The possibility of defining benchmarks in order to give a sure interpretation of the results of LCA, consistent with international development, this is an issue that must be addressed in a broad and from a general point of view, at the same time, specific for the different identifiable sectors (agri-food, building, packaging, …). Therefore, it is considered appropriate an international organized collaboration among research institutions, governments and industries that will bring together in a single “container” all the rules, the principles and the improvement prospects that will concur in determining the levels of environmental performances, that are going to represent a starting point to define benchmarks. In this way, we propose the idea of preparing an international LCA (web) portal, characterized by geographic area, that could filed under different parameters the results of the LCA applications, which come from different sources (industry, research projects, pilot projects). The classification is going to be done according to the following tree diagram: geographic area – sector – product – environmental indicator. By this scheme, it is possible to classify under quantitatively, from which it could be possible to define the average performances, above and below the average, that will respectively represent the value 0 (zero), the positive value (+) and negative (-) one. It could be also possible to define weights related to different indicators, depending on collected data. At this point, in according with an appropriate rating attribution system, we are going to combine weights and benchmark values in order to give a single indicator that could be interpreted in a “maximum-minimum” range of values. Therefore, it would be necessary to introduce a set of positive values (1, 2, 3, …) to define increasing levels of environmental performances, considering type I ecological label (like Ecolabel) too. According with us, this can be a possible step to certificate products or services by Life Cycle Thinking criteria.

Proposal for development of a system for the definition of benchmarks for LCA.

VALCOVICH, EDINO;STIVAL, CARLO ANTONIO;BERTO, RAUL;CECHET, GIOVANNI
2014-01-01

Abstract

The possibility of defining benchmarks in order to give a sure interpretation of the results of LCA, consistent with international development, this is an issue that must be addressed in a broad and from a general point of view, at the same time, specific for the different identifiable sectors (agri-food, building, packaging, …). Therefore, it is considered appropriate an international organized collaboration among research institutions, governments and industries that will bring together in a single “container” all the rules, the principles and the improvement prospects that will concur in determining the levels of environmental performances, that are going to represent a starting point to define benchmarks. In this way, we propose the idea of preparing an international LCA (web) portal, characterized by geographic area, that could filed under different parameters the results of the LCA applications, which come from different sources (industry, research projects, pilot projects). The classification is going to be done according to the following tree diagram: geographic area – sector – product – environmental indicator. By this scheme, it is possible to classify under quantitatively, from which it could be possible to define the average performances, above and below the average, that will respectively represent the value 0 (zero), the positive value (+) and negative (-) one. It could be also possible to define weights related to different indicators, depending on collected data. At this point, in according with an appropriate rating attribution system, we are going to combine weights and benchmark values in order to give a single indicator that could be interpreted in a “maximum-minimum” range of values. Therefore, it would be necessary to introduce a set of positive values (1, 2, 3, …) to define increasing levels of environmental performances, considering type I ecological label (like Ecolabel) too. According with us, this can be a possible step to certificate products or services by Life Cycle Thinking criteria.
2014
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11368/2884433
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