GaBi Paper Clip Tutorial - GaBi Software

The following is just a brief list of the groups that use LCAs and of the possibilities that an
LCA could be used for.
1.1.1 Industry
Large companies use LCAs as a way of identifying environmental hot spots and to
develop and advertise their environmental management strategies. LCA studies are often
conducted by industry associations and environmental concepts and tools research
organizations including the: Canadian Wood Council; International Copper Association;
International Lead and Zinc Research Organization; International Iron and Steel Institute;
International Aluminum Institute and the Nickel Development Institute.
1.1.2 Government
Governmental departments around the world are active promoters of LCA. Governments
use LCA for data collection and developing more effective environmental policies related
to materials and products.
1.1.3 Universities
There are many universities researching and developing LCA methodology and data.
1.2 How is an LCA created?
The ISO 14040 standard provides an introduction to LCA and contains applicable
definitions and background information. The ISO 14044 describes the process of
conducting an LCA.
The detailed procedure for LCA, outlined in Chapter 2, is in accordance with the standards
ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.
1.3 GaBi overview
With features refined through experience on thousands of PE consulting projects, GaBi
supports every stage of an LCA, from data collection and organization to presentation of
results and stakeholder engagement. GaBi automatically tracks all material, energy, and
emissions flows, as well as defined monetary values, working time and social issues,
giving instant performance accounting in dozens of environmental impact categories.
With a modular and parameterized architecture, GaBi allows rapid modeling even of
complex processes and different production options. This architecture also makes it easy
to add other data such as economic cost or social impact information to a model, making
GaBi a holistic life cycle analysis tool.
The GaBi software is complemented by the most comprehensive, up-to-date Life Cycle
Inventory database available. With over 4,500 Life Cycle Inventory datasets based on
primary data collection during our global work with companies, associations and public
bodies GaBi Databases span most industries.
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