T10 AM LCA and Business Benefits
Tuesday, 15 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 11:40 AM in 341-342

(PFL-1117-830244) Tools and Methods for LCA Work at Metal Associations.

Pflieger, J¹, Betz, M², Aboussouan, L³, Braune, A¹, Kreissig, J², ¹ University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany² PE Europe GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany³ IISI, Brussels, Belgium

ABSTRACT- Product related environmental assessments get more and more important: Environmental Product Declarations, green public purchasing programmes and - as an umbrella - the concept of Integrated Product Policy put more and more emphasis on this topic. Additionally, the Kyoto protocol and the development of CO2 emissions trading schemes make environmental performance more and more an issue of economic interest. Sustainability performance has become - through the successful establishment of rating schemes and their impact on investors' decisions - an important element of companies' strategies. Companies strive for enhancements of their sustainability tools and an important role of associations is to combine their forces. The International Iron and Steel Institute is one of the pioneers in developing high quality Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data base with a worldwide coverage in the mid of the 90's. The next update of the data base which will take place in 2006 is under preparation. Therefore new, user friendly tools are developed in order to support efficient data collection, handling and interpretation. They combine Greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting according to the GHG protocol and LCI calculation in one model for steel production. Easy data exchange, using web technology, and consolidation of the data are important specifications of the developed solution. Not only the new tools mark a new standard, also the methods and the data quality of upstream processes will be advanced. IISI seeks also for the contribution of partners in the supply chain, especially in mining and mineral industry, to lead this project to success. The paper will describe the challenges, the technical solutions and their impact on the quality of the results. An outlook gives some idea about the future: integrated sustainability data management on company and association level, providing the basis for benchmarks, reports and stakeholder dialogue covering social, economic and environmental data and indicators.

Key words: sustainability tool, LCI database, IISI, data management