Benchmarking and additional environmental information in ... - ANEC

• Nature occupation/land use
• Human toxicity
• Ecotoxicity
• Injuries
4.2.1 Normalisation of life cycle environmental impacts
Three ways of presenting normalised results were described in the study by 2.-0
Consultants, see 2.10.9.
In the current study, the environmental impacts calculated by the LCI/LCAprocedure
have been normalised by relating them to the annual contribution
form an average consumer in the EU, i.e. the option not employed by 2.-0
Consultants. This way of normalisation is one of the central elements in the
Danish EDIP-methodology, allowing for a comparison of which type of
environmental impacts is of largest concern. For all impact categories, the
results are reported in the same basic unit, the Person Equivalent (PE). For
convenience, we have chosen to present the results in milli Person Equivalents
(mPE), where one PE is equal to 1000 mPE.
The Person Equivalent is an expression of the annual contribution of an
average citizen to a given impact category, taking into consideration also the
geographical scale of the impact. As an example, for Global Warming Potential
the global emissions of greenhouse gases (measured in CO 2 -equivalents) are
distributed on the total amount of citizens on the earth. Detailed inventories, e.g.
from IPCC, are available for this purpose, and the result is that the average
World citizen emits greenhouse gases corresponding to 8700 kg CO 2 -
equivalents per year. For acidification, which is considered to be a regional
impact, the amount of acidifying gases being emitted in the region of EU is
calculated using the databases available in EMEP/CORINAIR emission
inventories published by the European Environment Agency 1 . Being a regional
impact, the total emission of acidifying gases (measured in CO 2 -equivalents) in
the EU are divided by the number of citizens in the same area, resulting in an
average contribution of 74 kg SO 2 per person and year.
It is remarked that the concept of using Person Equivalents for comparison in all
essence is similar to benchmark concept developed by Nissinen et al, 2004,
using the average daily per capita environmental impacts of the whole Finnish
economy as a basis for the benchmarking. Obviously, the background data
differ (EU versus Finnish average impacts), and the background data have also
been established in different ways. However, the basic information conveyed by
the two approaches is the same if it is taken into consideration that10 milli
person equivalents (mPE) is the same as one percent. In accordance with the
EDIP-methodology we have chosen to report in mPE, but this unit is readily
converted to percent by dividing with 10.
The average contributions (called the “normalisation references” or the “Person
Equivalent”) for the selected impact categories are summed in Table 4. For
more information, please refer to the original description of the methodology
1
See e.g. http://reports.eea.europa.eu/EMEPCORINAIR4/en/page002.html
50