends on
the subject and the intended use of the study.
• the inventory analysis phase,
It involves the collection of the data necessary to meet the goals of the defined
study.
• the impact assessment phase, and
The purpose of LCIA is to provide additional information to help assess a product
system’s LCI results so as to better understand their environmental significance.
• the interpretation phase.
The results of an LCI or an LCIA, or both, are summarized and discussed as a basis
for conclusions, recommendations and decision-making.

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 ISO 14044:2006 Standard covers two types of studies:
• Life cycle Assessment studies (LCA studies)
• Life Cycle Inventory studies (LCI studies)

 LCI studies are similar to LCA studies but exclude the LCIA phase.
LCI are not to be confused with the LCI phase of an LCA study.

 The information developed in an LCA or LCI study can be used as

part of a much more comprehensive decision process

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 Life Cycle Assessment Framework

Goal definition

Direct applications:

Scope definition • Product development and

improvement
Interpretation • Strategic planning
• Public policy making
Inventory • Marketing
analysis • Other

Impact
assessment

Including Documentation, Review From ISO 14044:2006

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 Life Cycle Assessment process

 Goal and Scope

• Definition of the objectives of the study
• Choice of the functional unit
• Delimitation of the system boundaries
• Data quality requirements

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• Life Cycle Inventory Analysis
• The system : construction of the life cycle tree
• Data collection
• Use of data
• Application of cut-off rules, taking into account of co-
products
• Computation of the inventory
• Identification of the contribution of flows to the different
life cycle stages, and identification of the most represented
stages
• Exclusion of life Cycle Stages, where lack of significance

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Procedure for Inventory Analysis

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Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
 Inventory analysis is followed by impact assessment. This
phase of LCA is aimed at evaluating the significance of
potential environmental impacts based on the LCI flow results.
• selection of impact categories, category indicators, and
characterization models;
• Determination of contribution to the impacts;
• the classification stage, where the inventory parameters are
sorted and assigned to specific impact categories; and
• impact measurement, where the categorized LCI flows are
characterized

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Interpretation
 Life Cycle Interpretation is a systematic technique to identify,
quantify, check, and evaluate information from the results of the life
cycle inventory and/or the life cycle impact assessment.
 The results from the inventory analysis and impact assessment are
summarized during the interpretation phase. It includes
• Identification of the strong and the weak points based on the results of
the LCI and LCIA phases
• Meeting the goals set during the first stage
• evaluation of the study considering completeness, sensitivity and
consistency checks
• conclusions, limitations and recommendations.

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Relationships between elements within the Interpretation Phase
with the other phases of LCA

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Definitions
• life cycle
consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system, from raw material
acquisition or generation from natural resources to final disposal
• system boundary
set of criteria specifying which unit processes are part of a product
system
• consistency check
process of verifying that the assumptions, methods and data are
consistently applied throughout the study and are in accordance with
the goal and scope definition performed before conclusions are
reached

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• completeness check
process of verifying whether information from the phases of a life
cycle assessment is sufficient for reaching conclusions in accordance
with the goal and scope definition
• sensitivity check
process of verifying that the information obtained from a sensitivity
analysis is relevant for reaching the conclusions and giving reco
• evaluation
element within the life cycle interpretation phase intended
to establish confidence in the results of the life cycle assessment
mmendations

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Examples: Volvo
• Volvo Company has focused its Life Cycle Analysis work on reducing
GHG Emissions, and opened the first carbon neutral auto plant in Belgium
in 2007.

• CO2 emission were reduced by 14,000 ton annually. In Belgium,70% of

heating is supplied by a new biomass facility powered by pellets. The
remaining 30% is provided by gas fired boiler converted to run on boifuel.
The win turbine were installed on the site, proving 50% of the electricity
needed.

• As per Volvo 2008 Sustainability Report, Volvo gained knowledge for a

product’s environmental impact over its entire life by conducting Life
Cycle Analysis.

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Examples: Unilever
• Unilever uses LCA in three ways:
– Product innovation( to compare new and existing projects)
– Product Category Analysis (Studied environment footprint of Brands)
– Strategic Studies (understand the impact of their Business Activity)

• LCA has been crucial to support Unilever’s commitment to manage to reduce their
environment impact in the areas of GHG Emissions, water, waste and sustainable
sourcing, which led to launch the Unilever sustainable living plan in November 2010

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 Thank you !

For More Details Contact –

Rubal Saxena
Senior Executive - Regulatory & Sustainability Services
INDUS Environmental Services Pvt Ltd
A-8, C R Park, New Delhi - 110 019
INDIA.
T : +91 11 2627 1433 (Ext- 17)
www.indusenviro.com
rubal@indusenviro.com

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