This series on elements of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) is rounding back to the first step of conducting LCAs, defining the Goal and Scope of the study. The Goal and Scope section can be thought of the section covering the answers to the 5 W and 1 H questions: What is the study about, Who is doing it, Why are they doing it, Where are products in the study made, used, and disposed of, When was the data obtained, and How was it modeled.
The Goal should describe the intended application, reasons for carrying out the study, the intended audience, and whether the results are intended to be used in comparative assertions intended to be disclosed to the public, according to the ISO 14040 standard on LCAs.
In the LCA titled “Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Disposable Facial Tissue Use versus Reusable Cotton Handkerchiefs” by Ecosystem Analytics Inc., the Goal of the study is described in section 2.1.1 – Objective in the full LCA. In summary, the goal is to determine if an average American adult living in New England switched from use of disposable paper facial tissue to reusable cotton handkerchiefs, would this result in lower environmental impacts.
The Scope is a description of how the LCA is designed. It includes:
- Definition of the function of the products
- Identification and development of the functional unit
- Description of the system boundary
- Description of the products studied
- Identification of allocation procedures (if needed)
- Identification of data sources and quality requirements
- Discussion of assumptions made, including in creation of the function unit, calculation of reference flows, and decision on geographic locations of data used
- Description of the LCIA model and impact categories
- Explanation of study limitations and description of the sensitivity analysis
A complete presentation of the Goal and Scope can be found in the full LCA.