The ISO 14040 and 14044 standards describe the method presenting the different options for the release of Life Cycle Assessments

• ISO 14040 Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework (2006)
• ISO 14044 Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines (2006)

This series of standards allows to make reliable and reusable Life Cycle Assessments. These two criteria are essential for an everlasting practice.

• It is essential when making an LCA to refer to these standards so that the job would be acknowledged

• as well, a study that does not refer to this series of standards must be considered as doubtful.

This series of standards let the practitioners different options to choose between. These options can influence the results…

ex : option to spread out the profits due to recycling, option to spread out the impact between co-products

… thus it is essential to validate these options trough sensitivity analysis and, in the case of external communication, to make a peer review of the LCA work by experts.