The implementation plan for the creation of a Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method (GLAM) has now been defined! Over 280 people participated in the 2020 stakeholder consultation meetings (May and November); we collected a wide range of comments that will inform the method structure.
Implementation has begun under four task forces:
- human health
- ecosystem quality
- natural resources and ecosystem services
- normalisation weighting and LCIA-LCIA linkage and implementation
Human health impacts task force will assess damages in term of Disability Adjusted Life Years and include in priority climate change, fine particulate matter, exposure and toxicity including impact on worker and injuries, nutrition, ionising radiation including indoor radon.
The task force on damages on ecosystem will look at measuring disappeared fractions of species (PDF) accounting for species vulnerability. Specifically, the work will focus on harmonising previous GLAM recommendations for land use, ecotoxicity, eutrophication and developing new factors for climate change, water consumption, marine plastic pollution, biomass removal by fisheries.
Damages of natural resources task force is looking at the instrumental values for human well-being, with selection and definition of the Area of Protection. Under ecosystem services, the work will focus on formulating endpoint indicator and link models and operationalising consistent damage framework models for several impact pathways.
The task force on normalisation and weighting will apply a calculation framework to get a global normalization inventory and deterministic weights covering all impact categories of the GLAM LCIA methodology; the main focus is the endpoint/damage level. It will also ensure consistent LCI-LCIA linkage in collaboration with the global nomenclature system developed in GLAD to facilitate direct implementation of the GLAM LCIA method in LCA software.
If you are interested in the GLAM work, please contact us.
