HARMONIZED INTERNET SYSTEM FOR LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT: EXPERT SYSTEMS APPROACH

The extent of the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) is not sufficient for the alternatives assessments performed in the industry in general and for the ecolabelling of the products/services. Given that the LCA is a widely-accepted methodology, the driving question behind this study was: "Is it possible to ecolabel each existing product/service in a case specific manner by using LCA results, so that the consumers would be able to know the extensive environmental impact of their decisions?". The literature has been searched for listing the main problems preventing the widespread application of LCA in ecolabelling and alternatives assessment. A system has been developed within the constraints (e.g. human resources, etc.) encountered in the literature. The resulting system is a form of an expert system, with a harmonized inter-company scope, that can perform a full LCA to be used in alternatives assessment decisions and in ecolabelling. Proposed system reduces the work load per case, establishes a well-defined scope, prioritizes case specific data, circumvents the issue of 'company secret' and enables wider application of LCA for environmental impact optimization. Another novelty is that the system considers the changes in the downstream of the supply chain due to a decision in the upstream. To establish this, the concept of 'combined total functional demand' has been introduced, which can also help in improving allocation and multifunctional product issues for end products.