Applying ISO/TS 14048 as a Tool for Data Quality Assessment in LCA

Other conference contribution, 2006

The ISO/TS 14048 data documentation format for LCA was published in 2002. The document describes and prescribes relevant information to be documented when performing life cycle assessment in accordance with the ISO 14040 series of standards. It supports and facilitates transparent documentation of data, by enabling that all relevant documentation for assessment and interpretation can accompany the data through all stages of data collection, storage and use. This facilitates assessment of data quality in line with quality requirements set for the LCA. This paper describes how ISO/TS 14048 can be applied as a tool for performing data quality assessment in LCA. The format can be applied as a checklist to determine and assess if relevant information is available for the data that is used. It can also be applied for assessing the quality of publicly available databases as well as data formats used for data storage and communication in commercial LCA software. The approach has been used to benchmark and assess the quality of the Swiss ecoinvent database and the Swedish national LCA database SPINE@CPM, as well as the EcoSpold and SPINE data formats. Results and experiences from this work are presented and discussed.