Page 137 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

3.4 Procurement, Origin and Quality of Data 121

Example: Determination of primary data ‘collector’s passion’

They still exist; the leading production operators checking electric meters and mea-
suring instruments before entering the office; the environmental representatives
collecting data before it became common practice to publish ecological reports
(recently called sustainability reports). The development of LCAs, especially of LCIs,
owes these passionate data collectors a lot. Here, within the enterprises, the
interface between LCA and operational environmental assessment can be found.
Primary data procured here are at the centre of every LCA. Without them LCAs
would be a rather useless venture.
Interestingly enough, the first ‘proto-LCAs’ were in the rarest cases commis-
sioned by the upper management, but as a result of the activities of engaged
employees, they served as the starting point of a broader commitment to the sub-
ject. Examples were listed in a broad based study on the implementation of LCA
in industry.Frankl and Rubik, 2000. In the long run, however, the conduct of LCA can
only be implemented if it will be part of the corporate identity and management.

Specific data records generally allow an improved spatial and temporal assign-
ment of emissions and resource consumption, which also may have a stronger
influence on future LCIAs (see Section 4.5).
Fairly easily procured specific data in an enterprise are the following:
• Demand and nature of material
• Used energy and forms of energy (heat, electricity, fuels)
• Co-products
• Production and nature of wastes
• Operating and ancillary materials
• Transportation, to or from and within the examined enterprise.
High quality data procured with a higher effort include:

• Emissions into the air (after filter)
• Emissions into water (after waste water purification)
• Contamination of soil and groundwater
• Use of pesticides and fertilisers (which substances? how much?)
• Data concerning ionising radiation, biological emissions and nuisances (noise,
odour).

The emissions are usually measured and documented for other purposes (environ-
mental legislations in most developed countries). Therefore, often only the sum
or group parameters are measured and collected, for example, chemical oxygen
demand (COD) or biological oxygen demand (BOD), sum of volatile organic com-
pounds, adsorbable organic halogen compounds (AOX), and so on. Depending on
the country of origin, procurable substances can be differently defined or measured,
or vice versa, as parameters often directly depend on the measuring procedure.