Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles, requirements and guidelines for normalization, weighting and interpretation

This document specifies principles, requirements and guidelines for normalization, weighting and life cycle interpretation, in addition to those given in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.

The document is applicable to any life cycle assessment (LCA) and footprint quantification study.

In particular, this document addresses:

— the use of normalization and its limitations;

— the use of weighting and its limitations;

— the selection or development of weighting factors;

— the generation of single scores;

— requirements that relate to documentation and reporting.

For the interpretation phase, it provides, in addition to ISO 14044, procedures and guidance for:

— performing completeness, sensitivity and consistency checks;

— addressing uncertainties and limitations;

— documenting conclusions and recommendations.

This document does not specify the composition of panels for weighting nor does it specify multi-criteria decision analysis.

This document does not intend to recommend or require a specific weighting approach or method or any priority of one weighting approach or method over another as they are based on value choices. Organizations have the flexibility to implement LCA in acco