Assessment of use and depletion of water resources within the LCA Framework

1. Project title: "WULCA":Assessment of water use and consumption within LCA. 

2. Type of project: Group Project

3. Number of participants: Members coming from different countries in North America, Europe, and Australia and from different sectors (academia, industry, and consultancies) 

4. Scope of the project: Global

5. Period: April 2008 to April 2011

6. Specific Goals: 

  • Develop operational LCA framework for water resources
  • Elaborate an integrative LCI scheme and inventory parameters
  • Develop midpoint - endpoint LCIA framework for environmental consequences of freshwater use in LCA
  • Foster the Development of LCA assessment methods for water use 
  • Provide operational characterization factors
  • Establish recommended practice and guidance for LCA practitioners and method developers

7. Output until now: 
  • Call for expressions of interest of regional experts to join the project group and support with the method development and validation process
  • "A framework for assessing off-stream freshwater use in LCA", Jean Baptiste Bayart, Cécile Bulle, Louise Deschênes, Manuele Margni, Stephan Pfister, Francçois Vince, Annette Koehler
Paper accepted 30 January 2010 and published 31 March 2010 in the International Journal for Life Cycle Assessment

8. Progress done so far: 40%

9. Next meeting: Expert meeting in conjunction with the SETAC Europe Meeting in Seville on 24 May 2010

10. Leaders:
- Annette Koehler (ETH, Switzerland)
- Emmanuelle Austin (Veolia, France)

Publicly available documents

Presentation during the Session of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, Warsaw, 27 May 2008

Assessment of Use and Depletion of Water Resources within LCA