Basing environmental arguments on ISO/TS 14048 documented facts
This strategy describes how to use the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format
to assure that the environmental arguments used by companies or other
organizations are well-founded and supported by accessible, understandable and
reviewable documents.
ISO/TS 14048 facilitates documentation, review, use and communication of
environmental data. Each procedure is described below.
Please see the report "Introduction and guide to LCA data documentation using the CPM
documentation criteria and the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format" for further guidance and a description of the specific
fields of the format.
Documenting data in the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format
During the data acquisition, the documentation specification will help the
documenter to organize the data, through a structured report format. The
specification of relevant documentation also serves as a checklist for data
acquisition.
In general the following work procedure can be used for documentation in the
ISO/TS 14048 format:
1.
Documentation of the Process, which contains the Process
description, a description of properties of the modelled process with regard
to technology, time-related and geographical coverage etc. and Inputs and
outputs to the modelled process and a description of the properties of
those, documentation about the data collection etc.
2.
Documentation of the Modelling and validation, which contains the
description of prerequisites for the modelling and the modelling choices that
have been made, describing e.g. which processes and flows that have been
excluded. Also any validations that have been performed of the process and the
data should be documented. Here information about decisions and processing made
concerning allocations can also be transparently documented.
3.
Documentation of the Administrative
information, which contains general and
administrative information related to the administration of the documentation of
the process e.g. data commissioner, date completed, copyright etc.
Figure 2 Illustration of structure of the major part in the ISO/TS 14048
data documentation format (based on ISO/TS 14048). © Pålsson, Flemström,
Chalmers University of Technology, 2003. Click on the picture to enlarge it!
Each unit process is documented in a separate document. A product system is
documented in the same way as a unit process, but also refers to documents that
describe each included unit process, and their interrelationships (input- and
output-connections). This structure increases the possibility to reuse unit
process documentation in other product systems.
The format contains no requirements on completeness of documentation. When
documenting data, it is however good to have an agreement of completeness in
terms of specific information that should be provided with the known users of
the data. The CPM data documentation criteria can be used as template and basis
for such agreements, please see "An interpretation of the CPM data quality
requirements in terms of ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format".
Reviewing and using data in the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format
The transparency of the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format facilitates
review of documents so that the basis of each environmental argument can be
supported. The specification provides data documented in a structured report
where specific parts as well as the full documentation can be easily reviewed
The documentation requirements can also serve as a checklist for critical review
of data, not only for data documented in the ISO/TS 14048 format but also for
data documented using other data formats. The ambition is that the requirements
help determine the relevance and reliability of the data for the application.
Documentation of data in the ISO/TS 14048 format increases the accessibility
of environmental data by facilitating efficient sharing of data and databases,
since the relevance and reliability of the information and the quality can be
assessed by other users. Data that has been sufficiently documented in the
format should ideally not need further research for the data user to be able to
interpret and correctly it. The user of data documented on the ISO/TS 14048
format will in case of ambiguities in the meaning of documented data also
receive guidance by the structure of different data fields. Using a format that
is well-known by the user will also simplify the understanding and
interpretation of the information.
Other than being a user-friendly format for documentation, the unambiguity of
the specification and the formatting requirements make also ISO/TS 14048 a
suitable format for computer interpretation. Data fields describing inputs and
outputs structure the data to facilitate for calculations and support the use of
data sets in the ISO/TS 14048 format in e.g. LCA software tools.
Communicating data in the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format
The ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format facilitates exchange of environmental
data without loss of transparency. The data documentation format can be used to
define different types of summary reports, i.e. reports which only include a
subset of a full documentation. Such summary reports can serve to inform users
of the documented data on the suitability of the respective data set for a given
application. If applicable, an indication that a subset of the data
documentation format has been used shall be included in the report.
Data sets can be documented in the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format
using ordinary word processing software such as MS Office etc. It is also
possible to use software tools developed to support ISO/TS 14048 data
documentation, e.g.
LCA@CPMSPIDER data editor tool and LCA@CPM.
The specification contains requirements for implementation of electronic data
exchange. When using the format for this purpose it shall be expressed in an
unambiguous form suitable for computer interpretation, i.e. in a data definition
language developed for this specific purpose. There are a number of data
definition languages to choose from, such as EXPRESS, XML, SGML, SQL and no
specific language has been favoured. An example of the specification for the
implementation of data exchange is the data definition and the file syntax
described in the CPM report "Data definition and file syntax for ISO/TS 14048
data exchange" .
Experiences
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