CSA Preface
This is the first edition of CAN/CSA-ISO/TS 14048, Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Data documentation format, which is an adoption without modification of the identically titled ISO (International Organization for Standardization) Technical Specification 14048 (first edition, 2002-04-01).
The ISO 14000 family of Standards was developed by environmental experts from around the world, under the auspices of ISO Technical Committee 207. Canada plays a major role in this area. The Technical Committee is chaired by a Canadian. The Secretariat of ISO/TC 207 is held by CSA on behalf of Canada’s member body in ISO, the Standards Council of Canada.
Canadian stakeholders participate actively in the administration and development of the ISO 14000 family of International Standards, through CSA’s national consensus development forum. The CSA Technical Committee on Life Cycle Assessment is the source of Canadian experts and public input for the ISO 14040 series of Standards. In its capacity as the Canadian Advisory Committee to ISO/TC 207/SC 5 (CAC/ISO/TC 207/SC 5), the Technical Committee is responsible for
(a) developing and submitting coordinated Canadian responses, comments, and voting actions on the ISO/TC 207/SC 5 documents;
(b) providing the Canadian delegates participating at the international meetings of ISO/TC 207/SC 5 and its Working Groups; and
(c) recommending the Canadian position for delegates to take in international meetings.
This Technical Specification was reviewed for Canadian adoption by the CSA Technical Committee on Life Cycle Assessment (CAC/ISO/TC 207/SC 5), under the jurisdiction of the Strategic Steering Committee on Environment, and has been formally approved by the Technical Committee. A list of the members of the Technical Committee is available upon request. This Technical Specification has been approved as a National Standard of Canada by the Standards Council of Canada.
Scope
This Technical Specification provides the requirements and a structure for a data documentation format, to be used for transparent and unambiguous documentation and exchange of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data, thus permitting consistent documentation of data, reporting of data collection, data calculation and data quality, by specifying and structuring relevant information.
The data documentation format specifies requirements on division of data documentation into data fields, each with an explanatory description. The description of each data field is further specified by the structure of the data documentation format.
This Technical Specification is applicable to the specification and structuring of questionnaire forms and information systems. However, it can also be applied to other aspects of the management of environmental data.
This Technical Specification does not include requirements on completeness of data documentation. The data documentation format is independent of any software or database platform for implementation.
This Technical Specification does not require any specific sequential, graphic or procedural solutions for the presentation or treatment of data, nor does it describe specific modelling methodologies for LCI and LCA data.