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US Activities in Making Life Cycle Inventory Data More Available to Users
Citation:
CURRAN, M. A. US Activities in Making Life Cycle Inventory Data More Available to Users. Presented at Ecobalance 2010 Conference, Tokyo, JAPAN, November 09 - 12, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform EPA.
Description:
The demand for LCA studies continues to grow, although, the lack of reliable, transparent Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data is hampering the wide-spread application of LCA. This paper will present activities related to the development and accessibility of process LCI data in the US. Better consistency in LCA practice is needed for it to be an effective environmental management tool. Discussions at various fora have indicated there are numerous contentious issues regarding how LCI databases are and should be generated and managed. LCI data are collected by many researchers, producers, and organizations across the globe. Creating LCI data using a common protocol will allow for wider distribution and sharing of data among users, thereby, dramatically increasing the application of LCAs. There is a critical need for a unifying protocol that can be made available to create a global LCI data network.