Guide for interpreting life cycle assessment result

Interpretation of the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) study is a mandatory phase of LCA and it is a key aspect in order to derive robust conclusions and recommendations. One of the key aims of LCA is to provide the decision makers with comprehensive and understandable information: this task is achieved by a proper interpretation of the results of an LCA study. The robust interpretation of a LCA study needs specific guidance to support the decision making process, both in policy and business contexts. Existing standards and guidelines provide a framework for interpretation, but there is the need of improving comprehensiveness and practical aspects thereof. This report aims at providing practitioners with a practical guidance on what are the aspects to be always taken into account when interpreting results of an LCA. Building on this report, further guidance needs to be developed to support interpretation of LCA studies both for LCA practitioners and LCA users (e.g. decision makers). This report provides a practical and schematic workflow to be followed during interpretation, starting from the assessment of the hotspots of the baseline scenario, which is completed by sensitivity, completeness and consistency checks, to be performed at the level of the life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Additionally, case studies are reported to illustrate specific issues related to interpretation of results.