Thai national life cycle inventory readiness for product environmental footprint

Abstract

Purpose: In the near future, the products of Thai industries and companies mainly producing parts and products for export to the European Union (EU) will require the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) to assess the environmental performance and resource efficiency of products by using a life cycle perspective. The potential generic (often used interchangeably with background data) data have to be modified and improved for mandatory use in the product-specific and country-specific PEF database. Methods: PEF is used as a tool for assessing the environmental burden of products and services for export to the EU. It requires both specific data from primary sources and generic data to fulfill assessment requirement. Accordingly, the Thai national life cycle inventory (LCI) database plays a key role in generic data that was used to evaluate the environmental performance of products. This paper presents the perspective of Thai data readiness for PEF in which the quality of LCI is the main issue of concern. The current situation of the Thai national LCI database was reviewed. Then, the gaps of data were addressed, and the gaps were also filled. Non-representative data and untreated waste are the selected issues that were presented in this paper. Results and discussion: Many gaps were revealed for the Thai national LCI database because this database was developed based on ISO 14040/44, which may not be compliant with the PEF guide. The issues that have been selected for improvement are non-representative data and untreated waste because these gaps can offer inaccuracy concerning the environmental burden of products potentially leading to the reliability of products for export to the EU. However, the Thai national LCI database has not achieved the data quality aspects of the PEF, continuously improving the quality of data to meet the requirements of the PEF. Conclusions: The lessons learned from the real-world situation of data quality development based on PEF requirements were extracted. The practical procedure and recommendations were transparent for drivers and researchers who would like to start with data quality issues and prepare for the EU single market.