Data Quality and Availability Considerations in Forest Products Industry LCI Studies, 1996 Life Cycle Assessment Symposium Proceedings

Arun V. Someshwar

NCASI

Life cycle inventories (LCIs) can be very data intensive. Thus far NCASI has collected and quality-checked data for two LCI studies of forest products. This experience has provided insights into data quality and availability challenges companies should anticipate when preparing for an LCI study. In most instances, reasonably accurate estimates of electricity, fuel and raw material use can be developed fairly readily. Good estimates of environmental releases of regulated substances are also readily obtainable. Companies have somewhat more difficulty developing accurate information on steam production and electricity generation rates for individual boilers, on bark consumption rates, and on steam and electricity use rates for different unit operations. Perhaps most difficult to obtain are estimates of releases of non-regulated substances and data needed to allocate resource requirements and environmental releases among different products, co-products and by-products produced at a single facility. Experience has shown that quality checking of raw data is essential. The use of data sets from other sources and expert judgment are important to successful data auditing. Some of the most common data quality problems, as well as some of the common reasons for large facility-to-facility differences in LCI results, are highlighted.