Page 85 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

70 A. Bjørn et al.

Intended application Reasons for carrying out the study
Support decision on governmental
Comparative assertion of the overall recommendations for
environmental impacts associated
with nation-wide recycling (Option I) environmentally preferred future
handling of paper waste from
or incineration (Option II) of all used
commercial and governmental
office paper in Australia
offices in Australia
Fig. 7.1 Example of reasons for carrying out a study in continuation of the intended application

to the intended application of results (Sect. 7.2) and specifically address drivers and
motivations with respect to decision-making. Figure 7.1 provides an example of
reasons for carrying out a study in continuation of the intended applications.
Note that there is some ambiguity about the differences between “Intended
application” and “Reasons for carrying out the study” in the ILCD guideline. As a
rule of thumb the former should describe what a study does, while the latter should
address why a study is made. The reasons for carrying out at study help under-
standing its decision context. In the example shown in Fig. 7.1 the study is moti-
vated by a need for decision supporton governmental recommendations of paper
waste handling. This means that the results and recommendations of the study can
be expected to lead to changes in the analysed system. These changes may, in turn,
lead to so-called “structural changes” in other systems that the studied product
system interacts with. A structural change occurs when a change in one product
system has such a large influence on the demand for a good or a service that it leads
to new equipment being installed (increase in production capacity) or existing
equipment being prematurely taken out of use (decrease in production capacity). As
a rule of thumb, structural changes can be assumed to take place if the analysed
decision leads to an additional demand or supply of a product that exceed the
average percentage of annual replacement of total capacity (100% divided by the
average equipment lifetime in years, e.g. 20). Structural changes result in qualitative
and quantitative differences of industries and this must be considered in the
inventory modelling (Chap. 9). In combination the above considerations help
identify three different decision context situations and any LCA should be classified
into one of these as part of the goal definition. Box 7.1 presents these three decision
contexts and Fig. 7.2 presents a decision tree for how to determine the correct
decision context of an LCA study.

Box 7.1 The Three Types of Decision Contexts
Situation A (Micro-level decision support): The study results are intended
used to support a decision, but the small scale of the studied product system
means that regardless the decision made, it will not cause structural changes
in the systems that the studied product system interacts with. Many studies
that intend to compare individual product systems, identify hotspots within
these (see Sect. 7.2) or document the environmental performance of a product