Page 60 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

44 2 Goal and Scope Definition

(SETAC) Europe. 38) A study of Franklin Associates on behalf of the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) 39) showed that the omission of whole
life cycle stages is not recommendable; it is better to proceed through those phases
or unit processes, for which only few or no data are available, with estimated data
and to examine the result with sensitivity analyses (see Chapter 5). Only then
should a decision be taken upon their omission.
In goal definition, the desired level of detail should be specified. It cannot be
viewed independently of the demanded capacity of LCA results. Thus, for internal
orienting studies less detail will be required than for LCAs that have internal
decision-making processes or external comparative assertions as a goal. For decision
making in the phase of design (ecodesign), where there is not much time available, a
40)
simplified LCA and further tools such as life cycle costing (LCC) are indispensable.
A step-wise, computer-assisted combination of such tools was developed by the
euroMat methodology. 41) Such methods are destined to serve the development of
sustainable products (not only ‘environmentally friendly’ ones; see Chapter 6).

2.2.7
Further Definitions
In this section, occasionally terms are used which are explained later on in Chapters
3–5. Appropriate section references are inserted. In an actual LCA, however, these
definitions are already to be incorporated into the component ‘Definition of Goal
and Scope’ and, for these reasons, will be specified as follows.

2.2.7.1 Type of Impact Assessment
In LCIA, the data procured during the LCI analysis are assigned to impact
categories (e.g. global warming/climate change, acidification). This process is
called classification (see Chapter 4). It has to be specified earlier within the scope
definition which impact categories, indicators and characterisation factors (for
terminology, see Chapter 4) shall be used in the study. The selection should be
justified, as it may have influence on the results. Additional aspects to be processed,
for example, risk assessment in special situations, are already to be specified in this
phase. The type of impact assessment influences the data procurement, as a simple
example shows: the impact category ‘acidification’ cannot be quantified without
data on emission of acids (HCl, HF, etc.) and acid-forming gases (SO ,NO ,NH ).
2 x 3
In a number of studies only the phases
• Definition of Goal and Scope,
• LCI Analysis and
• Interpretation
are considered, and the LCIA is omitted.

38) Christiansen (1997).
39) Hunt et al. (1998).
40) Hunkeler, Lichtenvort and Rebitzer (2008) and SETAC (2011).
41) Fleischer et al. (1999).