Page 50 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

AN OVERVIEW OF THE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT METHOD 31

(REPA) for this kind of study, which was based on a systems analysis of the
production chain of the investigated products "from cradle to grave." After a
period of diminishing public interest in LCA and a number of unpublished
studies, there has been rapidly growing interest in the subject from the early
1980s on. In 1984 the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and
Research (EMPA) published a report [11] that presented a comprehensive list
of the data needed for LCA studies, thus catalyzing a broader application of
LCA [5]. The study also introduced a first impact assessment method, dividing
airborne and waterborne emissions by semi-political standards for those emis-
sions and aggregating them, respectively, into so-called "critical volumes" of
air and "critical volumes" of water.
The period 1970-1990 comprised the decades of conception of LCA with
widely diverging approaches, terminologies and results. There was a clear
lack of international scientific discussion and exchange platforms for LCA.
During the 1970s and the 1980s LCAs were performed using different methods
and without a common theoretical framework. LCA was repeatedly applied
by firms to substantiate market claims. The obtained results differed greatly,
even when the objects of the study were the same, which prevented LCA from
becoming a more generally accepted and applied analytical tool [12].

2212 1990-2000: Decade of Standardization

The 1990s saw a remarkable growth of scientific and coordination activities
world-wide, which is reflected in the number of workshops and other forums
that have been organized in this decade [13,14,15,16,17,18] and in the number
LCA guides and handbooks produced [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. Also the first
scientific journal papers started to appear in the Journal of Cleaner Production,
in Resources, Conservation and Recycling, in the International Journal of LCA,
in Environmental Science & Technology, in the Journal of Industrial Ecology,
and in other journals.
Through its North American and European branches, the Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) started playing a lead-
ing and coordinating role in bringing LCA practitioners, users and scientists
together to collaborate on the continuous improvement and harmonization of
LCA framework, terminology and methodology. The SETAC "Code of Practice"
[27] was one of the key results of this coordination process. Next to SETAC,
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has been involved in
LCA since 1994. Whereas SETAC working groups focused at development and
harmonization of methods, ISO adopted the formal task of standardization of
methods and procedures.
The period of 1990-2000 can therefore be characterized as a period of
convergence through SETAC's coordination and ISO's standardization activi-
ties, providing a standardized framework and terminology, and platform for
debate and harmonization of LCA methods. In other words, the 1990s was a
decade of standardization. Note, however, that ISO never aimed to standard-
ize LCA methods in detail: "there is no single method for conducting LCA."