Basing environmental arguments on ISO/TS 14048 documented facts

Need for documentation dependent on application
The need for documentation is very much dependent on the application and the receiver of the information. Within an organisation the users may be assumed to share a common terminology and much information is implicit. However, when the data is transferred to a different contextual environment, the terminology and implicit knowledge needs to be explained, in order for the receiver of the information to be able to correctly interpret and use the information. A general recommendation is therefore that when data is to be communicated externally, a more detailed description may be needed, in order for the data to be directly useful for the receiver of data.

It may often be difficult to know at the time of data documentation, how the data will be communicated and for what the data will be used, other than the intended application for which it was acquired. The person responsible for the documentation should therefore always aim to provide the prospective data user with all relevant information available at the time of the documentation, thus giving the best possible starting point.

Documentation easiest at acquisition stage
It should be recognized that the knowledge of the data is generally greatest at the time of the data acquisition. There is a risk that vital information about the data, is lost if the data is not documented at the time of the data acquisition. To go back afterwards and try to recreate the information is generally very time consuming and consequently expensive, and documentation should therefore be performed integrated with the data acquisition. The practical work with data acquisition will be performed with the available resources, but by investing some of it in quality work will be rewarded in terms of increased reusability and thus increased availability of data in the long run.

Business value
Access to credible, life cycle-based knowledge and information provides a reliable basis for necessary prioritisation and action and also helps to make sure that measures are taken where they will provide the most benefit .

In the report "Practical Strategies for Acquiring Life Cycle Inventory Data in the Electronics Industry", LCA experts are interviewed about the time involved in an LCA study. A summary of their views is that it costs typically between €10,000 and €200,000 to perform an LCA. Reuse of existing LCA data sets is thus a way to save costs when performing life cycle studies.

Further costs for transparent documentation can be saved if the transfer of LCA data sets between different databases can be made efficiently. The cost for importing an LCA data set from a database with another data documentation format has been estimated by a CPM company to decrease from €320 to €140 with an efficient data transfer tool based on ISO/TS 14048.