A critical view on scientific consensus building in life cycle impact assessment

Excerpt

Finding scientific consensus has been an important driving force for research in life cycle assessment (LCA) over the last 20 years, as marked by reports from the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), International OrganiZation for Standardization (ISO), and the Joint Research Centre (JRC). In the beginning of the 1990s, the life cycle framework itself was the main topic of debate (Fava et al. 1993, 1994), while life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods became part of the scientific consensus discussions in a later stage (Udo de Haes et al. 2002). Operational standards on how to perform an LCA came also in place (ISO 14040, 2006; ISO 14044, 2006; Finkbeiner et al. 2006). Recently, LCIA scientific consensus building entered a new phase with the report on recommended practice for life cycle impact assessment methods in a European context (Joint Research Centre 2011; Hauschild et al. 2013), including the global consensus model for addressing toxic impacts in life cycle assessment, i.e., the USEtox model (Rosenbaum et al. 2008). Recently, the search for scientific consensus within the UNEP/SETAC initiative has been extended, specifically looking for global guidance on a range of LCIA methods (www.​lifecycleinitiat​ive.​org/​activities/​phase-iii/​), and new developments in the ISO-standard arena (Finkbeiner et al. 2013). …