GaBi Education - GaBi Software

Table of Contents
1 Introduction to Life Cycle Assessment ............................................................. 8
1.1 What is LCA? ................................................................................................... 8
1.2 Who uses LCA? ............................................................................................... 8
1.2.1 Industry ............................................................................................................ 9
1.2.2 Government ..................................................................................................... 9
1.2.3 Universities ...................................................................................................... 9
1.3 How is an LCA created? .................................................................................. 9
1.4 GaBi overview ................................................................................................. 9
2 Conducting Life Cycle Assessments .............................................................. 10
2.1 Goal and Scope Definition ............................................................................. 10
2.1.1 Goal ............................................................................................................... 10
2.1.2 Scope ............................................................................................................ 11
2.2 Life Cycle Inventory ....................................................................................... 16
2.2.1 General .......................................................................................................... 16
2.2.2 Data Collection - Classifications..................................................................... 17
2.2.3 Calculation of the LCI .................................................................................... 18
2.3 Life Cycle Impact Assessment ....................................................................... 18
2.3.1 Impact Assessment Methods ......................................................................... 19
2.3.2 Selection of Impact Categories ...................................................................... 21
2.3.3 Classification ................................................................................................. 21
2.3.4 Characterization ............................................................................................ 21
2.3.5 Optional elements of an LCA ......................................................................... 22
2.4 Interpretation ................................................................................................. 24
2.4.1 Identification of significant issues ................................................................... 24
2.4.2 Evaluation ...................................................................................................... 24
2.4.3 Conclusions, recommendations and reporting ............................................... 25
2.4.4 Report............................................................................................................ 25
2.4.5 Critical Review ............................................................................................... 26
3 Procedure ...................................................................................................... 27
3.1 Opening GaBi ................................................................................................ 27
3.2 Activating a database .................................................................................... 29
3.3 GaBi theory ................................................................................................... 29
3.4 Starting a project ........................................................................................... 31
3.5 Create a new plan ......................................................................................... 32
3.6 Adding a process ........................................................................................... 32
3.7 Creating a new process ................................................................................. 33
3.8 Process types ................................................................................................ 34
3.9 Specifying the flow type ................................................................................. 35
3.10 Parameters, LCC, LCW and ISO Documentation .......................................... 35
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