Page 27 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment: Principles, Practice and Prospects
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life cycle of products; and identify opportunities to increase resource efficiency and
reduce ecological impacts throughout the life cycle of products. (EPA Victoria and
PACIA 2004, p. 7)

2.2 LCA stakeholder forums in Australia
LCA is a new and relatively data-intensive technique, with information requirements that invari-
ably extend beyond traditional or existing organisational and database boundaries. Therefore, its
development requires the setting up and successful maintenance of relationships of trust and
mutual interest between organisations that either have no previous relationship or have very dif-
ferent relationship histories. Cognisant of this, the LCA research community in Australia has
attempted to build appropriate forums through which these new relationships can be created and
developed. The forums fall into four main categories, each of which is examined below:
s project-based partnerships
s round-table forums
s a specific society, the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS)
s conferences.

2.2.1 Life Cycle Inventory development
The national LCI project is a key example of an attempt to create new partnerships for LCA
development around a project format, with mixed success. The project was originally commis-
sioned by environment departments from both the federal and four state governments
(Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia) in 1997. The research was
undertaken through a collaboration of the Centre for Design at RMIT University and the
Centre for Water and Waste Technology (CWWT) at the University of New South Wales
through the Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) for Waste Management and Pollution
Control (CRC WMPC). The project focused on building and packaging materials, transport
and energy. Earlier attempts to develop public data projects jointly with industry had not been
particularly successful (e.g. International Iron and Steel Institute’s LCI on steel in 1996 (IISI
n.d.) and Cement and Concrete Association of Australia’s LCI on concrete (CandCAA n.d.),
which were not consistent with each other in method). However, the national LCI project drew
heavily on a mix of public data sources in Australia in combination with relevant international
LCA data. As LCI elements were developed, industry review in Australia was invited. Responses
were limited and relatively few immediate updates were made to the datasets. Subsequently,
these have been regularly updated as new information becomes available (e.g. through the
National Pollutant Inventory and the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory).
Since the national LCI project was initiated, data resources in Australia have improved
through a range of publicly funded LCA projects and industry-based initiatives. In the public
arena, LCA work has been undertaken on paper and packaging waste management, residual
waste management, organic waste management, alternative fuels for heavy vehicles and man-
agement of waste oils. Industry-based initiatives include inventories developed for vinyls, steel,
aluminium, cement and concrete. Today, LCA data relevant to Australia is available for a wide
range of areas including waste management (landfill, material recycling and waste-to-energy),
transport and fuels, packaging, buildings, raw materials, food and agriculture, process engi-
neering, product design and life cycle impact assessment.
The Centre for Design at RMIT University has been the de facto clearing house for LCI data
storage, although ALCAS is increasingly developing the capacity to fulfil this role. In 2006,

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