Methodological review and detailed guidance for the life cycle interpretation phase

Abstract

Life cycle interpretation is the fourth and last phase of life cycle assessment (LCA). Being a "pivot" phase linking all other phases and the conclusions and recommendations from an LCA study, it represents a challenging task for practitioners, who miss harmonized guidelines that are sufficiently complete, detailed, and practical to conduct its different steps effectively. Here, we aim to bridge this gap. We review available literature describing the life cycle interpretation phase, including standards, LCA books, technical reports, and relevant scientific literature. On this basis, we evaluate and clarify the definition and purposes of the interpretation phase and propose an array of methods supporting its conduct in LCA practice. The five steps of interpretation defined in ISO 14040-44 are proposed to be reorganized around a framework that offers a more pragmatic approach to interpretation. It orders the steps as follows: (i) completeness check, (ii) consistency check, (iii) sensitivity check, (iv) identification of significant issues, and (v) conclusions, limitations, and recommendations. We provide toolboxes, consisting of methods and procedures supporting the analyses, computations, points to evaluate or check, and reflective processes for each of these steps. All methods are succinctly discussed with relevant referencing for further details of their applications. This proposed framework, substantiated with the large variety of methods, is envisioned to help LCA practitioners increase the relevance of their interpretation and the soundness of their conclusions and recommendations. It is a first step toward a more comprehensive and harmonized LCA practice to improve the reliability and credibility of LCA studies.

Teaching life cycle assessment in higher education

“…The specific role of standards and guidelines in teaching is to support and complement textbooks and other course material. A review of English textbooks is provided by Laurent et al (2020).…”

Implications of LCA and LCIA choices on interpretation of results and on decision support

“…In view of addressing key challenges of interpretation, under the UN Environment Life Cycle Initiative's f lagship project on Global Guidance on LCIA Indicators and Methods (GLAM) (UN 2020), a task force on interpretation was established to support the systematisation and harmonisation of this essential LCA phase. The outcome of this working group translated into a recent paper (Laurent et al 2020), which illustrates the state of the art on the interpretation step in LCA, providing recommendations and highlighting the need for better structuring and framing this part of the assessment.…”

“…In this special issue, with mainly an LCIA angle, examples of open and emerging issues related to interpretation are reported. Among others presented in Laurent et al (2020), those issues should be taken into account when critically assessing LCA results.…”

LCA of aquaculture systems: methodological issues and potential improvements

“…However, only half of the studies critically discussed the representativeness of the data, which consists of data that are appropriate in term of their geographical, temporal and technological aspects. To support the interpretation of LCA results, uncertainty and sensitivity analyses are recommended as part of the sensitivity check (ISO, 2016;Laurent et al 2018). However, only 49% of the studies conducted a sensitivity analysis and 28% ran a quantitative uncertainty analysis.…”

“…DOI: 10.1007/s11367-018-1517-x 22 default qualitative analysis. Guidance for performing interpretation of LCA results is available in Laurent et al (2018).…”