Sustainability assessment of product systems in dire straits due to ISO 14040–14044 standards: Five key issues and solutions

Thomas Schaubroeck

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2022, vol. 26, issue 5, 1600-1604

Abstract: Quintessential for a more sustainable society is adequate sustainability assessment to guide us. In the case of environmental impact assessment of product systems, life cycle assessment (LCA) is the main method, with associated variants covering other sustainability pillars. At the core of LCA practice are the standards set up by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), namely ISO 14040–14044. However, I point out five key issues with these standards: (1) the presence of inconsistencies on crucial matters as pointed out in the literature; (2) a lack in major update since two decades; (3) mismanagement of notified issues; (4) lacking representativeness; and (5) a low or unclear relevance. I provide solutions for these but overall plea for a societal intervention to put this method back on track.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13330

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:inecol:v:26:y:2022:i:5:p:1600-1604

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1088-1980

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Ecology is currently edited by Reid Lifset

More articles in Journal of Industrial Ecology from Yale University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().