.svg)
One of the requirements ofISO 14001 version 2015 is to "determine the environmental aspects of its activities, products and services that it can control and those that it can influence, and their associated environmental impacts, from a life cycle perspective".
The standard does not impose any particular method. Nor does it state that a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is mandatory.
Life cycle assessment in ISO 14001 v2015: what are we talking about?
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the process used to measure the environmental impact of a product at any point in time for any activity or use throughout its entire life. This covers the extraction of raw materials through to materials processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, disposal or recycling.
The life cycle assessment of a product or activity must comply with standards such as ISO 14044 "Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines".
Lifecycle analysis should not be "limited" to an analysis of CO2 emissions alone; other parameters need to be taken into account, such as NOx (nitrogen oxides) and SOx (sulfur oxides) emissions, consumption of energy resources and raw materials, eutrophication and acidification, photochemical ozone creation potential, etc.
What approach should you take?
As every company wants to develop a high-performance, efficient management system, the choice of method must be dictated not only by the company's financial and human resources, but also by the complexity of the issues it has to manage, and above all by its field of application.
As a result, companies that initiate or influence product design will need to implement more advanced methodology and tools. This is in contrast to companies that manufacture products but have no real ability to influence their design.
Feedback from experience shows that two methods seem to need to be developed within the company. The first, used at the site perimeter, is usually quantitative, using criteria such as impact intensity, environmental sensitivity and control. The second method allows us to work both upstream and downstream.
In addition to the ISO 14001 life cycle assessment, work on upstream and downstream aspects can be carried out using the following methodologies (non-exhaustive list...):
- "Choose one or two themes from the environmental policy ( greenhouse gas emissions, use of non-renewable materials, etc.) and plan a year-long search for information on this theme (consulting life cycle inventory databases, websites, etc.),
- Draw on ISO 14004, which provides some examples of activities, products and services and their associated environmental aspects and impacts,
For specific maintenance and new-build activities, when a new machine is purchased, it is possible to include in the specifications the life-cycle cost of the equipment (LCC) and commitments on performance criteria such as the ease with which the equipment can be dismantled. Similarly, when fitting out or constructing a new building, it is useful to include in the specifications the quantity ofGHG emissions over the entire life cycle of the building, the building's LCC, and commitments on performance criteria such as the recovery of construction site waste generated during construction, the use of bio-sourced materials, etc.
Clearly, new approaches have yet to be invented to meet the need to determine environmental aspects from a life-cycle perspective.