ISO has published three new standards related to life cycle assessment (one of which is specific to social life cycle assessment):
ISO 14071:2024 , Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Critical review processes and reviewer competencies
ISO 14072:2024 , Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Requirements and guidelines for organizational life cycle assessment
ISO 14075:2024 , Environmental management — Principles and framework for social life-cycle assessment
ISO 14071:2024
ISO 14071 is the international standard for critical review processes and reviewer skills in life cycle assessment (LCA).
It provides additional requirements and guidance to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 , specifying how to conduct a critical review of any type of LCA study and the skills required for the review.
The ISO 14071 standard provides organizations with detailed guidance on implementing effective critical review processes for LCA studies, ensuring consistency, transparency, efficiency and credibility.
Compliance with ISO 14071 means that an organization has implemented a robust critical review process for its LCA studies , improving the quality and reliability of its environmental management practices.
ISO 14072:2024
This document specifies additional requirements and provides guidance for the effective application of ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 to organizations.
ISO 14072 provides:
the application of the principles and methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA ) to organizations;
the benefits that LCA can bring to organizations using the LCA methodology at the organizational level;
the boundary of the system;
specific considerations regarding life cycle inventory (LCI), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and interpretation;
the limitations relating to reports, environmental declarations and comparative declarations.
This document is applicable to any organization that has an interest in applying LCA. It is not intended to interpret ISO 14001 and specifically covers the objectives of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.
ISO 14075:2024
This document establishes the principles and framework, specifies the requirements and provides guidance for the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) of a product.
The framework supports the achievement of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the achievement of targets by identifying enablers from inhibitors (with harmful contributions).
The document provides the definition of the objective and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment, interpretation and reporting of the S-LCA of a product. (Source: www.iso.org/ )