Normalisation method and data for environmental footprints

According to ISO 14044 (ISO 2006), normalisation, in the context of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is an optional step of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) which allows the practitioner to express results after the characterisation step using a common reference impact. This supports the comparison between alternatives using reference numerical scores. The normalisation factors express the total impact occurring in a reference region for a certain impact category (e.g. climate change, eutrophication, etc.) within a reference year. This document provides normalisation factors (NFs) for the implementation of the EU Environmental Footprint methodology (EC - European Commission, 2013). The calculation of NFs is based on a 'EU-27 domestic inventory' i.e. an extensive collection of emissions into air, water and soil as well as resources extracted in EU-27 with reference to 2010 (Sala et al., 2014). The International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) impact assessment methods and related characterisation factors (EC-JRC, 2011) were applied to the domestic inventory so to calculate the normalisation factors. In this report, the main methodological steps used to calculate the normalisation factors are described and discussed, and an overview is given of the improvements of current figures compared to similar studies (CML, 2013; Wegener Sleeswijk, et al., 2008; Wegener Sleeswijk and Huijbregts, 2010). Although the consideration of international trade in normalisation factors would allow for a more comprehensive picture of the actual environmental impacts due to EU production and consumption processes, this study shows, through a comparative assessment, that the present level of methodological development and data availability in modelling trade are not sufficiently mature. The main reasons are: i) significant variability in the results obtained using different methods for selecting and up-scaling products; ii) the ratio of imports to domestic products appears to be underestimated. The recommendation for normalisation factors in the Environmental Footprint context is therefore to rely on domestic figures for 2010.