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154 • Green Project Management

putting life cycle thinking into practice and in improving the supporting
tools through better data and indicators (see http://lcinitiative.unep.fr/).
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre is supporting the
development of recommended international methods, indicators, refer-
ence data, and pilot studies to facilitate life cycle thinking in business
and public administrations. The focus of the European Platform on Life
Cycle Assessment is on increased awareness and use through scientific
robustness, quality assurance, and consensus building (see http://lct.jrc.
ec.europa.eu/eplca).
In 2006, ISO published a second edition of the LCA standards. ISO
14040, Environmental Management—Life-cycle Assessment—Principles
and Framework, together with ISO 14044, Environmental Management—
Life-cycle Assessment—Requirements and Guidelines, cancels and replaces
the previous LCA standards. The 2006 editions of ISO 14040 and 14044
are mainly focused on readability and consistency; the technical docu-
ment remains nearly identical to the 1997 editions. ISO standard 14040
describes basic principles and the framework for LCA. Your organization
can use it as an overview of the LCA and its applications and limitations.
Like the PMBOK Guide, these documents do not prescribe methodologies
for goal and scope definition, inventory, impact assessment, and interpre-
tation; rather, they provide the framework and clarify the terminology.
Also, since these standards must be applicable to a variety of practice areas,
they are necessarily rather general in nature. Still, they provide a thorough
collection of terms and definitions, the methodological basis, and excel-
lent recommendations for reporting considerations and approaches for
critical review. They also provide an appendix describing the application
of an example LCA.

CarBon FootPrinting Based on lCa

Very recently introduced by Carbon Trust and the BSI (British Standards
Institute) is the PAS 2050. The PAS 2050:2008 is a publicly available specifi-
cation for assessing product life cycle GHG emissions. It is an independent
standard, developed with significant input from international stakehold-
ers and experts across academia, business, government, and nongovern-
mental organizations (NGOs) through two formal consultations and
multiple technical working groups. At the time of writing, this standard