Strategy for the use of LCA within SCA

Besides creating a formal function and a structure for LCA, it is of vital importance to establish an internal database for the regular LCAs that are performed. The database should also be connected to a well functioning tool for LCA calculations and further analyses of the outcome of the LCAs.

When establishing the database it is important to have analyzed the intended applications and extent of the LCAs that will be performed. Will it be only for internal communication, i.e reporting back to R&D people and product developers only, or internal measurement of environmental performance? Or is it expected to use the outcome of LCAs externally, like in Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)? It is also important to define which data quality that is needed in the database. At SCA Personal Care, the database follows the ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format, which supports transparent documentation and communication of LCA data and LCA results.

Data collection
The possibilities for collecting data should be considered. The first consideration is what data that needs to be site specific. In the case of SCA Personal Care all production sites deliver specific data via an internally developed tool based, on the company’s intranet. Besides manually entered data, it also collects data from different program systems supporting the production. Besides the tool being used to deliver data into the LCAs, it is primarily used to deliver data to SCA for its reporting in the annual Environmental and Social Report.

If possible, the majority of supplier data should also be site specific. The supplier data is update on a regular basis with time intervals depending on type of raw material, i.e. pulp and materials based on synthetic polymers. Two different supplier questionnaires are designed and used in the data collection.

Other data can be provided by access to public databases, either with bought licenses or databases available free of charge. The quality of this data should be compared to the quality requirements decided for the LCAs, which follows the data quality requirements in the ISO standards of 14040 and 14044.

Performing an LCA
In the formalised Product Development Process at SCA Personal Care, which is designed as a process with “toll-gates”, the process specifies at a certain tollgate that an environmental evaluation has to be done. The evaluation is based on a product comparison with the former version of a product. The product developer fills in an LCA-order, and contacts the company’s LCA practitioner. Based on the information provided in the LCA order and the experience and knowledge from earlier LCAs, the LCA practitioner decides upon whether there should be a full LCA performed, a more stream-lined one, or only an “Environmental evaluation report” describing the expected result. With the evaluation reports it is avoided to make LCAs that only will say more or less exactly the same as earlier ones. I.e. if a “standard” material has increased some percents, there is earlier experience of its effect on the product’s environmental performance which will be concluded in the report.

Position paper on LCA
In order to formalise and set a common LCA-practice within the company it is of value if basic pre-requisites for performing LCAs and company specific practices can be defined in some kind of management accepted document. Within SCA there is a “LCA position paper” that is approved on group level, where SCA also has other position papers on environmental isseus. In the LCA position paper the ways of using the tool is described, as well as statements on how and when LCA should be used. It is also described how the company relates to external LCA activities.

Experiences