Fulfilling the goal and scope of a life cycle inventory (LCI) requires hundreds of thousands of discrete data inputs to be consolidated into a useful form. The planning and execution of data collection activities is therefore a critical aspect of ensuring the quality of an LCI study.
This paper highlights how the members of The Aluminum Association and the Aluminum Association of Canada managed the data collection process for the United States Automotive Materials Partnership's Life Cycle Assessment Special Topics Group (USAMP/LCA). Overcoming the challenge of meeting the USAMP data quality requirements with inputs from over 200 reporting locations in nine countries on five continents is examined.
This paper is one of six SAE publications discussing the results and execution of the USCAR AMP Generic Vehicle LCI. The papers in this series are (Overview of results 982160, 982161, 982162, 982168, 982169, 982170).
