Structurae

Systematic approach for the estimation of country-specific product eco-profile using the Portland cement as example.
In a globalised world, where construction materials are produced and assembled in different countries, country-specific eco-profile gain even more relevance. Nevertheless, many countries still face the problem of having very few or no ecological product profiles at all, being often 'forced' to use data from other countries, e.g. European background data, in order to fill in their gaps or even for being able to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Whereas methodology transfer among countries can take place, simply transfer of life cycle inventory data can lead to wrong results and conclusions. In this article, a systematic approach for the transferability of data between countries is proposed and applied on the Portland cement production process as example. The availability of country indicators data and the possibility of producing more appropriate country-specific eco-profiles with feasible time and effort can be seen as the main advantages of this approach.