suppliers, for example, through sharing supplier specific data on environmental
impacts of raw materials. There are many obstacles which need to be overcome
before sharing data along the value chain: trust, data formats, methodology harmonization, etc. The PEF (Product Environmental Footprint), together with
Sustainability and the WBCSD life cycle metrics for chemical products are good
examples of platforms that can help companies share information in a safe, fair and
efficient way to steer to real improvements towards sustainable development. Six
presentations were selected for the session. The main outcomes of each of them are
summarised in this paper.
2 Rapid Estimation of Life Cycle Inventories
Many regulations and company sustainability activities are based on the application
of Life Cycle Assessment. A significant challenge is the amount of data that needs
to be compiled, harmonized and modelled before obtaining meaningful and robust
results.
In this context, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)
developed an approach to rapidly generate more comprehensive and reliable life
cycle inventories (LCI) than those currently available. The basic approach to
generating such inventories is to combine four individual efforts:
(1) top-down data mining,
(2) bottom-up simulation (combining material and energy balances with emissions
modelling),
(3) LCI chemical lineage (computationally tracing the ancestry of a chemical
alternative), and
(4) LCI reconciliation of both the top-down and bottom-up approaches.
Life Cycle Inventories developed through this approach can be updated once
new datasets are available [1].
3 Current Models and Approaches for Data Matching
and Modelling of Chemical Production
Ecoinvent is a data provider for the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) pilot
phase, driven by the European Commission. In this context many of the data
tenders are based on ecoinvent LCI data in the background and ecoinvent was
selected as the direct data supplier for 270 products and over 800 datasets, on the
production of chemicals. The challenge was to deal with significant data needs on
chemical products on short notice (3 months), while delivering quality and integrating primary data.
96
G. Sonnemann and C. Alvarado
impacts of raw materials. There are many obstacles which need to be overcome
before sharing data along the value chain: trust, data formats, methodology harmonization, etc. The PEF (Product Environmental Footprint), together with
Sustainability and the WBCSD life cycle metrics for chemical products are good
examples of platforms that can help companies share information in a safe, fair and
efficient way to steer to real improvements towards sustainable development. Six
presentations were selected for the session. The main outcomes of each of them are
summarised in this paper.
2 Rapid Estimation of Life Cycle Inventories
Many regulations and company sustainability activities are based on the application
of Life Cycle Assessment. A significant challenge is the amount of data that needs
to be compiled, harmonized and modelled before obtaining meaningful and robust
results.
In this context, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)
developed an approach to rapidly generate more comprehensive and reliable life
cycle inventories (LCI) than those currently available. The basic approach to
generating such inventories is to combine four individual efforts:
(1) top-down data mining,
(2) bottom-up simulation (combining material and energy balances with emissions
modelling),
(3) LCI chemical lineage (computationally tracing the ancestry of a chemical
alternative), and
(4) LCI reconciliation of both the top-down and bottom-up approaches.
Life Cycle Inventories developed through this approach can be updated once
new datasets are available [1].
3 Current Models and Approaches for Data Matching
and Modelling of Chemical Production
Ecoinvent is a data provider for the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) pilot
phase, driven by the European Commission. In this context many of the data
tenders are based on ecoinvent LCI data in the background and ecoinvent was
selected as the direct data supplier for 270 products and over 800 datasets, on the
production of chemicals. The challenge was to deal with significant data needs on
chemical products on short notice (3 months), while delivering quality and integrating primary data.
96
G. Sonnemann and C. Alvarado